What is being described?

1. I have a head and a tail, but no body.

2. Forward I'm heavy, backwards I'm not.

3. I never was, am always to be,

No one ever saw me, nor ever will,
And yet I am the confidence of all
To live and breathe on this terrestrial ball.

4. I go up and down the stairs yet I do not move

5. The black child of a white mother I am,

A wingless bird flying as far as the clouds in the sky
I give birth to tears of mourning in pupils that meet me, even
though there is no cause for grief,
and at once on my birth I am dissolved into air.

6. My first two letters are male

But my first three letters are female,
My first four letters make a great man,
And my whole is a great woman.

7. Pronounced as one letter,

but written with three,
Two letters there are,
And two only in me.
I'm double, I'm single,
I'm brown, blue, and grey,
I'm read from both ends,
And the same either way.

8. I'm where yesterday follows today,

And tomorrow is in the middle.

9. I am black when you buy me, red when you use me,
and grey when you throw me away.

10. I am the beginning of eternity

The end of time and space
The beginning of every end
And the end of every place.
11. In marble walls as white as milk,
Lined with a skin as soft as silk,
Within a fountain crystal-clear,
A golden apple doth appear.
No doors there are to this stronghold,
Yet thieves break in and steal the gold

12. I have five letters and people eat me.

Remove my first letter to make me commit a fearful crime.
Remove my first 2 letters to turn me into an animal.
Remove my first 4 letters and I become a vowel.

13. If you look you cannot see me.

If you see me you cannot see anything else.
I can make anything you want happen,
But later everything goes back to as it was before.
What am I?

14. Many have heard me,

But nobody has seen me,
And I will not speak back
Until spoken to.

15. I am a strange creature,

I am three sevenths of a chicken,
Two thirds of a cat,
And yet half of a goat,
But tell me stranger: where do I live?

16. Weight in my belly,

Trees on my back,
Nails in my ribs,
Feet I do lack.

17. If you have me you dont share me.

If you share me you dont have me.
What am I ?

18. With pointed fangs I sit and wait,

with piercing force I serve out fate.
Gripping bloodless victims, I proclaim my might;
physically joining them with a single bite.

19. To unravel me
You require a key:
 But no key made by locksmith's hand,
A key that only I will understand.

20. Whoever makes it, tells it not.

Whoever takes it, knows it not.
Whoever knows it, wants it not.

21. As a whole, I am both safe and secure.

Behead me, and I become a place of eating.
Behead me again, and I am the partner of ready.
Restore me, and I become the domain of beasts.

22. I walk on four legs in the morning, two at midday, and

three in the evening.

23. What is it that, after you take away the whole, some still
remains?

24. Three ways of spelling me there be.

The first is an odour, a smell if you will.

The second some money, but not in a bill.
The third is past tense, a method of passing things on or
around.
Can you tell me now, what these words are, that have the
same sound?

Score

16 or more. Excellent: you could be Tolkien himself

12-15. Very good

9 - 12. Quite Good

Below 9. Perhaps you need to read "The Hobbit" again!

Hints

1. I have two sides

2. I weigh a lot

3. After today

4. You tread on me

5. I come from pipes

6. My first letter is H

7. You would be blind without me

8. Johnson made me

9. I keep you warm

10. I am from the alphabet

11. You can eat me

12. I am sweet

13. I visit you in the night time

14. I live in caves and mountains

15. The windy city

16. I rely on the winds

17. I begin with the letter s

18. I am metal

19. I can be cracked

 20. I can be forged

21. I house animals

22. You are one

23. I am wholesome

24. Not worth a dime

Answers

1. A coin

2. A ton

3. Tomorrow

4. A stair carpet

5. Smoke

6. Heroine

7. An eye

8. A dictionary
9. Coal

10. The letter e

11. An egg (originally from Mother Goose)

12. A grape

13. A dream (again)

14. An echo

15. Chicago

16. A sailing ship

17. A secret

18. A stapler

19. Cipher or code

20. Counterfeit (forged) money

21. A stable

22. A person: as a baby we crawl and when old we use a

walking stick.

23. The word wholesome

24. Scent/cent/sent