The History of Middle-earth Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Cottage of Lost Play

All of these are in this first volume, along with six others. In 'The Cottage of Lost Play', a human visits Tol Eressea, an Elvish isle whose name in Quenya means Lonely Island, and seeks to discover the history of its inhabitants. His name changes from Eriol in the earliest versions to Aelfwine, and his nationality also becomes more specific, as an Englishman from the Middle Ages.

The stories he collects will be the history of the land.

Answer: The Tale of Tinuviel

The love between the human prince Beren and the Sindar elf Luthien is central to much of the mythology of Middle-earth. In this first version, however, Beren was a Gnome (a Noldor Elf) rather than a human, and Tinuviel (meaning daughter of the starry twilight, or, less literally, nightingale) was the name of the elf later known as Luthien.

It is thought that Tolkien was inspired to construct the story of Beren and Luthien by that of himself and his wife Edith, both because of a number of parallels that can be drawn (Beren means brave in Sindarin, Tolkien means foolishly brave in derivation; religious differences caused parental disapproval of their relationship) and because Tolkien wrote to his son that he wanted Edith's grave to have the inscription "for she was (and knew she was) my Lúthien."

Answer: A type of epic or lyric poetry

The poems included here include poems written in the early stages of the development of the myth structure, as well as some from later on. They are collected not because of their chronology, but because of their format. The developing story of Beren and Luthien gets another airing in 'The Lay of Leithian' (a word that Tolkien said meant 'release from bondage'), an unfinished poem with over 4000 verses.

Other poems in this volume also expand on the Beren-Luthien tale, as well as developing the story of 'The Children of Hurin'.

Answer: The Shaping of Middle-earth

This book collects notes, including maps, timelines and diagrams, produced by JRR Tolkien as he developed the ideas for his mythology into their final, fully-developed, form. 'The Sketch of Mythology' is considered by some to be the first text that was to develop into 'The Silmarillion'. 'Annals of Valinor' and 'Annals of Beleriand' show how Tolkien was beginning (in the 1930s) to develop a chronology for the First Age.

Answer: The Lost Road

As the introduction to 'The Lost Road and Other Writings' explains, 'The Lost Road' was written as the result of an agreement that Lewis and Tolkien would each try to write a piece of science fiction. Lewis produced a short story about space travel, which he would eventually develop into his 'Space Trilogy': 'Out of the Silent planet', 'Perelandra' and 'That Hideous Strength'. Tolkien attempted a story, never finished, about time travel.

The rough structure is set up, and several chapters written, allowing us to see what was planned - a progression backwards in time that would eventually reach back to the fall of Numenor.

Answer: The Lord of the Rings

'The Return of the Shadow' was originally proposed as the title for the first part of this epic masterpiece. Tolkien actually envisioned 'The Lord of the Rings' as a single volume, divided into six 'books' and a load of appendices (including most of what was later published separately as 'The Silmarillion').

It was the publisher's decision to produce them as a set of three books, using the titles with which we are now familiar: 'The Fellowship of the Ring' includes an introduction called 'Concerning Hobbits, and other matters', followed by 'Book I: The Ring Sets Out' and 'Book II: The Ring Goes South'; 'The Two Towers' includes 'Book III: The Treason of Isengard' and 'Book IV: The Ring Goes East'; 'The Return of the King' includes 'Book V: The War of the Ring', 'Book VI: The End of the Third Age', and (at least in some editions) appendices with background information about the further history of Middle-earth.

Answer: The Treason of Isengard

Every volume of this duodecalogy (if that's not a word, it ought to be one - its etymology indicates that it refers to a group of twelve books) has an inscription at the start which provides the reader a chance to sharpen their skills at translating from Elvish to get a brief summary of the book's contents. For this book, the full inscription reads (according to the translation provided in the Wikipedia article on the book): "In the Treason of Isengard the story of the Fellowship of the Ring is traced from Rivendell through Moria and the Land of Lothlorien to the time[?] of its ending at Salembel beside Anduin the Great river, then is told of the return of Gandalf Mithrandir, of the meeting of the hobbits with Fangorn and of the war upon the Riders of Rohan by the traitor Saruman."

Answer: The opening of the Black Gate

The opening of the Black Gate followed the setback experienced by Sauron's forces in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, fought outside the walls of Gondor. The battle had been going well for them until Aragorn arrived in a fleet of ships, and trapped Sauron's men between the fresh new fighters and the troops of Gondor.

After that battle was over, Aragorn marched on the Black Gate of Mordor, hoping to divert attention from the hobbits on their way to destroy the One Ring.

Answer: Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth

In this conversation, the Elven king Finrod Felagund and the mortal woman Andreth discuss the ways in which their sorrows are both similar and different. It includes the 'Tale of Adanel', in which Andreth offers a version of the story of original sin, as well as consideration of the healing of human sorrows through resurrection.

The material for this book is the unpublished writings, written after the publication of 'The Lord of the Rings', which would later be published as 'The Silmarillion', and follows Tolkien's development of that mythology. The title of the book refers to its provision of details about the Elder Days, including the preliminaries to the rise to power of Morgoth.

Answer: Anaire

While her husband Fingolfin appeared in 'The Silmarillion' as a valiant warrior, Anaire disappeared. She is recorded here as being a Noldor, and the mother of Fingon, Turgon, Aredhel, and Argon (another character who missed out on appearing in the final version).

(If I have to tell you who Arwen and Galadriel are, you probably spent most of this quiz making blind guesses!)