Why Tolkien Changed The Story of How Bilbo Found the One Ring

The problem with the original version of "Riddles In The Dark"

Bilbo holds the One Ring after finding it on the floor of Gollum’s cave. Credit: Warner Bros.

How Did Bilbo Find the One Ring?

If you pick up your copy of The Hobbit from your shelf, and turn to the fifth chapter, “Riddles in the Dark,” you will read the no doubt familiar story of Bilbo’s encounter with Gollum in the depths of the Misty Mountains.

Bilbo finds the Ring on the floor of Gollum’s cave and engages in a contest of riddles with Gollum, which he wins (on a questionable “riddle,” but still, Gollum accepted the question as a riddle and attempted to answer it). Gollum had promised to lead Bilbo out if Bilbo won the contest, but plans instead to betray him using the Ring. Gollum searches for it but discovers it is missing and correctly assumes that Bilbo has stolen it. Bilbo accidentally puts the Ring on, discovers its powers when he falls and Gollum runs past him, and follows Gollum out to the nearest exit. Crucially, there is a moment where he has the chance to kill Gollum but relents, choosing pity and mercy instead of judgment. Bilbo then slips by the Goblin guards at the door and reunites with the Dwarves.

But they were, all of them, deceived, for another “Riddles in the Dark” was made.

The version you and I are most familiar with is not the version of the tale that was originally published in the first edition of The Hobbit. What are the differences? And does Tolkien explain them at all?

Read on to learn the details of and the connections between these versions, as well as Tolkien’s at once brilliant and fascinating in-universe explanation for why there is more than one version.

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