Next Level Tolkien

All right, fellow Nerdosauri!

Want to take Tolkien to the next level?

Before your next LotR reading, make sure you can answer:



1. What are the names/traits of the Valar?

2. Name the Istari (at least four out of five).

3. Know the basic history of Arnor and Gondor in the Third Age.

4. Know the general outlines of the First, Second, and Third Ages.

5. Know the history and significance of Númenor.

6. Name the Three Rings given to the Elves. Who possesses them at the time of the War of the Ring?

7. What happened to the Seven Rings given to the Dwarves? Who held the Seventh?

8. Name three of the four dragons Tolkien mentions.

9. Name two giant spiders.

10. Know the phyla of the Elves (This question alone is a dissertation on Tolkien, so how ’bout naming the two main groups).

11. Name the four primary Elven “settlements” at the end of the Third Age?

12. Get a map of Middle-earth, and holding it at arm’s length, point out the locations of – Minas Tirith, Barad Dûr, Dol Guldur, Orthanc, Isengard, Moria, Lothlórien, Erebor, Orodruin, The Shire, and Rivendell.

13. Name four major forest regions in Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age.

14. Who fought at the Battle of the Last Alliance to defeat Sauron at the very end of the Second Age? Who died? Who survived to die only two years later in an Orc ambush?

15. Know the origin and history of Sauron.

16. Recite the inscription on the One Ring. Now recite it in the Black Speech.

17. Which characters in The Lord of the Rings are higher order beings (angelic or demonic)?

18. What is the ancestral difference between Aragorn and Denethor?

19. Briefly describe the backstory of Túrin Turambar and the backstory of Beren and Lúthien.

20. What are the Silmarils? Who made the Silmarils? Who stole the Silmarils? What was the ultimate fate of the Silmarils?

21. What do these Elvish geographic terms mean? (They pop up a lot …) Ered, Amon, Emyn, Minas, Dor, Dol, Nan and Tol.


Answers, such as they may be, next Tuesday.