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Lord of The Rings Trivia Quiz
The Lord of the Rings follows the hobbit Frodo Baggins, who inherits a powerful One Ring and must carry it across Middle-earth to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom before the Dark Lord Sauron reclaims it. He sets out with a Fellowship that includes the wizard Gandalf, the ranger Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and his loyal friend Sam.
Q1. Who directed the Lord of the Rings film trilogy?
Answer: Peter Jackson. Jackson made all three films with New Line Cinema and his own company, WingNut Films. Their success made him a major industry figure and finally let him remake King Kong in 2005. The trilogy grossed over $2.9 billion worldwide.
Q2. Where were the three films shot?
Answer: New Zealand. All three were filmed at the same time in Jackson's home country, from 11 October 1999 to 22 December 2000, with pick-up shots until 2003. The budget was $281 million. The films are the highest-grossing in New Zealand cinema history and were credited with boosting tourism there.
Q3. The Lord of the Rings began as a sequel to which book?
Answer: The Hobbit. The Hobbit's success in 1937 led publisher Allen & Unwin to ask for more about hobbits. Tolkien started "a new Hobbit" that December, first imagining Bilbo off on another treasure hunt, before he remembered the Ring and its powers and made that the focus.
Q4. Who composed the music for the film trilogy?
Answer: Howard Shore. Shore wrote early versions of the Shire and Frodo themes before shooting began. Most of the score was recorded with the London Philharmonic at Watford Town Hall and mixed at Abbey Road. By 2015 it had been voted the best film soundtrack of all time six years running.
Q5. How many Oscars did The Return of the King win?
Answer: 11. It won every category it was nominated in, the biggest clean sweep in Oscar history, and tied the record of 11 wins held by Ben-Hur and Titanic. It was only the second sequel to win Best Picture, after The Godfather Part II. The trilogy won 17 Oscars from 30 nominations.
Q6. Who was originally cast as Aragorn before Viggo Mortensen?
Answer: Stuart Townsend. The studio thought Townsend too young, and after shooting started Jackson agreed and recast the part with Mortensen. Russell Crowe, who had earlier auditioned for Boromir, was the backup choice. Rumours about Daniel Day-Lewis were mostly internet speculation.
Q7. Which famous actor sent Peter Jackson a photo of himself dressed as a wizard, hoping to play Gandalf?
Answer: Christopher Lee. Ian McKellen became Jackson's first choice after Philippa Boyens watched a tape of Patrick Stewart acting opposite him and suggested McKellen instead. Sean Connery and Christopher Plummer were also approached but declined.
Q8. Why was the book first published in three volumes?
Answer: To reduce the publisher's financial risk. Typesetting was expensive and sales were expected to be modest. Tolkien saw it as a single work, ideally published with The Silmarillion, and disliked calling it a novel or trilogy. The volumes appeared between July 1954 and October 1955; a single-volume edition only came in 1968.
Q9. In the BBC's 2003 Big Read survey, what was The Lord of the Rings voted?
Answer: The nation's best-loved book. Germany and Australia chose it as their favourite book in similar polls in 2004, and Amazon customers named it the book of the millennium in 1999. It won the International Fantasy Award in 1957 and has sold more than 150 million copies.
Q10. Which Tolkien title did he dislike because he felt it gave away the ending?
Answer: The Return of the King. He deferred to his publisher. He had proposed other titles, such as The War of the Ring, and was unsure which two towers The Two Towers meant, considering several pairs before settling on Minas Morgul and Orthanc.
Q11. To whom did Tolkien send chapters as he wrote them in 1944?
Answer: His son Christopher, serving in the RAF. Tolkien had abandoned the book for most of 1943 and restarted in April 1944 as a serial for Christopher, who was in South Africa with the Royal Air Force. Writing was slow because Tolkien had a full-time academic job and marked exams for extra money.
Q12. Which publisher released an unauthorised US paperback in 1965?
Answer: Ace Books. Ace claimed the book lacked US copyright protection and paid Tolkien no royalties. He told his fans, whose pressure forced Ace to withdraw and make a nominal payment. The authorised Ballantine paperback sold a quarter of a million copies in ten months.
Q13. Tolkien presents himself as the translator of which fictional document?
Answer: The Red Book of Westmarch. It is modelled on the real medieval Red Book of Hergest. In the frame story it is also the source of The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, and English stands in for the "original" language, Westron. Tolkien even wrote a guide to his invented names for translators.
Q14. Which band mentions Gollum and Mordor in "Ramble On"?
Answer: Led Zeppelin. They also referenced the Misty Mountains in "Misty Mountain Hop" and Ringwraiths in "The Battle of Evermore". Earlier, in 1965, Donald Swann set Tolkien's poems to music, and Tolkien himself suggested a plain-chant style for Galadriel's lament.
Q15. About how many musical leitmotifs did Howard Shore write for the trilogy?
Answer: 85 to 110. It is the largest catalogue of leitmotifs in cinema history, more than the whole Star Wars series, with several just for the hobbits and the Shire. For the third film Shore was writing around seven minutes of music a day.
Q16. Where are Tolkien's 9,250 pages of original manuscripts kept?
Answer: Marquette University. They form part of the J. R. R. Tolkien Collection there. Christopher Tolkien later published the surviving drafts with commentary in volumes six to nine of The History of Middle-earth, between 1988 and 1992.
Q17. Which critic called the book "juvenile trash" in a review titled "Oo, Those Awful Orcs!"?
Answer: Edmund Wilson. Early reviews were sharply split. Poet Edwin Muir mocked the characters as boys who never reach puberty, while Auden, Tolkien's former pupil, called it a masterpiece and C. S. Lewis wrote of "beauties which pierce like swords".
Q18. For what lump sum did Tolkien sell the merchandising rights in 1969?
Answer: £10,000. United Artists also agreed a 7.5 percent royalty after costs. In 1976, three years after Tolkien's death, the rights were sold on to the Saul Zaentz Company, now trading as Tolkien Enterprises, which signs off authorised merchandise.
Q19. What was MASSIVE, which won a Scientific and Engineering Academy Award?
Answer: Software that animated the battle armies. Stephen Regelous designed the autonomous-agent animation system used for the trilogy's battle sequences. Crew members also won a Technical Achievement award for rendering creature skin textures on The Return of the King.
Q20. The end song "Into the West" was a tribute to whom?
Answer: Cameron Duncan, a young filmmaker. Jackson and Fran Walsh had befriended Duncan, who died of cancer in 2003. Walsh and Philippa Boyens wrote lyrics for the films, which linguist David Salo translated into Tolkien's invented languages.
Lord of The Rings quiz answers and explanations
Every question from the quiz above with its correct answer, the story behind it, and where the fact comes from.
-
Who directed the Lord of the Rings film trilogy?
Answer: Peter Jackson. Jackson made all three films with New Line Cinema and his own company, WingNut Films. Their success made him a major industry figure and finally let him remake King Kong in 2005. The trilogy grossed over $2.9 billion worldwide.
-
Where were the three films shot?
Answer: New Zealand. All three were filmed at the same time in Jackson's home country, from 11 October 1999 to 22 December 2000, with pick-up shots until 2003. The budget was $281 million. The films are the highest-grossing in New Zealand cinema history and were credited with boosting tourism there.
-
The Lord of the Rings began as a sequel to which book?
Answer: The Hobbit. The Hobbit's success in 1937 led publisher Allen & Unwin to ask for more about hobbits. Tolkien started "a new Hobbit" that December, first imagining Bilbo off on another treasure hunt, before he remembered the Ring and its powers and made that the focus.
Source: Wikipedia: The Lord of the Rings
-
Who composed the music for the film trilogy?
Answer: Howard Shore. Shore wrote early versions of the Shire and Frodo themes before shooting began. Most of the score was recorded with the London Philharmonic at Watford Town Hall and mixed at Abbey Road. By 2015 it had been voted the best film soundtrack of all time six years running.
-
How many Oscars did The Return of the King win?
Answer: 11. It won every category it was nominated in, the biggest clean sweep in Oscar history, and tied the record of 11 wins held by Ben-Hur and Titanic. It was only the second sequel to win Best Picture, after The Godfather Part II. The trilogy won 17 Oscars from 30 nominations.
-
Who was originally cast as Aragorn before Viggo Mortensen?
Answer: Stuart Townsend. The studio thought Townsend too young, and after shooting started Jackson agreed and recast the part with Mortensen. Russell Crowe, who had earlier auditioned for Boromir, was the backup choice. Rumours about Daniel Day-Lewis were mostly internet speculation.
-
Which famous actor sent Peter Jackson a photo of himself dressed as a wizard, hoping to play Gandalf?
Answer: Christopher Lee. Ian McKellen became Jackson's first choice after Philippa Boyens watched a tape of Patrick Stewart acting opposite him and suggested McKellen instead. Sean Connery and Christopher Plummer were also approached but declined.
-
Why was the book first published in three volumes?
Answer: To reduce the publisher's financial risk. Typesetting was expensive and sales were expected to be modest. Tolkien saw it as a single work, ideally published with The Silmarillion, and disliked calling it a novel or trilogy. The volumes appeared between July 1954 and October 1955; a single-volume edition only came in 1968.
Source: Wikipedia: The Lord of the Rings
-
In the BBC's 2003 Big Read survey, what was The Lord of the Rings voted?
Answer: The nation's best-loved book. Germany and Australia chose it as their favourite book in similar polls in 2004, and Amazon customers named it the book of the millennium in 1999. It won the International Fantasy Award in 1957 and has sold more than 150 million copies.
Source: Wikipedia: The Lord of the Rings
-
Which Tolkien title did he dislike because he felt it gave away the ending?
Answer: The Return of the King. He deferred to his publisher. He had proposed other titles, such as The War of the Ring, and was unsure which two towers The Two Towers meant, considering several pairs before settling on Minas Morgul and Orthanc.
Source: Wikipedia: The Lord of the Rings
-
To whom did Tolkien send chapters as he wrote them in 1944?
Answer: His son Christopher, serving in the RAF. Tolkien had abandoned the book for most of 1943 and restarted in April 1944 as a serial for Christopher, who was in South Africa with the Royal Air Force. Writing was slow because Tolkien had a full-time academic job and marked exams for extra money.
Source: Wikipedia: The Lord of the Rings
-
Which publisher released an unauthorised US paperback in 1965?
Answer: Ace Books. Ace claimed the book lacked US copyright protection and paid Tolkien no royalties. He told his fans, whose pressure forced Ace to withdraw and make a nominal payment. The authorised Ballantine paperback sold a quarter of a million copies in ten months.
Source: Wikipedia: The Lord of the Rings
-
Tolkien presents himself as the translator of which fictional document?
Answer: The Red Book of Westmarch. It is modelled on the real medieval Red Book of Hergest. In the frame story it is also the source of The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, and English stands in for the "original" language, Westron. Tolkien even wrote a guide to his invented names for translators.
Source: Wikipedia: The Lord of the Rings
-
Which band mentions Gollum and Mordor in "Ramble On"?
Answer: Led Zeppelin. They also referenced the Misty Mountains in "Misty Mountain Hop" and Ringwraiths in "The Battle of Evermore". Earlier, in 1965, Donald Swann set Tolkien's poems to music, and Tolkien himself suggested a plain-chant style for Galadriel's lament.
Source: Wikipedia: The Lord of the Rings
-
About how many musical leitmotifs did Howard Shore write for the trilogy?
Answer: 85 to 110. It is the largest catalogue of leitmotifs in cinema history, more than the whole Star Wars series, with several just for the hobbits and the Shire. For the third film Shore was writing around seven minutes of music a day.
-
Where are Tolkien's 9,250 pages of original manuscripts kept?
Answer: Marquette University. They form part of the J. R. R. Tolkien Collection there. Christopher Tolkien later published the surviving drafts with commentary in volumes six to nine of The History of Middle-earth, between 1988 and 1992.
Source: Wikipedia: The Lord of the Rings
-
Which critic called the book "juvenile trash" in a review titled "Oo, Those Awful Orcs!"?
Answer: Edmund Wilson. Early reviews were sharply split. Poet Edwin Muir mocked the characters as boys who never reach puberty, while Auden, Tolkien's former pupil, called it a masterpiece and C. S. Lewis wrote of "beauties which pierce like swords".
Source: Wikipedia: The Lord of the Rings
-
For what lump sum did Tolkien sell the merchandising rights in 1969?
Answer: £10,000. United Artists also agreed a 7.5 percent royalty after costs. In 1976, three years after Tolkien's death, the rights were sold on to the Saul Zaentz Company, now trading as Tolkien Enterprises, which signs off authorised merchandise.
Source: Wikipedia: The Lord of the Rings
-
What was MASSIVE, which won a Scientific and Engineering Academy Award?
Answer: Software that animated the battle armies. Stephen Regelous designed the autonomous-agent animation system used for the trilogy's battle sequences. Crew members also won a Technical Achievement award for rendering creature skin textures on The Return of the King.
-
The end song "Into the West" was a tribute to whom?
Answer: Cameron Duncan, a young filmmaker. Jackson and Fran Walsh had befriended Duncan, who died of cancer in 2003. Walsh and Philippa Boyens wrote lyrics for the films, which linguist David Salo translated into Tolkien's invented languages.
Lord of The Rings by the numbers
- Book published
- 1954–1955 (three volumes)
- Copies sold
- over 150 million
- Written
- 1937–1949
- Films released
- 2001, 2002, 2003
- Film budget
- $281 million
- Worldwide box office
- over $2.9 billion
- Oscars
- 17 wins from 30 nominations
- Filmed
- New Zealand, 1999–2000
About the Lord of The Rings quiz
The Lord of the Rings has two famous origin stories: a professor writing a sequel to The Hobbit that grew far beyond what he planned, and a New Zealand director making three films at once. Both produced the kind of detail that rewards a quiz, from wartime letters and a pirate paperback to software that animated armies and a record-equalling Oscar haul.
Questions cover the trilogy — the members of the Fellowship, Gollum and the Ring, the realms of Gondor and Rohan, the battles of Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith, and the long journey to Mount Doom.
What this Lord of The Rings quiz covers
The quiz covers both Tolkien's book and Peter Jackson's films. Instead of the usual Middle-earth trivia it looks at how they were made: the Hobbit sequel that grew, the chapters posted to Tolkien's son, the three-volume split, the pirate paperback, the reviews, the casting of Gandalf and Aragorn, the score, the battle software and the Oscar records. Each answer below explains the story behind it and links to the source, the book or the film series article.
How to play
Tap an answer to see the right one straight away, with the story behind it, and check your score at the end. Play Again resets the quiz.
Lord of The Rings quiz — frequently asked questions
Is this about the films or the books?
Both, but mostly about how they were made rather than what happens in them. Each answer says whether its source is the book article or the film series article.
Does it include The Hobbit films?
No. The Hobbit comes up only as the book Tolkien set out to follow. The films covered are Peter Jackson's original trilogy.
Do I need to know Elvish or Middle-earth history?
No. There are no lore questions about names, languages or ages of Middle-earth. Knowing the story's broad outline is plenty.