George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four. Image Pinterest
Today’s questions are not related to the date; instead, they share a theme linked to the title in a subtle or hidden manner.
One
ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha, an appreciation society and their publication Mostly Harmless is connected to what science fiction franchise?
Two
What single word can mean nought, a strong-lined fabric, a quick immersion, a bivalve mollusc, a lowering of the head or a bird and in which sport did the meaning ‘nought’ originate?
Three
Where is the mythical Snow Lion a celestial emblem?
Four
What character is named when symbols for sulphur, nobelium, oxygen, phosphorus and yttrium are placed together in order?
Five
What are the three super-states in the novel Nineteen Eighty-four, and in which of these is London located?
The first question is connected to today, 29 July. The remainder are not date-related but continue a theme leading you on a quest through the fantasy worlds of fiction.
One
In 1954, the first volume of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic The Lord of the Rings was published. What was the title of this volume?
Answer: The Fellowship of the Ring.
In 1954, J.R.R. Tolkien published The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, the first parts of The Lord of the Rings, followed by The Return of the King in 1955. The Fellowship of the Ring refers to the company made up by Frodo, Merry, Sam and Pippin: all Hobbits; Aragorn and Boromir: both men; Legolas, an Elf; Gimli, a Dwarf; and Gandalf, a Wizard.
Two
What author’s work is home to the battle poet William the Gonnagle?
Answer: Terry Pratchett.
In Pratchett’s Discworld series, William the Gonnagle, a 96-year-old battle poet and musician, speaks in the lowland Scots of Robert Burns and with a slow careful voice. He plays mouse pipes that drive Grimhounds mad. Unlike bards, gonnagles compose poems to frighten enemies during battles causing their ears to explode. His name is derived from the notoriously poor poet William Topaz McGonagall.
Three
What series of books, the first published in 1995, included the character Fra Pavel Rašek, an alethiometrist of the Consistorial Court of Discipline (CCD), and of what organisation is the CCD a branch?
Answers: His Dark Materials; Magisterium.
Philip Pullman’s trilogy unfolds across a multiverse, with Northern Lights set in a world akin to Edwardian Britain, featuring zeppelins instead of cars or planes. The Church, led by the Magisterium, mirrors the Catholic Church’s authority, with the CCD as one of its most active branches.
Four
Who were Paul and Alia’s parents in the novel Dune?
Answer: Lord Leto Atreides and Lady Jessica
Dune, a 1965 novel by Frank Herbert, is set in a feudal interstellar society where noble houses vie for control of Arrakis, the sole source of the valuable spice melange. The story follows Paul Atreides as he navigates politics, religion, and ecology in this epic science fiction tale.
Five
In the world of Harry Potter, the Killing Curse (Avada Kedavra), the Cruciatus Curse (Crucio), and the Imperius Curse (Imperio) are known collectively as what?
Answer: Unforgivable Curses.
The Unforgivable Curses, Avada Kedavra, Crucio, and Imperio, are the most powerful and sinister Dark spells in the wizarding world. First classified as ‘Unforgivable’ in 1717, they carry the strictest penalties for their use, being tools of the Dark Arts.
Enchanted Forest
The title refers to a common feature in fiction: an enchanted forest.
The first question is connected to today, 29 July. The remainder are not date-related but continue a theme leading you on a quest through the fantasy worlds of fiction.
One
In 1954, the first volume of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic The Lord of the Rings was published. What was the title of this volume?
Two
What author’s work is home to the battle poet William the Gonnagle?
Three
What series of books, the first published in 1995, included the character Fra Pavel Rašek, an alethiometrist of the Consistorial Court of Discipline (CCD), and of what organisation is the CCD a branch?
Four
Who were Paul and Alia’s parents in the novel Dune?
Five
In the world of Harry Potter, the Killing Curse (Avada Kedavra), the Cruciatus Curse (Crucio), and the Imperius Curse (Imperio) are known collectively as what?
The St Leger, the oldest of Britain’s five Classic races, is the last of the five to be run each year, and its distance is longer than any of the other four. In what decade was it first ran?
Answer: 1770s (1776).
The St Leger Stakes, established in 1776, is Great Britain’s oldest Group 1 flat horse race, held annually in September at Doncaster. It concludes the English and Fillies Triple Crowns. The race spans 2,921 metres and is the longest of Britain’s five Classic races, with Camelot being a recent notable contender.
Two
What J.K. Rowling book was first published in the U.K. in June 1997, and under what title was the same book published the following year in the U.S.?
Answers: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling’s debut, follows young wizard Harry Potter discovering his magical heritage. Published in 1997, it became a bestseller, translated into 85 languages, and adapted into a film. Praised for imagination and plot, it sold over 120 million copies, influencing education and marketing.
Three
What geometric shape is also the path of the Earth around the Sun, and how far approximately, in miles or km, does the Earth travel on that path in a year?
Answer: Ellipse; 584 million miles or 940 million km.
Earth orbits the Sun every 365.256 days in a counterclockwise, elliptical path at an average distance of 149.6 million km. Travelling at 29.78 km/s, it appears to move 1° eastward daily relative to the stars. This orbit’s near-circular eccentricity keeps the Sun close to its centre.
The cover of which debut studio album from 1969 depicts the Hindenburg exploding?
Answer: Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin, the debut album by the English rock band of the same name, was released in January 1969 in the US and March 1969 in the UK. Recorded in 36 hours at Olympic Studios, London, it features a mix of original and rearranged blues and folk songs. The album achieved top 10 success in the UK and US.
Five
What tennis Grand Slam takes place in a stadium which is named after a World War 1 fighter pilot who was killed in action?
Answer: French Open.
Eugène Adrien Roland Georges Garros, a French aviation pioneer, first crossed the Mediterranean by airplane in 1913. A self-taught pilot, he joined the French Army in World War I and helped to developed a forward-firing machine gun. He was killed in action in 1918. The Roland Garros tennis stadium in Paris, opened in 1928, honours him and the French Open is alternatively called Roland-Garros.
Off the Shelf
Today’s answers were straight off the ‘shelf’ in that the letters from that word provided the initial letter of each answer.
The St Leger, the oldest of Britain’s five Classic races, is the last of the five to be run each year, and its distance is longer than any of the other four. In what decade was it first ran?
Two
What J.K. Rowling book was first published in the U.K. in June 1997, and under what title was the same book published the following year in the U.S.?
Three
What geometric shape is also the path of the Earth around the Sun, and how far approximately, in miles or km, does the Earth travel on that path in a year?
Four
The cover of which debut studio album from 1969 depicts the Hindenburg exploding?
Five
What tennis Grand Slam takes place in a stadium which is named after a World War 1 fighter pilot who was killed in action?
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Image Marine Oceans
Today’s questions follow a theme, but I don’t have the remotest intention of mentioning it.
One
The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station sits on the Antarctic ice at the South Pole. At approximately what elevation above sea level is this base? (The answer can be either feet or metres.)
Answer: 9,301 feet or 2,835 metres.
The station, which supports scientific exploration, is isolated in a polar desert with extreme cold with the annual average temperature is −49°C (−56°F), though winter conditions can push readings below −80°C (−112°F). Opened in 1956, named after explorers Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott, it was rebuilt in 1975 and expanded in the 1990s. Completed in 2008, it includes 47 buildings, housing offices, laboratories, observatories, accommodation, dining, recreation and medical facilities. The station accommodates up to 150 people a week in the summer but this drops to 42 in the winter.
Two
An Antarctic Mystery was a two-volume novel written in 1897 which is a continuation of a novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, written in 1838 by another author. Who were the authors of these novels?
Answers: Jules Verne (wrote the 1897 work); Edgar Allan Poe (wrote the 1838 novel).
Jules Verne’s 1897 two-volume novel An Antarctic Mystery continues Edgar Allan Poe’s 1838 work, following the narrator’s voyage from the Kerguelen Islands aboard Halbrane.
Three
The Kerguelen Islands, which are a World Heritage Site, part of the French Southern and Austral Lands and Seas, lie in what ocean?
Answer: Indian Ocean.
The Kerguelen Islands, also known as the Desolation Islands, are a remote sub-Antarctic archipelago administered by France. The islands, part of the Kerguelen Plateau, have a harsh climate and are home to a permanent French presence of 45 to 100 people.
Four
A part of a U.K. overseas territory holds the title of the world’s most remote human settlement. What is this settlement and where it’s located?
Answers: Tristan da Cunha; South Atlantic Ocean.
The remotest inhabited island in the world is Tristan da Cunha, discovered in the South Atlantic by Tristao da Cunha, a Portuguese admiral, in March 1506. It has an area of 98km² (38 miles²). After evacuation in 1961 (due to volcanic activity), 198 islanders returned in November 1963. The nearest inhabited land to the group is the island of St Helena, 2,435 km (1,315 nautical miles) to the north-east.
In The Guardian, 8 August 2005: “Tristan Da Cunha, an overseas territory of the UK which takes six days to reach by boat from Cape Town, was assigned the postcode TDCU 1ZZ when the 276 inhabitants asked the UK’s Royal Mail for help after being unable to shop online without a postcode.”
In 1726, an Anglo-Irish clergyman and writer wrote a satirical novel which contains the word ‘remote’ in its original title. By what title is the novel commonly known today?
Answer: Gulliver’s Travels.
The original title of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships.
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Image Marine Oceans
Today’s questions follow a theme, but I don’t have the remotest intention of mentioning it.
One
The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station sits on the Antarctic ice at the South Pole. At approximately what elevation above sea level is this base? (The answer can be either feet or metres.)
Two
An Antarctic Mystery was a two-volume novel written in 1897 which is a continuation of a novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, written in 1838 by another author. Who were the authors of these novels?
Three
The Kerguelen Islands, which are a World Heritage Site, part of the French Southern and Austral Lands and Seas, lie in what ocean?
Four
A part of a U.K. overseas territory holds the title of the world’s most remote human settlement. What is this settlement and where it’s located?
Five
In 1726, an Anglo-Irish clergyman and writer wrote a satirical novel which contains the word ‘remote’ in its original title. By what title is the novel commonly known today?
What four word phrase links Scottish poet Robert Burns and the American writer John Steinbeck?
Answer: Of Mice and Men.
Steinbeck’s 1937 novella Of Mice and Men took its title from the second last verse of Burns’ 1785 To a Mouse.
To a Mouse
On turning her up in her nest with the plough, November 1785
But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane, In proving foresight may be vain: The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, Gang aft a-gley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief and pain, For promis’d joy. — Robert Burns.
In 1939, Ernest Hemingway drew inspiration for the title of his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls from a poem by what 17th-century English poet.
Answer: John Donne.
Donne’s Meditation XVII of Devotions upon Emergent Occasions was the source. In his epigraph to the novel Hemingway quotes part of this meditation
No man is an Island, intire of it selfe; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
Three
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the first volume of a seven-volume autobiography by an American writer and poet. The title is taken from the work of African-American poet Laurence Dunbar. Who is this writer and poet?
Answer: Maya Angelou.
Sympathy
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore, When he beats his bars and would be free; It is not a carol of joy or glee, But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core, But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings— I know why the caged bird sings. — Laurence Dunbar
Four
The 2005 book No Country for Old Men and its Coen Brothers film are titled after the first line of the poem Sailing to Byzantium by an Irish poet (1865-1939). Who was this poet?
Answer: William Butler Yeats.
The title is taken from the opening line of William Butler Yeats’ poem Sailing to Byzantium.
Sailing to Byzantium That is no country for old men. The young In one another’s arms, birds in the trees – Those dying generations – at their song, The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas, Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long Whatever is begotten, born, and dies. Caught in that sensual music all neglect Monuments of unageing intellect. — W.B. Yeats
Five
Aldous Huxley took the title for his 1932 novel Brave New World from the works of William Shakespeare. What work provided the title?
Answer: The Tempest.
The title Brave New World derives from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Act V, Scene I, Miranda’s speech.
O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in ‘t. — William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act V, Scene I, ll. 203–206
What four word phrase links Scottish poet Robert Burns and the American writer John Steinbeck?
Two
In 1939, Ernest Hemingway drew inspiration for the title of his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls from a poem by what 17th-century English poet.
Three
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the first volume of a seven-volume autobiography by an American writer and poet. The title is taken from the work of African-American poet Laurence Dunbar. Who is this writer and poet?
Four
The 2005 book No Country for Old Men and its Coen Brothers film are titled after the first line of the poem Sailing to Byzantium by an Irish poet (1865-1939). Who was this poet?
Five
Aldous Huxley took the title for his 1932 novel Brave New World from the works of William Shakespeare. What work provided the title?
These are not date-related but there is a theme at the End of the Line.
One
What word means “an explanation of the history of a particular word”?
Answer: Etymology.
Etymology is the study of word origins and evolution, tracing their sounds and meanings across time. Etymologists use historical texts and comparative linguistics to reconstruct word histories and trace their roots to shared parent languages.
Two
This Skoda compact SUV, named after a cryptozoological creature, was superseded by both the Karoq and the Kamiq?
Answer: Yeti.
The Škoda Yeti, a compact crossover SUV, debuted in 2009 and won Top Gear Magazine’s Family Car of the Year.
Three
The Kabul River originates in the Hindu Kush mountains and flows 700 kilometres to empty into the … What is the watery destination missing from the end of the above statement?
Answer: Indus.
The Kabul River, originating in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains, flows 435 miles (700 km) to join the Indus in Pakistan. The Indus, a significant waterway in Asia, originates in Tibet and flows through disputed Kashmir, Pakistan, and empties into the Arabian Sea. Spanning 1,976 miles (3,180 km), it supports diverse ecosystems and has a rich historical significance, including the rise of the Indus Valley Civilisation. The river’s course is shaped by geological formations, including the Indus-Yarlung suture zone.
Four
This fictional Great Dane first graced our screens in 1969 and continues to be a beloved figure on television and in both live-action and animated films. Who is this remarkable dog?
Answer: Scooby-Doo.
Scooby-Doo is an American media franchise created in 1969, featuring four teenagers and their talking Great Dane solving mysteries. The franchise includes numerous shows, films, and specials, with the most recent series, Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?, premiering in 2019.
Five
Peter Cullen, Tesshō Genda and others have voiced which character from a media franchise that started with toys in the 1980s and has since spawned at least a dozen films?
Answer: Optimus Prime.
Transformers is a highly successful media franchise centred around the Autobots and Decepticons, two alien robot factions. The franchise, which began in 1984, includes toys, animation, comics, video games, and films, generating over ¥2 trillion in revenue. Ownership is split between Hasbro and Takara Tomy.
End of Line
The last letter at the ‘End of the Line’ of the first answer is the initial letter of the next answer and so on. This includes the final answer’s ‘E’ from Prime which starts the first answer, Etymology.
Quizology.Online 
