The Dreamthief's Daughter Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Walnut

The walnut, a nickname which seems appropriate from the description, descended from a long line of smiths and swordsmen. Here we see the first of many resemblances of our hero to Elric is his name. He is also an albino (a family disease), the last of his earthly line and as having eyes described as ruby like. All very reminiscent of Elric of Melnibone. One of the von Asch's main lessons was to listen to the song the sword would sing.

As to Ulric's brothers, all died in World War One, either from disease or being blown to bits. He is the youngest and sole survivor of the family line.

Answer: Ravenbrand

Although it is described as the Raven Sword, the name given is Ravenbrand. The family legends claim it was forged in Venice, but another version claimed that it had been found and that only the hilt was added by known hands.

Here is yet another link with Elric: a black sword, whose origins cannot be established but has been in existence for a long time.

Answer: Do you the devil's work

It is "Do you the devil's work", which causes Lieutenant Klosterheim to ask whether von Bek follows the family motto. "Blood and souls" is a frequent cry of Elric, usually followed by a dedication of those to his patron demon Arioch.
"Stone and sea are deep in life" can be found as a quote of Ernest Wheldrake in another of the Elric novels, whilst the phrase "Quanti canicula ille in fenestra" is a motto of Terry Pratchett's city of Ankh-Morpork and translates as "how much is that doggie in the window?"

The two SS officers are more than they seem, not just members of the SS, they are aware of the other worlds and gain further understanding quickly. They become major villains as the plot develops. Ulric denies his brother and the Nazi party by claiming the sword is away for repair.

The second heirloom sought is a cup, alleged to be the Holy Grail of Christ. Ulric also proclaims no knowledge of any cup or grail, beyond pointing out that many old families have histories that claim to have been possessors of the Holy Grail. Additionally, the only cup of any note in the von Bek family legends is believed lost generations ago; if it ever existed, it had no significance - certainly not as the Holy Grail.

Answer: Sachsenburg

After three months Count von Bek is released into the custody of his cousin Gaynor, but only because Gaynor and his SS companions have failed to find the sword in the Bek family castle. Hoping the Ulric will show them where it has been hidden, they take him around the ransacked property. Although he does not reveal it, Ulric is not aware of where it is either. The hideaway where he placed the sword has been found but the sword is not present. Since he will not (and cannot) reveal the sword's current location, von Bek is returned to Sachsenburg the next morning, with the only expected release being death.

In the real world Sachsenburg was indeed a concentration camp, but was a four story mill not a castle as the camp in the tale is. However Lichtenburg was a castle. These two camps were both opened in 1933 and both were in Saxony as is the camp in the story. Herzogenbusch and Vaivara were both camps opened in 1943, in Norway and Estonia respectively.

Answer: Hameln

Ulric is assisted in his escape firstly by his sword, although he is not sure how it came to be in his cell, then by a female archer who turns out to be the titular character. Subsequently the two of them are met by an Englishman, Captain Oswald Bastable who drives off through Germany.

Hameln is better known in English as Hamelin and it seems an appropriate place for a link to another world. See the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin for another example.

Back to the story, the trio open and enter a cave, closely followed by Gaynor, Klosterheim and a troop of the SS. At first this is a subterranean world, but at other times seems to be a totally new plane of existence. Eventually it is identified as Middlemarch, or Mittelmarch in German, the borderland between human and fairy kingdoms.

Answer: Classical Greek

To be more precise, he reaches a university close to Mu-Ooria before he reaches Mu-Ooria itself. Regardless, he discovers that it is considered impolite to speak any other language than classical Greek amongst the Mu-Oorians. The first people inhabitants Ulric meets upon entering seem to have French associations and French seems the logical language to speak.

Ulric is welcomed to the lands of the Mu-Orrians by a human-sized red fox dressed as a French nobleman of three centuries past. Then Ulric is ministered to by a member of the French foreign legion. Further along in the story Ulric also gets to meet Baron Blare, Lord Bragg and Duke Bray who are respectively horse, cockerel and mule (though not totally). All are dressed as cavalry officers from the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Answer: Lady Miggea of Law

Although all of these appear in Elric stories, only two appear in this story: Arioch, who is Elric's patron demon, and Lady Miggea, who appears to be insane. Elric is tricked by the word of a lord of law and subsequently can only travel via dreams. Thus he has met and helped Ulric von Bek.

Gaynor in his turn betrays Lady Miggea to Lord Arioch, only to find he also has been deceived. Once Tanelorn is saved, Elric can return to his own body. Thereafter Elric and Ulric are once again two separate minds and bodies.

Answer: Strassha, King of the water elementals

All of these options are found somewhere in the books about Elric of Melnibonian, but here it is King Strassha whose aid is requested. The request made by Elric (who at this point is the dominant of the two minds in the body) is to be taken back to the city of Tanelorn, where Elric's physical body exists.

Meerclar does enter this tale at a later point: when the panthers that protect Mu-Ooria are dying, Elric summons him (or possibly her, according to other books concerning Elric of Melnibone).

Answer: Elric

This gets a bit complicated. Elric and Ulric are not the same person although they are described as aspects of the same person. For part of the story they are both in the same body, and at times it is not immediately clear which of the two minds is speaking. A further complication is that in the end Ulric and Oona marry.

Elric does not discover that he has had any offspring until he is travelling in dreams following his defeat in a duel during the siege of Tanelorn. Following the duel he travels in dreams and comes to a cottage where he meets Oona and finds that he fathered twins with Oone the Dreamthief.

Frommental is one of the many characters Ulric encounters in the realms around Mu-Orria.

Answer: Battle of Britain

The final defeat of Prince Gaynor takes place on an island in the Irish Sea. The Island of Morn, a small hillock with a few ruins and on top of the hill a circle of standing stones. Within these stones Gaynor is toyed with and destroyed by Lady Miggea of Law and Duke Arioch of Chaos.

Ulric, Oona and Elric are also present at this scene, having flown there from Bek on Melnibonian dragons. On the return flight to Bek, the heroes spy a large number of Luftwaffe bombers and fighters ready to overwhelm the depleted British forces, and proceed to attack them with dragon fire. This causes the advantage to swing back to the RAF.

It seems strange that Winston Churchill made no mention of this in his six volume History of the Second World War.