What's your Tolkien IQ?
Ahh, The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy!  Sublime imagination,
superb characterization, epic scope and a reality all its own.  Answer Five
of the following questions, and you are above average.  Get ten, and you
are extremely bright.  Fifteen puts you in the brilliant class.  And all
twenty? Genius. (The answers are below.)

1.  What was the name of the Hobbiton miller?
            a: Sandyman
            b: Proudfoot
            c: Stoor

2. What is a "mathom?"
            a: a unit of aquatic depth
            b: a species of tree
            c: a gift

3.  What is "lembas?"
            a: elven rope made from tree bark
            b: a kind of food
            c: the dwarf term for "evening."

4.  Who was Smaug?
            a:  a disgraced member of the Council of Wizards
            b: a dragon
            c: the hobbit who first grew tobacco

5.  What is a "withywindle?"
            a: an evil wizard
            b: a drink made from barley
            c: a river on the eastern borders of the Shire

6.  What is a "wight?"
            a: a unit of grain
            b: an upland meadow
            c: an evil creature

7.  Who was "Beorn?"
            a: a shape-changer
            b: a man
            c: a bear

8.  What is an "ent?"
            a: a small insect
            b: a unit of distance
            c: a talking tree

9.  What is a "rune?"
            a: a hobbit dance
            b: elvish writing
            c: a kind of gemstone

10. Who was "Bert?"
            a: Sam Gamgee's horse
            b: Lobelia and Otho's son
            c: a troll

11.  What was the "White Hand?"
            a: Saruman's symbol
            b: a kind of aquatic lily
            c: an ancient warrior society

12.  Who made the "One Ring?"
            a: Thror
            b: Galadriel
            c: Sauron

13.  What is "mithril?"
            a: a healing plant
            b: a kind of metal
            c: waterfall foam

14.  Who was "Drogo?"
            a: Butterbur's assistant
            b: the mayor of Laketown
            c: Frodo's father

15.  Who was Borimir's brother?
            a: Strider the Ranger
            b: Grishnakh
            c: Faramir

16.  What was "Orcrist?"
            a: a goblin holiday
            b: a fabled sword
            c: an ancient fortress

17.  What is an "attercop?"
            a: a corrupt hobbit sherrif
            b: a dwarvish head covering
            c: an insulting term for a spider

18.  Who was "Bard?"
            a: the father of song
            b: an archer
            c: the Gaffer's dog

19  Who was "Gwaihir?"
            a: an elf of Mirkwood
            b: a chieftan of Gondor
            c: an eagle

20.  What is a "flet?"
            a: a dwarvish burial cairn
            b: a goblin's helmet
            c: an elvish dwelling 
 
 

Cover |    | Back to Arts&Lettres
The answers:
1a, 2c, 3b, 4b, 5c, 6c, 7abc,
8c, 9b, 10c, 11a, 12c, 13b,
14c, 15c, 16b, 17c, 18b,
19c, 20c