SEVEN RHYMING RIDDLES
Credit: J. R. R. Tolkien
from The Hobbit

[These riddles have already appeared in various places in this blog, but I have just learned that they were written by Tolkien. Rather than try to retrieve them and credit them individually, I thought it would be best to re-post them with due credit to their author.]

1)
What has roots as nobody sees,
Is taller than the trees,
    Up, up it goes,
    And yet it never grows?

2)
Voiceless it cries,
Wingless flutters,
Toothless bites,
Mouthless mutters.

3)
An eye in a blue face
Saw an eye in a green face.
"That eye is like to this eye,"
Said the first eye,
"But in a low place,
  Not a high place."

4)
It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.
It lies behind stars, and under hills,
  And empty holes it fills.
It comes first and follows after.
  Ends life, kills laughter.

5)
A box without hinges, key, or lid.
Yet golden treasure inside is hid.

6)
Alive without breath,
As cold as death;
Never thirsty, ever drinking, 
All in mail, never clinking.

7)
This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays kings, ruins towns,
And beats high mountains down.

Answers:

1. Mountain
2. Wind
3. Sun and daisy
4. Darkness
5. Egg
6. Fish
7. Time