80 Fun Facts About Wizard

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

Geoffrey of Monmouth turned Myrddin into Merlinus, and the composite prophet-wizard he built was largely based on the wild seer Myrddin Wyllt.

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

He wrote Merlin into Historia Regum Britanniae around 1136 and returned to him in Vita Merlini in 1150.

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

The monument is raised for Aurelius Ambrosius; the story predates the Arthur-centred Merlin most people know.

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

The name is spelled Igerna in the Latin original; Tintagel on the Cornish coast has long traded on the legend.

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

That poem is where much of the later Merlin material, including his role with the Holy Grail, was fixed.

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

The story of his infernal parentage was the first popular account of that motif in Western Christian literature.

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

The chivalric order was quasi-religious in that telling, and Merlin himself chose every seat-holder.

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

The Dvergatal list also supplied Thorin, Fili, Kili and most of the other dwarf names in The Hobbit.

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

He belonged to the people of the Vala Manwe and was thought the wisest of the Maiar.

Gandalf's Sindarin name Mithrandir translates to what?

The Gondorians called him that; the Rohirrim's Stormcrow was rather less friendly.

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

The performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for The Fellowship of the Ring.

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

It glows blue when orcs are near and was forged in Gondolin ages earlier.

Gandalf secretly bears which of the Three Elven Rings?

It is the Ring of Fire; the other two went to Galadriel and Elrond.

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

His Elvish name Curunir carries the same idea; the skill curdled into industrial ambition at Isengard.

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

The Scouring of the Shire was cut entirely from the film trilogy.

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

Frodo had spared him moments earlier; his abused servant snapped and cut his throat.

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?

Rhosgobel means 'brown village' in Sindarin, and Radagast's Quenya name Aiwendil means bird-friend.

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

Rowling pictured him humming to himself as he walked, which suggested the name.

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

Harris played the headmaster in the first two films; the recast held for the final six.

Voldemort's wand is made from which wood, chosen for its poisonous sap and symbolism of death?

Harry's holly wand shares a core with it, which is why the two wands refuse to duel properly.

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

The Gaunts had dwindled into poverty by the time Merope met a Muggle named Tom Riddle.

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

The bird in question is Fawkes, the pet of the Hogwarts headmaster.

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

His full name is Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs.

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

Each traveller sees something different; Dorothy gets the giant head.

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

The drawer was labelled O-Z, or so the story goes; the book had sold three million copies by the time it entered the public domain in 1956.

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

The other three names belonged to the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man.

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

He was already famous as the Emcee in Cabaret; the show passed one billion dollars in Broadway revenue in 2016.

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

The film picked up ten Academy Award nominations and won for costume and production design.

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

His brother Antonio set him and his infant daughter adrift in a rotten boat.

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

The witch Sycorax had trapped Ariel there before Prospero ever reached the island.

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

She never appears on stage; everything we know about her comes from Prospero and Caliban.

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

He was a bronzesmith's son whose habit of keeping 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?

True names are power in Earthsea, so almost everyone goes by a use-name instead.

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

He was a failed student at Unseen University, described as the magical equivalent of the number zero.

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

It has hundreds of little legs and follows its owner anywhere, including through other dimensions.

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

He was one of the first characters made for the Realms and was born around 212 in Dalereckoning.

Elminster is known as the Sage of which place?

Among his many former lovers is the goddess of magic herself, Mystra.

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

The address was Roy Thomas and Gary Friedrich's real apartment when they wrote the comic.

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

Steve Ditko drew and co-created him, with Stan Lee scripting, in issue 110.

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

The nerve damage sent him searching for a cure and eventually to the Ancient One.

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

She was created by writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo, and lives with her aunts Hilda and Zelda.

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

She had grown up on screen as Sally Draper in Mad Men.

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

The three siblings train knowing that only one of them will eventually keep the family's powers.

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

The show ran on Disney Channel from 2007 to 2012 and later spawned a sequel series with Selena Gomez and David Henrie.

Which studio developed and published the 2008 MMORPG Wizard101?

The same company released a sister game, Pirate101, in 2012.

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

The seven 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?

He was also a serious mathematician whose 1570 preface to Euclid's Elements shaped English mathematics.

John Dee's famous scrying mirror, now in the British Museum, is an Aztec object made of what?

He came to believe angels dictated books to him in a special Enochian language through his medium.

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

Dee returned from six years abroad with him to find his Mortlake home vandalised and his great library ruined.

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

The philosopher's stone stories only appeared in the 17th century; one of his houses at 51 rue de Montmorency is the oldest stone house in the city.

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

Christopher Marlowe used it as the basis for The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus a few years later.

The word wizard derives from the Middle English word wys, meaning what?

It originally 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?

In the Middle Ages philosophy and magic blurred together, so a wise man and a magician were nearly the same job.

The earliest known modern magic wand appears in the Odyssey, wielded by which enchantress?

Hermes gave Odysseus the herb moly to protect him from her spells.

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

Their bands of ornament appear to encode lunisolar calendar sequences, so their wearers may have predicted eclipses.

In which city has the Wizard of New Zealand preached from a ladder in Cathedral Square since 1974?

Prime Minister Mike Moore made him the 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?

Owner Abe Pollin dropped the old name because of its violent connotations.

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

Menlo Park, New Jersey, was the site of his research laboratory.

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

Mim cheats throughout the shape-shifting contest, and the disease Merlin gives her puts her to bed.

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

Read it backwards and you get the studio founder's name.

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

Goethe's poem, Der Zauberlehrling, had been written exactly a hundred years earlier, in 1797.

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

By birth he is Howell Jenkins, and his family back home has no idea what he does.

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

His cursed hourglass eyes show him the effects of time on everything he looks at.

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

The memorise-then-forget spell system was lifted from Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories.

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

Founder Peter Adkison had started the company in 1990 near Seattle, six years before the Magic: The Gathering boom made it a giant.

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

The name is a co-creator's spelled backwards, and the game 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?

The shabby kingdom's name puns on the Freudian id as well as on Oz.

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

Gargamel wants a Smurf for a potion that turns base metals into precious metal, and Hank Azaria played him in the 2011 film.

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

Colin Morgan's young Merlin hides his gifts in a Camelot where Uther has outlawed magic.

Camelot scenes in the BBC series Merlin were filmed at the Chateau de Pierrefonds in which country?

The 19th-century restored castle stands north of Paris and doubled for Camelot across all five series.

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

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?

Syfy adapted the trilogy into a series that premiered in 2015.

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

The film also showcased the Power Glove, whose one big line became a meme decades later.

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

Jonathan Freeman 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?

The limit was later popularized by role-playing games, where it became known as 'Vancian' magic.

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

Eddings's wizards follow the long tradition of magicians as royal advisors, like Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings.

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

Baum switched terms from that book onward to avoid the word 'witch', which was more widely regarded as 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'.