“This Thing All Things Devours”

Where better to look for an Old English-inspired piece of puzzling literature that may contain combs or teeth than in Tolkien’s repertoire? J.R.R. Tolkien is known for using Anglo-Saxon literature and culture in his many works of fiction. Many place names and personal names from his books come from Old English, the maps he draws greatly resemble Anglo-Saxon maps, Gollum and Smaug are based on monsters from the Old English epic poem Beowulf, and the list goes on!Thijs Porck, “The Bones in the Soup: The Anglo-Saxon Flavour of Tolkien's The Hobbit,” Lembas Extra, (2012): 78-82.

It is in The Hobbit where we find riddles, which are yet another “trace of Anglo-Saxon culture” in his works.Thijs Porck, “The Bones in the Soup: The Anglo-Saxon Flavour of Tolkien's The Hobbit,” Lembas Extra, (2012): 81.In the chapter “Riddles in the Dark”, Bilbo and Gollum exchange a total of nine rhyming riddles in a game for Bilbo’s life. All these riddles are filled to the brim with metaphors and animation of lifeless objects, and an argument could be made that the end rhyme aims to replace the alliteration found in Old English poetry (creating alliteration in Present-Day English is hard, people). Curiously enough, multiple riddles in this chapter have a strong connection to teeth, similar to Alcuin’s. One of these is Gollum’s riddle about –spoiler alert – time.

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.J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), 73.

This riddle contains many of the Old English riddling features which were discussed earlier. Gollum portrays time as an enormous deadly monster that eats everything. Actions such as devouring, slaying and beating down are actions generally attributed to animate beings, yet time is inanimate. These metaphors for time gnawing iron and biting steel show the deterioration that the passing of time can bring. This is an interesting point for Gollum to address, because he is living an unnaturally long life himself, aided by the power of the ring.

The many layers of a riddle can hold even more secrets!