The riddle that let Bilbo survive Gollum's cave
'This thing all things devours: birds, beasts, trees, flowers; gnaws iron, bites steel; grinds hard stones to meal; slays king, ruins town, and beats high mountain down.' Gollum demanded Bilbo answer or be eaten, and Bilbo had only seconds and a half-remembered guess.
Reveal the answer
Time. In 'Riddles in the Dark,' the chapter from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (1937), Bilbo blurts out the answer almost by accident, saved by a lucky guess rather than logic — which is exactly why Gollum grudgingly lets the game continue.
— J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit — 1937
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