One of a series of oblique titles that Bilbo Baggins gave to himself in conversation with the Dragon Smaug. Attempting to avoid giving away too much detail without outright lying to the Dragon, Bilbo instead offered a series of riddling names for himself that each had some indirect reference to his adventures in reaching the Lonely Mountain.
Bilbo's choice of the name 'Ringwinner' is particularly curious among these inventions, because he did not in fact 'win' the Ring in any real sense. In fact - at least according to later versions of the story - he simply picked it up from a tunnel floor in Goblin-town, and hence 'Ring-finder' would be rather closer to the truth (and indeed he is actually later named 'Ring-finder' by Gandalf).
Notes
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In terms of the history of The Hobbit, this title seems to derive from the first edition, in which the story of Bilbo's acquisition of the Ring is rather different. In that original version, Gollum really does volunteer to present his Precious as a prize in the Riddle-game, and so Bilbo could, at least indirectly, claim to be the 'Ringwinner'. Later editions revised this entire story so that Gollum would never have intentionally given up the Ring, but nonetheless Bilbo's choice to name himself 'Ringwinner' survived into later editions. |
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- Updated 2 June 2024
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