49 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.