These question rounds, of 8-10 questions each, are all on the content of the Lord of the Rings. Most are from past Varsity quizzes and are thus arranged by the year they were asked.
This section contains 15 rounds, with a total of 128 questions.
2025
1. Who lives in Number 2 Bagshot Row?
2. Who lives in Number 4 Bagshot Row?
3. What drink is in the cup of parting that the Fellowship drink with Galadriel and Celeborn when they leave Lórien?
4. What did Pippin drink when he met Denethor?
5. Who leads the Anfalas contingent that comes to reinforce Minas Tirith?
6. Who leads the men of Ringló Vale that come to reinforce Minas Tirith?
7. When did Celebrían pass over Sea?
8. When did Sam pass over Sea?
9. How does Sam describe the industry of the Dwarves of Moria?
10. How much is Frodo’s mithril vest worth?
2024
1. What’s the name of Tom Bombadil’s pony?
2. What’s the name of Merry’s pony that he rides from Dunharrow?
3. Which flowers grow in the fields of Lebennin according to Legolas?
4. What does Frodo hear upon Cerin Amroth?
5. How many of the slain are named in the Song of the Mounds of Mundburg?
6. How many things does the poet ask the location of in the poem Aragorn recites as he arrives at Edoras?
7. Which Ent suffers nasty burns at Isengard?
8. Which ranger plays the chief part in capturing Gollum in Ithilien?
9. What does the cock crowing in Minas Tirith not reck of?
10. Which three people lead the front three eoreds of the Rohirrim in their assault on the army besieging Minas Tirith?
2015
1. Which prince of Rohan was slain when he inadvisably, and against all counsel, adventured the Paths of the Dead?
2. How many useless Ringwraiths participated in the attack on Weathertop?
3. Which other two, less famous, Eagles accompanied Gwaihir to rescue Frodo and Sam from the slopes of Mt Doom?
4. Which Steward, ruling in the absence of a King, recommended the rejection of Arvedui’s claim to the Throne of Gondor, messing up the 3rd Age?
5. What gift did Galadriel give to Sam?
6. Where did that rascally alcoholic, Pippin, say had the best beer in the Eastfarthing?
7. What was Sam’s mother’s (maiden) name?
8. Who is the first very dead dwarf mentioned in Gandalf’s reading from the Book of Mazarbul?
9. How far was it to Wellinghall from where Treebeard first met Merry and Pippin?
10. Who is being described: “Very tall he was, and his beard was long, and he was grey and old, save that his eyes were keen as stars”?
2014
1. Which river marks the border between the Rohirric region of Eastfold and the Gondorian province of Anorien?
2. The accession of which king of Gondor marked the start of the Kin-strife, the second great evil to befall Gondor, owing to his half-blood nature?
3. Who, according to Treebeard, are the only two other Ents who “walked in the woods before the Darkness” that are still alive?
4. Where are Frodo and Sam initially brought and reunited with the rest of the Fellowship after the destruction of the Ring?
5. The death of which of the many Durins caused the Balrog to be named “Durin’s Bane”?
6. What is the entry Treebeard eventually puts into the List for Hobbits?
7. And another one: What is the next line? “Ere iron was found or tree was hewn...”?
8. What is the fifth chapter of RotK?
9. In what year did Sam and Rosie marry?
10. What is the name of the seer whose words Aragorn is told to remember?
2013
1. Who “did not seek glory in danger without a purpose”?
2. Who is “oldest and fatherless”?
3. In Gandalf’s letter, he warns Frodo not to do two things. One is not to use the ring; what is the other?
4. Who lay on the ground and stuffed their cloaks into their ears, and why?
5. Who is called “flourdumpling”?
6. For how many consecutive terms was Sam Gamgee elected Mayor?
7. When Bilbo vanishes, Rory Brandybuck tells his daughter-in-law not to worry. What reason does he give?
8. What year was on the barrels of pipeweed that Pippin discovered at Isengard?
2013 (2)
1. What made a “hiss like a hundred hot snakes”?
2. How many orcs did Gimli kill at Helm’s Deep?
3. What is the first line of Malbeth’s prophecy?
4. What line follows: “There long the golden leaves have grown upon the branching years”
5. In what year did Legolas and Gimli sail West?
6. How long was the Bridge of Khazad-dûm?
7. What was Arwen wearing when she first met Aragorn?
8. Who suggests to whom that he should put on his thinking cap?
2011
1. Who was “not much more at ease than Sam Gamgee in a boat”, and why?
2. What is the name of Glorfindel’s horse?
3. What made this sound? “a noise like the snick of a lock when a door quietly closes fast.”
4. What is described as follows? “like a spider whose descending thread is snapped.”
5. How did Pippin describe Théoden in two sentences?
6. How far is it from the Bucklebury Ferry to the Brandywine Bridge?
7. What is the next line? “When winter first begins to bite...”
8. What is the next line? “And long ago they passed away...”
2011 (2)
1. What were Boromir’s last words?
2. What does Gandalf think would happen if Tom Bombadil had the Ring?
3. Identify the quotation: “Happy was the chance that drove me there!”
4. What story did Pippin tell to entertain the crowd in the Prancing Pony?
5. Who danced the Springle-ring at Bilbo’s party?
6. What is the first sentence of The Two Towers?
7. On which level is the Chamber of Mazarbul?
8. Where was Forlong the Fat lord?
2010
1. What is being described here? "Then there was a long trailing shriek, fading away into an unguessable distance; and after that silence."
2. What is being closed here? "It shut with a clang, and the lock clicked. The sound was ominous."
3. What is the last sentence of the last chapter of The Two Towers?
4. What is the first sentence of the first chapter of The Return of the King?
5. What gift did Bilbo leave for Adelard Took, and why?
6. What was Frodo's chief part in the Battle of Bywater?
7. What is the next line? "Ere iron was found or tree was hewn..."
8. What is the next line? "Cold be hand and heart and bone..."
2009
1. When Sam and Frodo first spend the night in Gollum’s company, how does Sam test whether Gollum is asleep?
2. Where is the word ‘Elbereth’ used as a password?
3. After Frodo took ship into the West from the Grey Havens, “the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.” He had previously dreamed about this. Where did he have the dream?
4. For what type of tree does Quickbeam sing a lament?
5. When Aragorn asks: “Oathbreakers, why have ye come?”, what is the reply?
6. What is the title of the first chapter of Book VI of The Lord of the Rings?
7. What was the date on which the fellowship left Rivendell?
8. At Bilbo’s party, there were presents for all and sundry. Who were the latter?
2009 (2)
1. The Argonath were made in whose likenesses?
2. What was the name of Glorfindel’s horse?
3. What was needed to see the symbols on the West-gate of Moria?
4. What was Gandalf’s name among the dwarves?
5. On different occasions, two different adjectives are put beside the name of Forlong of Lossarnach. What are they?
6. Who said “I should not shout, if I were you. It does more harm than good.”, and where?
7. Complete the verse: When winter first begins to bite/and stones crack in the frosty night,/when pools are black and trees are bare,...
8. What is the name of the lay which begins with the words “Gil-galad was an Elven-king”?
2007
1. Whose head was “founded of black steel”?
2. What is the White Face?
3. What was the name of the pony Théoden gave to Merry?
4. What was on the sheath for Andúril that Galadriel gave to Aragorn? (apart from the leaves and the flowers)?
5. What was the oldest man-made thing still extant at the end of the Third Age?
6. What was the name of the elf who asked Bilbo to sing his song for the second time?
7. What were the three herbs that Sam asked Gollum to fetch?
8. What was the name of the horse Éomer gave to Legolas?
2007 (2)
1. Which guards had three heads each?
2. What was the string of Legolas’s new bow made of?
3. Name at least one species of flower that grows in the fields of Lebennin?
4. What was the crown that Arwen embroidered on Aragorn’s banner made of?
5. Who had his enemy’s purse stuck down his throat?
6. Who “had a collar of silver in which a single white stone was set”?
7. What was the name of the man who was in charge of the storehouse in the Third Company of the Guards of the Citadel?
8. Who was the king of Gondor at the time when the crown which was later used at Aragorn’s coronation was made?
2005
1. Name the date of the following events: Frodo captured at Cirith Ungol; the Pelennor is overrun; Aragorn captures the corsair fleet
2. What is the first date the Periannath are mentioned in the annals?
3. Which character in The Lord of the Rings bites his or her nails?
4. What did Bilbo give to Dora Baggins?
5. Please complete the verse: “When dawn came dim the land was lost, / The mountains sinking grey / Beyond the heaving waves that tossed ...”
6. Write at least eleven hobbit families mentioned as present in the tree pavilion at the Long-Expected Party.
7. Where was the boar of Everholt hunted?
8. What is the name of the wood which stands on the peninsula immediately to the south of the mouth of the Brandywine?
2005 (2)
1. On what day of the week was Bilbo’s party?
2. Where is the Closed Door?
3. What does Strider describe as “a mighty matter of legend”?
4. How does Ghân-buri-Ghân describe the number‘six thousand’?
5. What was the name of Theoden’s minstrel?
6. What is another name for the Silent Street?
7. In The Return of the King, who was clad in ragged brown and armed with a bow of horn?
8. How long was Sam’s rope?