Q 01/05

In which year was The Hobbit first published by George Allen & Unwin?

A) 1937

B) 1945

C) 1954

D) 1962

Answer · why

A) 1937

The first print run of 1,500 copies sold out by December on the strength of the reviews; a signed first edition has since fetched over £60,000.

Q 02/05

Whose favourable report persuaded Allen & Unwin to publish The Hobbit?

A) The publisher's wife and secretary

B) The publisher's 10-year-old son

C) Tolkien's friend C.S. Lewis

D) The poet W.H. Auden

Answer · why

B) The publisher's 10-year-old son

Rayner Unwin was paid a shilling per report; he later said that in those days 'if I said it was good enough to publish, it was published'.

Q 03/05

Where did Tolkien say he wrote the line 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit'?

A) On a napkin in an Oxford pub

B) In the margin of a Beowulf text

C) On a blank exam page he was marking

D) In a letter to his eldest son

Answer · why

C) On a blank exam page he was marking

He was grading School Certificate papers at the time; the story was finished by late 1932 and lent to friends including C.S. Lewis.

Q 04/05

How many dwarves make up Thorin's company that Bilbo joins?

A) Nine

B) Eleven

C) Fifteen

D) Thirteen

Answer · why

D) Thirteen

Gandalf tricks Bilbo into hosting them all for supper; their names come from the Dvergatal, the dwarf-list in the Old Norse poem Völuspá.

Q 05/05

What role does Gandalf propose that Bilbo fill on the expedition?

A) Burglar

B) Cook

C) Scout

D) Map-reader

Answer · why

A) Burglar

The dumbfounded hobbit is later called 'thief' by both Gollum and Smaug, echoing the cup-thief of Beowulf.