The Revived Tolkien Trivia

No apologies needed or accepted, although I confess disappointment that you didn't have some hard-to-find nook in an overlooked corner of Lost Tales that talked about the making of the Nauglamir.:p

As Bo implied, it's fun to try to figure this stuff out, so don't apologize, at least not to me!

Speaking of figuring this stuff out...

What is red, black, and folded? As always, quote enjoyed, but not required as long as some of our peerage lack the books...
 
It's probably something like Feanor's first banner....

...but I'll guess the CJRT hand drawn map of Beleriand glued into the back of my 1977 Allen & Unwin harback copy of The Silmarillion.
 
You are so frickin' close that I could probably smell your cologne, Boaz sir. You have it in spirit and design (if not direct reference), but the quote I'm thinking of doesn't occur there, though, so I have to ask you to look again...
 
I do not wear cologne, but I do eat garlic like it's one of the major food groups.

I do not remember the map from The Hobbit (Thror's map of Wilderland and Erebor) having red letters... I think the hidden script appeared in silver when Elrond held it in the moonlight. And my memory of the map from The Lord of the Rings had only black ink.
 
It would be unfair at this point not to give it to you since you're doing this from memory. In each of the trilogy books there is a preface page before the maps. While you had the wrong book (curiously, there's no such reference page right before the maps in The Silmarillion), and the quote specifically does not include The Silmarillion, you are correct in that it's the maps, and also that they were drawn by Christopher Tolkien. The reference goes on to read:
...printed in red and black on large folded sheets pasted in at the end of the three books.
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, referring to the original editions.

Good job, Boaz. A red, black and folded bell to you, with the honors for posting the next question.
 
Okay.... So I won out of pity.... I'm soooooo proud. I've never even seen an original. My childhood copies were American paperbacks with Tolkien's art on the front and his photo on the back.

Here goes...

Gandalf told someone that a dumb friend of his would teach another person a lesson if a certain condition was not met. What was the childhood memory the prospective student mentioned earlier in the conversation?
Click to expand...
 
Boaz said:
Okay.... So I won out of pity.... I'm soooooo proud. I've never even seen an original. My childhood copies were American paperbacks with Tolkien's art on the front and his photo on the back.
Click to expand...

Re the originals, neither have I (wasn't around when they were published, and unless one is Extollager, Gollum, JD, or some other serious student of Tolkien/book collector, one is not likely to HAVE that 1st edition, 1st impression Allen & Unwin series). And you had all the right elements (the colors, the folding, the fact that it was the maps), just the wrong book, so pity had nothing to do with it, either. I say again, good memory, chief!:)
 
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Okay... no bites as of yet...

This conversation has always stuck in my mind... but perhaps no one else remembers it.
 
Gandalf told someone that a dumb friend of his would teach another person a lesson if a certain condition was not met. What was the childhood memory the prospective student mentioned earlier in the conversation?

Hmmm, I've always thought Gandalf's comment was memorable, but apparently not. I'll give you the first name...

Gandalf told Aragorn that a dumb friend of his would teach another person a lesson if a certain condition was not met. What was the childhood memory the prospective student mentioned earlier in the conversation?
 
Why, I have never heard that it had any great virtue; and indeed I have often said to my sisters when we came upon it growing in the woods: "kingsfoil", I said, "'tis a strange name...

'Wholesome verily,' said Aragorn. 'And now, dame, if you love the Lord Faramir, run as quick as your tongue and get me kingsfoil, if there is a leaf in the City.'

'And if not,' said Gandalf, 'I will ride to Lossarnach with Ioreth behind me, and she shall take me to the woods, but not to her sisters. And Shadowfax shall show her the meaning of haste.'
Click to expand...

The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, Book 5, Chapter VIII The Houses of Healing

Shadowfax is the dumb friend.
Ioreth is the other person.
The meaning of haste is the lesson.
A lack of kingsfoil in the City is the predicated condition.
Coming upon kingsfoil in the woods with her (Ioreth's) sisters is the memory.
 
Okay, forgive a 'dumb' question, but Gandalf must mean 'dumb' as in lacking the ability to speak, I hope? Shadowfax was a marvel, and he could understand human speech, so he might have been dumb, but he certainly wasn't dumb! He was quite smart!
 
That's how I read it, CC...can't speak!

And dumb in this quote is Bo's clever description, rather than Gandalf's assertion; not sure Gandalf ever described anyone one or anything as "dumb" meaning stupid.
 
Grim for the win.

Lossarnach with Ioreth behind me, and she shall take me to the woods, but not to her sisters. And Shadowfax shall show her the meaning of haste.

Ioreth and the Gaffer are the two characters who just ooze personality both for themselves and their countries.

Gandalf's was trying to save Middle-earth, he'd just saved Minas Tirith, and he was being blocked by this woman reminiscing about picking flowers.
 
Yep. And the image of this healer woman screaming her head off while bouncing along on the back of a bolting Shadowfax is pretty funny, too.

Need to cogitate on my next challenge, and too tired tonight (sorry!). Will post it tomorrow (er, much LATER today!).
 
There's always the thread... Who would you be in Middle-earth? And everyone always answers Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf, Boromir, Feanor, Fingolfin, Beren, Earendil, Turin, Tuor, etc... Well, honestly I'd either be Ioreth (a blabber mouth), the Master of the House of Healing (a pedantic know it all), or Ted Sandyman (a close minded wannabe).
 
All right, a break from the multi-part quest challenges.

Who came to the Night of Naught?
 
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