And They Lived Happily Ever After Quiz

Answer: Rumplestiltskin

All of these title characters appear in stories in the 1812 collection "Children's and Household Tales". Despite the name, most of these stories are definitely not for children, and often feature grim endings (pun intended). Such is the case with Rumplestiltskin (also given as Rumpelstiltskin and Rumpelstilzchen), as Looney_tunes explains.

"The girl's father had bragged to the king that she was so clever she could spin straw into gold. The king, of course, demanded that she demonstrate her talent, threatening that she would be beheaded if she failed. No wonder she was crying when you first saw her! Rumpelstiltskin saved her skin twice. On the third night, the threat was removed, and the king promised to marry her if she filled the room with gold. Once again Rumpelstiltskin came to her assistance, in return for a promise that he would receive her first child. A year later, when he came to collect on that promise, she was devastated, and begged to be allowed to keep her child. He finally agreed that she could do so if she could guess his name within three days. Many guesses later, she was once again in despair, until a messenger came to tell her he had heard the gnome chanting his name in gloating anticipation of his coming victory. She was able to save her child, and the imp, depending on which version you read, either ran away, or stamped his foot so hard that a chasm opened and he fell into it, or stamped his foot and got it stuck in the floor, subsequently tearing himself in half in his rage."

Escorting you downstairs, Looney_tunes shows you the exit from the castle, and wishes you well on your coming journey through the land of fairy tales.

Answer: The Emperor's New Clothes

Your old friend Anna, (code name dcpddc478), tells you that you are thinking of a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale known as "The Emperor's New Clothes" that tells of an Emperor who loves to show off his wealth, power, and knowledge.

"In this story, the foolish emperor is beguiled by two swindlers who promise to make him the finest suit that he has ever had," Anna explains. "They convince him that the clothes will appear invisible to anyone who is stupid or foolish. When the suit of clothes is finished, neither the Emperor nor his ministers can see the suit. But, because they fear looking stupid, they all pretend that they can see this wonderful new attire. The Emperor then parades all through the town showing off his new suit. It is not until an innocent child proclaims that the Emperor is nude do the adults admit that they cannot see the clothing either. Out of fear that they might appear incompetent or stupid, no one had admitted that they could not see any clothing and that the only suit the Emperor was wearing was his birthday suit!"

Dcpddc478 then bids you farewell and thanks you for reminding her of this wonderful Hans Christian Andersen tale. You partake of a nice cup of tea and take off down the street wondering what interesting tales lie just around the corner.

Answer: The Princess and the Pea

"The Princess and the Pea" or "The Princess on the Pea" was first published by Hans Christian Andersen in 1835 and was apparently based on a tale that Andersen had heard as a child. In the story, a prince was trying to find a princess to marry but wasn't able to find a suitable candidate. During a storm, a bedraggled woman claiming to be a princess showed up at the palace.

The queen wasn't convinced and decided to conduct a test by placing a pea under a stack of mattresses and feather beds. Apparently, only a true princess would be delicate enough to feel the pea.

In the morning, the princess admitted to having had a bad night and had bruises from the pea. Thus, the prince had found his princess. The story was the basis for the musical "Once Upon a Mattress", which featured Carol Burnett in her 1959 Broadway debut.

Answer: Puss in Boots

The author of "Puss in Boots" is unknown, but the story has been around since at least the 16th century, when it was included in a collection of stories called "The Facetious Nights of Straparola" by Giovanni Francesco Straparola. It achieved much popularity with Charles Perrault's 1697 version, published as part of a collection of stories in "Histoires ou contes du temps passé".

A poor miller's son is left an inheritance of only a cat, but not an ordinary cat. With a pair of boots and a sack, Puss manages to use trickery and threats to convince a king and his daughter that his master is the incredibly wealthy (albeit fictional) Marquis of Carabas.

Reedy assures you that you have nothing to fear from this booted feline, and sends you on your way.

Answer: Rapunzel

As the story goes, Rapunzel is imprisoned in a tower by an evil witch, and when a prince comes along he urges her to let down her golden hair so that he may climb it and rescue her. Fortunately, she used probiotics or something; he's able to ascend, kill the witch, and save the girl's life.

Although the story has been attributed to numerous authors in the past, "Rapunzel" is another Grimm classic and was published by the brothers in 1812. While some versions of the story end with Rapunzel and the prince riding off together, others have ended with the deaths of most of the characters in the tale. The Disney rendition-- "Tangled"-- is a bit more optimistic.

Kyleisalive urges you to move on past. Anyone who leaves their hair hanging out a tower window is begging for attention, and you've probably got bigger fish to fry...considering your adventure.

Answer: Sleeping Beauty

The earliest version of the story of a beautiful princess cursed to sleep for 100 years because of a finger-prick from a spinning wheel dates to 14th century France. The tale was picked up hundreds of years later by both Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, whose versions are most similar to the Sleeping Beauty tale we know today.

In the tale, the jealous old crone attempts to put a curse of death upon the beautiful princess; but this curse is commuted to a 100-year sleep by a benevolent fairy, who tries but fails to release the death curse entirely. Shorthumbz was right in predicting that despite the king's best efforts to disable all spinning wheels, the princess would nevertheless prick her finger and lapse into the long enchanted sleep. All the royals mourned; the castle was overgrown with vines and thorns. And, 100 years later, a royal prince found the castle on a hunting expedition, hacked his way through the undergrowth, woke the beautiful sleeping princess with a kiss, and they lived happily ever after!

Answer: The Tinderbox

"The Tinderbox" was one of Andersen's earliest stories, and was based on an earlier Danish folk tale called "The Spirit in the Candle". Even though the critics of the time disliked it, the readers approved, and the story was even the subject of a ballet where Queen Margrethe of Denmark helped with the design of the sets and costumes.

Rowena8482 urges you to head on down the road with all due haste, lest the soldier decides to turn his sword on your neck too!

Answer: The Steadfast Tin Soldier

Known as "Den Standhaftige Tindsoldat" in his native Danish, Andersen's story was his first not based on an existing fairy tale. In the story, the tin soldier was one of a group of twenty-five given to a boy, and the one-legged tin soldier felt like an outcast until he spotted a ballerina balancing on one leg. A jack-in-the-box wanted the ballerina for himself so he caused the soldier to fall out of a window into the street where some boys found him and placed him in the paper boat, sailing in the gutter. The soldier ended up in a storm drain which eventually led to a canal where he was swallowed by a fish. The fish was then caught and ended up back at the boy's house where the soldier was reunited with his ballerina. Although the Disney version ended with the jack-in-the-box perishing in the fireplace, the original story had the boy throwing the soldier into the fireplace and a gust of wind blowing the ballerina in with him.

PDAZ liked the Disney version better.

Answer: Hansel

You realise that you have stumbled across the house where the Brothers Grimm reported that an old hag had trapped Hansel and Gretel (abandoned to starve in the woods because their parents thought they ate too much!), catching them as they nibbled on her delicious house. After placing Hansel in a cage to fatten him up before cooking and eating him, she forced Gretel to perform her housework, as the witch was nearly blind. Hansel cleverly held out a bone each day as the witch checked to see if he was fat enough yet, but she eventually decided to just go ahead and eat him anyway. Gretel managed to trick the witch into the pre-heated oven, and the two children escaped, taking with them the witch's accumulated wealth to relieve their parents' poverty.

Later versions have the mother shown as a stepmother (how could any natural mother be so cruel to her own children, after all), and the father opposing the abandonment. Wilhelm Grimm collected the folk tale from his future wife. It is thought to have originated during the Great Famine of the 14th century, when many families were forced to allow their children to die in order to avoid starvation themselves.

Now that you know things are destined to work out well for the caged boy, you feel free to keep following your nose down the path.

Answer: A huntsman

"The wolf fell asleep after appeasing his appetite, and began to snore," Kaddarsgirl continues. "A passing huntsman heard the wolf snoring and found it asleep in the grandmother's bed. Not finding the grandmother, he concluded that the wolf must have eaten her, and took shears to the wolf's stomach, freeing Little Red-Cap and her grandmother. Now freed, Little Red-Cap filled the wolf's belly with heavy stones, and when he tried to run, he collapsed dead."

There are many versions of the tale of Little Red-Cap, better known as Little Red Riding Hood, and some tell a more gruesome tale than others. Little Red-Cap was so named because she always wore a red cap on her head, a gift from her grandmother that the Brothers Grimm said "suited her so well that she would never wear anything else".

Kaddarsgirl thanks you for visiting her at the little cottage. You leave with a basket full of cakes, yourself, heading back toward the castle where your journey first began. You take care to not wander off the beaten path and into the dense woods lest there be more hungry wolves out looking for a feast...