Riddles in the Downs

[Urwen]

Eh, a certain traitor - not M(a)eglin, though - did.

[Pervinca Took]

The food Mim provided. Which I once called Mim's Taters for a password.

[Urwen]

Indeed.

[Pervinca Took]

Oh dear. I have two passwords ready to go, but I'm crap at making riddles.

Let's see.

Withering with our fellows,
An airborne riposte,
And in a request both impertinent and half-baked?
What are we?

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

Withering with our fellows,
An airborne riposte,
And in a request both impertinent and half-baked?
What are we?

I'm thinking some sort of insult. 'Impertinent' sounds like the sort of thing Gandalf would call Pippin, but I can't actually find it in the text. Half-baked also sounds like a Pippin thing.

Hang on, jumping tracks as completely as possible... the Silmarils are capable of burning and withering flesh, are used as an airborne weapon by Earendil, and were requested by Thingol in the most impertinent, half-baked idea he ever had.

So I shall guess the Silmarils, and hang the consequences! ^_^

hS

[Pervinca Took]

Sorry, didn't see your reply.

Good try! Not the Silmarils, though.

[Huinesoron]

So, Tolkien famously used 'impertinent' to describe Nazi Germany's question regarding his ancestry:

Originally Posted by Letters

I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.

He was even more blunt to Stanley Unwin:

Originally Posted by Letters

Do I suffer this impertinence because of the possession of a German name, or do their lunatic laws require a certificate of arisch origin from all persons of all countries?

"Impertinent and half-baked" indeed.

I'm not sure if this helps, though: what would be in the request, other than racism, which doesn't really seem to fit the riddle?

hS

[Pervinca Took]

Originally Posted by Pervinca Took

Withering with our fellows,
An airborne riposte,
And in a request both impertinent and half-baked?
What are we?

I didn't say they weren't good.

The answer is, indeed, APPLES.

The AIRBORNE RIPOSTE is, as Mithalwen guessed, the one Sam throws at Bill Ferny.

Can you work out where the apples in the other two lines occur?

[Mithalwen]

The wrinkled store apples Pippin eats with Beregond?

[Pervinca Took]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

The wrinkled store apples Pippin eats with Beregond?

Correct. Does it say wrinkled rather than withered? Those are the ones I meant, anyway.

Now, for the other line, I stretch the possible meaning of 'half-baked' a bit ... can you think, though, where an impertinent request concerning apples might have been made?