FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about Yesterday I Saw a Swan
Quiz about Yesterday I Saw a Swan

Yesterday I Saw a Swan Trivia Quiz


With their white feathers and graceful bodies, swans have inspired many a myth and fairy tale. Some of these stories are well-known, while others are more obscure.

A multiple-choice quiz by Kankurette. Estimated time: 5 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. Literature Trivia
  6. »
  7. Fables and Fairy Tales

Author
Kankurette
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
397,578
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
7 / 10
Plays
315
Awards
Top 35% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 173 (5/10), pehinhota (7/10), MissHollyB (6/10).
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. Swan stories go back thousands of years. For instance, in Greek myth, the Greek god Zeus sometimes assumed animal forms to seduce women. He impregnated the princess Leda while in the form of a swan. Which of these Greek characters was the offspring of Zeus and Leda? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. In the European fairy tale 'The Magic Swan', how does the hero use a swan to make a sad princess laugh? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. The Grimm fairy tale 'The Six Swans' tells the story of a girl whose brothers are all turned into swans by their stepmother. In order to make them human again, she must sew six shirts made of nettles, but there is also another condition. What is she not allowed to do for six years? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. In the Swedish tale 'The Swan Maiden', a hunter spies three swans taking off their feathers and turning into beautiful women, who then go for a swim. He falls in love with one of them and asks his mother for advice. What does his mother tell him to do? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. In 'The Swan Queen', a tale from Lithuania, a swan turns into a human girl and marries a king, but can't resist the call of her old swan family and flies away with them, though she comes back every night to visit their son. How does the king get her back? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Which epic poem features the hero Lemminkäinen trying to kill the Black Swan of Tuonela, only to end up dead? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. The Russian 'Tale of Tsar Saltan' features a magic swan who aids the hero, Prince Gvidon, after he and his mother are cast out from the royal palace by her evil sisters. What does the swan do to help Prince Gvidon? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. The Irish folktale 'The Wooing of Etain' features the goddess Etain falling in love with the god Midir, and the two of them transforming into swans and flying away. Eochu, Etain's husband, digs up Midir's fairy mound, and Midir promises to let Eochu have Etain back if he can pick her out of a line-up of identical women. He picks a woman he thinks is Etain, but who does he actually choose? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. The Irish story 'The Children of Lir' is another story that bears some resemblance to 'Swan Lake', where four children are turned into swans. For how long do they stay as swans? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. One of the most famous fictional swans of all time is the Ugly Duckling, the cygnet who didn't realise he was a cygnet and not a duckling. Which author of fairy tales wrote 'The Ugly Duckling'? Hint



(Optional) Create a Free FunTrivia ID to save the points you are about to earn:

arrow Select a User ID:
arrow Choose a Password:
arrow Your Email:




Most Recent Scores
Feb 22 2024 : Guest 173: 5/10
Feb 07 2024 : pehinhota: 7/10
Feb 02 2024 : MissHollyB: 6/10
Feb 01 2024 : andymuenz: 9/10

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Swan stories go back thousands of years. For instance, in Greek myth, the Greek god Zeus sometimes assumed animal forms to seduce women. He impregnated the princess Leda while in the form of a swan. Which of these Greek characters was the offspring of Zeus and Leda?

Answer: Helen of Troy

Minos (the king of Crete) and the heroes Perseus and Heracles are all children of Zeus by different women, but Helen of Troy is the daughter of Zeus and Leda, along with Castor. Leda also had a daughter, Clytemnestra, and a son, Pollux, by her husband Tyndareus. Pollux and Castor were twins despite having different dads, and the constellation Gemini is named for them.

Zeus was in love with Leda, and transformed into a swan and flew to her for protection while being chased by an eagle. He seduced her, and she laid two eggs.
2. In the European fairy tale 'The Magic Swan', how does the hero use a swan to make a sad princess laugh?

Answer: He makes people get stuck to the swan and each other

This story is also known as 'Swan, Let It Stick!', and involves a magic swan, which a young man steals from its owner on the orders of an old woman, who tells him it will make his fortune. Whenever anyone admires the swan's feathers and asks to touch it, all he has to say is, "Swan, let it stick!" and they will be stuck to the swan.

When other people try to free the people stuck to the swan, they become stuck to each other, and the hero walks through the streets with his swan and a parade of people stuck to its back and each other.

The princess of the country has never smiled or laughed, but when she sees the ridiculous sight of the swan, she bursts out laughing and the king offers the hero her hand in marriage. Other versions of the tale, such as the Italian version collected by Italo Calvino, feature a goose.
3. The Grimm fairy tale 'The Six Swans' tells the story of a girl whose brothers are all turned into swans by their stepmother. In order to make them human again, she must sew six shirts made of nettles, but there is also another condition. What is she not allowed to do for six years?

Answer: Speak

This classic story is Aarne-Thompson Type 451, 'the brothers turned into birds', and other stories in this quiz bear some similarities to it. Some versions have as many as 12 brothers (Andersen's has 11), but this particular version has six. They are all changed into swans when they put on shirts that their evil stepmother has sewn for them.

They can only change back into their human forms for fifteen minutes every evening, and tell their sister that she must sew six shirts out of nettles, and must not speak for six years.

She hides away in a forest hut to do this. A passing king sees her and falls in love, but his mother hates the girl, and whenever the girl gives birth to one of the king's children, his mother hides the child and claims the new queen killed and ate it.

She is sentenced to be burned at the stake, and continues to sew the shirts in private, but on the day of the execution, one shirt has a sleeve missing. As the queen is about to be burned at the stake, she brings the shirts with her, as the six years are almost up, and her brothers fly down to save her.

She throws the shirts at them and they turn back, but the youngest still has one wing as his shirt only has one sleeve. As the queen is allowed to speak, she explains everything and her mother-in-law gets executed instead.
4. In the Swedish tale 'The Swan Maiden', a hunter spies three swans taking off their feathers and turning into beautiful women, who then go for a swim. He falls in love with one of them and asks his mother for advice. What does his mother tell him to do?

Answer: Steal the swan maiden's feathers

'The Swan Maiden' is set in the province of Mellby, and is an archetypal story of an enchanted woman who is transformed into a bird, and whose feathers are stolen as a means of capturing her. The hunter sees three swans taking off their feathers, turning into women and going for a swim, and when they get out of the water, they put their feathers back on, turn into swans and fly away.

The hunter falls in love with the youngest swan and goes off hunting, and his mother notices something is wrong. When he tells her he wants to possess the swan maiden, she tells him to wait till they go swimming and then steal her feathers. Upon noticing her feathers are missing, the swan maiden begs the hunter to give them back, but he wraps her in his cloak and takes her home.

The two are married, and seven years later, the hunter tells his wife how he won her. He still has the feathers, and brings them out to show her. As soon as he gives her the feathers, the swan maiden turns into a swan and flies away, and the hunter eventually dies of a broken heart.
5. In 'The Swan Queen', a tale from Lithuania, a swan turns into a human girl and marries a king, but can't resist the call of her old swan family and flies away with them, though she comes back every night to visit their son. How does the king get her back?

Answer: He traps her by putting tar on the windowsill.

Like the girl in 'The Swan Maiden', the heroine of 'The Swan Queen' has the ability to become human by taking off her feathers, and when she is human, she helps an old couple around the house without their knowledge. They're curious to find out who the mysterious helper is, so the husband hides and when the swan turns into a woman, he burns her wings. The woman cries because she misses her family, but stays with the old couple until a passing king falls in love with her, and gives her adopted parents money in return for her hand in marriage. The queen gives birth to a son, and one day she sees a flock of swans singing to her and asking her to come with them. It makes her sad and she tries to ignore them, but the swan she once loved appears, and she gives in, takes a pair of wings and turns into a swan. However, her swan lover soon dies.

Meanwhile, the king has remarried, and his new wife, Lauma, is a witch who treats her stepson badly. Every night the swan queen flies home, and turns back into a human to wash her son and sing him to sleep. The king asks an old man how to catch her, and the old man tells him to put tar on the windowsill and when the swan gets stuck, to tear off her wings. He does this and she turns back into a human, and they get back together while Lauma is executed.
6. Which epic poem features the hero Lemminkäinen trying to kill the Black Swan of Tuonela, only to end up dead?

Answer: The Kalevala

The 'Kalevala', the national epic of Finland, is a Finnish epic poem compiled by the Finnish doctor and writer Elias Lönnröt from Finnish folklore and mythology. Tuonela is the Underworld, and features several times in the 'Kalevala'; for instance, the hero Väināmöinen travels down there to gain knowledge about the dead.

In Lemminkäinen's case, he goes to Tuonela to kill the Black Swan in an attempt to woo one of the daughters of Louhi, an evil witch queen who often sets heroes impossible or difficult tasks.

The Black Swan swims around in the river of Tuonela, around the island of the dead, and it sings a song to Lemminkäinen which moves him so much, he doesn't want to kill it. The blind son of Tuoni, the king of the Underworld, sends a poisonous snake to bite Lemminkäinen, and he falls into the river and is torn apart. Lemminkäinen's mother goes to Tuonela to search for him and dredges up first his clothes, and then pieces of his body.

She sews his dismembered body back together, but is unable to bring him back to life, so she asks a bee to get a drop of honey from Ukko, the thunder god.

This magic honey brings Lemminkäinen back to life.
7. The Russian 'Tale of Tsar Saltan' features a magic swan who aids the hero, Prince Gvidon, after he and his mother are cast out from the royal palace by her evil sisters. What does the swan do to help Prince Gvidon?

Answer: She turns him into a bee, a mosquito and a fly.

'The Tale of Tsar Saltan' - or, to give it its full title, 'The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of His Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovitch, and of the Beautiful Princess-Swan' - tells of three sisters, the youngest of whom marries Tsar Saltan and becomes Tsaritsa. Her sisters are jealous of her, and plot to get rid of her and her son Prince Gvidon. They write to Tsar Saltan, who is at war, telling him his wife has given birth to a monster, and the Tsar sends his wife a letter telling her to wait for him to come home. However, the sisters intercept the messenger, get him drunk and replace his letter with a fake one saying the Tsaritsa is to be drowned. The Tsaritsa and Prince Gvidon are sealed in a barrel and thrown into the sea, but they survive, as the sea washes them up on the magical island of Buyan. Prince Gvidon, who has grown rapidly while in the barrel, goes hunting and rescues a swan from a kite, and in return, the swan creates a magical city for him to rule.

However, Prince Gvidon gets homesick, so the swan turns him into a gnat and he hides on board a merchants' ship bound for his homeland. He hears his aunts bragging about a magical squirrel which cracks golden nuts and sings, and stings one of his aunts in the eye. When he gets home, the swan gives him the magic squirrel, and he has a house built for it. The swan turns him into a fly so he can see the Tsar again, and when his aunts brag about a magical army that comes from the sea, he stings his aunts' friend Barbarika in the eye. The swan summons the army when Prince Gvidon gets back, telling him they are her brothers. He returns for a third time, now disguised as a bee. Barbarika and the aunts brag about a beautiful princess, and the prince gets angry and stings Barbarika again. He tells the swan about the princess, and she reveals that she herself is the princess. The two are married, and when Tsar Saltan sails to the island, he is reunited with his wife and son.
8. The Irish folktale 'The Wooing of Etain' features the goddess Etain falling in love with the god Midir, and the two of them transforming into swans and flying away. Eochu, Etain's husband, digs up Midir's fairy mound, and Midir promises to let Eochu have Etain back if he can pick her out of a line-up of identical women. He picks a woman he thinks is Etain, but who does he actually choose?

Answer: His daughter

This isn't the first time Étaín has been turned into an animal - Fúamnach, Midir's jealous first wife, turns her into a pool of water, a worm and a butterfly. Étaín follows Midir's foster son Aengus as a butterfly, and Fúamnach summons a wind to blow her away.

She is reborn after the wife of the chieftain Etar swallows her. She later marries Eochu, and Midir tries to win her back by repeatedly playing a board game with Eochu, ultimately demanding a kiss from Étaín as a prize. When Midir embraces Étaín, she gets her memories back, and the two of them turn into swans and fly away. Eochu retaliates by having Midir's síd (a fiary mound) dug up, and Midir promises he can have Étaín back if he picks her out of a crowd of fifty identical women. Eochu picks her out and sleeps with her - but it isn't Étaín he picks out, it's his and Étaín's own daughter.
9. The Irish story 'The Children of Lir' is another story that bears some resemblance to 'Swan Lake', where four children are turned into swans. For how long do they stay as swans?

Answer: 900 years

Lir married Aoibh, the daughter of the god Bodb Derg, and they had three children: a son, Aodh, a daughter, Fionnghuala, and a pair of male twins, Fiachra and Conn. Aoibh died and Lir married another of Bodb's daughters, Aoifé. Aoifé grew jealous of the children and was going to kill them, but decided to turn them into swans instead. They had to spend 300 years on Loch Dairbhreach (Lake Derryvaragh), 300 years on Sruth na Maoilé (the Straits of Moyle), and 300 years at Iorrus Domnann (Erris) and Inis Gluairé (Glory Island). Aoifé relented a little and allowed the swans to have the power of speech, and told them they would sing beautiful songs. They told Lir about their stepmother's betrayal, and Bodb turned Aoifé into an air demon as punishment.

The swans travelled from place to place over the centuries, and when St Patrick came to Ireland, they heard Caomhog, a monk, ringing the bell for matins and sang to it. He revealed that he had come to Iris Gluairé to find them. Lairgnen, the king of Connacht, tried to capture the swans for his wife, but their feathers came off and they changed into three old men and an old woman. Knowing they were dying, Fionnghuala asked Caomhog to baptise them. He baptised and christened them, and they were able to die in peace and be buried.
10. One of the most famous fictional swans of all time is the Ugly Duckling, the cygnet who didn't realise he was a cygnet and not a duckling. Which author of fairy tales wrote 'The Ugly Duckling'?

Answer: Hans Christian Andersen

'The Ugly Duckling' is a classic Andersen tale of someone who is considered to be ugly when they're younger, but grows up into someone beautiful. In this case, it's a little grey duckling who doesn't fit in with the other ducklings, who think he's ugly.

The other farm animals bully him and he goes to live with wild birds, but has to escape when hunters start shooting him. He goes to live with an old woman, but is picked on by her cat and hen. A farmer finds him out in the cold and takes him home, but the farmer's children scare him and he runs away, and spends the winter lonely and miserable.

In spring, he sees a flock of swans and thinks about how beautiful they are, and how he would rather be killed by them than continue to live a miserable life.

However, the swans welcome him as one of their own, and the duckling sees his reflection and realises that he is not a duck, but a beautiful swan.
Source: Author Kankurette

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.
Related Quizzes
This quiz is part of series Kankurette's Team Green Quizzes:

The quizzes I've been doing for Team Green for the Team Task Challenge quiz.

  1. Welcome to Deadman Wonderland Average
  2. Game of Zoos: Where Are The Animals Hiding? Easier
  3. Red, Gold & Green: The Land of Guinea-Bissau Average
  4. A Faster Way to Travel Average
  5. Piggies Easier
  6. Italo Calvino's 'Italian Folktales' Average
  7. The Light Is Always Green Average
  8. Welcome to the Celebrity Zoo Very Easy
  9. Three Lions on My Phone Average
  10. Begin Again Average
  11. A Diamond Called Ross Barkley Average
  12. Magnificent Beeves: Hereford Cattle Average

3/29/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us