The Revived Tolkien Trivia

As stated, need another day or two (am dense, but my meager powers of deduction had already arrived at this latest clue, your green..er..greyness!)
 
Getting warm, sparks of inspiration, glimmers of ideas... Argh! And now that I haven't got my The Hobbit with me...
 
pyan said:
Well, looks like everyone's struck out with this...

You've had three clues...here's another (less of a clue than a plain statement of fact)...the two books are the Hobbit and TFotR...

Does this produce a glimmer of an idea?
Click to expand...
I'd have guessed it was those books, but together they're a fair few pages...
 
More clues?

Gollum's cave, Old man willow...
 
Not yet. Am sticking rigidly to the years you posted as defining the span of time in which the used artifacts "devolve" and hoping I am accurate in doing so.
 
I nicked someone's The Hobbit, but I find it quite a lot to read in a couple of minutes, Old One...
 
I have figured out one thing, as I am reading The Hobbit to my kids right now, but I need to go to FotR to get the other quote. Something warming, perhaps, or leading to warming...
 
You're kidding, right? I'm reading The Hobbit to my girls, too (the party has just been snatched by the goblins). Way too funny, Clanny.
 
This is all very interesting, but hardly relevant to the question....:rolleyes::D
 
Nope, all kidding aside. My daughter is 7, and my son is 4 (today!!). He doesn't quite get it, but he likes the voices I do (the trolls were particularly fun). I'm just ahead of you, oh Grim One of the dead dragon carcass, on the other side of the Misty Mountains in the glade of Pine trees: Out of the Frying Pan...
 
Ah. but if Pyan responds to my comment regarding the exactness of the years, one might not need to read the entire Fellowship.....

*grins evily*
 
Okay, my best guess for one of the items is matches. Bilbo had them, but Frodo and the gang didn't, as they used tinder boxes, like the dwarves, who probably thought using matches was an insult to their ability to light fires.

I have no quotes, and I have no idea what the other item might be, so I don't get a bell, but at least I tried. sigh.
 
That's what I was after, and seeing it took so long, (a) I, in my capacity as a co-founder of the thread, hereby, and for this answer only, waive the requirements for the references, and (b) resolve not to be so frelling clever next time...:eek::D

Oh, and you got the second item, Clansman! Matches and Tinderboxes

For what it's worth....

Then he (Bilbo) felt for matches and he could not find any at all, and that shattered his hopes completely.
Click to expand...
The Hobbit - Chapter 5 - Riddles in the Dark

He (Sam) ran to the ponies and before long came back with two tinderboxes and a hatchet.
Click to expand...

FotR - Book I - Chapter VI - The Old Forest


The Quest of Erebor is set in Third Age 2941. (RotK - Appendix B -The Tale of Years)
Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin encounter Old Man Willow in Third Age 3018. (RotK - Appendix B -The Tale of Years)

So hobbits would seem to have regressed somewhat, technologically, in the intervening 77 years.

I know what some people may say, that perhaps they just forgot the matches, and had tinderboxes for back-up, but nowhere in LotR does in mention matches, IIRC, and anyway, I carefully used the word "seems" in the original question...:D

A warm, glimmering, spark-ling bell to the Clansman, and it's his turn to pose the question.
 
Fair enough! I liked that question quite a bit, and just read Riddles in the Dark this morning and therefore the matches reference too, but I didn't realize it was the answer needed, though - of course - with all the references to sparks and warmth and what-not, a bell should've rung, but in the end, didn't...
 
I just got to Riddles in the Dark last night, right up to the part where the match is no longer in his pocket and he is crushed, in fact, and said to myself...Bilbo has matches...but didn't have time to check Fellowship up thru the departure from Rivendell (ie, thru the indicated year) to see if that was it. Timing is everything, Clanny; hat's off to you.
 
Sorry for the double post, but I would rather you give it both guns, as the saying goes, Py. Like Marky, I thought I was getting close, and while it was easy enough to identify things in The Hobbit, it was a wrench checking thru all of Book I in Fellowship to see if practice had regressed. Good challenge, then.

Again Clanny, good show. Will pester you for a question tomorrow (which occurs in 15 minutes for me!). :D
 
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