Q 01/05

In which city was J. R. R. Tolkien born in 1892?

A) Bloemfontein

B) Cape Town

C) Birmingham

D) Pretoria

Answer · why

A) Bloemfontein

Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State, on 3 January 1892, where his father Arthur managed the local branch of the Bank of Africa; he die...

Q 02/05

What bit the infant Tolkien in the garden in South Africa?

A) A puff adder

B) A scorpion

C) A large baboon spider

D) A vervet monkey

Answer · why

C) A large baboon spider

As a toddler Tolkien was bitten by a large baboon spider in the family garden in South Africa; he later said he had no memory of it, though readers se...

Q 03/05

Tolkien's aunt Jane's farm gave its name to which place in his fiction?

A) Rivendell

B) Bag End

C) Bree

D) Buckland

Answer · why

B) Bag End

Bag End was the local name of his aunt Jane Neave's farm at Dormston, Worcestershire, which Tolkien visited; he borrowed it for Bilbo's home under the...

Q 04/05

Which children's book did the young Tolkien dislike?

A) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

B) The Princess and the Goblin

C) The Red Fairy Book

D) Treasure Island

Answer · why

D) Treasure Island

As a boy Tolkien disliked Treasure Island, Hans Andersen's stories and The Pied Piper; he found Alice merely amusing and loved George MacDonald's Curd...

Q 05/05

Tolkien's mother Mabel died in 1904 of what, when he was 12?

A) Tuberculosis

B) Typhoid

C) Pneumonia

D) Acute diabetes

Answer · why

D) Acute diabetes

Mabel Tolkien died of acute diabetes in November 1904, aged 34, when insulin treatment was nearly two decades away; her family had cut off support aft...