Friday, January 5, 2018

Returning to the Book of Riddles

~Raechal Middlebrooks

The following is a collection of riddles translated from the book I acquired all those many months ago in Bree Town, Tuckborough, and Rivendell respectively. The writer is known by one name, which, having never been brought up again in any other conversation or word of history, must be assumed to be a false name, and the title "Dawn-Bringer".


Notes:
* I am certain that the third paragraph speaks of the changes and disturbances in the land that consequently led my friends, Unora, Gladwine and I to the Shire.

** When I stumbled upon this manuscript in the library in Bree-Town, it was this fifth paragraph that somehow caught my attention. I felt some queer connection to it, as if the author had written about myself... but I, of course, realize that such a notion was silly of me to believe.

*** The sixth paragraph contains an error, I believe the correct translation to be "are" rather than "were" ; in context, "Those who are watching will know the trick."

**** I was seeking some modern application of the seventh paragraph when Gladwine received a broken nose, and Unora was nearly run over by a horse. I had some foolish idea that this paragraph was foretelling of the redemption of a madman we met on the road.

***** There is mention of one, "Malgamorie," in the tenth paragraph. Even though the whole manuscript seems to be referring to a number of individuals, this is the only name specifically noted in the text.

****** The final paragraph of the manuscript, I have no doubt, speaks of an allegiance between the races of the world. The friends of the mountain, are of course dwarves; I believe "eave" to mean the trees, in which case the elves are mentioned here; Of the fountain, I have wondered a great deal, but I have at last concluded that this refers to the water maids, of whom there are many Gondorian tales; and lastly, there exists only one race that makes friends with bees - the people descended from that monstrous figure of legend, "Beorn." 
Try as I might, I can't elude the feeling that the entire third piece of the manuscript refers to the kinship with whom I have lately been acquainted... If this Book of Riddles has any modern application at all, where else in the world might one find such a diverse cast of characters?

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