These question rounds, of 8-10 questions each, are all on the content of the Hobbit. Most are from past Varsity quizzes and are thus arranged by the year they were asked.
This section contains 9 rounds with a total of 78 questions.
2024
1. What does Bilbo promise to fight in the Last Desert if necessary?
2. What date do Bilbo and Gandalf come back to the Last Homely House on their way home?
3. What proportion of the Goblin warriors of the North perished in the Battle of Five Armies?
4. What noise does Bilbo let out upon being told the adventure may be one from which he never returns?
5. What’s the name of the Elven-king's butler?
6. Who leads the goblins at the Battle of Five Armies?
7. How many times do Thorin and Company blunder into the Elven-king's feasts in Mirkwood, trying to ask for aid?
8. What is Bilbo’s personal spider kill-count?
9. Who is an enemy ‘quite beyond the powers of all the dwarves put together’?
10. How high is the secret side door in the Lonely Mountain?
2015
1. What share of the treasure did Bilbo eventually accept as a reward after the successful completion of the quest?
2. Which two swords do the Goblins take such frightful exception to, and what do they call them?
3. How many different colours of hood are represented by the fashion kaleidoscope that is Thorin and Co. at Bag End?
4. What is the very last thing Bilbo does in the Hobbit?
5. What does Bilbo, in one of his less sensible moments, take from Smaug’s hoard on his first foray into the mountain?
6. Gandalf, the quasi-human calendar, reminds Thorin of the exact date of Thrain’s departure. What day and month was it?
7.Which Dwarf’s nose is particularly prominent, fortunately allowing him to breathe a little better when ensnared by the Spiders?
8. What does Bilbo dream of the night he gives away the Arkenstone?
9. Who was Roäc’s father?
10. What instrument does Bombur play?
2014
1. There are many wonders in the Lonely Mountain. For the army of which long-dead king were spears with thrice-forged heads and shafts inlaid with gold made?
2. We usually have a question on the names of chapters. Instead, this time, how many chapters are there in the Hobbit?
3. Slightly less obscure river question: which river flows out of the southern end of the Long Lake, going “away hurriedly to unknown lands”?
4. Which two of the Dwarves are the first to be introduced to Beorn, after Gandalf and Bilbo have gone in?
5. Who is the leader of the Ravens of the Mountain, and performs an invaluable messenger role for Thorin and co.?
6. Who had to cut off most of his beard and why?
7. What's the next line? “Goblets they carved there for themselves...”
8. And another poem question – what's the next line: “The streams shall run in gladness...”
9. What colour is Dwalin's beard?
10. And what does he want to drink?
2013
1. Complete the riddle: It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,/Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt./It lies behind stars and under hills,/And empty holes it fills.
2. Complete the riddle: This thing all things devours:/Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;/Gnaws iron, bites steel;/Grinds hard stones to meal;
3. What is the first thing Thorin is recorded as saying to Bilbo?
4. Who is accused of predicting “anything from floods to poisoned fish”?
5. What colour are Thorin’s stockings?
6. What instrument does Dwalin play?
7. What did Bilbo give to the elvenking?
8. How old is Róac, when he meets the dwarves?
2011
1. Why did Thorin have an arrow on the string when the deer appeared in Mirkwood?
2. What did Bilbo think would happen if he was stung by one of Beorn’s bees?
3. Who arrived first to the Unexpected Party?
4. What is the answer to the second riddle Gollum asks Bilbo?
5. Who was Bilbo’s business manner usually reserved for?
6. Which dwarf does Thorin say is the strongest?
7. Complete the quotation: “So comes snow after fire”
8. What would Bilbo have said was finer than flying?
2010
1. Who said "I did not come for presents.", and to whom?
2. On the map in the Hobbit, what name is given to the Anduin?
3. On the day they met the trolls, what colour stockings was Thorin wearing?
4. When Bilbo is leaving the Lonely Mountain for the last time, when does he say that tea at Bag End is?
5. What is the title of the chapter after On the Doorstep?
6. What forced Bilbo to believe that the unexpected party wasn't a bad dream?
7. Complete the sentence: You are more worthy to wear the armour of elf-princes than
8. During the Unexpected Party, when Thorin explains the dwarves' plan to retrieve their gold, when does he say the trouble would begin?
2009
1. What was the name of Pippin’s father?
2. What was the largest town in the Shire?
3. In The Hobbit, what is said to be the bravest thing that Bilbo ever did?
4. Who is said in The Hobbit to be crowned with gold?
5. Who was the last Lord of Dale before the dragon came?
6. Tolkien lists three kinds of machine, and says that hobbits do not like machines any more complicated than these. What are they?
7. What colour was Dwalin’s hood?
8. What is the last thing Gandalf says while he is impersonating the trolls?
2007
1. How many emeralds were there in Girion’s necklace?
2. What did Gandalf eat in Beorn’s house?
3. What colour was the handkerchief that Bilbo borrowed from Elrond?
4. Complete the sentence: “The day will come when they will perish”
5. What colour were Beorn’s ponies?
6. What chapter comes between Riddles in the Dark and Queer Lodgings?
7. Which hobbit was nicknamed ‘Scattergold’?
8. What is said to be the only craft little-practised among hobbits?
2005
1. Not counting riddles, how many poems and songs are in The Hobbit?
2. Who lit the fire at Beorn’s House? (be specific)?
3. When the Shire was founded, what did the king demand of the hobbits (other than to acknowledge his lordship)?
4. What are Bilbo’s last words in his conversation with Smaug?
5. What type of crown (or crowns) does the Elven King wear?
6. What did Thorin suggest should happen to Gandalf when he cursed the wizard for the choice of Bilbo?
7. What does the Elvenking wish for Bilbo at their parting?
8. What was the plan of battle that the Elvenking, Bard, and Dain made for the battle of the five armies?