Tolkien built a whole world. Peter Jackson brought it to life. How well do you actually know it? 10 questions to find out.
10 questions on Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum and the world Tolkien spent decades building. Whether you came through the books or the films, this one will find your limits.
Pick your level
The normal quiz is fair to anyone who has watched Peter Jackson's trilogy once or twice: the Ring-bearer, the nine rings of mortal Men, Gandalf coming back white from Moria, Legolas and Gimli keeping score. It works whether you met Frodo on the page or on screen.
Hard mode is for readers. Tolkien published The Lord of the Rings in three volumes in 1954 and 1955, and more than a hundred pages of Appendices came with the last one. Hard mode draws on those Appendices, on characters Jackson never filmed and on the final chapters he left out. Five correct answers is a good showing there.
Two stretches of the book never made it to the cinema at all. The hobbits' detour through the Old Forest and the house of Tom Bombadil fills several chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Scouring of the Shire, where the four hobbits come home to find it occupied and industrialised, is the chapter Tolkien built the whole ending around.
Jackson cut both for pace, and he had good reasons. They are also where a lot of hard mode lives.
Plenty of scenes survived but moved. In the book, Narsil is reforged into Andúril at Rivendell before the Fellowship even sets out, the Elf-lord Glorfindel rather than Arwen carries Frodo to the Ford, and Shelob closes The Two Towers instead of The Return of the King. Where a question depends on one of these, it says it follows the book, and the explanation gives you the film version too.
All ten easy level questions, with the answer and the reasoning behind it.
Correct answer: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Fellowship of the Ring, released in December 2001.
Correct answer: Gandalf
Gandalf, on the bridge of Khazad-dûm. Elrond is not a wizard, in case you were wondering.
Correct answer: The Hobbit
The Hobbit, published in 1937, with the Ring as little more than a handy trick.
Correct answer: They are large and hairy
Large, hairy and tough enough that hobbits rarely bother with shoes.
Correct answer: The Return of the King
The Return of the King, eleven nominations and eleven wins, including Best Picture.
Correct answer: An Ent
An Ent, a shepherd of the trees, who dislikes being hasty.
Correct answer: Elves
The Elves, and she gives up her immortality to stay with Aragorn.
Correct answer: Viggo Mortensen
Viggo Mortensen, who stepped in as filming began. Sean Bean plays Boromir, Orlando Bloom plays Legolas.
Correct answer: Boromir
Boromir of Gondor, who redeems himself at Amon Hen.
Correct answer: A giant eye
The Eye of Sauron, wreathed in flame and rarely in a good mood.
Want to warm up before playing or double-check something? Open any question to reveal the correct answer and a short explanation.
Correct answer: Frodo Baggins
Frodo Baggins is the central hero. He is Bilbo Baggins's nephew, the protagonist of The Hobbit. It is Bilbo who bequeaths him the One Ring on his 111th birthday in the Shire.
Correct answer: Mount Doom
The One Ring must be cast into the fires of Mount Doom (Orodruin in Elvish), the volcano at the heart of Mordor. It was forged there by Sauron, and only those same fires can unmake it.
Correct answer: 9
Nine rings were given to the Kings of Men, who became the Nazgûl (Ringwraiths). Seven were given to the Dwarf-lords, three to the Elves. And the One Ring was forged to rule them all.
Correct answer: Gandalf the White
Originally Gandalf the Grey, he returns as Gandalf the White after defeating the Balrog in the Mines of Moria. He effectively takes the place of Saruman, the head of his order, who had gone over to Sauron.
Correct answer: The Shire
The Shire is the homeland of the Hobbits, where Frodo and his friends grew up. It is an idyllic, pastoral land in the north-west of Middle-earth, far from the troubles of the wider world.
Correct answer: Ian McKellen
Ian McKellen plays Gandalf across both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. Christopher Lee plays Saruman. McKellen's portrayal is widely considered the definitive version of the character.
Correct answer: Gollum
Gollum, born Sméagol, kept the Ring for nearly 500 years. He did not find it himself: his friend Déagol pulled it out of the Anduin, and Sméagol strangled him for it that same day. The Ring twisted his mind and body over the centuries, and he calls it "my precious".
Correct answer: Legolas
Legolas, son of the Elven king Thranduil of Mirkwood, represents the Elves in the Fellowship of the Ring. He is renowned for his exceptional archery and almost superhuman agility.
Correct answer: Elessar Telcontar
Aragorn rules as Elessar Telcontar. He is also known as Estel (hope), Strider, and Aragorn son of Arathorn. Elessar means "Elfstone" in Elvish.
Correct answer: Gimli
Gimli, son of Glóin, is the Dwarf member of the Fellowship. He forges an unlikely friendship with the Elven prince Legolas, the two competing in their enemy kill count. Thorin is the Dwarf hero of The Hobbit.
Stuck on one, or just curious how nasty it gets? Every hard mode question is here with its answer and the reasoning behind it.
Correct answer: The Entwives
The Entwives, who preferred gardens and orchards to wild forest and drifted east long ago. Treebeard tells Merry and Pippin the Ents have been looking for them ever since, and asks the hobbits to keep an eye out in the Shire.
Correct answer: Mellon
"Mellon", Elvish for friend. The inscription reads "Speak, friend, and enter", and Gandalf spends ages trying spells before a question from Merry sets him on the right track. The films hand that moment to Frodo.
Correct answer: A small box of earth from her orchard
A little box of earth from her orchard, holding a single mallorn seed. Back home, Sam uses the earth to replant the Shire after the war, and the seed grows into the only mallorn west of the mountains, in the Party Field.
Correct answer: Barliman Butterbur
Barliman Butterbur, who forgot to post Gandalf's letter to Frodo and nearly got everyone killed. Bill Ferny is the Bree man who sells Sam a half-starved pony, Farmer Maggot the Shire farmer with the mushrooms, and Fredegar Bolger stays behind at Crickhollow.
Correct answer: Goldberry
Goldberry, the River-daughter, who welcomes the hobbits to the house on the edge of the Old Forest. Nimrodel, Lúthien and Idril are all Elves from Tolkien's older legends. Neither Tom nor Goldberry appears in the films.
Correct answer: A blade from the Barrow-downs
A dagger taken from the barrow where Tom Bombadil rescued the hobbits, forged long ago in Arnor for the war against Angmar. Its spell breaks the Witch-king's protection and lets Éowyn finish him. The blade itself smokes and withers away after the blow.
Correct answer: Sharkey
Sharkey, from an Orkish word for old man. "The Chief" was the title of Lotho Sackville-Baggins, nicknamed Pimple, who thought he was running the Shire until Sharkey arrived. It all happens in The Scouring of the Shire, one of the book's final chapters.
Correct answer: Old Man Willow
Old Man Willow, a malevolent tree that lulls the hobbits to sleep and closes the cracks of its trunk on Merry and Pippin. Tom Bombadil sings it into letting them go. The extended edition of The Two Towers borrows the idea and gives the trapping to a tree in Fangorn.
Correct answer: 25 March
25 March, 3019 of the Third Age. According to the Appendices, the reckoning of Gondor was changed so that the year began on that date. 22 September is Bilbo and Frodo's shared birthday.
Correct answer: The Grey Havens
The Grey Havens, at the mouth of the Gulf of Lune, west of the Shire. Bilbo, Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel leave on the same ship. Tol Eressëa is where they are heading, not where they leave from.