137 Fun Facts About Lord of the Rings

Which author penned the epic fantasy novel 'The Lord of the Rings'?

J.R.R. Tolkien's sequel grew far beyond The Hobbit, drawing on his philology and his experience of the First World War.

To which race does Frodo Baggins, who carries the One Ring to Mount Doom, belong?

Frodo Baggins is a Hobbit; he inherits the Ring and Bilbo's hobbit-hole from his cousin Bilbo, whom he calls uncle, after Bilbo's farewell party.

Which land of Sauron's holds Mount Doom, the volcano where the One Ring was forged?

Mordor's Mount Doom, Orodruin in Sindarin, is where the Ring was forged and finally destroyed.

Which director helmed the critically acclaimed film trilogy adaptation of 'The Lord of the Rings'?

Peter Jackson directed all three films in 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy, earning widespread critical acclaim and numerous awards.

Which woodland Elven realm between the Misty Mountains and the Anduin is ruled by Galadriel and Celeborn?

Lothlórien's wood-elves are the Galadhrim; Galadriel used one of the Three Elven Rings to hide the realm from Sauron's sight, and Frodo saw her Mirror there.

What is the name of the wizard who initially sends Frodo on his quest to destroy the One Ring?

Gandalf, one of the Istari, bears one of the Three Elven Rings; after the fire-revealed inscription confirms the Ring's nature, he sends Frodo east on the road with Sam.

How many members were originally in the Fellowship of the Ring?

Elrond chose the number deliberately so that the Nine Walkers would be set against the nine Black Riders.

In what year was the first volume of 'The Lord of the Rings' published?

The first volume, 'The Fellowship of the Ring', was published on July 29, 1954, though Tolkien intended the work as a single volume.

What is the name of Aragorn's sword, which was reforged from the shards of Narsil?

Andúril, the Flame of the West, was reforged in Rivendell from Narsil's shards; its blade bears seven stars set between a crescent moon and a rayed sun.

Which race is Legolas Greenleaf a member of?

Legolas is an Elf of the Woodland Realm in northern Mirkwood, a Sindarin prince who came to Rivendell as a messenger from his father's court.

What is the name of the ancient, tree-like beings who are 'shepherds of the forest'?

The Ents are the shepherds of the trees; Gandalf calls their eldest the oldest living thing that still walks beneath the Sun, and the tree-like Huorns are their kin.

What is the name of the giant spider that attacks Frodo and Sam near Mordor?

Shelob, a descendant of Ungoliant, dwells in the pass of Cirith Ungol, and Gollum apparently worshipped her.

Which Elven smith, manipulated by Sauron, forged the Rings of Power?

Celebrimbor, lord of the smiths of Eregion, forged the Rings of Power under the guidance of Sauron, who came in fair disguise; Sauron then secretly forged the One Ring to rule the rest.

What is the name of the region where the Hobbits primarily reside?

The Shire lies in Eriador in north-west Middle-earth, within the old Kingdom of Arnor; King Argeleb II granted it to the Hobbits in Third Age 1601.

Which actor played Frodo Baggins in the film trilogy?

Wood was the first actor cast, in July 1999, after sending in an audition tape dressed as Frodo.

What is Frodo's loyal companion Sam's job before the quest?

Sam was Bilbo's and then Frodo's gardener, taking over from his father Hamfast, the Gaffer, who tended the garden before him.

The One Ring grants its mortal wearer what power?

Even so, when Sam wore it on the edge of Mordor he felt horribly visible, aware that an Eye was searching for him.

Which creature calls the Ring 'my precious' and guides Frodo and Sam toward the Black Land?

Gollum was born Sméagol, a river-hobbit; his family named him Gollum for the horrible swallowing noise he made in his throat, and he kept the Ring for nearly five centuries.

In which country was the entire film trilogy shot?

All three films were shot back-to-back in New Zealand, Peter Jackson's home country, over 438 days of principal photography run as a single production.

What is Bilbo's home in Hobbiton called?

Bag End takes its name from the Worcestershire farm of Tolkien's aunt Jane Neave, which sat at the end of a lane with no exit, a cul-de-sac.

Which birthday is Bilbo celebrating at the party that opens the story?

111th, which hobbits call 'eleventy-one'; the party comes 60 years after the events of The Hobbit.

At which fortress does Rohan make its stand against Saruman's Uruk-hai?

Rohan holds the Hornburg at Helm's Deep against Saruman's Uruk-hai; the film's Helm's Deep set, built in Dry Creek Quarry, was later rebuilt on the same site as Minas Tirith.

The Return of the King won how many Academy Awards, a total that tied the all-time record?

The Return of the King won 11 Academy Awards in February 2004, a clean sweep of its 11 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Which two earlier films share the record for most Oscar wins with The Return of the King?

Ben-Hur and Titanic also finished with 11 statuettes; The Return of the King is the only one of the three never nominated for an acting award.

Who composed the score for all three films?

Howard Shore composed all three scores, recorded mainly with the London Philharmonic at Watford Town Hall and mixed at Abbey Road; Peter Jackson struck a single gong on the second film.

Which singer performed 'May It Be', the end-title song of The Fellowship of the Ring?

Enya sang 'May It Be', written with Nicky and Roma Ryan, and it earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song; she also wrote and sang 'Aníron', the Aragorn and Arwen theme.

Who sang 'Into the West', the closing song of The Return of the King, and shared its Oscar?

Annie Lennox, formerly of Eurythmics, shared the songwriting credit with Howard Shore and Fran Walsh, and the song won the Oscar for Best Original Song.

Which actor gave the motion-capture performance behind the Ring's wretched former bearer, Sméagol?

Andy Serkis went on to play King Kong, Caesar in the Planet of the Apes reboots and Supreme Leader Snoke.

Which actor, who had hoped to play Gandalf, was cast as Saruman instead?

Christopher Lee was the only cast member who had actually met Tolkien, and he ended up playing the corrupt head of the wizards instead.

Which actor was first cast as Aragorn, then dropped as too young and replaced by Viggo Mortensen?

Stuart Townsend, then 26, was dropped just before filming began; Viggo Mortensen read the book on the flight over, took a crash course in fencing and was filming on Weathertop almost at once.

Which character did Ian Holm, the films' Bilbo, voice in the 1981 BBC radio adaptation?

Ian Holm voiced Frodo in the BBC's 1981 radio serial; Jackson remembered that performance when casting Bilbo, while Sylvester McCoy was held in reserve for the part for six months.

Who kills the Witch-king of Angmar, Lord of the Nazgûl, at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields?

Éowyn rode to battle disguised as a man, and Merry's stab behind the knee gave her the opening.

What alias does the shieldmaiden of Rohan use when she rides to war disguised as a man?

The name comes from Old English 'dern', meaning secret or concealed; Windfola is the horse she rides.

How does the King of Rohan die at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields?

The King of Rohan was crushed by his own fallen horse, Snowmane, pierced by a black dart; scholars compare the scene to the Visigoth king Theodoric I's death on the Catalaunian Fields.

Which hobbit swears service to Denethor and becomes a Guard of the Citadel in Minas Tirith?

He offered his service out of respect for Boromir, and later fetched Gandalf when Denethor tried to burn Faramir alive.

To which king does Merry swear allegiance, becoming his esquire?

Merry swears allegiance to Théoden of Rohan, who names him his esquire; the two hobbits' service to a good lord and a despairing one contrasts Rohan's king with Gondor's steward.

What is Boromir's father Denethor's title in Gondor?

Denethor II was the 26th Ruling Steward of Gondor, governing in the absence of a king; he secretly used a palantír to watch Sauron, insisting he could master it.

What is the Elvish name Aragorn takes when he is crowned king?

It means Elfstone in Quenya and was given to him by Galadriel; his royal house is called Telcontar, Quenya for Strider.

How old is Aragorn during the War of the Ring?

Aragorn, born in 2931 of the Third Age, was 87 when the War of the Ring began; as a Númenórean of long life he was only nearing his prime.

The Ring's inscription is written in the Black Speech using which script?

The inscription is in the Tengwar, the Elvish script, written in a mode for the Black Speech; the fiery letters appear only when the Ring is heated, as Isildur and Gandalf both found.

Which sword does Bilbo pass on to Frodo, along with a shirt of mithril mail?

Sting glows blue near orcs, and Frodo later uses it to cut through Shelob's web in Cirith Ungol.

What is the name of the great horse that becomes the Grey wizard's mount?

The horse sails with him at the very end, boarding the Ringbearers' ship at the Grey Havens.

Which of the Three Elven Rings does the Grey wizard bear?

Gandalf bears Narya, the Ring of Fire; Círdan the Shipwright gave it to him on his arrival in Middle-earth, judging him the greatest of the wizards despite his humble look.

What do the Elves call the Grey wizard?

The Sindarin name means Grey Pilgrim; Tharkûn is what the Dwarves call him and Olórin was his name in Valinor.

The Balrog the Fellowship meets in Moria is known by what name?

The Moria Balrog is Durin's Bane, so named for slaying King Durin VI in Third Age 1980 after the Dwarves delved too deep for mithril; Balrogs are corrupted Maiar with whips of many thongs.

Who is Tom Bombadil's wife, called the River-daughter?

Goldberry, the River-daughter, is Tom Bombadil's wife, daughter of the River-woman; she welcomes the hobbits to Tom's house under the Old Forest's eaves, and Jackson's films omit her and Tom entirely.

Legolas is the son of which Elven king, who appeared in The Hobbit as 'the Elvenking'?

Thranduil, king of the Woodland Realm in Mirkwood, is Legolas's father; his imprisonment of Thorin's company, Glóin among them, is why Gimli and Legolas begin as rivals.

Under what alias does Saruman secretly rule the hobbits' homeland near the end of the book?

Saruman rules the hobbits' homeland as 'Sharkey', from Orkish sharkû, 'old man'; that whole closing 'Scouring' chapter was cut from the films, so his death was moved to Isengard in the extended edition.

Which forest is home to Treebeard, the oldest living thing that still walks beneath the Sun?

Fangorn is simply Treebeard's own name in Sindarin, so the forest is named after him.

Which Elf-lord, master of Rivendell, is the father of Arwen?

Elrond Half-elven, master of Rivendell, is Arwen's father; his twin sons Elladan and Elrohir are her brothers, and his wife Celebrían was Galadriel's daughter.

The Ring was found by Déagol in which river, where it had lain since Isildur's death?

The Ring lay on the bed of the Anduin, the Great River, for almost 2,500 years after Isildur, swimming to escape an Orc ambush, lost it and was shot; Gondor called it Isildur's Bane.

The Return of the King held its world premiere in which city?

The Return of the King premiered in Wellington on 1 December 2003 at the Embassy Theatre, more than two weeks before it opened in the United States on 17 December.

The Hobbiton film set was built on a working sheep farm near which town in the Waikato region?

The Hobbiton set sits on the Alexander family's sheep farm near Matamata; Jackson spotted it during an aerial location search in 1998 and called it 'like a slice of ancient England'.

What was the combined production budget of the three films?

The three films cost a combined $281 million, roughly $94 million each, shot as one continuous production; together they grossed almost $3 billion worldwide.

How many Academy Awards did the trilogy win in total, out of 30 nominations?

The first two films won four and two respectively, and Ian McKellen's Best Supporting Actor nomination for Gandalf was the trilogy's only acting nod.

Tolkien intended The Lord of the Rings as a single volume paired with which other work?

Tolkien wanted The Silmarillion published alongside The Lord of the Rings; his publishers declined to take both, and The Silmarillion only appeared in 1977, four years after his death.

The work is divided internally into how many 'books'?

The novel is divided into six books, two in each of the three volumes, followed by appendices on chronology, genealogy and languages.

Which American paperback publisher put out an unauthorised edition in 1965?

Ace Books exploited a US copyright loophole to issue its 1965 paperback; fan pressure forced Ace to withdraw it and pay Tolkien, and the publicity helped make the book a campus phenomenon.

In the BBC's 2003 'Big Read' poll, The Lord of the Rings was voted what?

The 2003 Big Read crowned The Lord of the Rings Britain's best-loved book, with Pride and Prejudice second; in 1999 Amazon customers had voted it their favourite book of the millennium.

Tolkien's original manuscripts of the novel, some 9,250 pages, are held at which university?

Marquette University in Milwaukee bought the manuscripts in 1957 for £1,250, under $5,000, at the urging of its librarian William Ready, years before the US paperback boom.

In which city was J. R. R. Tolkien born in 1892?

Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein on 3 January 1892, where his father Arthur managed a bank branch in the Orange Free State; his mother brought the children back to England in 1895.

Tolkien was a member of which Oxford literary discussion group alongside C. S. Lewis?

The Inklings met in Lewis's Magdalen rooms and at the Eagle and Child pub, where Tolkien read chapters of the novel aloud; Lewis's encouragement kept him writing through the 1940s.

Which battle of the First World War did Tolkien serve in as a signals officer in 1916?

The Somme cost him two of his three closest school friends, and he was invalided home with trench fever that autumn.

After the quest, Sam is elected to which Shire office, serving seven consecutive terms?

Sam was elected Mayor of Michel Delving seven times in a row, from 1427 to 1476 by Shire Reckoning; he and Rosie Cotton had thirteen children, the eldest named Elanor.

What was Frodo called in Tolkien's early drafts of the opening chapter, before he got his final name?

Frodo began as Bingo Baggins, first Bilbo's son and then his nephew Bingo Bolger-Baggins; Tolkien took the name from a family of toy koalas his children owned, 'the Bingos'.

Which of the Three Elven Rings does the master of Rivendell bear?

The master of Rivendell bears Vilya, the Ring of Air, reckoned the mightiest of the Three; Gil-galad entrusted it to him before the Last Alliance, and with it he kept his valley hidden and unfading.

Which Elf-lord rescues Frodo with the horse Asfaloth at the Ford of Bruinen in the book, a role given to Arwen on film?

Glorfindel, whose name means 'golden-haired', was among the first characters Tolkien created, in the 1916–17 Fall of Gondolin; Tolkien later decided the Rivendell Elf was that same Glorfindel reborn.

Which is the only one of the Ringwraiths that Tolkien ever names?

Khamûl, called the 'Black Easterling' in Unfinished Tales, was second-in-command to the Witch-king and commanded Dol Guldur after Sauron returned to Mordor; the other Nazgûl go unnamed.

In Tolkien's earliest drafts, the character who became Aragorn was a hobbit with what nickname?

Trotter, a mysterious hobbit in wooden shoes named for their clitter-clap, was the seed of Aragorn; Tolkien agonised over who he was for years before making him a Man.

Which Vala's people did the Maia Olórin belong to in Valinor before he came to Middle-earth as a wizard?

Olórin was of the people of Manwë, who chose him to go to Middle-earth; the Valaquenta calls him the wisest of the Maiar, while Saruman had been a Maia of the smith Aulë.

Sam Gamgee's surname comes from a real Birmingham word for what?

In Birmingham 'gamgee' meant cotton wool, after the Gamgee Tissue dressing devised by surgeon Sampson Gamgee; that is why Sam's sweetheart Rosie belongs to the Cotton family.

Where does Radagast the Brown live, on the western eaves of Mirkwood?

Radagast dwelt at Rhosgobel, Sindarin for 'brown village', near Mirkwood's western eaves; his Quenya name Aiwendil means 'bird-friend', and Saruman used him unwittingly to lure Gandalf to Isengard.

Which two towers does Tolkien's note ending the first-edition Fellowship say dominate The Two Towers?

Tolkien's closing note to the first-edition Fellowship names Orthanc, Saruman's citadel, and Minas Morgul, which guards the secret way into Mordor; in letters he had weighed Barad-dûr and Cirith Ungol too.

What are the titles of the two 'books' that make up The Two Towers?

Tolkien's 1953 titles for Books III and IV were The Treason of Isengard and The Ring Goes East; the publisher printed only numbered books, and the titles surfaced in later editions.

How did Frodo's parents, Drogo and Primula, die when he was twelve?

Shire gossip held that Drogo's weight sank the boat, or that Primula pushed him in and he pulled her after; Frodo then lived nine years at Brandy Hall.

Which Elf is said to have made the palantíri, the seeing-stones, in Valinor?

Fëanor is credited with making the palantíri in Valinor; Elendil brought seven of them to Middle-earth after Númenor's fall, while the Master-stone stayed in the West at Avallónë.

Whose Swedish translation so annoyed Tolkien that he wrote his 1967 'Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings'?

Ohlmarks later published a book accusing Tolkien fans of black magic; Andersson produced the replacement Swedish translation in 2004-05.

In which year did Tolkien largely stop writing the novel before resuming it as a serial?

Tolkien wrote almost nothing in 1943; from April 1944 he resumed, posting chapters to his son, then with the RAF in South Africa, as they were written.

Which animator's 1978 film covered The Fellowship of the Ring and only part of The Two Towers?

Ralph Bakshi's rotoscoped 1978 film ends after Helm's Deep; a different studio's 1980 television special later adapted the closing chapters of The Return of the King.

Galadriel is the only daughter and youngest child of which Noldorin prince?

Galadriel was Finarfin's youngest child and only daughter; her brother was Finrod Felagund, and through her mother Eärwen, daughter of Olwë, she was kin to Lúthien.

Under what fair name did Sauron befriend the Elven-smiths of Eregion in the Second Age?

Annatar, 'Lord of Gifts', was the fair guise Sauron wore among the Elven-smiths of Eregion; the ruse produced the Rings of Power and, in secret, the One Ring.

Tolkien took the name 'Gandalf' from a catalogue of dwarf-names in which Old Norse poem?

Gandalf comes from the Dvergatal, the dwarf-list in the Völuspá of the Poetic Edda, which also supplied most of Thorin's company's names; the name roughly means 'wand-elf'.

Which crowd-simulation software did Weta Digital build so thousands of battle soldiers could act independently?

Weta's MASSIVE, written by Stephen Regelous, gave every digital soldier a simple brain of its own so armies fought without choreography; it later filled crowds in King Kong and 300.

The closing song of The Return of the King, 'Into the West', was written as a tribute to whom?

Fran Walsh wrote the lyric and the song went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

At which Oxford college did Tolkien study as an undergraduate?

Tolkien read Classics and then English at Exeter College from 1911 to 1915; he later held professorial chairs at Pembroke and then at Merton.

Tolkien said he invented Tom Bombadil in memory of what?

The doll had a feather in its hat; Bombadil first appeared in a 1934 poem in The Oxford Magazine, three years before The Hobbit.

What happens when Tom Bombadil puts on the One Ring?

He can also see Frodo when Frodo wears it, which is why the Council briefly considers sending the Ring to him for safekeeping.

Beside which river in the Old Forest does Old Man Willow stand?

The name is Old English for 'winding willow stream'; the tree traps two young hobbits until Bombadil sings it open.

Which kingdom's dead lie in the barrow where the hobbits are trapped by a Barrow-wight?

Appendix A says the mound was the grave of the last prince of Cardolan, who fell in the war of 1409; the Westernesse blade Merry takes from it later cripples the Witch-king.

What did the innkeeper Barliman Butterbur forget to send Frodo for months?

The letter would have told Frodo to leave the Shire by July and to trust a ranger called Strider.

Which king of Rohan is the Hornburg's valley named after?

Helm Hammerhand hid there from Dunlendings under Wulf, and legend said he stalked the enemy camps at night killing men with his bare hands.

What is the name of the great battering ram that breaks the gate of Minas Tirith?

Grond, the hundred-foot ram, took its name from the mace of Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, the Hammer of the Underworld; its head was shaped like a ravening wolf.

Where does Denethor build the funeral pyre on which he burns himself?

Denethor burns himself in the House of the Stewards on Rath Dínen, the Silent Street of the tombs behind Minas Tirith; before dying he snaps the white rod of his office over his knee.

What does Angrenost, the Sindarin name for Saruman's stronghold, mean?

Angrenost means 'iron fortress', from ang, iron, and ost, fortress; Isengard itself is Old English for 'iron enclosure', so Tolkien matched the names in an invented and a real tongue.

What is the Sindarin name of Weathertop, where Frodo is stabbed by the Witch-king?

Weathertop is Amon Sûl, the Hill of Wind, where a watchtower of Arnor once held a palantír; the Witch-king stabbed Frodo there with a Morgul-knife on the night of 6 October.

Which name did Éomer give Merry when he made him a Knight of the Mark?

Éomer named Merry Holdwine, Old English for 'faithful friend'; Merry later wrote Herblore of the Shire and Old Words and Names in the Shire, tracing Shire words to the speech of Rohan.

Which region does Legolas settle with Silvan Elves after the War of the Ring?

Legolas settled in Ithilien with Silvan Elves from Greenwood and made it fair again; after Aragorn's death he built a grey ship and sailed West, reportedly with Gimli aboard.

Roughly how many copies has The Lord of the Rings sold worldwide?

The Lord of the Rings has sold over 150 million copies, making it one of the best-selling novels ever; written in stages between 1937 and 1949, it has been translated into at least 38 languages.

Which real language was the primary inspiration for Tolkien's Elvish tongue Sindarin?

Sindarin's sounds and consonant mutations were modelled on Welsh, which Tolkien loved from seeing Welsh names on coal trucks as a boy; Finnish was the model for Quenya, the other main Elvish tongue.

What are the three types of hobbits in Tolkien's fictional history?

The Prologue names three breeds: Harfoots, the most numerous; Stoors, who favoured riversides; and Fallohides, the tallest and fairest, whose strain ran in the Tooks and Brandybucks.

At what age do hobbits 'come of age'?

Hobbits come of age at 33, the end of their irresponsible 'tweens'; Frodo came of age on the very day of Bilbo's farewell party.

Which studio produced and distributed Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy?

New Line Cinema co-produced with Jackson's own WingNut Films; the series grossed over $2.9 billion worldwide.

Principal photography for all three films ran simultaneously from October 1999 until when?

Principal photography wrapped on 22 December 2000 after 438 days; pick-up shoots then continued each year through 2003, and the shoot used conservation areas and national parks under strict restoration rules.

Which long-time Jackson collaborator led Weta Workshop's armour, weapons and creature design?

Richard Taylor led Weta Workshop, which made the trilogy's armour, weapons, prosthetics and creatures and earned him four Oscars; illustrators Alan Lee and John Howe joined in November 1997.

The Return of the King was the first film of which genre to win the Best Picture Oscar?

No fantasy film had won Best Picture before The Return of the King's sweep at the 76th Academy Awards in February 2004, where it won every category it was nominated in.

Which cast member earned an Oscar nomination for The Fellowship of the Ring, as Best Supporting Actor?

Ian McKellen was nominated for Best Supporting Actor as Gandalf, the trilogy's only acting nomination, and won the Screen Actors Guild award for the role.

Besides playing Gimli, which character did John Rhys-Davies voice in the films?

John Rhys-Davies also voiced Treebeard the Ent; his severe reactions to the dwarf prosthetics sometimes swelled his eyes shut, and he declined to return for The Hobbit.

What injuries did Viggo Mortensen sustain doing his own stunts as Aragorn?

Swordmaster Bob Anderson called him the best swordsman he had ever trained.

Sean Astin, who plays Sam, made his film debut as Mikey Walsh in which 1985 film?

Astin debuted as Mikey Walsh in The Goonies, Richard Donner's 1985 adventure produced by Steven Spielberg; he later played the title role in the football drama Rudy.

Which actor plays Boromir, who dies defending Merry and Pippin from orc-arrows?

Sean Bean plays Boromir, whose death closes the first film; the survivors set his body adrift in an Elven boat to go over the Falls of Rauros.

Which actor plays Faramir, Boromir's younger brother, in the film trilogy?

David Wenham, an Australian actor, plays Faramir; Jackson's film has him tempted by the Ring, unlike Tolkien's, and after the war Faramir marries Éowyn, uniting Rohan and Gondor.

Which New Zealand actor plays Éomer of Rohan?

Karl Urban plays Éomer, Third Marshal of the Riddermark and Éowyn's brother; he later played Dr McCoy in the Star Trek reboot and the title role in Dredd.

Who plays the treacherous adviser Gríma Wormtongue on film?

Brad Dourif, Oscar-nominated for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and the voice of Chucky, plays Gríma Wormtongue; he shaved off his eyebrows to make the character more unsettling.

Which actor plays Denethor, father of Boromir and Faramir, in the film trilogy?

John Noble, an Australian actor later known as Walter Bishop in Fringe, plays Denethor; Jackson's version is far greedier and less dignified than Tolkien's lord of Minas Tirith.

Which actress plays Arwen, who gives up Elvish immortality to stay in Middle-earth?

Liv Tyler plays Arwen Undómiel, the Evenstar of her people, who chooses a mortal life to wed Aragorn as Lúthien once did for Beren; their romance is told mostly in Appendix A.

Which Elvish word opens the West-gate of Moria?

The gate's inscription reads 'Speak, friend, and enter'; Gandalf finally sees the riddle means say the word for friend, mellon in Sindarin, and the doors swing open.

Amazon's 2017 rights deal for The Rings of Power carried a production commitment of at least how much?

Amazon paid about $250 million for the rights in November 2017 with a five-season production commitment worth at least $1 billion, making it the most expensive television series made to that point.

The Rings of Power depicts the major events of which age of Middle-earth?

The Second Age, thousands of years before the novel, saw the forging of the Rings of Power and the downfall of Númenor, the events the series dramatises.

Who plays the younger Galadriel in The Rings of Power?

Morfydd Clark, a Welsh actress, plays the younger Galadriel in The Rings of Power; Robert Aramayo plays the younger Elrond.

Who directed the 2024 anime film The War of the Rohirrim?

Kenji Kamiyama, director of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, made the film for Warner Bros. Animation and Sola Entertainment; it is set 183 years before Jackson's trilogy.

Which eagle carries Gandalf from the roof of Orthanc?

Gwaihir the Windlord bore Gandalf from Orthanc to Rohan and later from Zirakzigil to Lórien; with Landroval and Meneldor he also plucked Frodo and Sam from the slopes of Mount Doom.

Which animation studio made the 1980 TV film The Return of the King?

Rankin/Bass, the studio behind Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, made the 1980 television film, following its 1977 broadcast of The Hobbit on NBC.

Which of Tolkien's sons drew the original maps for The Lord of the Rings?

Christopher Tolkien drew the maps from his father's sketches, and later edited The Silmarillion and the twelve-volume History of Middle-earth from his father's papers.

How many walls does the fortress city of Minas Tirith have?

It rises some 700 feet to the Citadel on the seventh level; scholars compare its defences to Constantinople's.

Tolkien intended the drowned island kingdom of Númenor to allude to which legend?

Tolkien called Númenor his Atlantis; its Quenya name after the Downfall, Atalantë, 'the Downfallen', deliberately echoes Atlantis, and the island was star-shaped with five great peninsulas.

What was the name of the Elven king Gil-galad's spear?

Gil-galad's spear was Aeglos, Sindarin for 'snow-point' or 'icicle'; he bore it in the Last Alliance, where he fell fighting Sauron on the slopes of Orodruin.

Where was Isildur ambushed by Orcs and killed, losing the Ring in the river?

Isildur was ambushed and shot at the Gladden Fields in Third Age 2, two years after cutting the Ring from Sauron's hand and refusing to destroy it; the Ring slipped away in the river.

What do the Riders of Rohan call hobbits in their own tongue?

The Riders of Rohan call hobbits Holbytlan, 'hole-builders', a name Tolkien built from Old English to mirror 'hobbit'; before Isengard's fall they knew of them only from old songs.

At what age did Aragorn die?

Aragorn died at 210 after reigning 122 years, laying down his life by choice as the Númenórean kings of old could; he had been the sixteenth Chieftain of the Dúnedain.

Sauron is identified as which mysterious figure from The Hobbit?

The Necromancer of Dol Guldur in The Hobbit is Sauron, driven out by the White Council in 2941; in The Lord of the Rings he appears mostly as the Eye.

Which two characters' chance meeting at Bree's Prancing Pony launched the quest in The Hobbit?

Gandalf and Thorin Oakenshield met there by chance early in 2941, the meeting that set the quest of Erebor in motion; it is also where Frodo's slip with the Ring draws unwelcome eyes.

What epithet does the wizard of Orthanc later adopt in place of 'the White'?

He is chief of the wizards until his treachery is revealed.

Why did Tolkien dislike the title The Return of the King?

He deferred to his publisher anyway, and also found The Two Towers usefully ambiguous, toying with several pairs of towers.

Which prize did The Lord of the Rings win in 1957?

The Lord of the Rings won the International Fantasy Award in 1957, a prize given from 1951 to 1957 whose earlier winners included Earth Abides and Clifford Simak's City.

In how many half-hour instalments did the BBC broadcast its 1981 radio dramatization?

The BBC's 1981 dramatisation ran in 26 half-hour episodes, with Michael Hordern as Gandalf and Robert Stephens as Aragorn; it was later re-edited into 13 hour-long parts.

Which director considered adapting the book but thought it unfilmable?

Stanley Kubrick, approached by the Beatles in the 1960s, judged the book unfilmable; a Swedish live-action TV film, Sagan om ringen, did reach the screen in 1971, the earliest screen adaptation of the novel.

For what lump sum did Tolkien sell the merchandising rights to United Artists in 1969?

The deal also carried a 7.5% royalty after costs; United Artists sold the rights on to Saul Zaentz's company in 1976.