Wizard Trivia
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80 free Wizard trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
76 free Wizard trivia questions with answers. Wizards have been with us since Circe first waved a wand in the Odyssey, and this quiz follows them all the way from Arthurian legend to Marvel films and MMORPGs. Expect Merlin, Gandalf and Saruman, Dumbledore and Voldemort, Prospero, Ged of Earthsea, Rincewind, Elminster and Raistlin, plus the historical figures behind the myth: John Dee, Nicolas Flamel and Faust. It is built for fantasy readers, film fans and tabletop players who want questions that go beyond a single franchise. Every franchise gets a handful of questions at most, so a Tolkien expert and a Discworld regular each have something to win. Each answer was checked against a primary or encyclopaedic source before it went in, and every question carries the sentence that establishes it. Seventy-six questions, easy to expert, free to play.
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Q 01The name Merlin is a Latinised form of which legendary Welsh bard's name?
Myrddin
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.
Q 02Which 12th-century cleric introduced the familiar depiction of Merlin?
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey of Monmouth fused two older figures, a fatherless boy seer and a mad prophet of the woods, and his widely copied Historia Regum Britanniae made the result famous.
Q 03In Historia Regum Britanniae, Merlin builds Stonehenge with stones brought from Mount Killaraus in which land?
Ireland
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.
Q 04Merlin disguises Uther Pendragon so he can enter Tintagel and father Arthur with which duchess?
Igraine
Igraine took Uther for her husband Gorlois, whose shape Merlin had given him; the real duke was killed in battle that same night, and Uther went on to marry her.
Q 05Around 1200, Robert de Boron expanded the Merlin story in an epic poem in which language?
Old French
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.
Q 06Because of his demonic father and human mother, Merlin is sometimes classed as what kind of being?
A cambion
A cambion: in Robert de Boron's telling, demons bred Merlin to be an Antichrist, but a priest baptised him at birth, breaking their hold while leaving him his powers.
Q 07In Arthurian legend, the Siege Perilous that Merlin reserves for the Grail knight is what?
A seat
A seat: siege is an old word for one; it proved fatal to any unworthy knight who sat there, and in later romances Galahad claims it.
Q 08Tolkien took the name Gandalf from a catalogue of dwarves in which Old Norse poem?
Voluspa
Voluspa's list of dwarves gave Tolkien the name, which in early drafts of The Hobbit belonged to the chief dwarf, while the wizard was called Bladorthin.
Q 09Before coming to Middle-earth, Gandalf was a Maia known in Valinor by what name?
Olorin
Olorin was Gandalf's name in Valinor; he at first begged to be excused from the mission, saying he feared Sauron, and Manwe replied that this was all the more reason to go.
Q 10Gandalf's Sindarin name Mithrandir translates to what?
Grey Pilgrim
Grey Pilgrim is how Mithrandir translates, the name Elves and Gondor used; King Theoden instead greeted him as Stormcrow, because he tended to arrive when trouble did.
Q 11Which Gandalf actor based his performance on recordings of J. R. R. Tolkien himself?
Ian McKellen
Ian McKellen studied recordings of Tolkien and borrowed his speech patterns; the part had first been offered to Sean Connery, who turned it down saying he did not understand the script.
Q 12Which sword does Gandalf take from the trolls' hoard in The Hobbit?
Glamdring
Glamdring, the Foe-hammer, once belonged to the king of Gondolin; the goblins of the Misty Mountains knew it on sight, called it Beater and fled before it.
Q 13Narya, the Elven ring Gandalf secretly wears, is the Ring of what?
Fire
Fire: Cirdan the Shipwright handed Narya to Gandalf at the Grey Havens, telling him it would help him rekindle hearts in a world that grows chill.
Q 21Voldemort's original wand, bought from Ollivander as a boy, is made from which wood?
Yew
Yew can live for thousands of years and has poisonous sap, so Rowling chose it to stand for death and resurrection; the wand's feather core came from the same bird as Harry's.
Q 22Through his mother's family, Voldemort is the last descendant of which Hogwarts founder?
Salazar Slytherin
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.
Q 23Both Harry's and Voldemort's wands contain a tail feather from which creature?
A phoenix
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.
Q 14The name Saruman means what in the Mercian dialect of Anglo-Saxon?
Man of skill or cunning
Man of skill or cunning: the Old English root searu also meant a device or contrivance, a fitting name for the wizard who turns Isengard over to forges and engines.
Q 15Under what alias does Saruman secretly rule the Shire before the hobbits return?
Sharkey
Sharkey, probably from an Orkish word for 'old man', was the name Saruman's ruffians gave him; his rule ended when the returning hobbits roused the Shire and won the Battle of Bywater.
Q 16Who finally kills Saruman on Frodo's doorstep in The Return of the King?
Wormtongue
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.
Q 17Which actor played Saruman in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies?
Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee was the only cast member who had met Tolkien, and he reread the books every year; he had long dreamed of playing Gandalf but was cast as Saruman instead.
Q 18Radagast the Brown lives at Rhosgobel on the western edge of which forest?
Mirkwood
Mirkwood: Radagast lived on its edge among birds and beasts; Saruman scorned him as a simpleton, yet it was an eagle sent by Radagast that rescued Gandalf from Orthanc.
Q 19Dumbledore's surname is borrowed from an old English dialect word for which creature?
Bumblebee
Dumbledore is an old English dialect word for bumblebee; Rowling said she pictured the headmaster humming to himself as he walked.
Q 20Who took over as Dumbledore after Richard Harris died in 2002?
Michael Gambon
Michael Gambon took over from Prisoner of Azkaban onward and never read the books, joking that he just stuck on a beard and played himself.
Q 24In L. Frank Baum's books, the Wizard of Oz is a humbug conman originally from which American city?
Omaha
Omaha: the Wizard tells Dorothy he was born there and worked as a circus balloonist before a runaway balloon carried him to Oz.
Q 25In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Wizard appears to the Cowardly Lion in what form?
A ball of fire
A ball of fire: the Lion had planned to roar and frighten the Wizard into helping him, but the heat singed his whiskers and sent him creeping back toward the door.
Q 26Baum said the name Oz came from what object in his home?
A filing cabinet
A filing cabinet: Baum's story, first told in 1903, was that his eye fell on a drawer labelled O-Z; his wife insisted that part was untrue, and it is often treated as a myth.
Q 27Who played the Wizard in MGM's 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, doubling as Professor Marvel and other roles?
Frank Morgan
Frank Morgan was cast only after W. C. Fields, an original choice for the Wizard, fell through; Morgan ended up playing five roles, from Professor Marvel to the palace guard.
Q 28Who originated the role of the Wizard in Wicked on Broadway in 2003?
Joel Grey
Joel Grey, Cabaret's Oscar-winning Emcee, joined only for Broadway: Robert Morse had played the Wizard in the San Francisco tryout before Wicked opened in New York in October 2003.
Q 29Which actor plays the Wizard in the 2024 film adaptation of Wicked?
Jeff Goldblum
Jeff Goldblum's Wizard is a fraud with no real magic: he cannot read the Grimmerie spell book himself, which is why he needs Elphaba.
Q 30In The Tempest, Prospero is the usurped rightful duke of which city?
Milan
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.