Guy Gavriel Kay -- What Place in what Novel? Quiz

Answer: The Fionavar Tapestry

Pendaran Wood is an ancient and mysterious forest in the country of the Lios Alfar (Kay's equivalent of Elves). People enter it at their peril as the paths do not remain in the same place. It may have been inspired by Tolkien's Mirkwood.

Answer: Ysabel

Mont Saint-Victoire is a real limestone mountain ridge in the south of France, a favourite setting for the artist Cezanne. In Kay's novel it is the place where a terrible slaughter of Celts took place at the hands of the Romans around 100 BC and where the climax of the novel takes place.

The main character is a 15-year-old Canadian schoolboy who finds himself drawn into a centuries-old web of intrigue, love, and magic.

Answer: Under Heaven

Kitai is Kay's name for his recreation of China under the Tang dynasty (7th-9th c. AD). His story loosely follows the events of the An-Shi rebellion in the 8th c. A sequel of sorts, "River of Stars", was published in 2013, recounting events a few hundred years later.

Answer: Tigana

"Tigana" along with "The Fionavar Tapestry" is Kay's most compelling work. The setting (the Peninsula of the Palm) is a loose analogy of mediaeval Italy and features a three-way power play between two sorcerers (Brandin and Alberico) and the freedom-fighters of the lost land of Tigana.

Answer: The Last Light of the Sun

The Anglcyn lands represent the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in England during the period of the Viking invasions. In Kay's novel the Vikings appear as "Erlings" and the Welsh kingdom as "Cyngael".

Answer: Sailing to Sarantium

"Sailing to Sarantium" and its sequel "Lord of Emperors" make up "The Sarantium Mosaic", Sarantium being Kay's equivalent of Byzantium (Constantinople, Istanbul) in the sixth century. The emperor of the story, Valerius II, stands for Justinian. The story opens in the city of Varena in the land of Batiara, which is meant to refer to Ravenna in Italy.

Answer: A Song for Arbonne

"A Song for Arbonne" is Kay's loose representation of Provence (south of France) during the Middle Ages (10th-12 c, AD), a time of heresies and troubadours, courtly love and knights errant. Gorhaut is a militaristic kingdom to the north of Arbonne which threatens the people of its southern neighbour.

Answer: Lord of Emperors

Sarantium stands for Byzantium, the older name for Constantinople and the source of the description Byzantine, describing the Roman Empire in the East after the fall of the Western Empire. The two novels of "The Sarantine Mosaic" are set principally in this magnificent imperial city.

Answer: The Lions of Al-Rassan

This novel is set in an analogy of Spain during the period of the Moors, roughly at the time of the famous Spanish hero, El Cid (11th c. AD). Al-Rassan (formerly called "Esperana") is divided into three Jaddite (~Christian) kingdoms in the North, one of which is Valledo, and the Asharite (~Muslim) kingdoms of the South.

Answer: The Fionavar Tapestry

"The Fionavar Tapestry" begins with an "overture" set in the University of Toronto, where Professor Lorenzo Marcus is giving a lecture in Convocation Hall. He turns out to be Loren Silvercloak, a mage from the world of Fionavar, "first of all worlds", who takes five young people back to Fionavar to celebrate the 5oth year of rule by the High King of Brennin.