Great Hobbit-Style Riddles

[mirdanis]

So my party is on the approach to Adventure 6 in Tales From Wilderland, The Crossings of Celduin. I've built up anticipation for Dragontide in Dale for the players, by having an NPC drop some news about how last year's festival in Esgaroth nearly wrecked the town because of the huge crowds of attendees. I wanted the option to have the players participate in the Riddling contest by having to actually solve riddles instead of just rolling. They had to solve some riddles in my home-brewed Beacon-Tower adventure Into The Woods and they did great and enjoyed the challenge. I had searched the Interwebs for riddles when I wrote that adventure, and had a hard time finding good ones I liked; but another search just now turned up a gem!

http://io9.gizmodo.com/even-bilbo-baggi ... 1670706933

Seems this fellow named Wallace Pustinjak was inspired by the riddles in The Hobbit and published a book of 50 of his original riddles with much the same flavor and poeticism of the riddles Bilbo and Gollum posed each other. Here are three good examples. The io9 article has 4 more and a link to Pustinjak's book on Amazon. The answers are in the io9 puzzle article from the subsequent week: http://io9.gizmodo.com/can-you-decipher ... 1673831322

We're left behind yet never taken, set down in a row.
Seldom seen in isolation, captured by the snow.
Set apart by haste, though immobile all the same.
When left un-defaced, a betrayal of the game.


A bound serpent dances on the cave floor,
Writhing guardian of the windy door.
Sharp yet supple, mute yet speaking.
Devoid of hunger, nourishment seeking.


Ceaseless blur or rigid banner varying by host.
On the smallest scale less substantial than a ghost.
Commonplace yet pivotal to rise above it all.
As a pair they triumph yet once separated fall.

[zedturtle]

Excellent stuff.

I'm pretty sure that I know the first one, but the last line is making me doubt myself.

[Random221B]

One and two I'm sure I know, but three has me stumped.

[aramis]

I dance through the fields,
Ever in motion, yet going nowhere,
I weave and I turn,
Through rocks now left bare.

[Majestic]

These are tough! Excellent riddles.