The Hobbit Book Quiz

1. How many dwarves arrive at Bilbo's unexpected party? — Thirteen, with Gandalf making fifteen for dinner. Thorin Oakenshield plus twelve: Fili, Kili, Balin, Dwalin, Oin, Gloin, Dori, Nori, Ori, Bifur, Bofur and Bombur. Bilbo's poor larder never recovers.
2. What has Gandalf scratched on Bilbo's green door? — A sign meaning 'burglar wants a good job, plenty of excitement, reasonable reward'. The old sign Gandalf scratches is dwarvish shorthand for exactly that - Bilbo runs out the next morning still believing he declined the offer.
3. How are the three trolls defeated? — Gandalf imitates their voices and keeps them arguing until the sunrise turns them to stone. William, Bert and Tom roast half the party in sacks until Gandalf's ventriloquism keeps them bickering past dawn - their petrified forms still stand on the road, a landmark Bilbo passes again on the way home.
4. In the riddle game under the mountains, what does Bilbo actually have in his pocket? — The magic ring he has just found and not yet told Gollum about. Gollum agrees to show him out if he loses; Bilbo's winning 'question' - 'What have I got in my pocket?' - is cheating by any rule, and the answer is the ring that changes everything.
5. Where does Bilbo get the name 'Sting' for his sword? — He christens the elvish knife himself after fighting the Mirkwood spiders. Rescuing the dwarves from the spiders, Bilbo finds the knife in the troll hoard, uses it to free the dwarves from the spiders, and christens it Sting himself - the blade and its naming both go on to The Lord of the Rings.
6. How do the dwarves escape the Wood-elves' fortress? — Packed into empty wine barrels and floated down the river to Lake-town. Bilbo, invisible and starving, frees them from the cells and seals each dwarf in a barrel bound for the Long Lake - the Wood-elves' own wine export becomes the escape pod.
7. Who kills Smaug, and with what? — Bard the Bowman of Lake-town, with an heirloom black arrow. The thrush overhears Bilbo's discovery of the missing scale and translates for Bard; the last black arrow finds the hollow under the wing as Smaug turns above Lake-town.
8. What does Bilbo do with the Arkenstone? — He secretly gives it to Bard and the Elvenking as a bargaining chip to prevent a war. The Heart of the Mountain is Thorin's obsession - and Bilbo's one great burglary is handing it to the enemy camp, trading his own share and nearly his neck to buy a chance at peace before the Battle of Five Armies.

Eight multiple-choice questions covering J.R.R. Tolkien's plot, characters and most famous moments. The quiz takes about two minutes and your score is instant.

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8/8 means you know the book cold; 6+ is a solid score. Below 4, the book is calling you back for a reread.

Easy to moderate - a children's book a professor wrote for his own kids, but a 1937 children's book: songs, digressions and the occasional archaic word. Slower than Narnia, far faster than The Lord of the Rings. The questions themselves stick to famous, load-bearing moments — the scenes and lines the book is remembered for — so a genuine read usually scores 6+.

About 95,000 words — roughly 310 pages, or about 6 hours and 39 minutes at an average pace. The full pace breakdown is in how long it takes to read The Hobbit. It runs 19 chapters, averaging 5,000 words each; see the book-count guide for its full structure.