Tolkien Quiz #1: Trial By Fire
Difficulty level: Three rings for Elvenkings (hard).
Required Reading: LOTR, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales or Children of Húrin.
1. Which of these characters NEVER possessed any of the three Elven rings (Narya, Nenya, or Vilya) at any point?
- Gandalf
- Galadriel
- Glorfindel
- Gil-Galad
- Círdan
- Elrond
- Celebrimbor
2. Who of the following was a nephew of Prince Imrahil, Lord of Dol Amroth?
- Faramir
- Anáriel
- Gildor
- Aragorn
- Éomer
- Isildur
- Denethor
3. All of the following names were reused for different characters at some point in the tales except one. Which of the following was NOT a "reused" name and actually refers to the same character in two different contexts, as far-fetched as that may seem?
- Beleg
- Glorfindel
- Gothmog
- Denethor
- Grond
- Finduilas
- Mablung
4. Which of the following powers was NOT bestowed upon the possessor of the One Ring by that object, at least as far as the writings tell us?
- Invisibility
- Ability to understand unknown languages
- Ability to see into the shadow world
- Ability to see the Elven Rings being worn when others could not
- Great slowing of the aging process
- Remain visible whilst wearing the Ring if desired
- Ability to see flashes of what is to come
5. Who is the only elf ever known to have sported a beard?
- Beleg Strongbow
- Turgon of Gondolin
- Finarfin
- Finrod Felagund
- Orodreth of Nargothrond
- Círdan the Shipwright
- Thranduil of Mirkwood
6. Who is the oldest sentient being on Arda (the world) - i.e., not in Aman/Valinor - still living at the close of the Third Age?
- Círdan
- Galadriel
- Ungoliant
- Treebeard
- Tom Bombadil
- Old Man Willow
- Elrond
7. Who did Túrin rescue who not only didn't appreciate it, but loathed him all the more afterward?
- Nienor
- Morwen
- Beleg
- Gwindor
- Finduilas
- Háladin
- Brandir
8. Which name or title did Túrin NOT adopt for himself at some point?
- Turambar
- Neithan
- Gorthol
- Agarwaen
- Tuorin
- Mormegil
- Adanedhel
9. What was the relationship between Sméagol and Déagol?
- Just friends
- Brothers
- Semi-distant kin
- Cousins
- Unrelated
- Twins
- "Fishin' buddies"
10. All of the following are examples of biracial marriages EXCEPT...
- Beren and Lúthien
- Thingol and Melian
- Túrin and Nienor
- Tuor and Idril
- Aragorn and Arwen
Done! Post your answers in the comments section. Remember, this was rated a "hard" quiz. Easier quizzes will follow, I promise! The next one, in fact, requires only knowledge of The Hobbit...
10 comments:
i'm sure i'll fail miserably, but here goes:
1. Glorfindel and Gil-Galad
2. Gildor
3. Gothmog
4. Ability to see flashes...
5. Finarfin
6. Treebeard (or Tom)
7. Beleg
8. Mormegil
9. Fishin Buddies
10. Tuor and Idril
most of these were complete guesses or slightly edumacated guesses. i wouldn't be surprised if i got 1/10
2.5/10
Don't worry, I wasn't expecting anyone to answer more than a couple right, especially if you haven't read Hurin or at least Narn I Chin Hurin in Unfinished Tales.
I'll you which ones you got right and give out all the answers when mom's taken the test. Thanks for participating! Next one should be a breeze ;-)
without looking at Heath's:
1) Gandalf
2) Aragorn
3) Denethor
4)Ability to see other rings
5) Beleg
6) Treebeard
7) Findiulas
8) Gorthol
9) Brothers
10)Beren and Luthien
Sorry empath, 0/10 :-(
I'll explain the answers when I get a few minutes, please check back rather than just shrug and leave though, both of you, because the answers will be constructive and deepen your understanding hopefully. Not in a trivial way, but in a way central to the Silmarillion and parts of Hurin and LOTR.
OK, here are the answers along with explanations.
1. Who never possessed an Elven ring? I didn't specify there was only ONE person on the list who didn't, so I gave heath half a point because his answer of Glorfindel was correct, though he also said Gil-Galad which was incorrect. Glorfindel was a mighty elf who lived in the hidden city of Gondolin, fought in its defense when it was raided, then with Tuor (Turin's cousin) led a stream of around 800 refugees by secret ways out of city when it was becoming overrun. Along the way out of the mountains he was confronted by a balrog, and on a narrow mountain pass they did battle till both fell to their death. He resurfaced later in the Third Age, which will answer another question, but he never had anything to do with any of the Elven Rings. As far as the other guys on the list: Celebrimbor was the elf taken in by Sauron in his friendly guise and who actually forged the Rings - they collaborated on the dwarven and human Rings, but Celebrimbor made the elven Rings alone without Sauron's aid and Sauron did the same at Orodruin (Mt. Doom) with his One Ring. So in a sense, Celebrimbor "possessed" all three Elven Rings at their creation. He then gave these three Rings to the greatest Elf-Lords left in Middle Earth (not Valinor), which at the time were Gil-Galad, high king of all Sindarin Elves in Middle Earth since both Thingol and Turgon and been slain, Galadriel, greatest and oldest of Noldor left in Middle Earth, and Cirdan in the Grey Havens, greatest and oldest of the Teleri still residing in Middle Earth, in fact probably the oldest elf alive at the time. That takes care of those three. Cirdan gave his Ring to Olorin (Gandalf) when the five Istari (wizards) arrived in Middle Earth from Valinor in the Third Age to oppose Sauron. Cirdan had the gift of some measure of foresight and could see that although Curumo (Saruman) was the nominal head of the Five, it was Olorin who would play the largest role in the events to come. This was Narya, the ring of fire, and it allowed Gandalf to combat fire-based spirits like the Balrog of Moria with greater power. Even with the ring, those two stalemated! It also explains Gandalf's rather cryptic claim of being a "Servant to the Secret Flame" when he's shouting at the Balrog trying to buy time. Gandalf presumably gave the Ring back to Cirdan when he left on the boat with Frodo to pass back to Aman, but it's not stated so I don't really know. When Gil-Galad was slain by Sauron in the Last Alliance of Elves and Men (the battle in which Sauron was bested by Elendil and his son Isildur ended up with the One Ring), he gave it to Elrond before leaving his body for the Halls of Mandos - Elrond now being the High King of the Sindar. This was Vilya, the Ring of Air, and Elrond wore it until the end of the LOTR as far as I know. Lastly, Galadriel, having received Nenya, the Ring of Water, kept her ring the entire time. This explains her affinity for seeing visions in water and the great reverence she had for water in general.
2. Faramir (and thus Boromir too) were nephews of Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth. Dol Amroth, like Minas Tirith, was a powerful city of Gondor, probably at that time second only to Minas Tirith. Prince Imrahil led a battalion of his Swan Knights into the battle at the Pelennor Fields, near Minas Tirith, in the biggest battle of the LOTR. At one point it is stated that in the entire battle, the only combatants who received no wounds at all, despite being deep in some of the thickest fighting, were Aragorn, Imrahil, and Eomer. Imrahil was also of Numenorean descent like Aragorn, and long of years and mighty with a sword. He was perhaps the best "sword fighter" in the battle that day. One of his sisters was named Finduilas - no relation to the elf Finduilas that Turin knew - and she was the wife of Denethor, the Steward of Gondor. Since Denethor's sons were Boromir and Faramir, that makes them Imrahil's nephews. He is absent entirely in the movies, even the extended editions (grr) but in the books his forces play a vital role in holding the walls long enough for Aragorn to arrive with his black corsairs and Army of the Dead. If Denethor had died before Aragorn came forth and claimed rulership over both Gondor and Arnor - like the Kings of old - Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth would in fact have become the default steward and commanded all of Gondor. He personally along with Gandalf helped bring Faramir back from his devastating loss at Osgiliath and like Gandalf held off the train of enemies (including 5 winged Nazgul) long enough to see his nephew to safety behind the walls of Minas Tirith. He also checks in on him at the Houses of Healing and is the one who summons Aragorn to help heal him; it's stated in a conversation, though the narrative does not actually portray the event. Neither he nor Aragorn were injured in any way in the last battle at the Morannon (Black Gate), when the entire main force of Mordor was unleashed upon the remnant of Gondorians, Rohirrim, and Hobbits. Surely, though, they would not have survived that battle, and only Frodo's/Gollum's destruction of the Ring saved the day. More information on this interesting and noble man here: http://www.tuckborough.net/imrahil.html
3. Reused names. This was a toughie unless you REALLY knew your stuff. Beleg Strongbow was of course Turin's great Elvish friend from Doriath in the First Age. He was slain in that story. There was a Beleg in Aragorn's line of "Rangers" in the NW of Middle Earth though who was of the Edain (Numenorean) line of descent and had no relation to the Elvish Beleg. Gothmog was most famously the Captain of Morgoth's Balrogs, and Morgoth's personal champion even over Sauron and Glaurung. He was slain by Ecthelion (who he also slew simultaneously) in the Battle of Gondolin, but only after having slain Turgon, the chief of that city. He had formerly also slain Feanor, greatest of the Noldor in craft and ambition, and also Fingon, High King of the Noldor and a valiant warrior. In the Battle of the Pelennor Field in the Return of the King, the Lieutenant of Minas Morgul and Captain of the Orcish horde, second in command on the battlefield only to The Witch King, was also named Gothmog, though he was only an orc. In the movies he is the one with the severely deformed head that seems to be running the show for the Orcs both at Osgiliath and Pelennor. Denethor was obviously the ruling Steward of Gondor at this same time, but there was an elvish (Laiquendi or green-elf) Denethor in the First Age who settled in Ossiriand for a time before he and his people were slain by the forces of Morgoth. There was also a third Denethor who was in the line of Stewards of Gondor a few generations before the Denethor that we know (who was actually titled Denethor II). Grond was the name of both the huge iron mace that Morgoth wielded in battle and the huge battering ram two ages later in the assault on Minas Tirith. Finduilas, as has been mentioned above, was both an Elven princess of Nargothrond who harbored an unrequited love for Turin, as well as the name of Imrahil's older sister and wife of Denethor II. No relationship there. Mablung is obscure. Most people know of the Mablung who served under king Thingol in Doriath, who befriended Turin like a brother while the latter came of age, who witnessed the "attack" upon Saeros that caused Turin to leave Doriath, who later accompanied Morwen and Nienor to Nargothrond in search of Turin, and along with Beleg Strongbow was considered one of the captains of the Doriath forces. He died when dwarves overran Doriath in a later tale. In the Lord of the Rings, one of Faramir's rangers operating in Ithilien, in fact the one who first captures and confronts Sam, Frodo, and Smeagol, is named Mablung as well, though he is of Numenorean descent like Faramir and no elf. This leaves only Glorfindel. We know there was a Glorfindel who fought valiantly in the sack of Gondolin and led some refugees out of that city until he was confronted by a balrog and they slew each other. However, Glorfindel's soul (fea) resided in the Halls of Mandos for an age and a half before finally making a special request of Manwe, who then asked Eru, and was uniquely granted permission to return to Middle Earth in a new but "facsimile" body and was the SAME Glorfindel who helped Frodo outrun the Nazgul at the Fords of Bruinen and enticed the Nazgul into the river where they were swallowed up by Elrond and Gandalf's sudden horse-headed flood. These actions were given to Arwen in the movie version. Glorfindel was also Elrond's chief lieutenant at Rivendell and attended the Council to determine the fate of the Ring. SO: Glorfindel was the correct answer, because "both" Glorfindels were the same person, and not a random reuse of the name. This was almost surely an oversight of Tolkien, which he only at the last rectified by inventing the story of Glorfindel's "resurrection" rather than change the name of one character or the other. Guess he was stubborn that way.
4. The one power the One Ring did not bestow. Heath got this right. It never said anywhere that the Ring-Bearer got glimpses of the future by virtue of the Ring. All the other powers are either explicitly or implicitly stated at various places in the Lord of the Rings. For instance, Bilbo can understand the speech of the spiders of Mirkwood in the Hobbit though his companions cannot, and Samwise can understand the Black Speech of the orcs of Cirith Ungol while in possession of the Ring, and thus learns that Frodo is not dead but being held captive. Frodo spotted Galadriel's ring on her finger in Lothlorien though Sam could see nothing. And so on. I can provide examples of each true power if anyone is curious.
5. Cirdan the Shipwright, Lord of the Gray Havens and the oldest living Elf in Middle Earth in the Third Age, was stated in the Silmarillion to have a full and handsome beard. Nowhere else in the literature is there any mention of an elf having any facial hair, and some characters even refer to their lack of facial hair in places. I guess Cirdan was just more manly than anyone else. He was likely one of the "original" elves to have awoken at Cuivienen, like Finwe, Elwe, and Ingwe. But Finwe was killed by Morgoth, Elwe (aka Thingol) was slain by dwarves in Doriath during a squabble over the Silmaril in his crown (which had been procured by Beren), and Ingwe and his Vanyar made a beeline for Valinor shortly after the awakening and thus is not a resident of Middle Earth. Only Cirdan, a Teleri like Elwe, stayed, and only at the request of Ulmo, who needed someone to guard the ports on the Beleriand/Middle Earth side of the ocean, so that elves would always have a haven from which to depart for the Undying Lands. Cirdan's biggest desire was to see those lands for himself but from the first age until the fourth he put Ulmo's request ahead of his own desires and fulfilled his duties. Only when the last ship sailed from the Gray Havens to Valinor did Cirdan get to fulfill his dream of traveling to the Paradise to which he had been called for over 20,000 years. Talk about patience!
6. This one is open for debate. I look at it this way. Tom is obviously a sentient being, and he his still living in Middle Earth into the Fourth Age. No one can say for certain who or what Tom was, but he was called "The Oldest" by the Elves, who were first to awaken amongst sentient creatures - before man, before Ents, before dwarves. So that seems to tell me he existed in Arda even before the Eldar. If he was a nature spirit maybe he was created with Arda; if he was a maia or a vala then he would have existed since before the creation of Arda. If he was Eru or the Author or something wholly other, he still seems to be regarded as the 'oldest thing' by a race of people who taught the Ents to speak. It seems almost inevitable that Tom is the oldest thing in Middle Earth by the end of the LOTR. Cirdan as we saw was one of the original Elves. Galadriel was born in Valinor after the Noldor has migrated there, so she's out. Ungoliant is a bit of mystery but there is also a question of life and sentience with her. Treebeard was an Ent and we've talked about them. Old Man Willow came along much later, and Elrond was born in the first age, but only when about half of it has passed already. He is younger even than Galadriel. Some might have an argument for Ungoliant and *possibly* for Treebeard based on his own boastings, but in the end until I see more definitive citations, I am going to stick with Tom as being The Oldest.
7. Turin rescued Gwindor of Nargothrond from an ambush of orcs. Gwindor already disliked Turin because for years, he had loved and desired the princess Finduilas, and while not officially engaged they had an informal understanding of love between them. In the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, though, Gwindor was captured by Morgoth's forces and lived for years as a thrall in Angband, until he managed to escape and return to Nargothrond, though he was injured and partially deformed and aged from the experience. Then Turin shows up and soon starts practically running the place, and Finduilas is attracted to this exotic, tall, fair, strong hero. Gwindor hates Turin for this of course, and when he then has to owe Turin a life-debt, he is hardly happy about it. I believes he says something like he'd rather have died than be rescued by Turin. The real tragedy in that Finduilas soon died when Norgothrond was sacked by Glaurung, and Gwindor never got to marry his true love. Turin cared for her much as a friend, but did not love her in the way Gwindor did. Everyone Turin comes into contact with it seems loves hims, hates him, is slain by him, or allows themselves to be ruled by him. And every one of these relationships tends to end tragically, despite Turin's noblest intentions. Turin is the most tragic character in all of Tolkien's work, in my opinion. He's like a mirror image of Aragorn, with all the nobility and heroic bearing and skills and determination to see good triumph over evil, but everything he does turns out wrong due in part to his own pride and due to Morgoth's unrelenting efforts to thwart and curse him at every step. The fact that he accomplishes the heroic deed at the end of the story IN SPITE of all this horrible luck just proves how great a man he really was and should have been. But when a "The Devil", essentially, has it out for you your whole life, YOU specifically, even the greatest heroes of men falter. Poor Turin.
8. Turin's pseudonyms and titles. Jeez this man had a lot of names! I won't go through each one and what it translates to and why he called himself that at each point of the story. You can read the book for that. The fake one is Tuorin, which is a name I just made up. Tuor was in fact Turin's cousin, so it's kind of a mix of their names and sounded plausible.
9. I had thought that Smeagol and Deagol were cousins before writing this question, but they were just distant kin amongst the Stoors, the Hobbitlike people who lived on the western shores of the River Anduin. I'll give Heath credit for fishin' buddies I guess, because of course they were, but I put it in quotes as a reference to the "fishin' buddies" in Brokeback Mountain, who in fact did no actual fishing at all. I was trying to imply that they were a gay couple, but since they WERE actually fishing buddies (without the quotes), I'll let that one slide. Still, "distant kin" remains the best answer, I think.
10. You guys BOTH missed this one and it was the easiest of the lot! Well, maybe not for you Heath, not having read Children of Hurin. I won't ruin it for you by going into detail. Beren was a man and Luthien half-elf/half-maia, so that's biracial (or triracial!). Thingol was a Teleri elf and Melian was a maia, so that was biracial. Tuor, Turin's cousin, was a man (an Edain) and his wife Idril was a Sindarin elf, in fact the daughter of Turgon, King of Gondolin. And of course Aragorn was a man (Edain) with some elvish blood while Arwen was a Sindarin elf with some maia blood. Again, bi- or tri-racial. Only Turin and Nienor, who were both human (of the Edain, the cultured and noble clans of men as opposed the wildmen like the Pukel-men (Druedain) or the Easterlings, Haradrim, etc.), had a marriage that was was of the same blood, so they are correct answer.
*Whew*!
That took a lot of work Meta! Whew is right! Thanks for clearing it up, but I still won't remember all those details and names; I wish I had your recall. I enjoy all these books even though I could never tell the story myself. Let's put it this way "I live in the moment". I enjoy the stories but don't get too involved in the histories and names. It's just not me, but I like hearing what you have to say, which does remind me of who the characters were...but alas I'm a hopeless case. I won't even take a Hobbit test until I read it again! Thanks again though for all the work you put into the explanations and answers. I look back now and should have known at least 2!
Yeah Empath, you probably should have known #2, #6, #7 (from an email I sent you) and #10, and possibly #1. But that's if you had perfect recall from a single reading of a very dense (if short) book. Don't worry, I don't blame you for any of your misses! Except maybe #10... Heh.
Disillusionist I'm not sure what all you've read, just The Hobbit and LOTR to completion, right? With some dabbling in The Silmarillion? I wouldn't have expected you to know any of these except maybe #6, and #2 if you had read LOTR with a fine-toothed comb. But you did pretty well guessing.
In these quizzes I promise never to require knowledge of the 12-volume History of Middle Earth, The Letters of JRR Tolkien, or any critical or non-canonical works. So stick to Hobbit, LOTR, Sil, Unfinished Tales, and Hurin and you'll be OK.
Just to let y'all know I have started writing out Hobbit questions, and so I'm reading it again in the meantime to make sure I come with some interesting and somewhat challenging questions, but nothing like the difficulty of this quiz. Hell, if I had taken this quiz and someone else written it up, I'd have probably only gotten 9 out of 10 right!
=) (wink)
See ya on the Hobbit quiz, which will be a GREEN level one, possibly with 15 questions rather than 10, very doable but not complete child's play either...
Oh and Empath, no need to feel bad or apologize for not remembering the fine details of things, especially names, which are always confusing. I'll try to work some more general plot-driven or thought provoking questions into future quizzes, so it's not just a memory game. The way you read is fine, and I'm glad you enjoy it. That's all that counts. People like me who have a database built in for esoteric stuff like this are the ones with the real problems!
cool, good explanations. yeah, i've only read hobbit and lotr once each and listened to probably 20% of the sil. i'll probably go back and read those two again this year and hopefully hurin too.
Right on. It shows you have more of a life than I do right now. But yeah, Hurin's pretty sweet, and the Sil is always good. Gotta love dark stories where the back guys win and there is no redemption or moral to it.
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