Castles that Never Really Were, Second Parapet Quiz / Test

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In the Middle Earth of J.R.R. Tolkien, what city/castle was the capital of Gondor, the name of which means in Sindarin "the Tower of Guard"?

Answer: Minas Tirith

Built partly as a city and partly as a castle, Minas Tirith sits atop seven stories, each a hundred meters high. To conquer the castle, an invader would have to defeat its defenses seven times. The film "The Return of the King" (2003) shows how ridiculously difficult this is. In the Sindarin language, minas means tower and tirith means watch or guard. The coronation of Aragorn II Elessar, the son of Arathorn II and Gilraen, occurred there.

2. In C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia," whose castle was made of ice and built using black magic?

Answer: The White Witch

Queen Jadis of Charn is also known as the White Witch. Queen Jadis was the last ruler of Charn -- a world between the Earth and Narnia. She enslaved Narnia in a century-long winter. The desolation of Charn offers a prediction to those who live in and by corruption.

3. In Frank Herbert's "Dune" novels, which castle was the home of the Atreides family before they were invited to take over Arrakis?

Answer: Castle Caladan

The Atreides family lived in Castle Caladan on the planet Caladan until they were called to become the rulers of Arrakis (Dune) displacing the House Harkonnen. The castle is made of very old stone with wooden beams and vaulted ceilings. The Dining Hall is a major social center. It sits on a river in the midst of rich farmland.

4. When Truly Scrumptious and the Potts family visits Vulgaria in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", in which castle is Caractacus Potts' father held prisoner?

Answer: Bomburst Castle

Vulgaria is ruled by the despotic Bomburst Family whose hatred of children has led to a ban on youngsters anywhere in the barony. In Ian Fleming's 1964 novel and the 1968 children's motion picture based on it, the Bombursts live in Bomburst castle which is huge and forbidding.

The actual Neuschwanstein Castle was used as a stand-in for the Baron's castle in the movie. Dick Van Dyke ably portrays the whacky inventor Caractacus Potts.

5. According to the legend, the novel(s), the poems, the song and the movies, where did King Arthur live as an adult?

Answer: Camelot

There is no saying where the original Camelot, the court and castle of King Arthur, was actually located nor if it actually existed ['tho your life is poorer if you think it did not]. Camelot is the "ne plus ultra" of fictional castles, because "there's simply not a more congenial spot for happily-ever-aftering than here in Camelot."

6. In what 1959 Walt Disney motion picture did Maleficent live in a castle in the Forbidden Mountains where the kidnapped Prince Phillip was locked in the dungeon?

Answer: Sleeping Beauty

The weather is always dark and gloomy in the Forbidden Mountains where Maleficent occupies her castle reached only by a precarious lengthy bridge. The place is guarded by her goblin minions. The castle appears briefly in "Maleficent" (2014) but is featured prominently in "Sleeping Beauty" (1959).

7. The 1926 novel "The Castle" (in German, "Das Schloss" or "Das Schlo�") is about the frustrations of living in a bureaucratic state which is unconcerned with human values and of the futility of attempting to achieve goals when the system changes frequently and arbitrarily around one. Who wrote it?

Answer: Franz Kafka

From the viewpoint of K, the protagonist in "The Castle," he is prevented from earning the right to live in the village (where he already lives) by strange powers within the castle whose motives and decisions are fluid and unclear. Kafka died of tuberculosis before he could finish the novel and requested that the manuscript be burned. It was not.

8. In "Game of Thrones," what is the name of the castle of the House Arryn, located in the Vale of Arryn, near the east coast of Westeros, straddling the Mountains of the Moon?

Answer: The Eyrie

The Eyrie is one of the best defended of all the castles in "Game of Thrones" in that it is located on a high peak which potential invaders must climb to gain access. The access is narrow, requiring invaders to walk single file, making them easy targets for defending archers. There are three separate way castles protecting the access. A clever feature of the Eyrie is the Sky Cells -- dungeons open on one side to a thousand-foot drop, the floors of which cells slope toward the open side.

9. He-Man, the male star of "The Masters of the Universe", frequently defended a castle which protected the secrets by which one could rule the Planet Eternia and perhaps the cosmos. What was the name of that castle?

Answer: Castle Grayskull

"He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" was conceived by the Mattel Toy Company, as a comic-book series, as a television cartoon, as a live-action movie and as a platform for the sale of action figures. Prince Adam, who became He-Man, defended Castle Grayskull against the evil Skeletor (also from the evil Hordak and the Snake Men) again and again.

In 1982, Mattel made a toy replica of Castle Grayskull which folded up into a carrying case for all the other "Masters of the Universe" toys which could be purchased. Lucky and prescient people still have theirs.

10. Bram Stoker imagined "A vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the moonlit sky." Whose castle was it?

Answer: Dracula

Irish author Abraham Stoker (1847-1912) wrote "Dracula" (1897), the first and last parts of which are set in and around Castle Dracula in Transylvania. Nobody knows where the real Castle Dracula is or was; maybe Stoker made it up completely. But Bran Castle (in T�rzburg near Brasov) markets itself to tourists as the real place. And there are video games about the fastness such as "Dracula's Castle," "Escape Dracula's Castle" and "Castlevania."

Source: Author FatherSteve

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.
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Castles that Never Really Were, Second Parapet Quiz

Sir Edward Coke said in 1628 that "a man's house is his castle." How much do you know about these famous fictional castles?

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