Fairy tales and fables quiz
Checked on 11 November 2026
Question 1 of 10
Discover
Who wrote the fairy tale The Emperor's New Clothes?
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The answer is H. C. Andersen.
The Emperor's New Clothes is an 1837 fairy tale by the Danish storyteller Andersen, first written in Danish as Kejserens nye klæder.
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In Aesop's fable The Tortoise and the Hare, who wins the race?
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The answer is The tortoise.
The hare naps along the way while the tortoise keeps going slowly but steadily, and the hare cannot catch up in time.
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Cinderella is also known by which other title, after the special shoe in the story?
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The answer is The Little Glass Slipper.
Charles Perrault's famous French version is titled Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper.
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In the Aesop fable about the boy who cried wolf, what is the boy's job?
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The answer is Shepherd.
The boy is a shepherd who tends sheep near the village and calls out about a wolf just to amuse himself.
Practise
In the Grimm tale Rumpelstiltskin, what does the little man spin straw into?
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The answer is Gold.
A miller boasts that his daughter can turn straw into gold, and the little man appears and does the spinning for her.
Practise
What were the first names of the Brothers Grimm who collected Children's and Household Tales?
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The answer is Jacob and Wilhelm.
Jacob Grimm was born in 1785 and his brother Wilhelm in 1786, both in Hanau, Germany.
Practise
Which French poet retold many of Aesop's stories in his verse Fables, first published in 1668?
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The answer is Jean de La Fontaine.
Jean de La Fontaine published his first book of Fables in verse in 1668, and they became hugely popular.
Expert
Charles Perrault's 1697 book of fairy tales carried which famous subtitle?
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The answer is Tales of Mother Goose.
Perrault's Stories or Tales from Times Past, with Morals came with the added title Tales of Mother Goose.
Expert
In Andersen's The Princess and the Pea, how many mattresses are piled on top of the pea?
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The answer is Twenty.
The queen tests the guest by covering a pea with twenty mattresses and twenty featherbeds.
Expert
In which year did the Brothers Grimm publish the first volume of their fairy tale collection?
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The answer is 1812.
The first volume of Children's and Household Tales came out in December 1812 with 86 stories.