50 free Fantasy trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
47 free Fantasy trivia questions with answers. Fantasy runs from Victorian pioneers to BookTok bestsellers, and this quiz covers the whole shelf. It starts with the founders: George MacDonald, Lord Dunsany, William Morris, Baum's Oz, then Tolkien's Hobbit and Rings, Lewis's Narnia and the Inklings. Then the modern epics: Le Guin's Earthsea, Jordan's Wheel of Time and its Sanderson ending, Martin's Westeros, Pratchett's Discworld, Rowling's 600 million copies, Pullman, Gaiman's Sandman and American Gods. Sword and sorcery gets its due with Conan, Elric and Fritz Leiber's coinage; so do Dungeons & Dragons, The Princess Bride, Peter Jackson's eleven Oscars, the World Fantasy Award's Lovecraft bust and N. K. Jemisin's Hugo hat-trick. The new wave is here too: Sanderson's Kickstarter, the Cosmere, Sarah J. Maas, Fourth Wing, romantasy, The Witcher, Howl's Moving Castle and Wicked. Easy questions suit anyone who has seen the films; harder ones will test lifelong readers. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the books and authors, and the source line appears under each question after you answer.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was The Hobbit published?
1937
It was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and won a New York Herald Tribune prize for juvenile fiction.
Q 02How many dwarves accompany Bilbo and Gandalf on the quest to the Lonely Mountain?
Thirteen
Thorin's Company sets out to reclaim their treasure from the dragon Smaug.
Q 03The Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes for what reason?
Economics
Tolkien meant it as one volume paired with The Silmarillion.
Q 04Roughly how many copies has The Lord of the Rings sold?
Over 150 million
It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949 and translated into at least 38 languages.
Q 05Where was J. R. R. Tolkien born?
Bloemfontein, South Africa
He later held the Rawlinson and Bosworth chair of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford.
Q 06Tolkien and C. S. Lewis were both members of which Oxford literary group?
The Inklings
Lewis was among the friends Tolkien lent The Hobbit manuscript to.
Q 07How many novels make up The Chronicles of Narnia?
Seven
They were published between 1950 and 1956, illustrated by Pauline Baynes.
Q 08Roughly how many copies have the Narnia books sold?
About 120 million
They are available in 47 languages.
Q 09A Wizard of Earthsea, the first of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books, was published in which year?
1968
The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore followed, and Tehanu came in 1990.
Q 10Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time was originally planned as a trilogy; how many volumes did it reach?
14
Brandon Sanderson co-wrote the last three after Jordan died in 2007.
Q 11Who finished The Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan's death?
Brandon Sanderson
Jordan died working on what was to be the twelfth and final book.
Q 12The 2022 Kickstarter by the author of Mistborn to self-publish four novels raised roughly how much?
$41.7 million
185,341 backers made it one of the most successful campaigns ever.
Q 13Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive are set in which shared universe?
The Cosmere
The Stormlight Archive is planned to run ten novels.
George R. R. Martin began writing A Game of Thrones in 1991; when was it published?
Q 21Neil Gaiman's The Sandman ran for how many issues from 1989 to 1996?
75
It was published by DC Comics.
Q 22Michael Moorcock's albino anti-hero Elric wields which soul-drinking sword?
Stormbringer
The sword is both his greatest asset and his curse.
Q 23Robert E. Howard's Conan debuted in which year in the pages of Weird Tales?
1932
He is also known as Conan the Cimmerian.
Q 24Who coined the term 'sword and sorcery' in a 1961 fanzine, answering a request from Michael Moorcock?
1996
The series has sold over 100 million copies in 47 languages.
Q 15A Song of Ice and Fire is set on which two continents?
Westeros and Essos
The world as a whole has no established name.
Q 16How many Discworld novels did Terry Pratchett write?
41
The Colour of Magic came in 1983 and The Shepherd's Crown posthumously in 2015.
Q 17The Discworld rests on the backs of four elephants standing on what?
A giant turtle
The turtle is Great A'Tuin.
Q 18Which comic novel did Pratchett co-write with Neil Gaiman in 1990?
Good Omens
It is an apocalyptic comedy later adapted for TV.
Q 19As of 2023, the Harry Potter books had sold more than how many copies, the most of any book series?
600 million
Bloomsbury published them in the UK and Scholastic in the US.
Q 20Philip Pullman's Northern Lights was published in North America under what title?
The Golden Compass
It opened the His Dark Materials trilogy in 1995.
Fritz Leiber
Moorcock had demanded a name for Howard-style fantasy adventure in the fanzine Amra.
Q 25William Goldman's The Princess Bride is framed as an abridgement of a book by which fictional author?
S. Morgenstern
Rob Reiner's 1987 film starred Cary Elwes and Robin Wright.
Q 26Dungeons & Dragons was first published in 1974 by which company?
TSR
Tactical Studies Rules was founded by Gary Gygax; he and Dave Arneson created the game.
Q 27The Return of the King won how many Academy Awards, from as many nominations?
11
It tied Ben-Hur and Titanic and was the first fantasy film to win Best Picture.
Q 28Until 2015 the World Fantasy Award trophy was a bust of which writer?
H. P. Lovecraft
The awards began at the first World Fantasy Convention in 1975.
Q 29N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy made her the first author to do what?
Win the Best Novel Hugo three years running
She was also the first African-American author to win Best Novel.
Q 30Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain, drawing on Welsh myth, consists of how many books?
Five
The High King won the Newbery Medal.