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Chapter 5 - Riddles in the Dark

Bilbo exchanges riddles with Gollum, and finds his way out of the caves.

Bilbo wakes up, his world spinning around as he recovers from his loss of consciousness. Gripped in fear, he crawls around the rough stone cave floors searching for signs of his companions or of goblins. All he finds is a ring which he hastily shoves into his pockets. Not knowing what to do next, he moves onward town the tunnel, always on the look out for goblins. Finally, he comes across a small lake.
Little does he know that this lake is the home of the creature Gollum with his "two big round pale eyes in his thin face". Gollum quietly paddles in his little boat towards the curious looking Bilbo Baggins and comes up quietly behind Bilbo, who doesn't even realize that he is not alone until Gollum hisses " Bless us and splash us, my precioussss! I guess it's a choice feast". Eventually, they decide on playing a riddle game, with the rules "If precious asks, and it doesn't answer, we eats it...If it asks us, and we doesn't answer, then we does what it wants" and the game begins. They both ask and answer a number of clever riddles until Bilbo, not being able to think of a riddle says to himself, "what have I got in my pocket?" and Gollum thinks he is asking a riddle. Gollum tells him that since it is an unfair question he should get three guesses, and gets all three of them wrong which makes Bilbo the winner. Gollum, in anger rows back to his island to retrieve his ring, so that he can kill Bilbo by surprise. Upon discovering that it is gone, Gollum goes mad, and pursues Bilbo furiously. Bilbo, running to get away , falls and while doing so slips on the ring, making him invisible.
Bilbo quietly follows Gollum who is looking for the ring and, in time, is brought to door that leads out of the dark goblin caves. Unfortunately, Gollum is blocking the way to get to the door. After debating on whether or not to kill Gollum, Bilbo has pitty on him and decides to jump over him instead. He makes an incredible leap, only narrowly missing being caught.
But he is not out yet. Again, Bilbo's exit is blocked, this time by a whole group of goblins. The ring somehow slips off of Bilbo's finger and for a second the goblins see him and run up to attack him. Bilbo finds the ring in his pocket , slips it on, and is invisible again. To get out of the way, he hides behind a "big barrel which held drink for the goblins-guards" and when the time is right, he runs for the door. It is such a tight squeeze that the poor hobbit loses his buttons making it out.
Lost, Bilbo runs through the woods without much hope of re-uniting with his party. However, he soon sees a fire burning up ahead. He slips on the ring and to their great surprise, re-appears in the center of the circle of dwarves. After their initial surprise they are overjoyed to see him.

-Notes-
Special thanks to Tara Gnagy for writing this summary

List of Hobbit Riddles


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