“Riddle Me This…” A Lord of The Rings Online Contest!

Tolkien fans will remember vividly the duel between Bilbo and Gollum in the cave in which each had to stump the other with a riddle (and Bilbo ended by cheating with “What have I got in my pocket?”) Now, you have a chance to stump your opponent in the virtual world of Lord of The Rings Online.

LoTRO developer and publisher Turbine is looking for riddles to use as the basis of their quests in Shadows of Angmar, and are taking entries via email effective immediately.

A few pieces of advice for would-be riddlemakers:

– They’re looking to implement some riddle quests. Any riddle that could be used as the basis for a quest is welcome.

– Riddles can be the basis of hidden lore. Think metaphor and word-play, here: references to mundane items could be selected as scholarly lore. (A thorough knowledge of Tolkien lore from Silmarillion through Return of The King will be helpful, here.)

– K.I.S.S. (Keep It Short and Sweet) – a pair of couplets, tops

– Poetic conventions: Simple rhyme, blank verse…alliteration too (a favorite of Tolkien, since he was a professor of Anglo-Saxon, and alliteration was the poetic form of the old Germanic peoples)

– The implicit question is generally “what is it?”.

– For quests, references should be made to concrete items for quests only. For scholarly lore, almost anything goes.

– No anachronisms. Yes, railroads came to Middle Earth during the Fourth Age, but they don’t belong in the Third. Confine the references to things of Tolkien’s Middle Earth and related lore.

– Don’t use Shakespearean or “pseudo-medieval” speech. Here’s a hint: Professor Tolkien confined himself to Modern English in his stories – however, whenever possible, he limited his vocabulary to the oldest words in the language, derived from Anglo-Saxon (pre -1066)  rather than Norman French. A thesaurus will be helpful here, but here’s some ideas: “help” instead of “aid;” “land” instead of “territory;” “swine-flesh” instead of “pork;” “fowl” instead of “poultry;” you get the idea.

– Go back and reread the account of Bilbo’s contest with Gollum in The Hobbit.

Via LOTRO Web Page

Tolkien fans will remember vividly the duel between Bilbo and Gollum in the cave in which each had to stump the other with a riddle (and Bilbo ended by cheating with “What have I got in my pocket?”) Now, you have a chance to stump your opponent in the virtual world of Lord of The Rings Online.

LoTRO developer and publisher Turbine is looking for riddles to use as the basis of their quests in Shadows of Angmar, and are taking entries via email effective immediately.

A few pieces of advice for would-be riddlemakers:

– They’re looking to implement some riddle quests. Any riddle that could be used as the basis for a quest is welcome.

– Riddles can be the basis of hidden lore. Think metaphor and word-play, here: references to mundane items could be selected as scholarly lore. (A thorough knowledge of Tolkien lore from Silmarillion through Return of The King will be helpful, here.)

– K.I.S.S. (Keep It Short and Sweet) – a pair of couplets, tops

– Poetic conventions: Simple rhyme, blank verse…alliteration too (a favorite of Tolkien, since he was a professor of Anglo-Saxon, and alliteration was the poetic form of the old Germanic peoples)

– The implicit question is generally “what is it?”.

– For quests, references should be made to concrete items for quests only. For scholarly lore, almost anything goes.

– No anachronisms. Yes, railroads came to Middle Earth during the Fourth Age, but they don’t belong in the Third. Confine the references to things of Tolkien’s Middle Earth and related lore.

– Don’t use Shakespearean or “pseudo-medieval” speech. Here’s a hint: Professor Tolkien confined himself to Modern English in his stories – however, whenever possible, he limited his vocabulary to the oldest words in the language, derived from Anglo-Saxon (pre -1066)  rather than Norman French. A thesaurus will be helpful here, but here’s some ideas: “help” instead of “aid;” “land” instead of “territory;” “swine-flesh” instead of “pork;” “fowl” instead of “poultry;” you get the idea.

– Go back and reread the account of Bilbo’s contest with Gollum in The Hobbit.

Via LOTRO Web Page