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Brothers Grimm fairy tale trivia

Posted: July 3, 2012 - 11:27pm

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The late 18th Century years in which Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm grew up were ones of significant social change for Germany. Towns, baronial manors, duchies, kingdoms and provinces had yet to completely federate so common law and communication systems were still evolving.

Wars and emigration caused serious depopulation of villages along the Rhine River and quashed much of the area’s unique local culture. Influenced by the early Romantic Era movement’s promotion of nationalism through the celebration of languages, the university student Grimm brothers believed that German oral traditions and culture could most effectively be represented and preserved through folklore. Storytellers and Hessian villagers alike were urged to come forward and contribute their imaginative stories from “once upon a time” when ordinary creatures in fantastical, magical and symbolic ways bravely faced adversity and triumphed.

In 1812 the Brothers Grimm published the first volume of “Children and Household Tales,” an anthology of 86 fairy tales about believable subjects which helped teach basic moral values. Over their lifetime, the Grimm brothers would collect and publish more than 500 fairy tales in six volumes.

The collected works of the Brothers Grimm have inspired and entertained seven or eight generations of readers in the past 200 years including Walt Disney whose first full length animated feature film was 1937’s ”Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” So successful was this movie adaptation of a fairy tale that Walt Disney Animated Classics created from other fairy tales such films as “Cinderella” (1950), “Sleeping Beauty” (1959), “Beauty and the Beast” (1991) “The Princess and the Frog “(2009) and “Tangled” (the Rapunzel story) in 2010.

In honor of the 200th anniversary of the publication of the Brothers Grimm first collection of fairy tales, we offer the following trivia challenge about ten of their most popular fairy tales. Remember, please, that the correct answers are from the original stories and not the somewhat altered movie versions of the tales unless the question specifically references a film.


• What was Sleeping Beauty’s first name? (Rosamond)

• Who predicted that when Sleeping Beauty was 16 she’d prick her finger on a spindle and die? (A fairy not invited to her christening)

• How many years did she have to sleep until a king’s son came to her? (100)

• In Disney’s 1959 film what was Sleeping Beauty’s first name? (Aurora)


• How old was Rapunzel when the evil enchantress locked her in the tower? (12)

• What did Rapunzel’s father take from the evil enchantress’s garden? (Rampion or radishes)

• Besides her hair, what is another source of Rapunzel’s magic powers? (Her tears)

• What was the name of the evil enchantress who imprisoned Rapunzel? (Dame Gothel)


• What was the miller’s daughter name? (Esmeralda)

• What happened to Rumpelstiltskin after the Queen guessed his name? (He flew out the window on a cooking ladle)

• What is a rumpelstiltskin? (A type of goblin who makes his presence known by clanging on pots and banging on posts)

• What was the price Rumpelstiltskin demanded of the miller’s daughter to spin the straw into gold (Her firstborn child)


• What is pied? (Patches of two or more colors on his coat)

• What profession did the piper claim to be be? (Rat catcher)

• In what river did the piper drown the rats? (Weser River)

• When the townspeople refused to pay for the piper for his services, how many children followed his magic pipe away (150)


• Who asks the magic mirror “Mirror Mirror on the Wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” (Snow’s vain stepmother)

• How many times does the Queen go to the dwarfs’ cottage trying to kill Snow White? (3)

• How does the Prince save Snow White? (He dropped her coffin and the thump dislodged the poisonous apple piece from her throat)

• How did the vain queen die? (Forced to dance wearing heated iron shoes at Snow’s wedding until she dropped dead)


• What did the children’s father do for a living? (Woodcutter)

• Which child pushed the godless witch into the bread oven? (Gretel)

• What was the wicked witch’s house made of? (Gingerbread and cakes with a candy roof)

• Once the witch burned, what did the children bring home with them (treasure and jewels)


• What was Little Red Riding Hood bringing to her grandmother? (A piece of cake and a bottle of wine)

• How did the wolf slow Red Riding Hood down so he could reach Grandmother’s house first? (He told her to pick some flowers)

• Who rescues Red Riding Hood and Grandmother? (A lumberjack)

• What is the moral of the story? (Villages are safe places but forests are dangerous)


• How did the spoiled princess first meet the frog? (She dropped her golden ball into his pond)

• What did she promise the frog if he returned her ball? (he could be her friend, eat from her plate & live in the palace)

• When did the frog turn into a prince? (When the princess threw him on the floor)

• What is the moral of this story? (A promise made must be kept no matter what)


• What species of tree did Cinderella plant over her mother’s grave? (Hazel)

• Why did Cinderella lose her shoe on the staircase? (Prince had coated the staircase in pitch to slow her descent and the left shoe became stuck]

• What were the names of her stepsisters? (Drizzella and Anatasia)

• After the pumpkin became the carriage and the mice the horses, who was turned into the footman who helped Cinderella into the carriage? (Bruno the dog)

• What was the purpose of the ball to which Cinderella went? (It was part of a three-day festival so the king’s son could choose a bride for himself)


• What was the name of the princess’s talking horse? (Falada)

• What was the magical talisman the Queen gave her daughter? (White handkerchief with three drops of blood)

• What does the princess charm to keep her golden locks away from Conrad the goose herder? (The wind)

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