Q 01/05

A doctor was prosecuted in 2015 for sharing images comparing Gollum to which leader?

A) Vladimir Putin

B) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

C) Viktor Orbán

D) Silvio Berlusconi

Answer · why

B) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: unsure whether a Gollum comparison even counted as an insult, the court ordered a panel of experts to judge.

Q 02/05

To which branch of hobbits did Gollum originally belong?

A) Bree-hobbits

B) Harfoots

C) Fallohides

D) Stoors

Answer · why

D) Stoors

Stoors: that breed migrated west, but a group later fled Angmar back to the Anduin, where Sméagol's people lived by the Gladden Fields.

Q 03/05

Tolkien built the name Sméagol from which old language?

A) Old Norse

B) Old English

C) Classical Latin

D) Middle Welsh

Answer · why

B) Old English

Old English: Tolkien had it stand in for a Mannish tongue, so Sméagol 'translates' his real name, Trahald, meaning 'burrowing'.

Q 04/05

How did the name Gollum arise?

A) From an Elvish word meaning 'thief'

B) From the name of his cave

C) From a goblin nickname for him

D) From a swallowing noise in his throat

Answer · why

D) From a swallowing noise in his throat

From a swallowing noise in his throat: his own relatives mocked the habit by turning it into his nickname.

Q 05/05

Whom did Smeagol murder to get the Ring?

A) His cousin Deagol

B) A Wood Elf

C) His brother Drogo

D) A goblin fisherman

Answer · why

A) His cousin Deagol

His cousin Deagol, who had found the Ring on the riverbed after a large fish dragged him into the water.