[Game] Tantalizing Trivia Quiz

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Yes. Rules are to be obeyed, always. Hem, hem. The Hobbit, A warm welcome.

Question: what was said to have been made long ago by giants?

[Ercassie]

Is it the Hornburg ?

"There upon its spur stood high walls of ancient stone, and within them was a lofty tower. Men said that in the far-off days of the glory of Gondor the sea-kings had built here this fastness with the hands of giants. The Hornburg it was called"

(Helms Deep, 'The Two Towers').

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Yup.

(By the by, the early drafts indicate that the tower here, built by the sea-kings of old with the hands of giants, was intended to be the site of one of the 7 Seeing Stones - but when the Stone was relocated the Numenorean tower remained.)

Over to you @Ercassie.

[Ercassie]

I love how threads like this help us learn/remember things from the almighty legendarium

Question : Who is fed from crystal fountains unfailing, and guarded from defilement by the Lord of Waters ?

[Romeran]

Cool piece of trivia @Chrysophylax Dives !

Answer: Eithel Ivrin (the springs of Ivrin)

"and thus they passed westward over Sirion and came at length to Eithel Ivrin, the springs whence Narog rose beneath the Mountains of Shadow. There Gwindor spoke to Túrin, saying: 'Awake, Túrin son of Húrin Thalion! On Ivrin's lake is endless laughter. She is fed from crystal fountains unfailing, and guarded from defilement by Ulmo, Lord of Waters, who wrought her beauty in ancient days.' " (The Silmarillion, Of Túrin Turambar)

[Ercassie]

Correct @Romeran. And over to you

[Romeran]

You know, I love trivia and riddles and then I remember I have to ask one afterwards

Question: Who was seen walking among the birches and caused the watcher to halt thinking they were in a dream?

[Chrysophylax Dives]

You'll live on the other side of the world to me - you come out to play when i am asleep! I only know this because I'm up at 2.00 am my time trying to finish some work...

Arwen. ROTK, Appendix A.

[Romeran]

That seems likely! And correct, over to you

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Where might you have found hobbits with bows and arrows? (Bonus points for explaining the might.)

[Drifa]

They might have had bows and arrows during... "the Battle of Greenfields, S.R. 1147, in which Bandobras Took routed an invasion of Orcs"
They shot well with the bow, for they were keen-eyed and sure at the mark. Not only with bows and arrows. If any Hobbit stooped for a stone, it was well to get quickly under cover, as all trespassing beasts knew very well.
Prologue, TFOTR.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Hmmm. I see my question was not phrased well. Technically, your answer fits, but it was not the answer I was looking for - there is another sense of 'might' and a more definite time and place. Sorry.

[Romeran]

Answer: The Shire during the Scour?

"When Sam got back he found the whole village roused. Already, apart from many younger lads, more than a hundred sturdy hobbits were assembled with axes, and heavy hammers, and long knives, and stout staves: and a few had hunting-bows. More were still coming in from outlying farms." (Return of the King, The Scouring of the Shire)

Might in the sense that not all of them had bows but also that it's a mighty force of hobbits ?

[Drifa]

That looks like a good answer, Romeran! I have been looking for the last few days.

[Romeran]

If not that then maybe The Last Battle at Fornost? Where the hobbits maintain that they sent bowmen but no men recorded it. So it might not have happened.

“To the last battle at Fornost with the Witch-lord of Angmar they sent some bowmen to the aid of the king, or so they maintained, though no tales of Men record it” (FotR, Prologue)

[Drifa]

That, looks even better!

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Fornost is better; and gives the 'might' - though I think it is a likely thing because, as the narrator goes on to say, that was pretty much the end of the North Kingdom so the records of Men are not going to look so hot afterwards.

Incidentally, if I may raise my voice above lore and call out to @Eldy Dunami on another thread. i have not had time to read carefully what you were saying about hobbits and the second age, but surely the Prologue of LOTR is the proper approach to the North Kingdom, which we glimpse here and elsewhere in the story of the hobbits (e.g. on the Barrows and on the border as they near the place of the three stone trolls)? We encounter Arnor through the eyes of the hobbits who settled a corner of it; this kingdom is born out of that part of the Map of The Hobbit that was not drawn: between the Hill and the three trolls.

Froor to you, my good @Romeran.

[Romeran]

Oh wow I forgot to ask a question here! Sorry for the delay.

Question: Who had seldom heard of hobbits sleeping under a tree?

[Drifa]

A fox?
Hobbits!’ he thought. ‘Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of a hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them! There’s something mighty queer behind this.’ He was quite right, but he never found out any more about it. Three Is Company, TFOTR

[Romeran]

@Drifa Correct! Over to you.

A bit of a silly one but the fox thinking to himself about hobbits (and the next line about him never finding anything about it) always makes me laugh when I re-read the books, I don't know why.

[Drifa]

Haha, it is always amusing to hear what an animal thinks. It must be the child inside us all. Thanks Romeran!

Who was led to a place where although it was the eighth month of the Reckoning, it appeared as though it was still the fifth month?

[Romeran]

That was a tough one. I had to go remind myself of what the month names were.

Answer: Eorl was led (by Cirion)

"Then Cirion led Eorl into the trees and the others followed in order; and after they had passed the first of the inner stones their voices were stilled and they walked warily as if unwilling to make any sound. So they came at last to the upper slopes of the Hill and passed through a belt of white birches and saw the stone stair going up to the summit. After the shadow of the Wood the sun seemed hot and bright, for it was the month of Úrimë; yet the crown of the Hill was green, as if the year were still in Lótessë." (The Unfinished Tales, Cirion and Eorl iii, my emphasis)

Here Úrimë is the eighth month and Lótessë is the fifth month in the King's Reckoning.

One of my favorite stories in UT (the others being the mariner's wife and Tuor's coming to Gondolin) but I didn't remember the names of the months!

[Drifa]

Yes, that is correct, Romeran! It is hard to remember all the months.

[Romeran]

It’s one of those things that I took from context to mean a different season but didn’t ever look up to see which months they were.

Question: where were there no rivers but a great lake with uncertain shores?

[Boromir88]

Gah, I hate feeling like I just read something exactly described as "no rivers but a great lake with uncertain shores" and still can't find the right place. I'm going to take a guess and say Cuivienen. The "Water of Awakening," from The Silmarillion: Of the Coming of the Elves.

In the changes of the world the shapes of lands and of seas have been broken and remade; river have not kept their courses, neither have mountains remained steadfast; and to Cuivienen there is no returning.

And I believe the Valar did not know where or when the Elves would awake, which would imply uncertainty.

[Romeran]

You are on the right track but the quotation is pretty specific about both the lack of rivers and the mere with no certain shores. I’m not very good at geography and I often skip over this part of the book

[Boromir88]

I’m not very good at geography and I often skip over this part of the book

That is most helpful, because I often skip over this chapter in the Silmarillion too, but didn't the most recent time. Thought it might have been found in Of Beleriand and its Realms, and lo and behold I remembered where I read that specific quote about Nevrast:

It was a hollow land, surrounded by mountains and great coast-cliffs higher than the plains behind, and no river flowed thence; and there was a great mere in the midst of Nevrast; with no certain shores...

[Romeran]

Hahaha nailed it I picked that part of the book precisely because I often gloss over it.

Floor is yours @Boromir88

[Boromir88]

Yay! Thank you. Now the problem of coming up with a new question.

Alright, this will sort of be in a riddle, because it might be too easy if I mentioned the specifics...I withheld my goodwill from no one except from one, for I saw a darkness that I hated and feared. Who am I?

[Drifa]

At first, I thought of Idril and Maeglin: mistrust, crookedness, darkness, and hatred in that tale. But upon further investigation, I came across this:

From her earliest years she had a marvellous
gift of insight into the minds of others, but judged them
with mercy and understanding, and she withheld her
goodwill from none save only Fëanor. In him she per-
ceived a darkness that she hated and feared, though
she did not perceive that the shadow of the same evil
had fallen upon the minds of all the Noldor, and upon
her own. UT, History of Galadriel and Celeborn

Are you Galadriel?

[Boromir88]

You are correct @Drifa! I'm reading up all the 2nd Age material lately so pulling questions from pretty much the most recent stuff I've been reading.

[Drifa]

Cool! Thanks! I love these types of thread activities. It gives me the chance to read material that I haven't looked at in a while. Try this one.

How many red and gold serpents glittered in the sun?

[Boromir88]

This is what I call tantalizing! Red and serpents makes me think it was the Haradrim, but doesn't fit the other clues, because "the sun" typically gets blocked out by Sauron's gloom. But I believe I have found it at last, and the answer is 4; the 4 barrow-blades Tom gifted to the hobbits:

For each of the hobbits he chose a dagger, long, leaf-shaped, and keen, of marvellous workmanship, damasked with serpent-forms in red and gold. They gleamed as he drew them from their black sheaths, wrought of some strange metal, light and strong, and set with many fiery stones. Whether by some virtue in these sheaths or because of the spell that lay on the mound, the blades seemed untouched by time, unrusted, sharp, glittering in the sun. (Fellowship of the Ring: Fog on the Barrow-Downs)

[Drifa]

You are correct, @Boromir88. One of the many favourite parts of TFOTR that I enjoy is when Tom places the great load of treasure in the sun. I have often wondered whose brooch Tom took for his Goldberry. I have even searched for a clue. Alas, I did not find one, and we will never know whose Fair shoulder wore it.

a brooch set with blue stones, many-shaded like flax-flowers or the wings of blue butterflies

Those were excellent blades the Hobbits received.

[Boromir88]

Thanks @Drifa! Sorry for the delay, had a busy weekend and trying to think of a good question.

According to another, this person could recite to you forgotten rhymes of things they don't understand and apologize for not having the things you seek.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

easy peasy lemon squeasy.

This is Aragorn on the herb-master of the House of Healing.

[Boromir88]

Oof I guess that was easy. . It’s yours @Chrysophylax Dives

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Oof indeed :)

Who brought the sword of Bilbo Baggins to the Necromancer?

[Aikári Salmarinian]

I don't remember that Sting was taken to the Necromancer as Sam had it in his possession with the Ring and freed the paralysed Frodo? I do remember Orcs fighting the mithril shirt in the Cirith Ungol tower.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Aiks, I'm going to give you that one.

The name I was looking for was Shagrat. In the appendix: "Shagrat brings Frodo’s cloak, mail-shirt, and sword to Barad-dur." But I was just reading this part of the story again and discovered Frodo giving Sting to Sam after they have escaped from the tower!
So I don't know quite what the deal is here, but my question was problematic and you got the passage i had in mind - so the floor is yours. :)

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Chrys: Yours is not problematic, but asks access into an area, where I haven't looked. Simple as that. I usually dig around in the tales themselves, mostly Hobbit and the novels of Lotr, branching to the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. But all that borders secundairy and tertiary?

A question? A dive in one of the four (main) books...

For all: "In my heart I believe Middle Earth is forgotten, and it needs my care in the desolation left behind."

[Romeran]

Answer: Sauron?

"Seeing the desolation of the world, Sauron said in his heart that the Valar, having overthrown Morgoth, had again forgotten Middle-earth; and his pride grew apace. He looked with hatred on the Eldar, and he feared the Men of Númenor who came back at whiles in their ships to the shores of Middle-earth; but for long he dissembled his mind and concealed the dark designs that he shaped in his heart" (The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, my emphasis)

I also thought possibly Ulmo but haven't found a sufficiently good quotation.

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Romeran: Cool! Well searched together. Floor is yours.

[Romeran]

I had a bit of a bait and switch on the question as originally I went searching for Ulmo during the second/third age before I ran into the Sauron quotation. The way you worded the question made it seem like it was a good person wishing to care for M-e

Question: What gift was given in pity rather than scorn?

[Romeran]

Hint: an honest hand and a true heart may hew amiss

[Nemroth]

Answer: The name of Labadal

From The Childhood of Túrin, the first chapter of The Children of Húrin:

To one friend only he turned at that time, and to him he spoke of his sorrow and the emptiness of the house. This friend was named Sador, a house-man in the service of Húrin; he was lame, and of small account. He had been a woodman, and by ill-luck or the mishandling of his axe he had hewn his right foot, and the footless leg had shrunken; and Túrin called him Labadal, which is 'Hopafoot', though the name did not displease Sador, for it was given in pity and not in scorn.

[Romeran]

Well I was actually looking for the knife that Túrin gives to Sador but this quotation and answer fits the question just as well.

The floor is yours @Nemroth

[Nemroth]

Maybe the passage got changed in the editing process? What quotation were you thinking of?

Alright, here goes - Question: Who hurriedly scratched a spared surface?

[Romeran]

Here's the quotation I had in mind @Nemroth :

Húrin soon marked that Túrin did not wear the knife, and he asked him whether his warning had made him fear it. Then Túrin answered: "No; but I gave the knife to Sador the woodwright."
"Do you then scorn your father's gift?" said Morwen; and again Túrin answered: "No; but I love Sador, and I feel pity for him."
Then Húrin said: "All three gifts were your own to give, Túrin: love, pity, and the knife the least.

[Nemroth]

Ah, well that is interesting how the phrase (almost) stuck but the object changed. Thanks for posting!