Millions of black ants:
The army marches forward
in thousands of platoons;
In six brigades;
In three divisions;
All towards the One.

(In reply to A guess by K Sengupta)

Quote (A):

 "The three volumes of The Lord of the Rings are each divided into two 'books', making six books in total."

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings

Quote (B):

"Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King

Factually Speaking:

The Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the Return of the King is a single, huge novel
in six books (plus appendices) typically published in three volumes (but not a "trilogy")
by JrrTolkien."

Reference:
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?LordOfTheRings

 
Quote (C):

"The Lord of the Rings is a massive epic fantasy of more than half a million words."

Reference:
http://www.leaderu.com/humanities/wood-classic.html

I have not found online reference to the approximate range or the exact number of sentences in "Lord Of the Rings", but in view of more than half a million words contained in it, it can be safely surmised that the total number of sentences are in the thousands.

From the above, we can now make the following associations:

* black ants --> words

* platoons  --> sentences

* brigades  --> books

* divisions --> volumes

* One --> the whole work , that is "Lord Of The Rings".

Consequently, the "One" mentioned in the riddle is "Lord Of The Rings".

Edited on April 26, 2008, 7:25 am

Posted by K Sengupta on 2008-04-26 07:05:29