4751 J.R.R. Tolkien Trivia Questions with Answers
4751 public questions with answers, drawn from the well. How many can you answer?
Which 1916 battle did J.R.R. Tolkien leave after falling ill while serving in the British Army?
Answer
Battle of the Somme
Which Oxford university was J.R.R. Tolkien a professor at?
Answer
University of Oxford
What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s first academic publication, a 1922 glossary of Middle English words?
Answer
A Middle English Vocabulary
What honor did J.R.R. Tolkien receive from the British Crown in 1972?
Answer
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Which battle kills King Théoden in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings?
Answer
The Battle of the Pelennor Fields
What is the name of the giant spider Bilbo fights in Mirkwood in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit?
Answer
Unknown; Tolkien gives no individual name
Which Tolkien work was published posthumously in 2014 as a translation and commentary on Beowulf?
Answer
Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary
What is the title of the opening chapter of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit?
Answer
An Unexpected Party
What was the name of Tolkien’s wartime writing group with C.S. Lewis?
Answer
The Inklings
What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s military role in the First World War Battle of the Somme?
Answer
Signals officer
Who completed and edited many of J.R.R. Tolkien’s posthumous Middle-earth publications?
Answer
Christopher Tolkien
What is the title of Tolkien’s posthumously published 1977 collection of mythology about Arda?
Answer
The Silmarillion
What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s professional specialty while working on the Oxford English Dictionary?
Answer
Germanic philology
Which fictional character is Tolkien’s first published Middle-earth protagonist?
Answer
Bilbo Baggins
What was the name of Tolkien’s first major academic book on the Middle English poem Sir Gawain?
Answer
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s academic title at Merton College, Oxford, from 1945?
Answer
Merton Professor of English Language and Literature
What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s first published Middle-earth work after his death?
Answer
The Silmarillion
Which university awarded J.R.R. Tolkien his first-class degree in English Language and Literature in 1915?
Answer
University of Oxford
What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s first Oxford professorship called?
Answer
Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon
In which 1916 battle did J.R.R. Tolkien serve as a signals officer during World War I?
Answer
Battle of the Somme
Which Tolkien essay presents his theory of the value and function of fairy stories?
Answer
On Fairy-Stories
Which Tolkien work contains the creation story of Arda and the history of the Silmarils?
Answer
The Silmarillion