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Author
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Topic: Trivia(Archive1)
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Fingolfin of the Noldor
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 156
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posted 10-06-2001 05:35 AM
Bringing the question back to the fore...
Of all the wonderful things that were ever made Under the Mountain, which one had the most impact on Smaug?
From: Concord, New Hampshire | Registered: Nov 2000
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Eorl the Young
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 843
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posted 10-06-2001 05:56 AM
Could this be a trick question?
From: Denmark, home of the highest mountains in Europe | Registered: Sep 2001
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The Laurenendôrian
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 106
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posted 10-06-2001 06:03 AM
For instance, the Black Arrow of Bard!
From: Laurenendôr | Registered: Oct 2000
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Bungo
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 278
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posted 10-06-2001 11:43 AM
The Black Arrow it is! (It wasn't really a trick question, except maybe for the play on words with 'impact'.) The Laurenendorian triumphs again. Your go, L.E.
From: Kowloon, Hong Kong | Registered: Feb 2001
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Marcho Blackwood, MSS
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 270
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posted 10-06-2001 01:57 PM
Bungo, you sly devil you! What an awesome question! I read everything in the Hobbit about treasure and Smaug and still couldn't figure it out! Wow!
From: Bindbale, North Farthing | Registered: Feb 2001
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The Laurenendôrian
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 106
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posted 10-06-2001 07:30 PM
Nice question.
Mine, I'm afraid, is somewhat of a staller (as I think it has been asked before) until somebody comes up with something good again.
How many different names are given to different sorts of elves?
From: Laurenendôr | Registered: Oct 2000
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Bungo
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 278
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posted 10-06-2001 10:32 PM
Marcho! Thag you very buch! I take that as the highest praise!
From: Kowloon, Hong Kong | Registered: Feb 2001
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Ecthelion of the Fountain
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 809
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posted 10-07-2001 09:17 PM
Teleri:
-Teleri
-Sindar
-Wood Elves
-Grey Elves
-Dark Elves(only some)
Noldor:
-Noldor
-Gnomes
-High Elves
Vanyar:
-Vanyar
-High Elves
Technically, you have to say I got it correct if I only get the Teleri right, as they were the only type mentioned in the book (other than Elrond and those of Rivendell, but of what type they were was not sai), and most of the name I put down were not even mentioned.
Registered: Aug 2001
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Bungo
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 278
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posted 10-07-2001 10:21 PM
Ecthelion of the Fountain, your list is good, but the answer must be names only found in the Hobbit, of which you have missed a few.
The names used there are: Gnomes, Wood Elves, High Elves, Light-elves, Deep-elves and Sea-elves. I've included a quote from the end of the Chapter "Flies and Spiders"
"They differed from the High Elves of the West, and were more dangerous and less wise. For most of them (together with their scattered relations in the hills and mountains) were descended from the ancient tribes that never went to Faerie in the West. There the Light-elves and the Deep-elves and the Sea-elves went and lived for ages, and grew fairer and wiser and more learned..."
If this answer suffices, my next question is:
How many languages are represented in The Hobbit, and which are they?
(This would not include the language of the goblins or eagles, for example, because all of their dialogue is represented in common English. I'm looking for every instance of any separate language, both written and spoken, which is different than the common Westron tongue of Bilbo.)
From: Kowloon, Hong Kong | Registered: Feb 2001
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The Laurenendôrian
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 106
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posted 10-08-2001 09:17 AM
Do the runes on the map, written, I believe, in the English language but in a different script, count?
From: Laurenendôr | Registered: Oct 2000
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Bungo
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 278
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posted 10-08-2001 10:30 AM
Yup. They are dwarf runes, rendered in Old English runes, but they count. ![[]](smile.gif)
From: Kowloon, Hong Kong | Registered: Feb 2001
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Bungo
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 278
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posted 10-08-2001 07:37 PM
Okay, maybe this question is not flipping anyone's switch very much. Let me flush it out more.
By my count, there are five explicit languages which appear in the Hobbit, apart from the common tongue of Bilbo. And there's a slightly possible sixth.
Please identify them. If you can guess which one is the 'possible sixth', you get an extra point and a hand shake.
From: Kowloon, Hong Kong | Registered: Feb 2001
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The Mighty Musnud
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 720
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posted 10-08-2001 09:48 PM
Uh, lesse...
Elven (duh)
The Dwarf Runes
High Elven Runes
The howling of the Wargs could be considered another language, since they did use it to communicate with each other.
And I believe that it says somewhere that the thrush spoke in the original tongue of the men of Dale.
I have two more, but they're both kind of a stretch:
(1) The Spiders
(2) and Gollum himself didn't exactly speak in a normal tongue. So it could possibly be either a change from years of talking to himself, or maybe a dialect of the Stoors.
From: Tulsa, OK, USA | Registered: Jul 2001
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Bungo
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 278
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posted 10-08-2001, 10:11 PM
You're close, Musnud.
Personally, I combined into one Elvish language the Elvish letters on the swords and the names given to them verbally, (and Gandalf's mark on Bilbo's door,) and the word mithril. I believe that both Quenyan and Sindarin are represented here, but the Hobbit is so simple that I just classify them all as Elvish.
So that's one.
The dwarf runes are two.
The warg language is specified as being an actual language, so that's three.
The thrush did speak his own language, which Bard understood, so that's four.
Gollum spoke the common tongue, in his own way, so that doesn't count.
The spiders are my 'slightly possible sixth' since the book describes their voices as "a sort of thin creaking and hissing, but [Bilbo] could make out many of the words that they said." This could be Bilbo understanding a foreign language with the help of the ring, (as Sam could at Cirith Ungol), but since it doesn't say so outright, it could also have been just the common tongue in ugly voices.
Anyway, there is still one more specific language that has not been mentioned. So, sorry...
no cigar.
From: Kowloon, Hong Kong | Registered: Feb 2001
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The Mighty Musnud
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 720
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posted 10-09-2001 08:17 PM
D'oh!
Okay, lesse. . .
Do the Beornings have their own language? I don't have the book with me right now, so I can't check.
From: Tulsa, OK, USA | Registered: Jul 2001
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Bungo
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 278
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posted 10-09-2001 09:36 PM
Close enough, I guess. Beorn spoke to the animals in his house in a "queer language, like animal noises turned into talk." I wouldn't call this the Beorning's language, but it is an animal language that Beorn could engage in.
So, enough of that limp question.
Your go, Musnud.
From: Kowloon, Hong Kong | Registered: Feb 2001
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Ecthelion of the Fountain
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 809
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posted 10-11-2001 03:40 PM
Sorry Bungo, you are a little mistaken yourself. The Dwarven runes are actually Elvish runes called Cirth, the Dwarves never invented their own writing system. Due to this, it cannot be said which language they're written in, so they must be ommitted from the trivia. The same goes for the 'High Elven' runes. You even missed out on some spoken ones, such as the Raven's tongue. Here is my list of spoken languages in the Hobbit (though I may miss some too):
-Quenya
-Sindarin
-Westron (the common tongue)
-the Raven tongue
-the Thrush tongue
-the spider tongue (as you said, questionable)
-the Black speech (also questionable, as not all Orcs spoke it, and invented their own weird dialects instead)
-language of Beorn's animals
-warg speech (questionable, as they could have used the black speech)
-orc dialect (questionable, as they could have used the Black speech)
It seems ilogical that the wargs could have used the Black speech, but anyway, it's a thought. I also question the possiblity that the Orcs use the Black speech as it says in the appendices of RotK that Sauron tried to get all his armies to use it, but was unsuccessful, and some invented their own dialects of it to use, and other languages.
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Bungo
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 278
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posted 10-11-2001 10:06 PM
Very impressive, Ecthelion! Again, however, I appeal to the exclusive content of The Hobbit:
The prologue refers to the Dwarf runes, so I count them by that distinction.
All the elvish I count as one, since they are not distinguished from each other in The Hobbit.
Westron doesn't count since it is the default, common (English) tongue, which the Raven also spoke. ('He was an aged raven of great size. He alighted stiffly on the ground before them, slowly flapped his wings, and bobbed towards Thorin. "O Thorin son of Thrain, and Balin son of Fundin," he croaked (and Bilbo could understand what he said, for he used ordinary language and not bird-speech). "I am Róac son of Carc."')
Beorn's animal language has been counted, but the language used by goblins, which surely included the elements you mentioned, was not distinguished as such in The Hobbit so it can't be counted in this trivia.
But, your insight is impeccable. Feel free to ask the next question, especially since Musnud seems to be off on a journey somewhere.
From: Kowloon, Hong Kong | Registered: Feb 2001
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The Mighty Musnud
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 720
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posted 10-11-2001 11:44 PM
Ah yes, I am back from my journey. But since I'll be gone this weekend, and since I don't currently have a question, I yield my turn to Ecthelion.
![[]](icon17.gif)
From: Tulsa, OK, USA | Registered: Jul 2001
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Ecthelion of the Fountain
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 809
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posted 10-14-2001 08:33 PM
Thank you Bungo, and Musnud.
What was Bilbo's first thought after picking up the ring for the first time?
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Bungo
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 278
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posted 10-14-2001 10:29 PM
Well, there could be two possible answers to this, depending on how nit-picking we feel like being. But since we are the nit-pickingest nit-pickers in a whole nit-picking sub-culture, I will mention the nit between them both.
The first recorded thought to enter Bilbo's head was this:
"He thought of himself frying bacon and eggs in his own kitchen at home - for he could feel inside that it was high time for some meal or other; but that only made him miserabler."
However, we could also say that his first thought was to put the ring into his pocket, since we also read:
"He put the ring in his pocket almost without thinking" (italics mine)
In other words, he did think about it, if only slightly. The act of putting it into his pocket, after first picking it up, wasn't without thinking, just almost without thinking. (A glorious distinction which would only be appreciated by a group of solemn nit-pickers.)
If my answer suffices, then I would ask the following question next:
Who wrote the Moon-letters that Elrond read on the map on the mid summer's eve?
From: Kowloon, Hong Kong | Registered: Feb 2001
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Cernunnos
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 652
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posted 10-15-2001 04:07 PM
I figure it must have been Thror grandfather of Thorin.
From: York, Britain | Registered: Jun 2001
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Bungo
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 278
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posted 10-15-2001 05:35 PM
Yes it was. Your go.
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Cernunnos
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 652
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posted 10-15-2001 05:41 PM
What synonym for 'drunkard' is used in 'The Hobbit'?
From: York, Britain | Registered: Jun 2001
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The Mighty Musnud
Guard of the Citadel
Citizen # 720
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posted 10-15-2001 09:37 PM
A sot?
![[]](icon32.gif)
From: Tulsa, OK, USA | Registered: Jul 2001
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