Once Upon A Time Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cinderella

The photo clue is of a glass pumpkin. This incorporates two of the important features in this story, that of a pumpkin being turned into a coach, and the glass slipper which enabled the prince to find Cinderella at last.

Written by Charles Perrault way back in 1697, "Cinderella" tells the story of a young and beautiful girl being harshly treated by her step-mother and step-sisters. Her fairy godmother enables her to go to a ball where the prince of the land is going to choose his future bride, and when it comes time to go, Cinderella, in her haste to be home before the stroke of midnight, leaves one of her glass slippers behind. The smitten prince searches high and low all over the land to find its owner. When he finally arrives at Cinderella's house, the step-sisters try to squash their size twelve feet into the slipper but cannot. Cinderella begs to try as well, and the sisters refuse, but the prince agrees. Voila, it fits! The prince has found his true love.

Answer: Pinocchio

The photo clue is of a whale, or rather its rear end, a creature who plays a pivotal role in the movie version of "The Adventures of Pinocchio", a book written by Carl Collodi in 1883. In the original story, which varies enormously from the tale children know and love today, a lonely woodcarver, Geppetto, turns a talking block of wood into a small boy puppet.

As soon as the ungrateful marionette learns to walk, however, he runs away into a series of alarming and extremely complicated misadventures.

The "whale" that swallows Geppetto, who has gone in search of his son, is a terrible dogfish that is more than a kilometre long, and Geppetto is trapped inside that beast for months until joined by Pinocchio and they manage to escape. That is basically the only similarity to the later movie made by Walt Disney. Oh, and the fact that Pinocchio becomes a real boy at last. On the whole though, this is a very dark tale indeed.

Answer: Goldilocks and the Three Bears

The photo clue is of a meal of porridge, three bowls of which appear in "The Story of the Three Bears" written by Robert Southey in 1837, but which is usually referred to now simply as "Goldilocks". It tells of a young girl who wanders into the woods, and enters a house while the owners, the three bears, are out walking.

There she samples three bowls of porridge, consuming the third bowl entirely, sits on three chairs, breaking the smallest into pieces, and falls asleep on the most comfortable of the three beds she finds upstairs.

When the three bears return, the parents are enraged at this home invasion, while Baby Bear is very upset to find his porridge has been eaten and his chair smashed. Finding the sleeping Goldilocks upstairs, they rush at her, a moment of terror from which she only just escapes by jumping out a window and running back home.

Answer: The Boy Who Cried Wolf

The photo clue is of a wolf, a creature who attacks and kills several sheep in the tale of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", one of the famous fables by Aesop (c.620-564 BC). This story is about a shepherd boy who becomes bored minding a flock of his charges.

He decides to play a trick on the nearby villagers by shouting out "Wolf! Wolf!" just for the fun of seeing them all rushing out to the fields to protect the woolly little creatures. He does this several times, the naughty creature, until the people from the village completely ignore him on the one time a wolf really does appear. Alas for our bold lad, the sheep are subsequently killed by the beast, and our young anti-hero is in a LOT of trouble as a result.

Answer: Chicken Little

The photo clue is of the sky, a part of our world featuring strongly in the story of "Chicken Little" (also known as "Henny Penny"), a folk tale with versions that are believed to be over 2,500 years old. It relates the tale of a somewhat dim-witted chicken who is out walking one day and is hit on the head by an acorn. Immediately assuming the worst, Chicken Little believes the sky is falling and races about warning as many creatures as possible that the end is nigh.

A very brave act indeed, but one that has an unfortunate ending.

The mass hysteria that ensues sees everyone rushing into the woods for protection - where they are promptly eaten by a fox. Acorns, it seems, can drive you nuts.

Answer: The Elves and the Shoemaker

The photo clue is of several pairs of shoes, the trade of the main character in the tale of "The Elves and the Shoemaker", an old folk tale from Germany. Unable to pay his rent, and very hungry, this kind man gives away his last pair of shoes to a needy soul. Impressed by his generosity, a group of elves make a beautiful pair of shoes overnight in his workshop from the last scrap of leather he has left, which the shoemaker then sells at a great profit the following day.

This occurs several nights in a row until the shoemaker has enough money to get back on his feet again, after which the elves disappear.

The story has various endings, but that is basically the bones of it.

Answer: Dick Whittington and His Cat

The photo clue is of London, the capital of England, and a city around which the folk tale of "Dick Whittington and His Cat" is very loosely based. It tells of the rise from rags to riches of one Dick Whittington, who works hard to become a wealthy merchant, and then the mighty Lord Mayor of London.

He is aided in this all the way along the line, in a series of brilliant coups, by his brilliant cat.

Answer: The Princess and the Pea

The photo clue is of a mattress, twenty of which feature in the 1835 story of "The Princess and the Pea" by Hans Christian Andersen. A picky prince, in search of a wife, rejects all candidates for this dubious honour because of some slight physical flaw each possesses. One night a young and very beautiful woman, who says she is a princess, knocks on the door of the castle and asks for shelter until the next day.

The prince's mother tests her claim to royalty by giving her a bed to sleep upon that is piled high with twenty mattresses. Under the very bottom of these, and unknown to the girl, she places a hard pea.

The next morning, the girl mentions she couldn't sleep a wink because something hard kept digging into her. The prince and his mother are delighted, for now they know she really is a princess, perfect in every way, right down to her delicate blue-blood skin which has bruised so easily. Wedding bells follow.

The lesson we learn from this story is that, even if you do occasionally "pea" the bed, this can sometimes have a very favourable outcome.

Answer: The Pied Piper of Hamelin

The photo clue is of a computer mouse because rats are the catalyst for the tragedy of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin", an old German legend from the Middle Ages. This sorrowful tale is set in the year 1294 when the town of Hamelin was being plagued by rats.

When a strange man appears and offers to rid the town of this vermin - for a price - the mayor of the town agrees. The Pied Piper immediately plays a magic tune on his pipes, and the rats, unable to resist its lure, follow him to the river, where they drown.

When the mayor of the city refuses to pay the piper for his work, a terrible revenge is enacted. Several days later, the piper again appears, and, playing another magic air on his pipes, lures all the able-bodied children in the town to follow him, upon which they disappear out of sight and are never seen again. What a horrible story, and one guaranteed to frighten children out of their wits for centuries to come.

Answer: Rumpelstiltskin

The photo clue is of a spinning wheel, an instrument which appears in the tale of "Rumpelstiltskin", found in a collection of fairy stories amassed by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. After the king of the land hears of a man's untruthful boasts that his daughter can spin straw into gold, he has the poor girl brought to him. She is locked into a room full of straw and one spinning wheel, and ordered to spin all the cereal stalks into gold - or she will die. As she weeps bitterly at the impossibility of the task, a wizened imp appears before her, stating he will do the work for her if she gives him her necklace. The following night, the same events occur and she has to surrender her ring to the imp in exchange for his work.

Having nothing left with which to barter on the third night, she foolishly promises the imp her first born child for his work. He returns some time later after the king has married the girl and she has produced an infant. Demanding his payment, he finally relents at her weeping and says that if she can guess his name within three days, the debt will be paid and her child safe. Unable to guess, the queen follows him on the second night and sees him dancing around a campfire gleefully chortling his impossible name of Rumpelstiltskin out loud. She triumphantly announces this on his return the following day, the child is saved, and the imp disappears in a fury.