Rip van Winkle Trivia Quiz

Answer: "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent."

"The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.", or simply "The Sketch Book", was originally published in serial form between June 1819 and July 1820. Geoffrey Crayon was the pen name under which Irving published "The Sketch Book". In fact it is the pen name he used for a number of his books including "Tales of a Traveler" and "The Alhambra". "Astoria: Or, Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains" was written under Irving's own name and is a history of John Jacob Astor's company's expedition to Oregon.

Not all stories in the "The Sketch Book" were written under the Geoffrey Crayon pen name.

Answer: Diedrich Knickerbocker

This is a little bit of a trick question. Geoffrey Crayon is the pen name under which Irving wrote "The Sketch Book", but it is the pen name under which he published both "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" but not under which he wrote both stories. As Crayon he claims that "Rip Van Winkle" is "A posthumous writing of Diedrich Knickerbocker" and that "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was "Found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker". Also as Crayon he does a brief introduction to "Rip Van Winkle" in which he explains who Knickerbocker supposedly was and how he died shortly after writing the book he's known for. That was Irving's 1809 satirical "A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty", which he wrote as Knickerbocker.

Jonathan Oldstyle was the pen name used for the "Letter of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent.", a collection of nine letters Irving wrote which appeared in the New York Morning Chronicle between November 1802 and April 1803. These letters would mark Irving's literary debut as well his use of a pen name. Irving's use of the Jonathan Oldstyle pen name could be compared to Benjamin Franklin's use of the Silence Dogood pen name.

Launcelot Langstaff would be one of the pen names he would use in the Mad Magazine of its day, "Salmagundi; or The Whim-whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, Esq. & Others". "Salmagundi" was a satirical magazine published by Irving, his brother William, and James Kirke Paulding that poked fun at the culture of New York City. Besides the Launcelot Langstaff pen name, Irving also used the pen name William Wizard in "Salmagundi". This magazine is noted today as where Irving first called NYC Gotham. "Salmagundi" was last published in 1808, a year before "A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty" was published. In 1962 Robert Boyer founded the modern "Salmagundi", naming it after the historical publication.

Answer: True

There is the titular character, Rip Van Winkle himself. Then there is his son, who is also named Rip Van Winkle, though we are not told whether he is a Jr. or a III, IV. etc. We don't know if the titular Rip Van Winkle was the first with that name or what according to this story. Then Rip's daughter Judith Gardenier (nee Van Winkle) has an infant son named Rip.

Answer: Catskill Mountains

All are mountain ranges in New York. Though in the story Irving uses the spelling Kaatskill, in the postscript, as Knickerbocker, he uses Catskill as well as Kaatsberg. And Irving even says that the name Kaatskill comes from a tributary of the Hudson River named Kaaterskill. A peak in the Hudson Highlands is also mentioned in the story.

Answer: Either Stony Point or Antony's Nose

"Oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the war; some say he was killed at the storming of Stony-Point-others say he was drowned in a squall at the foot of Antony's Nose. I don't know-he never came back again." Antony's Nose is a peak in the Hudson Highlands a little north of Stony Point. It forms the eastern side of the South Gate of the Hudson Highlands while Dunderberg Mountain forms the western side. Dunderberg Mountain is on the same side of the Hudson River as Stony Point and like Antony's nose is also a little north of Stony Point.

The Battle of Stony Point took place July 16, 1779. Colonial forces under Anthony Wayne defeated British forces under Henry Johnson. The march to the Battle of Stony Point by Wayne's forces began seven miles north at Fort Montgomery, located on the western side of the Hudson across from Antony's Nose and north of Dunderberg Mountain.

Answer: False

By the time Rip Van Winkle wakes up, Nicholas Vedder has been dead for eighteen years. His wooden tombstone had been located in the local churchyard but had rotten away and was also gone.

Answer: 20 years

When a distraught Rip Van Winkle asks if anybody knows him, an old woman steps up and examines him. She declares to the assembled crowd that the old man really is Rip Van Winkle and then asks him "Why, where have you been these twenty long years?"

Answer: The Siege of Fort Christina

Fort Christina, named after Queen Christina of Sweden, was a 17th century Swedish fort constructed about a mile east of the downtown area of what is today Wilmington, Delaware. It was the first settlement in New Sweden, a Swedish attempt at colonizing the New World, and was established in 1638.

Unfortunately, New Sweden was located in the Dutch colony of New Netherlands. In 1651 Peter Stuyvesant established Fort Casimir at present day New Castle, Delaware in an attempt to take the territory back for the Dutch.

The Swedes, under orders of Governor Johan Risingh, captured Fort Casimir in 1654. Stuyvesant would retaliate against the Swedes and in 1655, after a ten day siege, would capture Fort Christina and effectively bring an end to New Sweden.

Answer: Wolf

After Rip Van Winkle returned to his village he saw a dog that looked to him like Wolf. There's almost a sense of favorably comparing Wolf to Odysseus' faithful dog Argos at this point. Argos faithfully waited twenty years for Odysseus to return from the Trojan War and only had strength enough left in him to wag his tail when he saw him before finally succumbing to death. Yet this dog does not recognize Rip Van Winkle, in fact he snarls and bares his teeth at him before walking away.

It is possible this could be one of Wolf's descendants.

Answer: False

Irving states that the rights of citizens, elections, members of Congress, liberty, Bunker's Hill, heros of seventy-six, etc, were Babylonish jargon to Rip Van Winkle. After all, he'd been asleep during the war and the years to come.

Answer: "I am a poor, quiet man, a native of the place, and a loyal subject of the King, God bless him!"

Rip Van Winkle has been asleep for twenty years, but to him it had been but one night. So when he wakes up he does not know that George III is no longer his king. And the crowd does not know this man, who has shown up on Election Day with an old, rusty musket in hand, has no understanding of the events of those twenty years. So they believe him to be a British loyalist.

Answer: George Washington

Rip Van Winkle recognized the sign as that of King George III under which he had smoked many a pipe, yet at the same time he did not recognize it. As with so much of his village, changes had been made to the sign. The red coat was now blue and buff, which would fit with the Continental Army uniform Washington wore.

Instead of the king's scepter the figure held an officer's sword. One the head was a cocked hat, during the 18th century the tricorne hat was refered to as a cocked hat. And under the portrait was written General Washington. Only the face remained the same.

Answer: Schoolmaster and village parson

At the time Rip Van Winkle falls asleep, Derrick Van Bummel is the schoolmaster. But when he asks where he is after he wakes up, he's told that he went off to the war and became a great militia general and was presently in Congress. The figures Rip meet in the mountains remind him of "figures in an old Flemish painting, in the parlor of Dominie Van Schaick, the village parson" We do not learn what became of Van Schaick as he's not one of the men Rip Van Winkle asks about after he awakes.

A cooper is a person who makes wooden barrels or casks and staved containers such as butter churns and buckets. However, a journeyman cooper may also make wooden implements such as rakes and shovels. Coopers were assisted by hoopers, a hooper being a person who applies wooden or metal hoops to the barrels and staved containers made by the coopers. Cooper comes from the Middle Dutch word kûper, or cûper, which itself comes from the Middle Dutch word kûpe, or cûpe, meaning cask.

A farrier is a person who cares for horses' hooves. This includes trimming and balancing the hooves as well as shoeing the horse. As such a farrier is kind of a cross between a blacksmith (they would make the horseshoes) and a veterinarian.

A wheelwright is a person who makes and repairs wheels for carts and wains. Wain was an old term for wagon, specifically a horse or ox drawn wagon used for agricultural purposes. As such a wainwright is a person who builds wains/wagons. A person who builds carts is a cartwright.

Answer: Tartar's

Tartary, or Great Tartary, was a name used from the Middle Ages to the 20th century to designate an area of northern and central Asia stretching from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific in the East.

The Tatars are a Turkic-speaking people who today live mainly in Russia and other former Soviet countries which were a part of Great Tartary. During the Middle Ages they allied themselves with the Mongol Empire and helped to expand its borders during the time of Genghis Khan's grandson Batu Khan. The largest group the Russians call Tatars are the Volga Tatars, who make up just slightly over 53% of the population of modern Tatarstan and just slightly over 25% of Bashkortostan. They are also known to exist among the Mongols.

Answer: True

In the note immediately following the story Irving has his Diedrich Knickerbocker pen name state that he had talked to Rip Van Winkle and found him to be "so perfectly rational and consistent on every other point".

Answer: False

The Republican Party was founded in 1854, over thirty years after "The Sketch Book" was first published. Interestingly, the Democratic Party itself wasn't founded until about eight years after the last parts of the book were published in serial format. Rip Van Winkle was actually asked if he was voting Federal or Democrat, meaning he was asked if he was a member of the Federalist Party or the Democratic-Republican Party.

As the Democratic-Republican Party was founded in 1792, we know can see that Rip Van Winkle must have fallen asleep in either 1773 or 1774. Democratic-Republicans were also known as Democrats, Republicans, and Jeffersonians, though most called themselves Republicans.

The Democratic Party was one of the successors to the Democratic-Republican Party.

Answer: Heny Hudson and his crew

English explorer Henry Hudson, known in the story by his Dutch name Hendrick Hudson, explored the Hudson River, which would be named for him, in search of the Northwest Passage. Upon reaching Haverstraw Bay he believed he had successfully found the Northwest Passage and claimed the area for the Dutch.

According to Peter Vanderdonk, Hudson and his crew of the Half Moon (Halve Maen) return to the Catskills every twenty years to keep watch over the river and the city of Hudson, NY.

Answer: A rust encrusted firelock

When Rip Van Winkle wakes up he expects to find a clean, well oiled fowling piece but instead he finds an old firelock with a rust encrusted barrel. The stock was worm eaten and the lock itself (the firing mechanism), was falling off. Rip Van Winkle believes his gun has been stolen and replaced with this ancient piece by the thieves, so we at first have no reason to believe otherwise.

But little by little we start seeing other changes. The mountain gully though which he had passed had been dry and now had a foaming stream passing through it. People in his home village were dressed in a fashion strange to him.

His beard had grown a foot and is now grey. He didn't know anyone he saw in the village, which he found strange as he thought he'd known everybody there.

Answer: Dame Van Winkle

Rip Van Winkle's dog Wolf was said to be "as courageous an animal as ever scoured the woods". However, when he was around Dame Van Winkle he would sneak about and at the first flourish of a broomstick or a ladle would take off for the hills. She is depicted as a bit of a nag and a scold and Rip Van Winkle would often leave home just to get away from her. It is only after he discovers his wife is dead that he reveals to his daughter that he is her long lost father.

Nicholas Vedder was the landlord of the village inn the men used to gather at and was considered the village patriarch. He was the first person Rip Van Winkle asked about as someone who could identify him.

Joseph Jefferson was a 19th century American actor. He gained fame in 1858 as the first actor to play Asa Trenchard, the titular cousin, in "Our American Cousin". Though this play would gain its infamy on April 14, 1865, Jefferson would not be playing Asa Trenchard that night (Harry Hawk would, as Jefferson was out of the country at the time due to health problems). In 1859 he would play Rip Van Winkle in a stage adaptation of the short story, a role he would return to in the mid 1860s. In the 1890s he would become the first actor to play Rip Van Winkle on film when he played the character in a series of short films.

Joannes de Laet was a Dutch geographer and one of the directors of the Dutch West India Company. He would record excerpts from Henry Hudson's journal, pertaining to Hudson's 1609 voyage of exploration aboard the Halve Maen (Half Moon), in his 1625 book "Nieuwe Wereldt ofte Beschrijvinghe van West-Indien, uit veelerhande Schriften ende Aen-teekeningen van verscheyden Natien" (also know in English as "History of the New World")

Answer: Wolf

Animals such as cats and dogs are said to be able to sense the presence of spirits. So it seems right that it would be Rip Van Winkle's dog, Wolf, who senses something is not quite right about the first member of Hudson's crew that we meet.