80 Fun Facts About Wizard

The name Merlin is a Latinised form of which legendary Welsh bard's name?

Merlin is the Latinised Merlinus built on Myrddin; the wild prophet Myrddin Wyllt, said to have gone mad after the Battle of Arfderydd, supplied much of the legendary figure.

Which 12th-century cleric introduced the familiar depiction of Merlin?

Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote Merlin into Historia Regum Britanniae around 1136 and returned to him in the poem Vita Merlini around 1150.

In Historia Regum Britanniae, Merlin builds Stonehenge with stones brought from Mount Killaraus in which land?

Merlin has the Giants' Ring carried from Mount Killaraus in Ireland and re-erected on Salisbury Plain as a memorial for Aurelius Ambrosius's slain nobles.

Merlin disguises Uther Pendragon to enter Tintagel and father Arthur with whose wife?

Igraine, wife of Gorlois of Cornwall, is spelled Igerna in the Latin original; Merlin's disguise lets Uther enter Tintagel and conceive Arthur.

Around 1200, Robert de Boron expanded the Merlin story in an epic poem in which language?

Robert de Boron's Merlin was written in Old French verse; only a fragment survives, but its prose redaction fixed Merlin's link to the Holy Grail.

Because of his demonic father and human mother, Merlin is often classed as what kind of being?

A cambion is the child of a demon and a human; Merlin, fathered by an incubus on a mortal woman in Robert de Boron's telling, is the archetypal example.

Merlin instructs Uther to found the Knights of the Round Table with how many handpicked members?

Fifty: in Robert de Boron's Merlin the wizard has Uther seat fifty chosen knights at the Round Table, one place being left empty in imitation of the Grail table.

Tolkien took the name Gandalf from a catalogue of dwarves in which Old Norse poem?

Voluspa's Dvergatal, the 'Catalogue of Dwarves', lists Gandalf among the dwarves; the same list supplied Thorin, Fili, Kili and most other dwarf names in The Hobbit.

Before coming to Middle-earth, Gandalf was a Maia known in Valinor by what name?

Olorin was Gandalf's name in Valinor; he belonged to the people of Manwe and was counted the wisest of the Maiar.

Gandalf's Sindarin name Mithrandir translates to what?

Grey Pilgrim is the meaning of Mithrandir, the Sindarin name used in Gondor; Theoden's men preferred the less friendly Stormcrow.

Which Gandalf actor based his performance on recordings of J. R. R. Tolkien himself?

Ian McKellen modelled Gandalf's voice on recordings of Tolkien reading his own work; the role earned him an Oscar nomination for The Fellowship of the Ring.

Which sword does Gandalf take from the trolls' hoard in The Hobbit?

Glamdring, the Foe-hammer, was forged in Gondolin in the First Age; Gandalf took it from the trolls' cave, where Thorin found its mate Orcrist.

Gandalf secretly bears which of the Three Elven Rings?

Narya, the Ring of Fire, was given to Gandalf by Cirdan at the Grey Havens; Nenya went to Galadriel and Vilya to Elrond.

The name Saruman means what in the Mercian dialect of Anglo-Saxon?

Man of skill or cunning: Tolkien built Saruman from Old English searu, 'skill, cunning, device'; his Sindarin name Curunir carries the same sense.

Under what alias does Saruman secretly rule the Shire before the hobbits return?

Sharkey, from Orkish sharku ('old man'), was what Saruman's ruffians called him as he ran the Shire from Bag End behind the figurehead Lotho.

Who finally kills Saruman on Frodo's doorstep in The Return of the King?

Wormtongue, Saruman's long-abused servant Grima, cut his master's throat at Bag End moments after Frodo had spared him; hobbit archers shot Grima down at once.

Which actor played Saruman in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies?

He was the only cast member who had actually met Tolkien and reread the books every year.

Radagast the Brown lives at Rhosgobel on the western edge of which forest?

Mirkwood: Rhosgobel, 'brown village' in Sindarin, stood on its western eaves near the Carrock; Radagast's Quenya name Aiwendil means bird-friend.

Dumbledore's surname is borrowed from an old English dialect word for which creature?

Dumbledore is an old English dialect word for bumblebee; Rowling said she pictured the headmaster humming to himself as he walked.

Who took over as Dumbledore after Richard Harris died in 2002?

Michael Gambon took over as Dumbledore from Prisoner of Azkaban onward; Richard Harris had played him in the first two films and died in October 2002.

Voldemort's wand is made from which wood?

Yew, a graveyard tree with toxic foliage, is the wood of Voldemort's wand; its core is a tail feather from the same bird as Harry's holly wand.

Through his mother's family, Voldemort is the last descendant of which Hogwarts founder?

Salazar Slytherin: the Gaunts, Voldemort's mother's family, were his last descendants and had sunk into poverty by the time Merope met the Muggle Tom Riddle.

Both Harry's and Voldemort's wands contain a tail feather from which creature?

A phoenix: both cores are tail feathers from Fawkes, the phoenix belonging to the Hogwarts headmaster, which is why the two wands lock in Priori Incantatem.

In L. Frank Baum's books, the Wizard of Oz is a humbug conman originally from which American city?

Omaha: the Wizard tells Dorothy he was born there and worked as a circus balloonist before a runaway balloon carried him to Oz.

In the 1900 novel, the Wizard appears to the Cowardly Lion in what form?

A ball of fire: each visitor sees a different form; Dorothy gets the giant head, the Scarecrow a lovely lady and the Tin Woodman a terrible beast.

Baum said the name Oz came from what object in his home?

A filing cabinet: Baum said a drawer labelled O-Z gave him the name, a story his family repeated though scholars treat it with some suspicion.

Who played the Wizard in the 1939 MGM film, doubling as Professor Marvel and other roles?

Frank Morgan played the Wizard, Professor Marvel, the Emerald City doorman, the cabbie and the guard; Bolger, Lahr and Haley were the Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Man.

Who originated the role of the Wizard in Wicked on Broadway in 2003?

Joel Grey, already famous as the Emcee in Cabaret, originated the Wizard when Wicked opened at the Gershwin Theatre in October 2003.

Which actor plays the Wizard in the 2024 film adaptation of Wicked?

Jeff Goldblum plays the Wizard opposite Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande; the film earned ten Oscar nominations and won for costume and production design.

In The Tempest, Prospero is the usurped rightful duke of which city?

Milan: Prospero was its rightful duke until his brother Antonio, backed by the King of Naples, set him and the infant Miranda adrift in a rotten boat.

Prospero freed the spirit Ariel from imprisonment inside a cloven what?

Pine tree: Ariel had been shut in a cloven pine for a dozen years by the witch who ruled the island before Prospero landed and set the spirit free.

Caliban, Prospero's servant on the island, is the son of which witch?

Sycorax, banished from Algiers to the island while pregnant with Caliban, never appears on stage; everything known about her comes from Prospero and Caliban.

In Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books, the wizard Ged was born on which island?

Gont: Ged was born in the village of Ten Alders on that mountainous island, a bronzesmith's son whose company with wild hawks earned him the use-name Sparrowhawk.

What child-name did Ged's mother give him at birth, before Ogion bestowed his true name?

Duny was the name his mother gave him; Ogion named him Ged at his passage into manhood, and Sparrowhawk became the use-name he answered to.

Terry Pratchett's cowardly wizard Rincewind first appeared in which 1983 novel?

The Colour of Magic, Pratchett's first Discworld novel, introduced Rincewind, a failed Unseen University student described as the magical equivalent of the number zero.

Rincewind's Luggage, a gift from the tourist Twoflower, is made from what material?

Sapient pearwood, a magical timber from the Counterweight Continent, gives the Luggage its hundreds of little legs and its habit of following its owner through any dimension.

Which designer created the wizard Elminster and the Forgotten Realms setting?

Ed Greenwood began the Forgotten Realms as a setting for his own stories in the late 1960s and sold it to TSR in 1986; Elminster was among his first characters.

Elminster is known as the Sage of which place?

Shadowdale, a farming dale on the edge of the Cormanthor forest, is where Elminster keeps his tower; the title Sage of Shadowdale follows him through the Realms novels.

Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum in Manhattan stands at which address?

177A Bleecker Street was the real apartment shared by Marvel writers Roy Thomas and Gary Friedrich, who wrote it into the comic as Strange's home.

Marvel's Sorcerer Supreme made his 1963 debut in which anthology title?

Strange Tales #110, cover-dated July 1963, introduced Doctor Strange in a short backup story drawn and co-created by Steve Ditko with Stan Lee scripting.

Before a car accident ruined his hands, Stephen Strange practised which branch of medicine?

Neurosurgery: Strange was a brilliant, arrogant neurosurgeon until the crash left nerve damage in his hands; the search for a cure led him to the Ancient One.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch first appeared in 1962 in which comic title?

Archie's Madhouse #22, cover-dated October 1962, introduced Sabrina; writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo created her, along with aunts Hilda and Zelda.

Who plays Sabrina Spellman in Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which premiered in October 2018?

Kiernan Shipka, who had grown up on screen as Sally Draper in Mad Men, played Sabrina Spellman across the series' four parts between 2018 and 2020.

In Wizards of Waverly Place, the Russo family's sandwich shop is designed to look like what?

A subway station: the Russos run the Waverly Sub Station, a sandwich shop decked out like a subway stop, with the family's wizard lair hidden behind it.

Wizards of Waverly Place is set on Waverly Place in which New York City neighbourhood?

Greenwich Village: Waverly Place is a real street there, running off Washington Square; the show ran on Disney Channel from 2007 to 2012.

Which studio developed and published the 2008 MMORPG Wizard101?

KingsIsle Entertainment, a Texas studio, developed and published Wizard101 in 2008 and followed it with the sister game Pirate101 in 2012.

Which of these is NOT one of the seven schools a new Wizard101 player can choose?

Light is not a Wizard101 school; the seven a new wizard chooses from are Fire, Ice, Storm, Myth, Life, Death and Balance, taught at Ravenwood in Wizard City.

Elizabeth I's court astronomer John Dee has been credited with coining which phrase?

British Empire: Dee is usually credited with the phrase, writing of a 'Brytish Impire' in his 1577 General and Rare Memorials while urging Elizabeth to build a navy.

John Dee's Aztec scrying mirror, later acquired by the British Museum, is made of what?

Obsidian: the polished black mirror was made by Aztec craftsmen in Mexico and reached Europe after the Spanish conquest; Dee used it for angelic scrying.

Which self-styled medium, then calling himself Talbot, began working with John Dee in 1582?

Edward Kelley, first calling himself Talbot, became Dee's scryer in March 1582; the pair spent six years on the Continent before Dee came home to find his Mortlake library ransacked.

What was the real Nicolas Flamel's profession in Paris?

A scribe: Flamel worked as a scrivener and manuscript dealer near Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie; the alchemy legends only attached to him in the 17th century, long after his death in 1418.

In which year was Historia von D. Johann Fausten, the first printed Faust legend, published?

1587: Johann Spies printed the Historia von D. Johann Fausten in Frankfurt that year; an English translation followed, and Marlowe drew on it for Doctor Faustus.

The word wizard derives from a Middle English word meaning what?

Wise: wizard is Middle English wys ('wise') plus the suffix -ard, and first meant a philosopher or sage; the magical sense came later.

Around what date did wizard distinctly come to mean someone with magical or occult power?

1550: etymologists date the distinctly magical sense of wizard to around 1550; in the Middle Ages philosophy and magic blurred, so a sage and a magician were nearly the same job.

Which enchantress wields a magic wand in Homer's Odyssey?

Circe, on the island of Aeaea, strikes Odysseus's men with her wand to turn them into swine; Hermes gave Odysseus the herb moly to resist her.

The Bronze Age gold cone hats found in Europe are thought to be insignia of priests devoted to what?

The sun: the four golden hats, such as the Berlin Gold Hat, are read as insignia of Bronze Age sun-cult priests; their ornament bands appear to encode a lunisolar calendar.

From 1974 the Wizard of New Zealand preached from a ladder in which city's Cathedral Square?

Christchurch: Prime Minister Mike Moore named him official Wizard of New Zealand in 1990, and the city council paid him an annual fee for acts of wizardry until 2021.

In which year did the NBA's Washington Bullets officially become the Wizards?

1997: the team played its last season as the Bullets in 1996-97 and became the Wizards that spring; owner Abe Pollin dropped the old name for its violent connotations.

Which 1877 invention earned Thomas Edison the nickname Wizard of Menlo Park?

The phonograph, demonstrated in December 1877, astonished the press and earned Edison the nickname; Menlo Park, New Jersey, was the site of his laboratory.

In Disney's The Sword in the Stone, what is the name of Merlin's talking owl?

Archimedes is Merlin's grumpy, highly educated owl; the 1963 film was the last animated feature released in Walt Disney's lifetime.

In The Sword in the Stone, Merlin wins his duel with Madam Mim by transforming into what?

A germ: Merlin ends the shape-shifting duel by becoming a germ that gives the cheating Mim a disease, sending her to bed covered in spots.

What is the name of the sorcerer whose apprentice Mickey Mouse plays in Fantasia?

Yen Sid is 'Disney' spelled backwards, the animators' in-joke name for the sorcerer Mickey serves in the 1940 Fantasia.

Which composer wrote the 1897 symphonic poem The Sorcerer's Apprentice, based on Goethe's ballad?

Paul Dukas composed L'apprenti sorcier in 1897, exactly a hundred years after Goethe wrote the ballad Der Zauberlehrling in 1797; Disney used it in Fantasia.

In Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle, Howl secretly comes from which real-world country?

Wales: Howl was born Howell Jenkins, and when Sophie follows him through the castle door she lands in modern Wales, where his sister has no idea what he does.

In Dragonlance, the golden-skinned mage Raistlin Majere is the twin of which warrior?

Caramon Majere, the burly warrior, is Raistlin's twin; the mage's cursed hourglass eyes show him the effects of time on everything he sees.

In the original 1974 Dungeons & Dragons, what was the wizard character class called?

Magic-user was the 1974 class name, alongside fighting-man and cleric; the thief only arrived in the 1975 Greyhawk supplement.

Roughly how much did Hasbro pay for Wizards of the Coast in 1999?

US$325 million: Hasbro bought Wizards of the Coast in September 1999; Peter Adkison had founded it in 1990 near Seattle, and Magic: The Gathering's 1993 launch made it a giant.

In Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, which arch-wizard waits on the bottom level?

Werdna, Andrew Greenberg's name reversed, is the arch-wizard who stole the amulet and waits on level 10; Wizardry went on to inspire Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.

The Wizard of Id, launched in 1964, was drawn by Brant Parker and co-written with which cartoonist?

Johnny Hart, already known for B.C., co-created The Wizard of Id with artist Brant Parker in 1964; the kingdom's name puns on the Freudian id and on Oz.

What is the name of the cat that accompanies the sorcerer Gargamel in The Smurfs?

Azrael is Gargamel's scrawny, mean-spirited cat; in the comics the sorcerer wants a Smurf for a potion to turn base metal into gold, and Hank Azaria played him in 2011.

Who voiced the Great Dragon Kilgharrah in the BBC series Merlin (2008-2012)?

John Hurt voiced the Great Dragon Kilgharrah, chained beneath Camelot; Colin Morgan's young Merlin hides his gifts in a kingdom where Uther has outlawed magic.

The castle that doubled for Camelot in the BBC series Merlin stands in which country?

France: the Chateau de Pierrefonds, rebuilt by Viollet-le-Duc in the 19th century, stands in the Oise north-east of Paris and doubled for Camelot across all five series.

Who directed the 1988 fantasy film Willow, from a story by George Lucas?

Ron Howard directed Willow from Lucas's story; Warwick Davis plays the aspiring sorcerer Willow Ufgood, protecting the baby Elora Danan from Queen Bavmorda.

Who wrote The Magicians (2009), in which Quentin Coldwater attends Brakebills College?

Lev Grossman wrote The Magicians and its two sequels; Syfy adapted the trilogy into a series that premiered in December 2015.

The Wizard (1989) gave North America its first look at which Nintendo game?

Super Mario Bros. 3, not released in North America until February 1990, was unveiled in the film's Video Armageddon final; the film also showcased the Power Glove.

Who played the sorcerer Jafar in Disney's 2019 live-action Aladdin?

Marwan Kenzari, a Dutch-Tunisian actor, played Jafar in the 2019 film; Jonathan Freeman had voiced the animated Jafar in 1992 and reprised him on Broadway.

Which author's Dying Earth books introduced the limit of a set number of spells per day?

Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories, from 1950, gave wizards a fixed number of memorised spells that vanish once cast; Dungeons & Dragons adopted the rule as 'Vancian' magic.

In David Eddings's The Belgariad, which sorcerer advises kings alongside Polgara?

Belgarath the Sorcerer, Polgara's father and a disciple of the god Aldur, has guided the kings of the West for thousands of years in The Belgariad.

In Baum's The Marvelous Land of Oz, Glinda the Good is referred to as what rather than a witch?

A sorceress: from The Marvelous Land of Oz onward Baum styled her Glinda the Good Sorceress, dropping 'witch', a word readers took to mean evil.

The word 'mage' traces back through Latin to the word for a priest of which ancient religion?

The Latin 'magus' potentially derives from the Iranian term for a Zoroastrian priest, the 'Magi'.