Читать книгу The Tolkien Quiz Book - Andrew Murray, Andrew Murray - Страница 4

The otherness, grandeur and heroic scope of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth seem to have filled a void in so many modem lives that it’s rare to find someone who doesn’t at least know that The Hobbit has a dragon in it somewhere and that The Lord of the Rings is the first really fat book young teenagers like to read and re-read again and again. Professor Tolkien is one of that select band of writers who can claim to have almost single-handedly created a literary genre and has carved himself such a distinctive niche in mainstream culture that there are plenty who haven’t read a word of his books but know they don’t like them.

Perhaps you have just second-hand impressions of the world of Bilbo, Gandalf and the Ring through friends’ enthusiasms, in which case the Starter question in each section is there to help ease you into the subject – after that, you’re probably on your own, with only your friends’ knowing smiles to taunt you for every mis-pronunciation and missed accent. Don’t worry – there are plenty of tough ones with which to get your own back (and no, you must be joking, I couldn’t answer all of these if I were put on the spot). And, while the Starters are generally easier than the main questions, the Tiebreakers are not necessarily harder but are there for when the competition gets nail-bitingly close.

The questions are drawn not only from the Middle-earth canon but from the short stories Smith of Wootton Major, Farmer Giles of Ham and Leaf by Niggle, and from biographical material. If you haven’t yet explored the delights of these peripheral lands, I hope that the questions will encourage you to pack your rucksack and lose yourself in Tolkien’s world – it’s so preferable to our own. It’s also a world, thank goodness, enjoyed by millions outside that young teenage clique, and the older you get, the more you come to love the richness of Tolkien’s creations.

Andrew Murray, 1996