Sindarin & NotMiracle
Sindarin
I’ve been poring over the old riddle of the Tree of Knowledge etched in the stone walls of Lothlórien. It claims that truth is hidden behind a riddle, and it makes me wonder how much of that is literal and how much is illusion. NotMiracle, do you think truth can be a trick, or is it simply a straight line that even a riddle can’t obscure?
NotMiracle
Truth usually wears a mask before you, then drops the mask and shows the same old face. Riddles are just clever camouflage. So yeah, it can trick you until you get the hang of it.
Sindarin
Ah, the mask is but a fleeting veil, and the truth beneath is always the same. One must learn to see beyond the surface, for riddles are only the trickster’s game, not the final truth itself. Keep your eyes steady and your mind open.
NotMiracle
Nice line. But you already guessed the trick. Riddles don’t have a final truth—they just point you toward it. If you think you’ve got it, I’ll bet you’re still missing the question.
Sindarin
So the mask hides not the truth but the question itself, and the riddle simply invites us to find that question before we can answer it.
NotMiracle
That’s the joke, though. The mask hides the question, but the whole point is to get the question. So the mask is the question’s dress. What’s the dress for? For a trick.
Sindarin
It seems the dress is simply to tempt the seeker, to make the question appear concealed until the mind is ready to unwrap it. In that sense, the trick is to keep the mind wandering enough to notice that the question itself is the garment.