There can be physical danger, then, in properly identifying yourself. Bilbo Baggins” will appear many years later, in the form of sinister visitors to the Shire, offering money for the location of “Baggins”. The narrator had said that not revealing your proper name is wise and the consequence of Bilbo’s mistake in telling Gollum that he is “Mr. Lucky Number?”Ī lucky guess? (And interesting that, in Middle-earth, there are such things as “lucky numbers”-we wonder how many more examples of “lucky” vs “unlucky” things we might find?)

“Why not say ‘us fourteen’ and be done with it, Mr. “Ha! Ha! You admit the ‘us’?” laughed Smaug. Because they refer to personal experiences, Bilbo-and we readers-must assume that they would mean nothing to Smaug-or almost.

One which is close to Bilbo’s “Ringwinner“ is “ring-giver”, a kenning for a “lord”. I am Ringwinner and Luckwearer and I am Barrel-rider.” ( The Hobbit, Chapter 12, “Inside Information”)Īll of these titles are references to events earlier in the story, of course, although a number of them, like “Ringwinner”, also sound like Norse or Old English kennings-that is, poetic names for often ordinary things, like “whale road” for “sea” and “wave’s horse” for “ship” or “sky candle” for “sun”. I was chosen for the lucky number…I am he that buries his friends alive and drowns them and draws them alive again from the water.I am the friend of bears and the guest of eagles. “I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly. “This of course is the way to talk to dragons, if you don’t want to reveal your proper name (which is wise), and don’t want to infuriate them by a flat refusal (which is also very wise).” ( The Hobbit, Chapter 12, “Inside Information”)īilbo’s answer to Smaug’s question about his identity is a series of what we might call “What Have I Got In My Pocket?” names-riddling titles which, just like that absent-minded remark, only Bilbo can understand: This had led him into a deadly game of riddles, but now Bilbo seems more wary-which is just as well, as the narrator tells us when Bilbo answers Smaug’s question indirectly: (The Hobbit, Chapter 12, “Inside Information”)Įarlier in The Hobbit, when asked this indirectly by Gollum, Bilbo had replied directly: “I am Mr.īilbo Baggins…” ( The Hobbit, Chapter 5, “Riddles in the Dark”) “Who are you and where do you come from, may I ask?”

Lord of the rings gollum riddles