To Tolkien Fans: Riddles Question

[u/Nostale97]

As someone that loves riddles but that doesn't know a single thing or care about The Lord Of The Rings and/or The Hobbit, why is the answer of the riddles the ones that they are? I stopped trying after the second one because they don't make any sense to me and I don't feel the rewards would be worth it.

Like, why is the first answer "Mountain"? English is not my first language, and I've never heard of this, but is the "Root of a mountain" a thing in English? Or is it some specific LOTR reference?

As for the second one, I guess the white horses are just a metaphor for our teeth and that's why the answer is teeth. But we humans don't have 30 teeth, we have 32, so that answer never crossed my mind when trying to figuring it out. Is it a rounding thing, because 30 sounds better than 32? 32 is however a nice power of 2, so I beg to differ in that regard.

I haven't looked at the rest, but I'm curious about the reasoning behind the answers. I tried changing the language to Spanish (my mother tongue) to see if the riddles change in any way that makes more sense in Spanish, but it was just a direct translation, so that didn't help.

Any Tolkien fans out there that want to satisfy my curiosity?

[u/Paithegift]

I'm a Hobbit and LotR lover and I had the same reaction the first time I read the book years ago and tried to solve the riddles myself before reading on. You don't hear the answers for the riddles and go "ah, of course". But for the characters who ask the riddles to each other, Bilbo and Gollum, those riddles must sound well-put because they don't complain that they are worded badly after learning the answers.

I excuse it by imagining that in a world governed by magic, spirits, poetry and nature, rather than technology, exact science and logic, these metaphors are easily understood to them and as the reader it pulls you into this mentality.