Changes

|title=The Riddles of The Hobbit

|sort=Riddles of Hobbit, The

|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan

|date=October 2013

|summary=Make no mistake, this lengthy discussion of factors concerning Hobbits and Rings is purely for the academic.

}}

You can't get too far into [[The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien|The Hobbit]] without seeing a riddle. The prime ones are in the challenge Bilbo and Gollum give each other, a riddling contest ended unfairly by the hobbit. Such games of one-upmanship have been seen in many cultures over many hundreds of years, and certainly are in mythological texts such as were of great interest to Tolkien. They focus the mind, sometimes in a poetic way, sometimes in a more cryptic lateral-thinking manner, on an aspect of life. Roberts, with an exceedingly academic manner, takes riddles and runs with them, making as many aspects of ''The Hobbit'' a riddle as he can – from why the instrument of power was a ring, to what was a hobbit in the first place, and even why Tolkien featured what he did in his riddle contest.