"Enchantment" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Judaism

To flee the Communists, Ivan's parents return to the religion of his father's grandmother and his mother's parents. The family takes the surname Shlomo, changes young Vanya's name to Itzhak, and awaits a coveted visa to Israel (though they plan to go to the United States instead). In the meantime, Vanya's father loses his job and the family's apartment due to anti-Semitism.

Answer: Cousin Marek and his wife Sophia

The Smetskis/Shlomos work hard on the farm to repay Marek's and Sophia's hospitality, but Vanya has some spare time to explore the ancient forest on Marek's land. It is there that he first sees the sleeping woman, covered with leaves, on a pedestal in the center of a deep and leaf-filled pit.

It is there that he runs at a glimpse of a monster moving through the leaves. But the scene haunts his dreams, and he knows that one day he will return.

Answer: Ruth Meyer

Ruth is also a student at Mohegan University, a feminist Jew who enchants Ivan when they meet at the wedding of a mutual friend. Their courtship quickly progresses to engagement, to the dismay of Ivan's mother Esther. She is persuaded that Ruth is not the woman her son is meant to marry.

Answer: An enormous, stone-throwing bear

We discover later that this creature, sensibly named Bear, is the old god of the long winter and of the Russian people. Ivan cannot defeat him in a contest of strength, but when he runs along the edge of the pit the bear must follow below, and it is a simple (if tedious) matter for this track star to prevail in a contest of endurance. Ivan eventually manages to put out one of Bear's eyes and leap across to the awakening woman.

Answer: With his father, Ivan has studied a related dead language, Old Church Slavonic.

Katerina hails from the small kingdom of Taina in 9th-century Ukraine. She speaks proto-Slavonic, an ancestor of an ancestor of modern Ukrainian. Luckily, the written language Old Church Slavonic is closely related to Katerina's language, and so Ivan finds himself surprisingly well-prepared for Katerina's world.

The content of Katerina's plea, you ask? Well, it seems that if he wanted to call off the Bear and finish breaking the enchantment, Ivan had to declare his intention of marrying her ...

Answer: Baba Yaga

Baba Yaga, who rules her kingdom through fear after having slain her first husband, now has her eyes on Taina; she is the reason that Katerina wound up sleeping in modern Ukraine, guarded by Bear (Baba Yaga's new husband). I don't remember any of this from the Baba Yaga stories that haunted my bedtimes as a child, but I do remember the house with chicken legs and the impossible tasks she was fond of setting her "guests." Not someone you want to tangle with!

Answer: Sergei, the crippled novice

Sergei is a crippled young man who has become a reluctant acolyte of the church, primarily because it seems to be the only way he can make himself useful in a 9th-century agrarian society. Father Lukas is initially quite cruel to him, seeing his deformity as a blot on God's perfect creation, but eventually Sergei's intelligence and bravery prove to the people of Taina that God made no mistake creating him.

Answer: Dmitri, knight of the kingdom

Dmitri is a violent and hot-tempered man, but his loyalty to King Matvei had been unquestioned. This is because he had expected to become king himself, through Katerina -- and when this plan fails, he is open to treason. Ivan, with his twentieth-century runner's body, appears weak and effeminate to the people of Taina, and Dmitri cannot stand the idea of losing the kingship to such a man.

Answer: Mikola Mozhaiski, god of the winds and farms

Mikola was a peasant god, closely identified with the people of the soil. The constellation Westerners know as Orion was known as the plow to ancient Slavs, who taught that Mikola had flung it into the heavens. His cult evolved into the cult of St. Nicholas as people converted to Orthodox Christianity. (The incorrect answers are somewhat more famous Slavic gods.)

In Card's fairy tale, Katerina comes from a time when ancient gods walked the earth even as Christianity was spreading; she remembers Mikola Mozhaiski as having bounced her upon his knee. Mikola is immortal (and his wife is, luckily, "immortal by association"), but for the last thousand years he has seen his powers dwindle as the people he protects have forgotten him.

Answer: Ivan's mother, Esther Smetski

Esther's uncanny talents have been passed down from generation to generation, since before even Katerina's time, although she refined her skills in adulthood by learning in Kiev from an elderly neighbor named Baba Tila. In fact, her mother and sister had cast spells to conceal themselves from the Nazis who would have killed them (although they weren't able to protect Esther's father and brothers). Esther makes charms and amulets to help protect Ivan, Katerina, and their people in battle. She helps them plan out their attack on Baba Yaga, and defends them and the household from their enemy's incursions. But she plans to be the last witch in their family: her spells work because they draw on the old gods, whose powers are fading every year.

I hope you've enjoyed this quiz. Ivan's and Katerina's dramatic showdown with Baba Yaga is well worth reading -- I highly recommend this book!