99 Fun Facts About The Fellowship of the Ring

Which birthday does Bilbo celebrate before leaving the Shire at the start of The Fellowship of the Ring?

111th. Hobbits call it his eleventy-first, and he ends his birthday speech by slipping on the Ring and vanishing in front of his guests.

Frodo's cover story for leaving Bag End is a move to a little house at which place?

Crickhollow. Frodo really does buy the house, over the river in Buckland, and it is there that his friends reveal they have known about the Ring all along.

In Tolkien's book, what drives off the Black Rider stalking Frodo's party in the Shire woods?

The singing of passing Elves. Their leader, Gildor, then takes the three hobbits in for the night, the first of many rescues by strangers on the road.

Which farmer drives Frodo and his friends to Bucklebury Ferry in The Fellowship of the Ring?

Maggot. Frodo has been afraid of him since boyhood, when the farmer set his dogs on him for stealing mushrooms, but he turns out to be a staunch friend.

Which ancient tree-spirit traps Merry and Pippin in the forest on the edge of Buckland?

Old Man Willow. Tolkien lifted him from a poem he had published twenty years earlier, in which the same willow sings its victim to sleep and shuts him in a crack.

In The Fellowship of the Ring, what do the hobbits carry away from the barrow-wight's hoard?

Ancient swords. Merry's proves decisive two volumes later: made long ago for war against the Witch-king, it is the blade that breaks the spell protecting him.

In which village do the hobbits first meet the Ranger called Strider?

Bree. At the inn there Frodo slips, the Ring finds its way onto his finger, and he vanishes in front of a crowded common room.

On which hill do the Black Riders attack Frodo's party and wound him with a cursed blade?

Weathertop. The Riders strike at night in a hollow below the summit, and though they are driven off, the wound leaves Frodo close to death by the time help arrives.

Which herb does Strider use to treat Frodo's wound in The Fellowship of the Ring?

Athelas. In Gondor it is known only as kingsfoil, a weed kept for its scent, yet it heals best in the hands of a rightful king, which is what Strider turns out to be.

In Tolkien's book, which Elf sets the wounded Frodo on a white horse for the final dash to safety?

Glorfindel. The film gives the rescue to Arwen, who rides with Frodo; in the book the Elf stays behind and Frodo crosses the ford alone on the horse.

Strider is revealed as heir of which man, who cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand?

Isildur. Urged to destroy the Ring on the spot, he kept it instead as payment for his father's death, and it was lost when he was killed.

Which member of the Fellowship is the son of the Steward of Gondor?

Boromir. At the journey's end he tries to take the Ring from Frodo by force, repents at once, and dies trying to save Merry and Pippin from capture.

Which mountain's snows turn the Fellowship back and force them to go through Moria instead?

Caradhras. The Dwarves called it the Cruel long before, and in the book the blizzard that beats the company seems to come from the mountain's own ill will.

Which of Bilbo's old companions led the Dwarf colony found dead in Moria?

Balin. Of all the dwarves he had grown fondest of Bilbo and once came back to visit him in the Shire; in Moria the Fellowship finds only his tomb.

By what name is the Balrog of Moria also known?

Durin's Bane. The Dwarves woke it by mining too deep for mithril, and it killed their king, Durin, and drove his people out of Moria.

In which Elven forest does the Fellowship take refuge after Moria?

Lothlórien. Time seems to stand still under its golden trees: the travellers stay a month and come away unsure how many days have really passed.

Which Elf-lord, husband of the Lady of the Golden Wood, gives the Fellowship boats?

Celeborn. With the boats comes his advice about the river ahead, and they carry the company down the Anduin to the place where it finally splits.

What is the Elvish waybread given to the Fellowship called?

Lembas. The cakes keep sweet for many days wrapped in their leaves, yet creatures of evil cannot bear them: Gollum refuses outright to eat one.

At which hill, reached by boat down the Anduin, does the Fellowship break apart?

Amon Hen. The name means Hill of Sight: on its summit stands an ancient stone seat, and Frodo, wearing the Ring, sits there and sees visions of lands far away.

Which early chapter, where Gandalf tells Frodo what his ring really is, did Tolkien call 'the crucial chapter'?

The Shadow of the Past. It turns a sequel about hobbit parties into a quest: here Frodo, and the reader, first learn that the Ring must be destroyed.

How does Gandalf prove to Frodo that Bilbo's old ring is the One Ring?

He throws it into the fire. The heat brings out a line of fiery letters on the plain gold band, the verse about one Ring to rule them all.

The critic Edmund Wilson's 1956 attack on The Lord of the Rings ran under the headline 'Oo, Those Awful' what?

Orcs. Wilson called it a children's book that had got out of hand, and said its admirers had 'a lifelong appetite for juvenile trash'.

Which poet's New York Times review of The Fellowship of the Ring was headed 'The Hero Is a Hobbit'?

W. H. Auden. Tolkien later said he was deeply in the poet's debt: Auden had praised the book from the first, when that was 'by no means a popular thing to do'.

Which title did Tolkien propose for Book One, the opening half of The Fellowship of the Ring?

The Ring Sets Out. Tolkien wanted one novel in six titled books; his publisher, wary of the cost, split it into three volumes with new names.

Which stopping place on Frodo's road east is known as the Last Homely House?

Rivendell. Elrond's house earned the name as the last place of comfort for travellers heading east into the wild, and it is where the quest to destroy the Ring begins.

Which habit, says the prologue to The Fellowship of the Ring, did hobbits give the wider world?

Smoking pipe-weed. Hobbits were the first to put the leaf in a pipe, and from one crossroads inn the habit spread to Men, Dwarves and Wizards.

Tolkien hoped to publish The Lord of the Rings together with which of his other works?

The Silmarillion. His publisher would not take the pair, so the older legends waited until after his death, when his son Christopher edited them for print.

Which character from the book of The Fellowship of the Ring never appears in the 2001 film?

Tom Bombadil. The 1978 animated film and the BBC's 1981 radio serial had cut him too; this film's makers wanted nothing that strayed from Frodo and the Ring.

Who directed the 2001 film of The Fellowship of the Ring?

Peter Jackson. He insisted on shooting all three films at once in his native New Zealand, arguing that the tale had to be filmed as one big story.

Which studio financed and distributed the 2001 film of The Fellowship of the Ring?

New Line Cinema. Miramax wanted the story squeezed into one film and gave the director three weeks to find another backer; New Line's boss asked for three films, not two.

Which film beat The Fellowship of the Ring to Best Picture?

A Beautiful Mind. The fantasy went home with four awards, and the trilogy had to wait two more years, for its final film, to win the top prize.

Which of these Oscars did The Fellowship of the Ring win in 2002?

Best Cinematography. Andrew Lesnie had never met the director, who hired him purely on the strength of how he had shot the talking-pig film Babe.

Which Fellowship of the Ring actor won his part with a homemade audition tape in hobbit costume?

Elijah Wood. Dreading a normal audition, he hired a voice coach, filmed himself in a Los Angeles park and posted the tape; more than 150 actors were seen for Frodo.

Which future star flunked an audition for Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring by not using an English accent?

Jake Gyllenhaal. By his own account nobody had told him an accent was needed; the director called him the worst actor he had ever seen and told him to fire his agents.

Which screen legend turned down Gandalf, reportedly because he could not follow The Lord of the Rings?

Sean Connery. A producer recalled that he read the material and 'just didn't get it', so the part passed to Ian McKellen, who earned an Oscar nomination for it.

Ian McKellen nearly lost the part of Gandalf because its dates clashed with which other film?

X-Men. McKellen had actually pulled out of playing the wizard before the superhero film's director agreed to release him early if the hobbit shoot could wait two months.

Which member of the cast of the Lord of the Rings films was the only one to have met Tolkien?

Christopher Lee. He ran into the author by chance in an Oxford pub in the 1950s, was struck almost speechless, and went on rereading the novel every year.

What did eight of the nine actors who played the Fellowship have done to mark the shoot?

Matching tattoos. Each shows the Elvish for nine; John Rhys-Davies, who played Gimli, declined and sent his stunt double to be inked in his place.

Which actor replaced Stuart Townsend as Aragorn at the last minute on The Lord of the Rings?

Viggo Mortensen. His predecessor had trained with the cast all through pre-production before the director decided that he was too young.

Which actor played Bilbo in the 2001 film of The Fellowship of the Ring, having voiced Frodo on BBC radio?

Ian Holm. The director remembered his Frodo from the radio serial, so the actor ended up handing the Ring on to the very part he had once played.

Orlando Bloom originally auditioned for which role before being cast as Legolas?

Faramir. The part does not arrive until the second film and went to David Wenham; the casting team rang Bloom back and asked for a tape as the Elf instead.

Who composed the score for the 2001 film of The Fellowship of the Ring?

Howard Shore. He came to Middle-earth from the dark thrillers of David Cronenberg and Seven with no epic to his name, and the score won him his first Oscar.

The village of Hobbiton was built for the films on a sheep farm near which New Zealand town?

Matamata. The film-makers spotted the working farm from the air, and guided tours of the hobbit holes they left behind have run there ever since.

The Fellowship of the Ring was the best-selling DVD ever until it was overtaken by which film?

Finding Nemo. The hobbits' record was set by the plain cinema cut alone; fans then bought the film again when a longer extended edition followed three months later.

In the 2001 film of The Fellowship of the Ring, which two words does Gollum give up under torture?

'Shire' and 'Baggins'. With those two words Sauron knows where to look, and his nine Black Riders set out to hunt for a hobbit of that name.

In the 2001 film of The Fellowship of the Ring, whose storm drives the company off the mountain and into Moria?

Saruman. In the book the mountain itself seems to bear the travellers ill will; the film gives the blizzard a villain, whose chanting voice the company hears on the wind.

Which Enya song, written for The Fellowship of the Ring, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song?

May It Be. Part of its lyric is in Quenya, Tolkien's High-elven tongue; Enya sang it at the ceremony, where it lost to a song from Monsters, Inc.

Which Elvish word, meaning 'friend', opens the doors of Moria?

Mellon. The inscription says 'Speak, friend, and enter', and in the book Gandalf wastes spell after spell before seeing that the password was written there all along.

Who named The Fellowship of the Ring to the National Film Registry?

Library of Congress. It adds 25 films a year for their cultural, historic or aesthetic importance, and said public nominations had backed this one strongly.

Which camera trick makes Gandalf loom over Frodo in the 2001 film of The Fellowship of the Ring?

Forced perspective placed the actors several feet apart in depth, so the one nearer the lens looked far bigger. For moving shots, parts of the set rode on platforms that shifted in step with the camera.

What job does Sam Gamgee hold at Bag End before joining Frodo on the quest of the One Ring?

Gardener is a post Sam inherited from his father, the Gaffer, who had tended the same garden for Bilbo.

Which Elvish blade, a gift from Bilbo, glows blue to warn Frodo that enemies are close in Moria?

Sting is really a large Elvish dagger, which serves a hobbit well as a full-sized weapon. Bilbo named it after fighting off giant spiders in The Hobbit.

Which silvery Dwarf metal forms the mail shirt that saves Frodo from a spear thrust in Moria?

Mithril is described as stronger and lighter than steel, and the shirt lay in the dragon Smaug's hoard before Thorin gave it to Bilbo.

Which Australian actress plays the Elf-queen Galadriel in the 2001 film of The Fellowship of the Ring?

Cate Blanchett landed the role that Lucy Lawless, television's Xena, had turned down because she was pregnant.

Elrond's council decides the One Ring can be unmade only in which volcano in the land of Mordor?

Mount Doom is where the Ring was forged, and in the films two real New Zealand volcanoes, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu, stood in for it.

At which inn, kept by Barliman Butterbur, does the One Ring slip onto Frodo's finger in front of a crowd?

The Prancing Pony is where Frodo travels as Mr Underhill, and where Strider keeps the hobbits out of their own beds on the night their room is raided.

Which franchise's first film was the only 2001 release to outgross The Fellowship of the Ring?

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone claimed the 2001 crown, leaving Tolkien's hobbits second for the year and, at the time, fifth on the all-time list.

The 2001 film of The Fellowship of the Ring brings forward a death from the start of which Tolkien book?

The Two Towers opens in print with the Uruk-hai ambush, which the filmmakers moved so that the first film would have a climax.

At which English university was Tolkien a professor throughout the writing of The Lord of the Rings?

Oxford employed Tolkien as a professor from 1925 until he retired in 1959. His first job after the First World War had been on the Oxford English Dictionary, researching words beginning with W.

Which Elf, played by Liv Tyler, rides the wounded Frodo to safety in the first Lord of the Rings film?

Arwen takes over a rescue that the book gives to a male Elf-lord, and in the film she also calls up the river flood that sweeps the Black Riders away.

How does Gandalf escape after being held prisoner on the pinnacle of Orthanc at Isengard?

On an eagle's back: Gwaihir the Windlord came to Isengard carrying news, found Gandalf stranded on the roof and flew him away.

By what name was Gollum known before the One Ring corrupted him, in the tale Gandalf tells Frodo?

Sméagol got the Ring by murdering his kinsman Déagol, who had just found it in the River Anduin.

Which title does Bilbo think of giving the memoirs of his adventure with Gandalf and the Dwarves?

There and Back Again is also the subtitle Tolkien gave The Hobbit itself, and Bilbo thought of adding the words 'A Hobbit's Holiday' to it.

Which studio developed the Lord of the Rings films as a two-part project, then pressed for a single film?

Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein threatened to hand the project to Quentin Tarantino before agreeing to let it go to another backer.

Which film alone ranks above The Fellowship of the Ring in the American Film Institute's fantasy top ten?

The Wizard of Oz came first when the institute polled more than 1,500 people from the film world in 2008, with It's a Wonderful Life third.

Which city hosted the world premiere of the first Lord of the Rings film, nine days before release?

London hosted the premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square, half a world away from the New Zealand locations where the film was shot.

Which parting gift does Sam Gamgee receive from Galadriel in Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring?

A box of earth from her garden, holding one seed of the Elvish mallorn tree, later lets Sam replant the trees destroyed at home while he was away.

What does Gimli the Dwarf ask of Galadriel as a parting gift when the Fellowship leaves her realm?

A strand of her hair was all he dared wish for, and Galadriel gave him three, a favour she had once refused to her own uncle, the great craftsman Fëanor.

Which leader of the Black Riders stabs Frodo with a cursed knife in The Fellowship of the Ring?

The Witch-king of Angmar strikes with a Morgul-knife, whose wound threatens to turn its victim into a wraith under his command.

Which language is used for the hidden inscription on the One Ring?

Black Speech was devised by Sauron for his servants, though the Ring's letters are Elvish, and when Gandalf recites the words at Elrond's council everyone present trembles.

Which fellow Istar, a friend of birds and beasts, unwittingly sends Gandalf into a trap at Isengard?

Radagast then helps undo the harm without knowing it, by sending word of the enemy's movements to Isengard, which is how the captive Gandalf comes to be found.

Which creature seizes Frodo by the ankle outside the western gate of Moria?

The Watcher in the Water grabs him with a pale-green tentacle, then slams the gate shut behind the company so that there is no way back.

Gandalf falls with the Balrog from the bridge of which realm, the Dwarves' own name for Moria?

Khazad-dûm recalls the city's days of glory, while 'Moria' is an Elvish name meaning the Black Pit, apt for halls whose lamps went out when the Dwarves fled.

In Tolkien's book, what new name does Aragorn give Elendil's reforged blade before the Fellowship sets out?

Andúril means Flame of the West, and the blade had lain in two pieces ever since it broke in the war against Sauron an age earlier.

Which pair of giant kingly statues does the Fellowship pass by boat at Gondor's old northern border?

The Argonath stood as a warning to trespassers entering Gondor, and the film's versions were designed by the Tolkien illustrator John Howe.

Legolas comes to Elrond's council as a messenger from which forest realm, ruled by his father Thranduil?

Mirkwood had been holding Gollum captive, and Legolas is sent to confess that the creature has slipped away from his people's guard.

Aragorn is chieftain of which people, the Rangers who guard the North in The Fellowship of the Ring?

The Dúnedain are the last heirs of the lost northern kingdom of Arnor, and Aragorn is the sixteenth chieftain in a succession that kept its royal blood alive for over a thousand years.

By which colour is Gandalf known throughout The Fellowship of the Ring, as one of the Istari?

Grey was the guise Ian McKellen preferred: he enjoyed playing this Gandalf more than the transformed figure of the two later films.

What is the family name of Pippin, the youngest of the four hobbits in the Fellowship of the Ring?

Took is the surname of Peregrin, to give Pippin his full first name, and he is the only one of the four who has not yet come of age.

Which fellow Inkling of Tolkien praised The Fellowship of the Ring in the magazine Time and Tide?

C. S. Lewis had earlier joined Tolkien's publisher in telling him to cut back the hobbits' endless chatter in the opening chapters.

Frodo calls Bilbo his uncle, but which relation are the two hobbits in The Fellowship of the Ring?

Cousins twice over, in fact: Tolkien's family trees make them first and second cousins once removed, and Bilbo adopted the orphaned Frodo as his heir.

Which animator directed a 1978 film of The Lord of the Rings that stops partway through the story?

Ralph Bakshi traced much of the film over live-action footage, and no official sequel was ever made to finish the tale.

Which Wellington company made the armour, weapons and creatures for the Lord of the Rings films?

Weta Workshop had cut its teeth making creatures and makeup effects for the television series Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess.

Which British publisher released The Fellowship of the Ring in 1954, having earlier published The Hobbit?

Allen & Unwin accepted The Hobbit after the founder's ten-year-old son, paid a shilling a report as a test reader, judged it good enough to print.

Which opening chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring echoes the first chapter title of The Hobbit?

A Long-expected Party mirrors 'An Unexpected Party', the chapter that opens The Hobbit, and Tolkien found that the idea for it arrived fully formed.

On which date does the Fellowship of the Ring leave Elrond's house to begin its quest?

25 December was deliberate: the quest begins on Christmas Day and ends on 25 March, a traditional date of the Crucifixion.

Which British comic actor read for Sam Gamgee in The Fellowship of the Ring before an American won the part?

James Corden was one of several unlikely hopefuls who read for the hobbit: the chat-show host Graham Norton was another.

A preview trailer for The Fellowship of the Ring broke a download record held by which Star Wars film?

The Phantom Menace was overtaken in April 2000, when the featurette was downloaded more than 1.7 million times in its first 24 hours online.

Which of the Three Elven Rings is worn in secret by Galadriel, who uses it to preserve her realm?

Nenya, also called the Ring of Adamant, was entrusted to her by its maker Celebrimbor to keep it out of Sauron's hands.

Which word do Tolkien's hobbits use for an old, useless object that nobody is willing to discard?

Mathom gifts are handed on as presents many times over, sometimes ending up back with their first owner or in a museum called the mathom-house.

Which American paperback house issued an unauthorised Lord of the Rings in 1965 without paying Tolkien?

Ace Books argued that the novel had no American copyright, but pressure from Tolkien's fans grew so great that the firm withdrew its edition and paid him.

Which Tolkien illustrator worked beside John Howe as chief concept designer of the Lord of the Rings films?

Alan Lee drew places such as Isengard and Moria for the art department, giving Art Nouveau curves to Elven buildings and hard geometry to Dwarven ones.

Which great waterfall on the Anduin stops the Fellowship's boats just below the lawn of Parth Galen?

Rauros cannot be passed by boat, and it is over these falls that the company's one fallen member is later sent in a funeral boat.

Galadriel's parting gift to Frodo is a phial holding the light of which star, named after a mariner?

Eärendil sails the sky in his ship Vingilot carrying a Silmaril, so the phial holds a trace of the light of the Two Trees, which shone before the Sun and Moon existed.

Which former Doctor Who star was kept waiting six months as a possible Bilbo for The Fellowship of the Ring?

Sylvester McCoy lost out in the end, but the same director cast him as a wizard in the Hobbit films years later.

Which Uruk-hai captain, invented for the 2001 film of The Fellowship of the Ring, is cut down by Aragorn?

Lurtz is shown as the first Uruk-hai bred at Isengard, and Aragorn severs his arm and runs him through after he shoots down one of the company.

How did Frodo's parents die when he was twelve, leaving him to be raised among the Brandybucks?

A boating accident killed Drogo and Primula together, and Frodo spent the next nine years at Brandy Hall before Bilbo adopted him.

By which name do Elvish speakers such as Galadriel's people refer to Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings?

Mithrandir stays in use among Elvish speakers even after Gandalf rises in rank later in the story, when others start calling him the White Rider.

In Tolkien's book, which river rises in flood at Elrond's command to sweep the Black Riders from its ford?

The Bruinen runs through the narrow gorge that hides Elrond's home, and its ford is one of the main approaches to the valley.