Haiku Fairy Tales Trivia Quiz

Answer: Red Riding Hood

Charles Perrault was the French author who published the original Mother Goose book in 1697. With it he invented a new literary genre, the fairy tale. He based his stories on old folk tales that he had collected. One of the most famous is the story of "Red Riding Hood". It tells of a girl who is seen by a wolf as she walks through the woods to take food to her sick grandmother. The wolf wants to eat her but is afraid to do it in a public place so he delays her by suggesting that she pick flowers for her grandmother. He gets to the old lady's cottage and eats her and then dresses as the grandmother and tricks Little Red Riding Hood when she arrives. The story differs in its different versions but always ends up with a woodsman, sometimes the girl's father, chopping the wolf open with and axe and rescuing grandma. The moral of the story, and all fairy tales have morals, is how unsafe one is outside of one's village and how evildoers try to deceive the innocent. It encourages caution, particularly for young girls and helpless old women.

Question by Calpurnia09

Answer: The Emperor's New Clothes

"The Emperor's New Clothes", one of Hans Christian Andersen's tales, is a story from the "Libro de Los Ejemplos", a medieval Spanish collection of fifty-one cautionary tales. A foolish king who spends all his money on beautiful clothes is told by a pair of unscrupulous tailors that they will make him a suit which will only be visible to the wise. The clothes are, of course, fabulously expensive. He believes them, and sets out on his walk, utterly naked. The sycophants in the crowd cheer and tell one another how beautiful the new clothes are - until a small child sees him and shouts out that the king is naked! Remember the line from the Danny Kaye song, 'The King is in the altogether, he's altogether as naked as the day that he was born!'
The moral is that you should believe what you see not what you are told. In today's parlance 'don't fall for spin, look at the facts.'

Question by Invinoveritas

Answer: Jack and the Beanstalk

"Jack and the Beanstalk" is an English fairytale. It begins with Jack's heading off to market to sell his mother's cow but he encounters a strange man who offers him magic beans in exchange for the cow. Smitten with the idea, he takes the offer. Mother is, as expected, angered by this and throws the beans out the window where they take root. The resulting beanstalk is the source of many riches. Jack climbs to the top, encounters a fearsome giant and steals his treasures, among them the goose that lays the golden egg. As the giant pursues Jack, he makes it to safety and chops down the stalk, killing the giant and, forever more, he and his mother live in luxury from the fruits of his ill-gotten gains. Hmmmm, perhaps not the message I would want to convey to my children on how to live their lives, but the tale endures.

Question by Barbarini

Answer: Cinderella

The Cinderella theme is present in stories from times and places as diverse as Ancient Greece, Medieval Europe, China and Korea in Eastern Asia and is a tale in "The Arabian Nights". In the story, as told today, Cinderella is made to do all the housework by her step-mother and two step sisters. The local Prince plans a grand ball because he wanted to find a wife. Cinderella is not allowed by her stepmother to attend. As she sits alone by the cold ashes of the fire her fairy godmother appeared. She turns a pumpkin into a gold coach, mice into horses and dresses Cinderella in a beautiful ball gown and glass slippers. She warned her the spell would wear off at midnight so she must be back by then. Cinderella went to the ball. The Prince was enchanted with her and she lost track of time. As the clock strikes midnight she flees from the ballroom, dropping a glass slipper on the steps of the palace. The Prince scours the kingdom looking for the foot the slipper fits. The step sisters cannot get into it. In the version of the story from the Brothers Grimm, titled "Aschenputtel", the stepmother forces the older stepsister to cut off her big toe, but the deception is discovered when it bleeds; the younger stepsister then has to cut off her heel to squash her foot into the shoe, but is once again discovered to have done so.) The Prince then tries it on Cinderella and it fits. She marries her Prince and they live happily ever after.

It is a classic tale of virtue rewarded and evil punished.

Question by christinap

Answer: Hansel and Gretel

The story of "Hansel and Gretel" is a well-known fairy tale of German origin, recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812. It is one of the most familiar of the fairy tales collected and published by the Brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812. In it two children are left in the forest by their father who can no longer support them. They find a house made of gingerbread which is inhabited by an old witch whose aim is to fatten them up then eat them. She is foiled by Gretel's cleverness. The story also has a wicked step-mother as one of the characters, a classic fairy device. The lesser-known "Jorinde and Joringel", which also features a wicked witch and her evil ways, is another of the Grimm's tales.

Question by Jennifer5

Answer: Snow White

"Snow White" was one of the Bavarian folk tales collected by the Brothers Grimm. A vain queen, who is the wicked stepmother of Snow White, her beautiful stepdaughter, has a magic mirror that reassures her that she is the most beautiful in the land. One day the mirror tells her that Snow White is now more beautiful. She commands a huntsman to take Snow White into the woods and kill her, but he cannot do it so leaves her alone. She is found by a group of dwarves, who take her to live with them. Unfortunately the queen again consults the mirror and finds out that Snow White is still alive. The queen disguises herself as an old woman and gives the girl a poisoned apple, but this just puts her into a trance from which she is revived by the kiss of a handsome prince. Another happy ending.

Question by angelic54

Answer: Aladdin

The story of "Aladdin" is one that appears in UK Pantomimes every year. It comes from the Middle East, and is one of the stories in the 'Book of One Thousand and One Nights,' ('The Arabian Nights'). The story is set in China and concerns a boy who finds a magical brass lamp, wherein dwells a Genie who can grant wishes. There is a wicked Wizard Abanazar who steals the lamp, but after multiple complications the lamp is found, Abanazar dealt with, and Aladdin becomes rich and weds the Princess of his dreams....and they live happily ever after.

Question by Invinoveritas

Answer: The Pied Piper of Hamelin

"The Pied Piper of Hamelin" tells the story of a town which was over-run with rats. A piper offers to rid the town of rats and the mayor promises to pay him well. When the rats have been lured from the town by the piper's playing the townsfolk decide not to pay. In revenge the piper lures all of the children from the town to a place where they all disappear into a cleft in a hill which closes after they have entered. Only a lame boy, who could not keep up with the others, was left to tell the tale. The story might have have reflected a real event in the town. Perhaps the piper is the symbol of the death of the town's children by plague or other disaster. Another theory is that he is Nicholas of Cologne, who led many children on a disastrous Children's Crusade. The moral is that one's debts must be paid.

Question by Calpurnia09

Answer: The Princess and the Pea

This is one of Hans Christian Andersen's fairytales. The story goes that a real Princess would be able to find a pea however well covered it was with many mattresses. The Prince has searched for many years for a bride but cannot find the right one. Then one dark rainy night a bedraggled girl turns up at the castle, claiming to be a Princess. The Queen is sceptical, but decides to put her to the test. She takes a pea and buries it beneath twenty feather beds and twenty mattresses, and in the morning the girl is asked if she slept well. "No" she said. "There was something really hard in the bed and I am black and blue all over." This, of course, proved she was the real thing, as only a Princess would be delicate enough to be able to feel something so small. The pea was put in a museum and may still be there - if it hasn't been stolen.

Question by Invinoveritas.

Answer: The Billy Goats Gruff

"The Billy Goats Gruff" is a Norwegian folk tale about three goats who have to cross a bridge, guarded by a troll, to reach new pasture. The troll lets the little goat and the middle-sized goat pass when they tell him their big brother will make better eating. When the big goat arrives at the bridge the troll attacks him but the goat is stronger and tosses him over the bridge into the water and crosses safely. Like Hansel and Gretel, it tells of cleverness defeating evil.

Question by angelic54