As a final P.S. to the use of the question mark in the clue, I often do that if I have a riddle that I like but there is a much more obvious answer that I want to disqualify in advance. I also use it when I feel that I need to warn the group that the answer does not literally fit the clue. In this case both applied.
Similarly, if I like a question but can think of multiple correct answers off the top of my hand, I will say that in order to satisfy the question you have to give two (or three or four) qualifying answers. That way the group has to dig a bit for the one answer I really wanted to elicit. [e.g.," Name four shapeshifters" when I want to get past were-wolves, Thuringwethil and Sauron to the "wild were-worms" reference in The Hobbit.]
Other times I will say in advance that the riddle requires the "best" answer to be correct. [e.g., if the clue is Great Fortress then the best answer is Belegost rather than Minas Tirith or Barad Dur, because the name Belegost actually translates to "great fortress."]
In my humble opinion these methods are preferable to rejecting answers that are otherwise perfectly reasonable solutions but are not the one I am looking for.
Throughout the professor’s work he has various characters making proverbial statements. There ia a pair that I am looking for and if you answer with those you will know why and I expect an explanation. (Aren’t I a mean taskmaster?)
Like I told you... What I said...Steal your face right off your head.
Bilbo said something to the effect of "Oh, to escape goblins only to be eaten by wolves!" The narrator then says it passed into a proverb but that today we remember it as "Out of the frying pan and into the fire."
Bilbo said something to the effect of "Oh, to escape goblins only to be eaten by wolves!" The narrator then says it passed into a proverb but that today we remember it as "Out of the frying pan and into the fire."
Yes. You have one of them.
Like I told you... What I said...Steal your face right off your head.
I interrupt this riddle to give a heartfelt round of congratulatory applause to the JRRT sub-forum for achieving a 100 page thread. It has been a sincere pleasure corresponding with lore friends old and new these last five years.
I interrupt this riddle to give a heartfelt round of congratulatory applause to the JRRT sub-forum for achieving a 100 post thread. It has been a sincere pleasure corresponding with lore friends old and new these last five years.
Here Here! Although I don't participate much, I do lurk and am always amazed at the knowledge of the contributors. Congrats everyone on the great thread!
The riddle threads have become something I look forward to each week . My thanks go to Boraxxe who started them and everyone else who contributes with riddles and answers. May the threads go ever on.
"Aurë Entuluva!" (Day shall come again!) - Húrin Thalion
The hobbits Merry, Sam and Pippin adorned with gold after being rescued by Tom Bombadill on the Barrow Downs:
To Frodo's great joy the hobbits stirred, stretched their arms, rubbed their eyes, and then suddenly sprang up. They looked about in amazement, first at Frodo, and then at Tom standing large as life on the barrow-top above them; and then at themselves in their thin white rags, crowned and belted with pale gold, and jingling with trinkets.
Like I told you... What I said...Steal your face right off your head.
A very interesting response. I appreciate that you recognized the "?" and understood that the answer is not straightforward. However, I think your solution is not as clear cut as the one I am looking for. I think that once you spot the connection you will say "Oh yes, that certainly fits." I am of course happy to accept other workable solutions that strike the came chord.
*Edit: I believe I should make one clarifying hint, which is that the answer does not involve anything like a pretender to a throne or other uncertainty as to whether a person was in fact the king or queen. So, for example, not Wulf or Celeborn or the chieftains of the northern Dunedain.
"The board is set, and the pieces are moving."
-Gandalf speaking to Pippin in The Return of the King.
If middle-earth is a chess board and the war of the ring is a chess game, then the "kings" would be Sauron and Aragorn. If either is removed from the board the game is over.
Like I told you... What I said...Steal your face right off your head.
"The board is set, and the pieces are moving."
-Gandalf speaking to Pippin in The Return of the King.
If middle-earth is a chess board and the war of the ring is a chess game, then the "kings" would be Sauron and Aragorn. If either is removed from the board the game is over.
Too imprecise. The reference in the text that I have in mind is both a direct connection to "kings" and covers only the "kings" and nothing more.
No and no. Sorry friends. The "?" in the riddle is the key element. The clue "kings?" is referring to something that isn't really a king at all. The Agonath statues are depictions of actual kings. The same goes for the nazgul - to the extent the "king" concept applies it is because they really were kings.
Just to confuse things a bit, allow me to say that the clue could just as well have been "queens?"
Friends, I have made a mistake in my riddle. I formulated it based on my memory of the text, and having gone back and checked it I see that JRRT used a different word than what I was recollecting. I am going to withdraw the riddle for now and noodle a bit on the best way to proceed. My apologies for the confusion.
Sorry for the further delay - was out of commission with food poisoning.
So here is the deal. I was thinking of the butterflies that Bilbo saw from the tree-tops of Mirkwood, only I misremembered them as being called "monarchs" in the text rather than "emperors." I don't feel that the clue is a very good pointer to emperor, so that is really a total scratch. Since Boraxxe proffered three reasonable answers in a row, I am going to award him the riddle stick.
Sorry for the further delay - was out of commission with food poisoning.
So here is the deal. I was thinking of the butterflies that Bilbo saw from the tree-tops of Mirkwood, only I misremembered them as being called "monarchs" in the text rather than "emperors." I don't feel that the clue is a very good pointer to emperor, so that is really a total scratch. Since Boraxxe proffered three reasonable answers in a row, I am going to award him the riddle stick.
Thanks Vilnas.
I agree, we could have chewed on that one for a while and not come up with those butterflies.
I will have another clue up soon.
Like I told you... What I said...Steal your face right off your head.
For those unfamiliar with the two step riddle, here is the original example:
Oublietted royal => "The Man in the Iron Mask," by Alexandre Dumas => Azaghal, Lord of Belegost, who famously wore a metal mask while fighting and wounding Glaurung in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.
As for the current riddle, the number 2.2046 is the pound/kilogram conversion factor (1kg = 2.2046 lbs). So the number could be said to refer to one kilogram. For now I am going to stay away from lines of inquiry involving conversion factors, as that might lead me to the calendar appendices (and I really don't want to go there). Instead I'm going to focus on "gram" which points most directly either to King Gram of Rohan or the goblins of Mt. Gram (led by the famous Golfimbul) that Bullroarer Took fought in at the Battle of the Greenfields. I still don't have an ideal way of addressing the "kilo" portion, but for now I will say it is an approximation of the number of goblins present at the battle (e.g., about 1,000). So my initial proposal is that 2.2046 = the goblin army of Mt. Gram at the Battle of the Greenfields.
As for the current riddle, the number 2.2046 is the pound/kilogram conversion factor (1kg = 2.2046 lbs). So the number could be said to refer to one kilogram. For now I am going to stay away from lines of inquiry involving conversion factors, as that might lead me to the calendar appendices (and I really don't want to go there). Instead I'm going to focus on "gram" which points most directly either to King Gram of Rohan or the goblins of Mt. Gram (led by the famous Golfimbul) that Bullroarer Took fought in at the Battle of the Greenfields. I still don't have an ideal way of addressing the "kilo" portion, but for now I will say it is an approximation of the number of goblins present at the battle (e.g., about 1,000). So my initial proposal is that 2.2046 = the goblin army of Mt. Gram at the Battle of the Greenfields.
Your first 2 sentences are on the right track.
About the rest of your response: when you came to the fork in the road, you took the wrong tine.
Like I told you... What I said...Steal your face right off your head.
Your first 2 sentences are on the right track.
About the rest of your response: when you came to the fork in the road, you took the wrong tine.
After thinking about this a bit I realized my initial instruction may have been a bit misleading.
I referred to this puzzle as a "one-word two-step".
What may be more accurate is: "one-word three-step".
Like I told you... What I said...Steal your face right off your head.
Mass, in the sense commonly understood as weight =>
Mass in the religious sense, and sometimes called the "Breaking of Bread" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_(liturgy), and also in the original context derived from the Last Supper =>
The quasi-religious custom of the Gondorians of Numenorean descent at meal times to "look towards Numenor that was, and beyond to Elvenhome that is, and to that which is beyond Elvenhome and will ever be." [See RotK pg. 284-285]
Mass, in the sense commonly understood as weight =>
Mass in the religious sense, and sometimes called the "Breaking of Bread" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_(liturgy), and also in the original context derived from the Last Supper =>
The quasi-religious custom of the Gondorians of Numenorean descent at meal times to "look towards Numenor that was, and beyond to Elvenhome that is, and to that which is beyond Elvenhome and will ever be." [See RotK pg. 284-285]
Now there's a bit of a stretch.
The answer is much simpler than that.
You have the first step. Once you get to the second the answer should be obvious. Chickens flyin' everywhere around the plane
Like I told you... What I said...Steal your face right off your head.
Now there's a bit of a stretch.
The answer is much simpler than that.
You have the first step. Once you get to the second the answer should be obvious. Chickens flyin' everywhere around the plane
To clarify things for me and maybe to help the others...
The first step is the clue kilogram? And this step leads to something that is unrelated to Tolkien which then leads to something that is?
Or is the actual number given the first step, making kilogram the second and back to a Tolkien reference for the third step?
On second thought maybe I made things even worse now...
Oh well...
Last edited by bambubambubambu; Apr 27 2012 at 10:56 AM.
The Crimson Burglar Squad - First you see Red...Then you are dead.
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