The Revived Tolkien Trivia

[Pyan]

The main information we have about Glamdring comes from Elrond:

Elrond knew all about runes of every kind. That day he looked at the swords they had brought from the trolls’ lair, and he said: “These are not troll-make. They are old swords, very old swords of the High Elves of the West, my kin. They were made in Gondolin for the Goblin-wars. They must have come from a dragon’s hoard or goblin plunder, for dragons and goblins destroyed that city many ages ago....This, Gandalf, was Glamdring, Foe-hammer that the king of Gondolin once wore. Keep them well!”

The Hobbit - Chapter 3 - A Short Rest (my emphasis)

There is only one person in the Tale of Years actually called the King of Gondolin, so, lacking any other information, the first person to bear Glamdring was Turgon, son of Fingolfin, son of Finwë, and the founder of Gondolin.


Incidentally, how did Gandalf still wield Glamdring in the later part of the LotR? We're told he was wearing it as he rode north with the hobbits after the coronation of King Elessar, but when he reappears after the fight with the Balrog, he says to Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas: "Naked I was sent back-for a brief time, until my task was done. And naked I lay upon the mountain-top..."

Any ideas, anyone? (Put them in a new thread if you have!)

 

[pdurrant]

The main information we have about Glamdring comes from Elrond:


The Hobbit - Chapter 3 - A Short Rest (my emphasis)

There is only one person in the Tale of Years actually called the King of Gondolin, so, lacking any other information, the first person to bear Glamdring was Turgon, son of Fingolfin, son of Finwë, and the founder of Gondolin.


Incidentally, how did Gandalf still wield Glamdring in the later part of the LotR? We're told he was wearing it as he rode north with the hobbits after the coronation of King Elessar, but when he reappears after the fight with the Balrog, he says to Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas: "Naked I was sent back-for a brief time, until my task was done. And naked I lay upon the mountain-top..."

Any ideas, anyone? (Put them in a new thread if you have!)

I guess it was too easy after all. Or else Pyan's brilliant. Or both, I suppose!

I seem to have acquired a bell by mysterious means. Here, Pyan, you'd better have it before it disappears in a puff of logic.

 

[Pyan]

Ting! Thank you...


If there were Siamese cats in Middle-earth, which part would they come from?

(Quote, please!)

 

[HareBrain]

So annoying! I know (I think) the answer, the book, and I even remember the context, but I can't narrow it down to a particular part of the book in question enough to find the quote.

 

[Pyan]

It's about halfway down the left-hand page, HB, if that helps...

 

[HareBrain]

Actually, it does!

My only comment is that of Puck among mortals. I fear that to me Siamese cats belong to the fauna of Mordor, but you need not tell the cat breeder that.

Letters, #219

(For those who don't have Letters, a cat-breeder asked via the publisher if she could register a litter of Siamese kittens under names from LOTR)

 

[Pyan]

Tinkle...a diamanté cat-collar engraved "My name is Sauron, and I live at No 1, Barad-dur Terrace, Mordor." with a little silver bell goes to you, HB, and it's your turn...

 

[HareBrain]

Thankyou, I shall wear it always. The appearance of any similar ones on eBay is purely coincidental.

Now, my question. The Nazgul weren't the only ones to lose steeds in the river that flows past Rivendell. Who else?

(Quote please)

 

[Pyan]

Well, I'm not 100% sure here, but...

Boromir, on his journey North to Rivendell, had to cover the second half of his journey on foot, because he lost his horse:

When I was sent out as a messenger, I passed through the Gap by the skirts of the White Mountains, and crossed the Isen and the Greyflood into Northerland. A long and wearisome journey. Four hundred leagues I reckoned it, and it took me many months; for I lost my horse at Tharbad, at the fording of the Greyflood

FotR, Chapter VIII, Farewell to Lórien

Now, the River Greyflood is formed by the confluence of the Hoarwell, and the Loudwater: and the Loudwater is the river that has the fords where the Nazgûl were swept away.

So, Boromir could be said to have lost his horse in the river that flows past Rivendell...technically, anyway...

 

[HareBrain]

Well done Pyan, that's exactly what I was looking for. I thought that would be quite hard, actually, not so much in terms of knowing the answer as finding the quote, which isn't in one of the Rivendell chapters where one might expect.

So, a Tesco Value bell for you (because it's a-ford-a-bell) and the floor is yours once again.

 

[Pyan]

a-ford-a-bell

. Heh...

Ok, try this:

Where's a road that four can ride abreast upon?

(quote needed...)

 

[pdurrant]

. Heh...

Ok, try this:

Where's a road that four can ride abreast upon?

(quote needed...)

The Stonewain Valley, somewhere between Rohan and Gondor.

‘Wild Men go quick on feet,’ said Ghân. ‘Way is wide for four horses in Stonewain Valley yonder,’ he waved his hand southwards; ‘but narrow at beginning and at end.'

The Lord of The Rings, The Ride of the Rohirrim.

(Nice use of 'abreast'. Made me think of The Hobbit and of Helm's Deep. But those are all about how many people can go abreast!)

 

[Pyan]

Excellent, pdurrant - here's your bell, and also your opportunity to set a question!

 

[pdurrant]

...and also your opportunity to set a question!

I really ought to get a few prepared - it's hard coming up with something that isn't trivial!

The Ring of Barahir was kept by the descendants of Beren and Luthien even when all other heirlooms from the first age were lost.

But it wasn't always in their possession. Who else has had possession of the Ring of Barahir?

A quote is not necessary.

 

[Clansman]

Since no quote is necessary...

Quite a few had it in their possession, but all in the line of Elros, to the Lords of Adunie, and then the Kings of Arnor, until the ring was given to the men of Ferochel when Arvedui, the last king of Arthedain (one of the splinter kingdoms of Arnor) gave it them as a thank-you for their aid (he likely had nothing else). It was later ransomed by the Dunedain, and taken to Rivendell, where it stayed with the other descendants of Beren and Luthien (the line Elrond, not Elros), until it was given by Elrond to Aragorn.

You could also count the orcs who cut Barahir's hand off, but pdurrant mentioned only the descendants of Beren and Luthien, not the forbears.

This definitely came from the appendices to The Return of the King, and perhaps from some part of Unfinished Tales. Sorry pdurrant, but esoteric stuff like this is my forte, and I've read the appendices many more times than the books.

 

[pdurrant]

...until the ring was given to the men of Ferochel ...

Unless it's a spelling variant I'm unfamiliar with, I think you meant Forochel. But yes, that's the incident I was thinking of.

Over to you — catch this bell enchanted against typos.

 

[Clansman]

Okay, okay, Forochel, not Ferochel. I typed too fast.

Makes me think of an old Road Runner cartoon:

Wile E. Coyote: (Carnivorus Famishus)

pdurrant: (Pedantissimus Extraordinairius).

 

[Grimward]

Erm, excuse me Clanny, but might there be a challenge in there somewhere?

 

[Clansman]

A challenge you be wanting, is it? Then a challenge there will be!

As is my wont, it is a challenge in verse, probably because of all the disparaging of verse in http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/45317-is-it-me-or-is-it-tolkien-6.html. Anyway, I like posing questions in verse. Makes me feel like I'm a protagonist in Riddles in the Dark (no, that is not a hint).

A funny thing am I,
Of little use or none;
Passed 'round the town, again and again,
Until the passing is done.
Yet, my name it is my own,
Though of many kinds I be:
That is the question of this riddle,
What name is given to me?

Quote required, s'il vous plait.

 

[pdurrant]

A challenge you be wanting, is it? Then a challenge there will be!

As is my wont, it is a challenge in verse, probably because of all the disparaging of verse in http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/45317-is-it-me-or-is-it-tolkien-6.html. Anyway, I like posing questions in verse. Makes me feel like I'm a protagonist in Riddles in the Dark (no, that is not a hint).

A funny thing am I,
Of little use or none;
Passed 'round the town, again and again,
Until the passing is done.
Yet, my name it is my own,
Though of many kinds I be:
That is the question of this riddle,
What name is given to me?

Quote required, s'il vous plait.

A mathom?

From "Concerning Hobbits":

So, though there was still some store of weapons in the Shire, these were used mostly as trophies, hanging above hearths or on walls, or gathered into the museum at Michel Delving. The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom. Their dwellings were apt to become rather crowded with mathoms, and many of the presents that passed from hand to hand were of that sort.