Once Upon A Time, There Was A... Trivia Game | Literature

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1. The following types of work MAY have been written by a slave who MIGHT have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC... Or perhaps not. Some controversy exists as to whether he was actually even a real person or not, but fables bearing his name are perennially popular, and usually contain a "moral" at the ending of the tale. What is the name that is most commonly associated with fables?

Answer: Aesop

While the ancient Hindu and Buddhist cultures also had stories that ran in a similar vein, no one is absolutely certain as to whether the ancient Greeks had their stories spread eastward, or if it may have occurred the other way around. In any event, Aesop has long been credited with the writing of "Aesop's Fables", a collection of tales that usually had a "moral" attached to them. Probably one of the best known is the story of "The Tortoise And The Hare", a story that demonstrates the advantages of one who utilizes the limited skills one has with a methodical perseverance versus one who has ample ability but is overconfident and lazy.

2. This little boy was the product of English folklore, and when I say little, I really mean he was SMALL! Who was this tiny son of "Thomas of the Mountain", according to the story as it was written in 1621?

Answer: Tom Thumb

Tom Thumb was an orally presented story in its earliest form, like many other tales of folklore. An introduction to the earliest version of Tom Thumb in written form in 1621 reads like this:

"The History of Tom Thumbe, the Little, for his small stature surnamed, King Arthur's Dwarfe: whose Life and adventures containe many strange and wonderfull accidents, published for the delight of merry Time-spenders."

In the 1621 version of the tale, a man from the days of King Arthur, Thomas of the Mountain, desired a son, not caring if he was no bigger than his thumb. His wife, after consultations with the magician, Merlin, soon gave birth to a son - Tom Thumb. Through many of the tales of adventures that Tom experienced he was often swallowed by some creature or another. Vulgarisms and questionable passages abound throughout the original stories of the diminutive young boy, but the "cleaner" and edited versions of the character of Tom Thumb have withstood the ages since, as nearly all children have heard of at least one of his adventures.

3. The cute little story of Hansel and Gretel, a pair of siblings that were lured to the gingerbread house of a witch, was a part of a collection of stories that the Brothers Grimm compiled. It did NOT start off as such a cute tale. In fact, its main focus seemed to revolve around a "feast-or-famine" mentality. Literally. Not only did the witch in the story wish to eat them, the children's own parents had abandoned them in the woods for what reason?

Answer: a severe famine that resulted in too little food for the household

Depending on the version of the story with which you may be familiar, their father, a poor wood-cutter, and the children's mother (in some versions, their stepmother) decided that there was simply not enough to feed the entire family, so the children were abandoned to their own devices.

Many famines had occurred in Europe during the medieval period, and one of these may have provided the impetus for this story, because various versions of it appeared in German, Russian, Polish and French folklore.

(The lasting result of the memories of famine among the general populace of Europe could help explain the overtones and fascination of the bread crumbs, the gingerbread house and the witch's cannibalistic appetite.)

German story-tellers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm had collected their version from Wilhelm's wife and simply retold the story as she had related it to her husband.

("Grim" tale, indeed!)

4. A North American folklore legend, Paul Bunyan, had a seriously overblown persona. He was a giant lumberjack in the Northwest U.S. and in portions of southern Canada. His skills were unsurpassed and he seemed to be too good to be true. Perhaps that was the intent of the story lines and part of the mystique surrounding this character as he performed all sorts of exaggerated feats in the wilderness of the great North Woods. He had a "sidekick" of sorts, as most legendary heroes are prone to have. What was the name of his giant animal companion?

Answer: Babe the Blue Ox

According to the legend of Paul Bunyan, five storks were required to deliver him at his birth. As he grew beyond the stage of infant, he once clapped and laughed, and the noise broke every window in the house. When he and his famous Blue Ox, Babe, went for a walk one day Paul dragged his axe behind him and formed the Grand Canyon.

Of such stuff are legends and tall tales made; creations that are larger than life by far, with creative imaginations running rampant and involving at least a touch of exaggerated humor.

Since 1937 gargantuan statues of Paul and Babe have stood as a tourist attraction in Bemidji, Minnesota.

5. What old crone of Slavic and Russian folklore lived in a house that stood on "stilts", which were nothing more than chicken legs? (In the stories, she herself is often referred to as "chicken-legs".)

Answer: Baba Yaga

Famous throughout the eastern Slavic nations of Croatia, Bosnia, Czechoslovakia, Poland and even into parts of Russia, the legend of the witch Baba Yaga lives on. The first actual reference to her in written form appeared in 1755 in a book about Russian grammar, but no one is certain as to when the oral tradition of this character first began.

The Russian version of this hag is called Baba Yaga, while the Slavic name for her is Jezibaba.

6. A tale of a young boy who trades the dried-up family cow for a handful of beans, which grow to a tremendous height, leading the hero above the clouds, and ultimately killing a giant. - Well, of course we all know that this is the story of "Jack and the Beanstalk". Many oral and written versions of this story abound throughout the world, but what I'd like to know is this: In what year did the version appear that most of us are familiar with, as written by Joseph Jacobs in "English Fairy Tales"?

Answer: 1890

Joseph Jacob's version, "Jack and the Beanstalk", was written in 1890, but the story in its earliest known WRITTEN form was in an English book dating from 1734, entitled "Round about our Coal Fire; or, Christmas Entertainments" - a story upon which "Jack and the Beanstalk" or "Jack the Giant Killer" was loosely based.

That story's full title is as follows: "Enchantment demonstrated in the Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean; giving a particular Account of Jack's arrival at the Castle of Gogmagog; his rescuing ten Thousand Ladies and Knights from being broiled for the Giant's Breakfast; jumping through Key-holes; and at last how he destroyed the Giant and became Monarch of the Universe".

Whew! What a long-winded title! Nearly as long as the story itself, huh?

Many variants of this original oral folk tale have been found in north-central European nations as well as in North American folklore. Some Asian nations have also had variations of it.

Source for information for this question: Wikipedia

7. This story was based in New York, in an area originally settled by the Dutch. Ichabod Crane was the local school teacher, but one dark night he had an encounter with a headless horseman. Of what nationality was this supposedly "headless" rider?

Answer: Hessian/German

Hessian soldiers had been employed by Britain in many of its military endeavors, including the U.S. Revolutionary War. The British called them Hessians, since they came from the regions of Hesse, Germany. The Americans simply called them mercenaries.

The story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was written by Washington Irving and was set in the year 1790, in the years just after the American Revolution. Sleepy Hollow was said to be haunted with the ghosts of warriors from that era, and the story capitalizes on that eerie ghostliness with its apparition of a headless horseman.

8. An Italian who had served as a volunteer for the Tuscan army in The Wars for Independence in the 1800's, Carlo Lorenzini wrote what later became an extremely popular children's story in 1883 and over a half century later became an animated movie produced by Walt Disney Studios in 1940. Carlo used a pen name when writing this particular tale; that of Carlo Collodi. Now, what WAS the name of that fairy story that featured such characters as the Fairy with Turquoise Hair, an anti-hero named Lampwick, and an impoverished and child-hating woodcutter named Geppetto?

Answer: Pinocchio

Pinocchio was translated into the English language in 1892 by Mary Alice Murray. The story began as a series for a newspaper in Rome, Italy, but later it grew into a full-fledged book. In the original tale, Pinocchio died a horrible death, owing to all his faults, but in later versions that was changed, (at the editor's request), with the Fairy with Turquoise Hair transforming him into a real boy.

(In the Disney movie, the Fairy with Turquoise Hair became known as the Blue Fairy.)

9. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson wrote a sequel to an earlier book that he had written for a young girl named Alice Liddell. Most people could tell me the title of the first book was Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, but can you tell me the COMPLETE title of the SECOND book that he wrote?

Answer: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (pen name, Lewis Carroll) wrote "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There", and it was written in a way that can be interpreted as if it was a mirror image of Wonderland. Where cards were used in Wonderland, chess pieces could be found in the sequel. Alice entered into the looking-glass world by simply stepping through a mirror in her own home, and found many amazing things, people and animals there. In order for her to read the poem "Jabberwocky", she had to hold the book to a mirror and read it backward. Where in his first book, the author had the story take place in the late spring, in this one the events began at the beginning of winter.

(By some manner of sheer craziness, the completely nonsensical poem Jabberwocky has been translated into languages other than English! I'm not quite sure how THAT was managed, as the original words were made up by the author himself. Read the first few lines for yourself, and perhaps YOU can tell ME how this was "translated" into ANY language!)

"'Twas brilig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe."

Go figure.

10. I think we'll have a stinker of a "thinker" for this question. What European fairy tale is this that was published in 1740 and was originally entitled, "La Belle et la B�te"? Okay, so you don't speak French. Let me give you some clues. 1. The girl in the story was a merchant's daughter (or the child of a king and a good fairy, depending on which version you read.) 2. The man was a hideous creature (or a dashing young prince.) 3. In 1991 Walt Disney studios produced an animated musical about this story. Okay, that's it. No more clues. Which of these is the subject of this question?

Answer: Beauty and the Beast

Yes, "Beauty and the Beast" was originally a French fairy tale with a vicious and savage beast as part of the story line, and it was written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. An abridged and "doctored up" version was later produced by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. It is this version of the tale that most of us are familiar with today.

Source: Author logcrawler

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Once Upon A Time, There Was A... Quiz

These Fables, Folk Tales and Fairy Tales from around the world should be easy enough to analyze, based on the information given in each question. Hope you have fun! (Wikipedia was used as the source of information for this quiz.)

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