Riddles in the Dark

[Drífa]

It is not the Field of Celebrant.

@Ercassie. Yes, messages by heart and stones. But who will guide the way, and who will stay?

[Ercassie]

@Drifa, that would be the part I am hoping some more clever person may be able to discern. For your riddle has left me, other than that one first line, completely in the dark. Which I suppose is the point of the thing, if the thread title be any true indication.

[Drífa]

@Ercassie, peril lead to other events. Read on.

[Ercassie]

.. this event took place way before the council of Elrond.

@Drifa, you ask 'who', but you previously suggested that the answer is an event, rather than a person. So I am not sure what you mean with your 'who'.

Lost, I say. I am mostly hoping I do not get eaten by a Gollum in this dark confusing place.

[Drífa]

Yeah, the giving of the stones and the mesmerizing and all that followed up to the gathering of strength and power summoned quickly is an event in my brain. But I am a dwarf, so.

And hey, if I'm keeping you in suspense, I apologize for being a bit cryptic with my riddles. It's challenging to strike the right balance between making them too easy or too tricky, all to keep the fun going!

[Drífa]

But in the end, someone led, and someone stayed.

[Ercassie]

So you are looking for two people, or for the event ? Or is that too straightforward a question to exist in this riddling realm ?

[Drífa]

Okay, good luck with this one. I can not puzzle it out myself. Just kidding. I think it is pretty straightforward.

Who will guide the way? And who will stay?

[Ercassie]

It is still not so easy an answer of course. I would not expect any less from such a Riddler renown. But despite my evident cheat of offering several answers at once, there are still a collection of options to fill such 'straightforward' roles.

In the original riddle you used the word 'guide' but a few posts above this one, you said instead that someone 'led'. While Borondir was said to 'guide' Eorl to the battle, Cirion was the one who the writings say 'led' his force to Calenardhon. Meanwhile Eorl is also said to have 'led' his riders to the battle.

Then there is the matter of 'stay'. Hallas, son of the Steward, was left in command in Minas Tirith, so he could be said to have 'stayed'. But the text specifically states that 'a few hundred [of Eorl's force] were left behind to support those men [of their people] unfitted for such a desperate venture by youth or age.' So they too effectively 'stayed'. Therefore the answer to both 'who' is more than one potential candidate apiece. And there is nothing to say that the 'who' you are referring to is in not fact a single one person who fulfils both roles .. but maybe that is my suspicious mind based on the complexity of previous challenges in this thread.

And I think I miss the old day of plaza debate. Lol. My apologies for the ramble.

[Drífa]

I am that confusing, eh? I never debated. I guess that is why.
The riddle made sense in my head. But yeah, your "ramble" pointed out many inconsistencies in the riddle and my responses.
Who will guide the way? And who will stay? Cirion and Hallas were the answer I was looking for.

Again, my apologies for the confusion, @Ercassie. The floor is yours, and I am off to create a new riddle to dazzle you all the next time!!!

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Middle-earth Related
Peril and contemplation lead to rote and rocks;
words and symbols require courage and determination;
moments of pause and partnerships necessitate space and caution;
strength and power summoned quickly.
Who will guide the way? And who will stay?

Cirion and Hallas!

One day I will post a picture of my right hand and you will all see the burn mark from the days of Covid when I set my hand on fire and lay in bed with it bandaged while the Chubb-Baggins riddle rolled round and round my brain. I am not sure I miss those days so much.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

O! I was too late.

Actually, I lie. I had a wrong answer but before I could post it @Drifa had given the answer away and so I edited my post before posting. So the floor remains yours @Ercassie

[Turien Took]

Fabulous job with your guess @Ercassie ! and thank you for the challenging riddle, @Drifa !

[Ercassie]

I have at times been called confusing myself, @Drifa. So please do not take my comment as criticism, nor pray dare to apologise dear Dwarf. The heights you set the challenge here unto are reason enough that we keep coming back. Evidently so.

That said, I confess that I did clearly only come to the answer by offering multiple possible answers all at once, and for that sneaksiness, Gollum would no doubt nip at me with one of his few but sharp little teeth, I fear.

Soo .. @Turien Took, would you like to give us a riddle next, in my stead ? Since you have not regaled us yet with your riddling creativity, as far as I am aware.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Good grief. I had not even realized that Ercassie had got the answer. I thought that the post above had been complaining about more problems in the riddle and that Drifa gave up the riddle and told us the answer.



Go for it @Turien Took!

[Turien Took]

You are gracious to extend the offer! I would love to rise to the challenge Riddle me this:

I crown the heads of kings long dead
Loved by elves, men, and dwarves
My name changes depending on which you ask,
Each
Version
Equally
Remembers
Many
I
N
Death

[Ercassie]

It was certainly not a complaint, @Chrysophylax Dives. Merely a contemplative ramble 'out loud' (via the keyboard), as I endeavoured to unwind the Dwarf's latest mystery. Indeed I was surprised that any of the guesses I was rooting through turned out to be correct, regardless of their quantity.

That looks a good headscratcher indeed, @Turien Took. Time to put the old thinking cap back on !

[Chrysophylax Dives]

You are gracious to extend the offer! I would love to rise to the challenge Riddle me this:

I crown the heads of kings long dead
Loved by elves, men, and dwarves
My name changes depending on which you ask,
Each
Version
Equally
Remembers
Many
I
N
Death

Well, Turien Took, my gentle Hobbit, your riddle stirred memories in the dark waters of this thread

At the start of this story there are nine and seven,
Telling the tale of a line of succession,
Green that looks white, always minded like snow.
Forgetting not those who rest down below.
Not haunted these but a sign of our mortal fate.
At the end of the story there are now nine and eight.

Evermind, or Simbelmynë, which grows on the Barrowfield. Though I do not know the Dwarvish name.

[Drífa]

That is a sweet riddle, @Turien Took. An acrostic riddle. Wonderful! If you are interested in poetry, you should check out this competition taking place in the Cottage of Lost Play 6th NuPlaza's Art Competition - Forests of Middle-earth.

I think you have nailed it, Dragon. And if so, will you entertain us with a new riddle, or will you be a guesser who passes their turn?

[Turien Took]

You are correct, @Chrysophylax Dives ! Simbelmynë is correct. I have a great fondness for the flora of this world! We await your riddle next!

Thank you kindly, @Drifa ! I will check that out!

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Golden chains
hanging
in the twilight
of an evening
of a long day;
giant snowdrops rise,
as dragons bite and gnash their teeth.

Middle-earth related

[Turien Took]

@Chrysophylax Dives, would this be Gandalf's fireworks?

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Gandalf! ... Not the man that used to make such particularly excellent fireworks! I remember those! Old Took used to have them on Midsummer's Eve. Splendid! They used to go up like great lilies and snapdragons and laburnums of fire and hang in the twilight all evening

@Turien Took - you are correct!

Which means that technically you should now supply a riddle. But seeing as you just gave one, it is always possible that if you wished for a break @Ercassie would be happy to step in.

[Turien Took]

Fantastic! Your riddle inspired images of grand lights! I would be more than happy to concede my turn to @Ercassie if they would like, but I would also be happy to riddle you all again!

[Ercassie]

A good riddle that one. Fireworks, well done.

You have won your next turn, fair and square @Turien Took. By all means, be happy, rightly so. And riddle on, good Hobbit.

[Turien Took]

May the riddles go ever ever on!

More smoke than a wizard's pipe,
More fire than a Balrog's swipe,
Three jagged, blackened fangs in a jagged, black land,
Nails piercing
My side bleeds, but the blood is not mine
Wrathful battle
My master's black hound comes crashing to the ground
And I am no more

[Ercassie]

@Turien Took, is the answer perhaps, Thangorodrim ?

[Turien Took]

It most definitely is, @Ercassie! Personally, I was not familiar with Thangorodrim, but this riddle helped inspire me to read up on it! Your turn :)

[Ercassie]

Very well then. This one is Middle Earth related. And shall likely be guessed in a shorter time than it took me to conceive the verse

'One of a dozen
Yet all alone
Hope was my torment
My trophy .. bone.
Tidings come too late
My heart their bane.
Save for the doomed one
What is my name ?'

[Periantar]

Hmm - racking my brains for a dozen of anything significant:
Palantiri? Only 7 known, but the original number unknown
Valar - 14, or 15 including Melkor
Istari - 5
Dwarf Kingdoms - nope
Kingdoms of men - 11 "groups" but far more kingdoms
Members of Thorin & Co - 13 dwarves (12 lesser dwarves, but I can't reconcile the riddle with any of them) one hobbit and a wondering trouble maker
Members of the Fellowship - 9
Mountains individually named 12!!! if I count the mountains of Moria as one.


I can think of three mountains which might fit some lines:
- Erebor and Orodruin are both "alone" (Caradhras is the "tallest and northernmost" of Moria, so sort of alone)
- People have been tomented by the hope of those same three mountains (including the hope of crossing Caradhras)
- There's a bit of death, or "bone" awaiting at all of those aformentioned mountains, also, Cardhras' name means "red horn" which is kinda red bone
- At the heart of each of these lay a "bane:" Smaug and the Arkenstone, Durin's very own Bane, and the cracks of doom
- Each had a "doomed one:" Thorin, Gandalf, Frodo/the Ring

I'm going to just throw caution absolutely to the wind and say, I think we might be speaking about Erebor, the Lonely mountain, which proved an ongoing torment to the folk of Thrain, especially Thorin who saw Erebor as a trophy to be won back even though his prize ultimately, would be death, or bone. The heart of the mountain, the Arkenstone, of course, became something of a bane for the company, and yet, still remained the hope of Thorin, who was doomed from the beginning.

And here ends my guess.

[Ercassie]

I am sorry to report that Erebor is not the answer I am looking for. Though you are correct that the word 'bone' here does imply death.

I might thus be kind and give away that the answer is a person. So you are closest with your guesses about the significance of a number of members, rather than a number of things. If that helps any at all.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Lotho Sackville-Baggins?

One of the twelve Shirrifs of the Shire. Not quite sure how he fits with the rest, though.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Gorlim son of Angrim. One of 12 companions of Barahir.
He betrays Barahir to Sauron for the promise of being reuinted with his wife, leading to the death of all but Beren - the doomed one, I guess. The tidings coming to late refers to the ghost of Gorlim warning Beren in a dream - but too late.

[Ercassie]

Second try has it @Chrysophylax Dives. The answer is indeed Gorlim.

Your turn.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Thanks @Ercassie. You gave away too much. Before that I was reading Sam's troll poem - where there is a bone.

By the way, @Arnyn - good on you for getting Eph's riddle a while back! I was indeed proud of you Let's see how you all do with this. M-e related.

Above the circular base
In the golden place
A white flower turned silver black

[Ercassie]

Is it Nimloth, the white tree which was burned when the temple worshipping Morgoth was established in Armenelos, Numenor ? The mighty silver dome was apparently blackened by the sacrifice.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Right you are, @Ercassie.

Back to you :)

[Ercassie]

Middle Earth related.

Feared rise where the taken sleeps
Twice the scene of fateful meets.
Near the water, near the tree
Where fair words marred unity.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

@Turien Took, where are you? Dwarf?

[Ercassie]

OK time for first clue. Obviously it is a place. But it is a place mentioned in the Silmarillion.

[Ercassie]

Very well. In the interests of NOT leaving this thread/activity to dwindle and dust .. I shall concede. The answer to my riddle was Haudh-en-Elleth. The resting place of the princess of Nargothrond.

Floor is re-opened. May the game/guessing recommence.

[Drífa]

Ah, too bad. Usually, when a riddle is unanswered, it becomes the house riddle. Never reveal the answer - sometimes it takes a long while to answer a VERY GOOD RIDDLE.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

I was just getting started on this one!

I like your riddles, @Ercassie. They are not so easy, but not impossible.

Talking of which, what do you say to telling us the answer to the Fangorn riddle, @Dwarf? Then we could start the riddles afresh.

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Nobody jumping in? Not a difficult riddle, but still in the dark...

By my people we have been given away to strangers
Led by hope followed by despair
Visible and invisible we are depending on the eyes
Copied we have been countless times over
My carrier is of kind and noble heart
Unlike all of the other strangers around.

Whose item am I?

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Good one, Aiks! I have no idea at all, as yet...

[Periantar]

@Aikári Salmarinian I want this to be a cloak of LothLorien, given by the elves to the Fellowship, most of whom were strangers to the elves, striving after their hope to succeed, hunted by fell beasts, able to hide the wearer despite not making them invisible.

I'm struggling to connect the last few lines, except perhaps that other authors have had similar concepts in their writing, they were only given to select (noble of heart) people.

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Periantar: Great guess, you're almost there. Part of the answer is correct. Read not only a 'noble heart' in the riddle, but a kind and noble heart. But whose cloak am I?...

[Periantar]

@Aikári Salmarinian You've got to be Sam's cloak!

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Periantar: Wonderful, you guessed it! Sam is the only innocent really in the Fellowship and got no noble ancestry. It was quite easy, but also bit searching in the dark. Floor is open to you. Good luck!

Chrys: Explained is here the poem in brackets..

By my people (Galadhrim) we have been given away to strangers (Fellowship)
Led by hope (Aragorn) followed by despair (Boromir)
Visible and invisible we are depending on the eyes (quality)
Copied we have been countless times over (sewing and creation of the elven cloaks)
My carrier is of kind and noble heart (Sam)
Unlike all of the other strangers around. (Fellowship)

[Periantar]

Certainly enjoyable, anything with Samwise as the answer is great! New riddle shortly.