100 Fun Facts About Fantasy

Which book began as a scribble on an exam paper?

The Hobbit grew from one sentence Tolkien wrote on a blank page while marking exams, 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit'; his publisher's ten-year-old son later read the finished story and approved it.

Which dwarf leads the company that takes Bilbo Baggins to the Lonely Mountain?

Thorin Oakenshield and twelve other dwarves set out to win back their treasure from the dragon Smaug; the wizard Gandalf persuades the unwilling Bilbo to go with them.

The Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes for what reason?

Economics drove the split: Allen & Unwin expected to lose money on a fairy tale a thousand pages long, so it came out in three parts across 1954-55, though Tolkien wrote it as one novel, not a trilogy.

Which Tolkien book, published in 1977, tells the ancient history behind Middle-earth?

The Silmarillion occupied Tolkien for more than fifty years without ever being finished; his son Christopher assembled it from the drafts, and it appeared four years after his death.

Where was J. R. R. Tolkien born?

Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State (now South Africa), on 3 January 1892; his mother brought him to England when he was three.

Tolkien and C. S. Lewis were both members of which Oxford literary group?

The Inklings were an informal Oxford literary circle of the 1930s and 1940s that met in C. S. Lewis's Magdalen College rooms and at the Eagle and Child pub; Tolkien read Lord of the Rings drafts there.

Which Pevensie sibling is the first to step through the wardrobe into Narnia?

Lucy, the youngest, finds Narnia while exploring the house and takes tea with the faun Mr Tumnus, who admits he had meant to hand her to the White Witch; back home, her siblings do not believe her.

Which Narnia novel, the sixth published, tells how Narnia was created?

The Magician's Nephew (1955) is a prequel showing Narnia's creation; recent editions number it first, putting the seven books in story order rather than the order Lewis published them.

Which author began the Earthsea books with A Wizard of Earthsea in 1968?

Ursula K. Le Guin wrote A Wizard of Earthsea because a small-press publisher asked her to try a book for older children; The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore followed within four years.

Which novel opens The Wheel of Time?

The Eye of the World (1990) began a series that grew to 14 volumes; Robert Jordan died in 2007 before he could finish it, and the last books were completed by another writer.

Who finished The Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan's death?

Brandon Sanderson finished The Wheel of Time from Jordan's notes after Jordan's 2007 death, splitting the planned twelfth and final book into The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light.

The author of Mistborn raised $41.7 million on Kickstarter in 2022 to publish what?

Four secret novels, written during the pandemic, were the prize: the campaign asked for $1 million, passed that within a day and ended with 185,341 backers, the most-funded Kickstarter to that date.

Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive are set in which shared universe?

The Cosmere links Mistborn, The Stormlight Archive, Elantris and Warbreaker, each set on a different world; the wandering storyteller Hoid turns up across them.

George R. R. Martin began A Game of Thrones in 1991 after years spent writing for which medium?

Television had employed Martin on The Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast; tired of budgets that made him cut characters and battles, he went back to novels, where his story could be as big as he liked.

A Song of Ice and Fire is set on which two continents?

Westeros and Essos carry the story: rival families fight for the Iron Throne in the west while the exiled Daenerys Targaryen gathers her strength in the east; the world itself has no official name.

Which novel opened Pratchett's Discworld?

The Colour of Magic began a run of 41 Discworld novels, the last published after Pratchett's death in 2015; it ends on a literal cliffhanger, with the wizard Rincewind falling off the edge of the world.

The Discworld rests on the backs of four elephants standing on what?

A giant turtle, Great A'Tuin, swims through space with the elephants and the disc on its back; in the first novel, astronomers plan to launch a capsule over the world's edge to find out whether it is male or female.

Which comic novel did Pratchett co-write with Neil Gaiman in 1990?

Good Omens (1990) was plotted in long daily phone calls, with Pratchett and Gaiman posting floppy disks back and forth; by the end, Gaiman said, neither was sure who had written what.

Which London publisher took on the first Harry Potter book after a string of others had turned it down?

Bloomsbury said yes after its chief executive's eight-year-old daughter, Alice, read the opening chapter and judged it 'so much better than anything else'.

Philip Pullman's Northern Lights was published in North America under what title?

The Golden Compass came from a mix-up: Pullman's working title for the trilogy was The Golden Compasses, Milton's circle-drawing instrument, and his US publisher took it to mean Lyra's alethiometer and kept it.

Which company published Neil Gaiman's The Sandman from 1989?

DC Comics published all 75 issues, the later ones under its Vertigo imprint; Gaiman had settled on the story's ending from the outset and closed the series there.

Michael Moorcock's albino anti-hero Elric wields which soul-drinking sword?

Stormbringer feeds the sickly Elric the strength he lacks by drinking souls, but the black sword has a will of its own: it takes everyone close to him and, in the end, Elric's own soul.

Robert E. Howard's Conan made his debut in 1932 in which pulp magazine?

Weird Tales ran 'The Phoenix on the Sword' in December 1932; Howard had made it by rewriting an unsold story about an earlier hero, King Kull.

Who coined the term 'sword and sorcery' in a 1961 fanzine?

Fritz Leiber offered 'sword-and-sorcery' in a 1961 fanzine, just as Michael Moorcock was asking fans to name the kind of adventure Robert E. Howard wrote; Leiber wrote it himself in his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser tales.

William Goldman's The Princess Bride is framed as an abridgement of a book by which fictional author?

S. Morgenstern is Goldman's invention, like the 'original' he claims to abridge; readers who wrote to the publisher for a missing reunion scene got a letter about legal trouble with the Morgenstern estate instead.

Dungeons & Dragons was first published in 1974 by which company?

TSR (Tactical Studies Rules) was set up in 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye because no publisher would take the game Gygax was developing with Dave Arneson; Wizards of the Coast bought the company in 1997.

Which film swept its 11 Oscar nominations?

The Return of the King won every Oscar it was up for, the biggest clean sweep the awards had seen, yet not one of its 11 nominations was for acting.

Until 2015 the World Fantasy Award trophy was a bust of which writer?

The World Fantasy Award trophy was a Gahan Wilson bust of H. P. Lovecraft from the first awards in 1975 until it was retired after 2015 amid criticism of Lovecraft's racism.

Which author's Broken Earth trilogy won the Hugo Award for Best Novel three years running?

N. K. Jemisin won in 2016, 2017 and 2018 for The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky; after the first book, readers' Patreon pledges let her quit her job as a counsellor and write full time.

Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain, drawing on Welsh myth, consists of how many books?

The Chronicles of Prydain run five books, from The Book of Three (1964) to The High King (1968), which won the 1969 Newbery Medal.

Susanna Clarke's debut Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is set in England during which conflict?

The Napoleonic Wars drive the plot: the government puts its two magicians to work, and Strange goes to war under Wellington, turning his magic on the French army.

In A Court of Thorns and Roses, Feyre is first taken to which faerie court?

Feyre is taken across the wall to the Spring Court, ruled by the High Lord Tamlin, after killing a faerie wolf; she later becomes High Lady of the Night Court.

In Fourth Wing, Violet Sorrengail is forced to enter which war college to become a dragon rider?

Basgiath War College is where General Sorrengail forces her daughter Violet into the Riders Quadrant, although Violet has trained all her life to be a scribe; Rebecca Yarros's 2023 novel opens the Empyrean series.

In A Wizard of Earthsea, Ged trains at the school for wizards on which island?

Roke is the island of the wizards' school, where Ged's pride in a duel with a rival student looses a shadow creature that hunts him; he was born on Gont, and the Tombs of the second book lie on Atuan.

The Witcher began as a 1986 Sapkowski short story entered in which magazine's competition?

Sapkowski wrote 'The Witcher' for a 1986 short-story contest run by the Polish magazine Fantastyka, where it took third place and launched his career.

Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle (2004) is based on a novel by which British author?

Diana Wynne Jones got the idea from a boy at a school she was visiting, who asked her to write a book called The Moving Castle; her 1986 novel became Miyazaki's Oscar-nominated film.

Who wrote the music and lyrics for the musical Wicked?

Stephen Schwartz found Gregory Maguire's novel on holiday and saw a musical in it, but Universal held the rights for a film; he talked Maguire and producer Marc Platt round, and Winnie Holzman wrote the book.

The pun-filled Xanth novels are by which author?

Piers Anthony began Xanth with A Spell for Chameleon in 1977 and shaped the land like his home state of Florida; he has said he keeps the series going because Xanth is 'just about all that publishers want' from him.

Who wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz?

L. Frank Baum wrote thirteen more Oz books; he tried to end the series by making Oz invisible to the outside world, but he returned to it three years later.

Which pioneering fantasy writer, author of Phantastes, mentored Lewis Carroll?

George MacDonald, author of Phantastes (1858) and The Princess and the Goblin, urged Lewis Carroll to publish Alice after his children loved it; C. S. Lewis called him his master.

Which 1924 fantasy novel did Lord Dunsany write?

The King of Elfland's Daughter sends the prince of Erl into Elfland to win the elf-king's daughter because his people have asked to be ruled by a magic lord; Dunsany's first book, The Gods of Pegāna, had invented a whole pantheon.

Which 2007 Patrick Rothfuss novel has the innkeeper Kvothe begin telling his life story to a scribe?

The Name of the Wind is 'Day One' of The Kingkiller Chronicle: the famed Kvothe, hiding as a village innkeeper, tells the scribe his story will take three days, one for each planned book.

Which novel opens Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy?

Assassin's Apprentice (1995) introduced FitzChivalry Farseer; its author, Margaret Lindholm Ogden, already wrote as Megan Lindholm and chose the androgynous name Robin Hobb for a story told by a male narrator.

The magic system in Mistborn, based on ingesting metals, is called what?

Allomancy lets its users swallow flecks of metal and 'burn' them for powers; the author first devised it and Feruchemy, which stores attributes in metal, for two separate stories before joining them in Mistborn.

Which Neil Gaiman novel pairs ex-convict Shadow with Mr. Wednesday?

American Gods won the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards; Shadow's new employer, Mr. Wednesday, turns out to be the Norse god Odin, on a recruiting trip among America's fading old gods.

Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings films, is from which country?

New Zealand is Peter Jackson's home: raised in Pukerua Bay, near Wellington, he shot the trilogy across the country and co-founded the Weta effects companies in the capital.

Which 2010 novel opens The Stormlight Archive?

The Way of Kings existed in a first draft by 2003, seven years before it was published; as of 2024 the series is planned as ten novels, and Wind and Truth that year completed the first five.

T. H. White's The Once and Future King is loosely based on which 1485 work?

Le Morte d'Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory's gathering of the Arthur legends, is what White reworked; his title points to the legend that Arthur will one day return as king, and he made Malory himself a character.

In Brian Jacques's Redwall books, which mountain fortress houses the Badger Lords and Long Patrol?

Salamandastron, a volcanic mountain, is held by the Badger Lords and the hares of the Long Patrol; Jacques first wrote Redwall for children at a school for the blind, which is why he described everything so vividly.

Mervyn Peake's novels Titus Groan and Titus Alone belong to which series, named after a vast, crumbling castle?

Gormenghast is the sprawling, decaying castle whose rituals rule the life of its heir, Titus Groan; Peake meant to follow Titus much further, but illness stopped him after three novels.

In L. Frank Baum's Oz novel, Dorothy's magic shoes are which color, changed for MGM's 1939 movie?

Silver shoes turned into ruby slippers on screen because red showed off the three-strip Technicolor process far better.

Which mythical creature is the national animal of Scotland and stands in chains on its royal arms?

Unicorn imagery suited Scotland because the beast was believed to be the natural enemy of the lion, the symbol England's royals had already adopted.

Which Nintendo hero in a green tunic rescues Princess Zelda in the series named after her?

Link got his name, creator Shigeru Miyamoto has said, because the hero connects people together.

In C. S. Lewis's first Narnia book, the White Witch tempts Edmund Pevensie with which sweet?

Turkish delight sales rose after the 2005 film adaptation sent curious viewers looking for the witch's enchanted confection.

Quadball, a real sport born at Middlebury College in 2005, is adapted from which fictional game?

Quidditch on foot kept its Harry Potter name until 2022, when the sport rebranded as quadball, a nod to its four balls that keeps the letter Q.

Which rock star played Jareth the Goblin King in Jim Henson's 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth?

David Bowie also recorded songs for the film, which underperformed at the US box office before home video won it a large cult following.

Which actor won four Emmys as the sharp-tongued Tyrion Lannister in HBO's Game of Thrones?

Peter Dinklage was the showrunners' first choice for Tyrion, and he finished as the only member of the cast to take home a Primetime Emmy.

In 1929 J. M. Barrie gave the copyright in Peter Pan to which London hospital?

Great Ormond Street never has to give Peter Pan up: when the copyright expired, a 1988 Act of Parliament granted the hospital a perpetual right to its UK royalties.

Disney's Frozen was loosely inspired by which Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of 1844?

The Snow Queen of the film, Elsa, turned sympathetic when the song Let It Go reimagined her, and the writers redid the whole first act to match.

Which DreamWorks film is based on a 1990 picture book by New Yorker cartoonist William Steig?

Shrek takes his name from a Yiddish word meaning fear or fright, which suits the repugnant monster of Steig's book.

Which action star had his breakthrough as the lead of the 1982 fantasy film Conan the Barbarian?

Arnold Schwarzenegger performed most of his own stunts in the film, swinging swords that cost $10,000 each to forge.

Stephenie Meyer set her vampire romance Twilight in which rainy real-life town in Washington state?

Forks got the job after the author searched Google for rainy settings, and fans of the saga have made the small town a tourist destination.

Which cave-dwelling creature loses a riddle game to Bilbo Baggins in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit?

Gollum at first lost with good grace and showed Bilbo the way out; Tolkien revised later editions so that the creature plots to kill and eat him.

In Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away, the witch Yubaba turns Chihiro's parents into which animals?

Pigs fill the pen Chihiro is shown at the end, and she wins her freedom by seeing that none of the animals in front of her are her parents.

George R. R. Martin wrote the backstory for which open-world game from Japan's FromSoftware?

Elden Ring gave Martin freedom to design its backstory, because director Hidetaka Miyazaki hoped his help would make the tale more accessible than the studio's earlier games.

Which English actor played the wizard Gandalf in all six of Peter Jackson's Middle-earth films?

Ian McKellen was cast after Sean Connery and Patrick Stewart turned the role down, and he based his performance on Tolkien himself.

In Rick Riordan's novels, the demigod Percy Jackson is the son of which Greek god?

Poseidon's son began as a bedtime story for the author's own child, who like Percy had been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia.

In DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon, which Night Fury does the young Viking Hiccup befriend?

Toothless is named for his retractable teeth, and Hiccup builds him a prosthetic tail fin so that the injured dragon can fly again with a rider.

Which card game created by Richard Garfield casts its players as dueling wizards called Planeswalkers?

Magic: The Gathering was novel enough to earn its publisher a patent, which covers ideas such as turning a card sideways to show that it has been used.

Which Elder Scrolls game casts the player as the Last Dragonborn, foretold to defeat Alduin?

Skyrim lets its hero absorb the souls of slain dragons to learn their shouts, a gift the people of the province believed had died out.

Which hobbit gardener did J. R. R. Tolkien himself call the chief hero of The Lord of the Rings?

Samwise Gamgee was modelled on the English soldiers Tolkien knew in the 1914 war, the privates and batmen he thought far superior to himself.

In the Harry Potter novels, which bird is the mascot of Ravenclaw house, a detail the films changed?

Eagle on the page became a raven on screen, a swap that at least matches the name of the house, whose colours are blue and bronze.

In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which animal fades away until only its grin is left behind?

Cheshire Cat grins were already proverbial: the saying about grinning like one predates Lewis Carroll's 1865 book.

Which actor played the monster hunter Geralt of Rivia in the first three seasons of Netflix's The Witcher?

Henry Cavill sought out the part because he had played the Witcher video games, then handed Geralt over to Liam Hemsworth from season four.

Which American fantasy author began her debut novel Throne of Glass at the age of sixteen?

Sarah J. Maas built the tale on a twist, asking what would happen if Cinderella went to the ball not to meet the prince but to kill him.

Which Neil Gaiman children's novella features an Other Mother who wants to sew buttons over the heroine's eyes?

Coraline took Gaiman more than a decade to finish: he began the story in 1990, and it was not published until 2002.

Which horror novelist wrote The Dark Tower, a fantasy epic about the gunslinger Roland Deschain?

Stephen King drew on a Robert Browning poem for the saga and modelled Roland on Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name.

Angelina Jolie's Maleficent retells which 1959 Disney animated film from the point of view of its villain?

Sleeping Beauty gets a narrator in the retelling: the storyteller turns out to be an elderly Aurora, the princess Maleficent once cursed.

In The Princess Bride, which swordsman hunts the six-fingered man who killed his father?

Inigo Montoya was played by Mandy Patinkin, who learned to fence with both hands and fought the film's sword duels himself.

Which creature befriends Lucy Pevensie beside a lamp post on her first visit to Narnia?

Mr. Tumnus is where Narnia began: Lewis said the whole first story grew from a picture in his head of a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels through a snowy wood.

World of Warcraft is set mainly on which fictional planet, home to the rival Alliance and Horde?

Azeroth was shaped by godlike Titans in the games' lore, and an ancient catastrophe called the Sundering shattered its single continent into several.

Which Dungeons & Dragons video game swept every major Game of the Year award for 2023?

Baldur's Gate 3 borrows its rules and its Forgotten Realms setting from the tabletop game's fifth edition, right down to the owlbears and mind flayers.

In Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, what is the animal companion that embodies a person's inner self called?

Dæmon forms change freely while a child is young, then settle for good in adolescence into the one animal that best fits the person's character.

Which white luckdragon becomes the steed of the young warrior Atreyu in The NeverEnding Story?

Falkor is Fuchur in Michael Ende's German original, and the 1984 film made him dog-like, with white fur and a fondness for a scratch behind the ear.

Which game designer co-created Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson and founded the Gen Con convention?

Gary Gygax is honoured every March in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where a gaming convention grew out of an impromptu session held by mourners after his funeral.

In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, Death rides a milky-white horse with which unexpectedly gentle name?

Binky is no phantom: the horse is mortal, though while in Death's service he does not age and can simply ignore walls and long distances.

J. R. R. Tolkien drew chiefly on which European language when he invented the High-elven tongue Quenya?

Finnish enchanted Tolkien after he met it through the Kalevala epic, while Welsh became the main model for Sindarin, his other major Elvish language.

Which Wicked character did novelist Gregory Maguire name after the initials of Oz creator L. Frank Baum?

Elphaba needed a name because Baum's novel never gives its witch one, and Maguire modelled her looks on the green-skinned villain of the 1939 film.

Which dragon-rider novel did Christopher Paolini begin at fifteen, first published by his parents' own company?

Eragon was hand-sold at first: Paolini toured more than 135 schools and libraries to promote it, giving his talks in medieval costume.

Which Robin Williams adventure about a magical board game is based on a Chris Van Allsburg picture book?

Jumanji won Van Allsburg a Caldecott Medal, a prize he took again for The Polar Express, another of his picture books turned into a film.

In Anne McCaffrey's novels, dragons and their riders defend which planet from the deadly spores called Thread?

Pern was settled by colonists from Earth, who over the centuries lost their technology and forgot where they had come from.

Which author's The Sword of Shannara became the first fantasy novel on the New York Times trade paperback list?

Terry Brooks wrote the book over several years, partly as a way to stay sane while he studied at law school.

Jim Butcher's wizard detective Harry Dresden takes his supernatural cases in which American city?

Chicago's police keep him on call: Dresden is the only wizard in the country who advertises, and he consults for the force's Special Investigations division.

R. A. Salvatore's novels follow which renegade dark elf, who abandoned the drow city of Menzoberranzan?

Drizzt Do'Urden was invented on a whim, when Salvatore's publisher needed a replacement for a character in an early version of The Crystal Shard.

Dungeons & Dragons took its memorize-then-forget spellcasting from which author's Dying Earth stories?

Jack Vance gave game designers a word as well: any system in which wizards must memorize each spell before casting it is called Vancian magic.

Which 1985 Disney animated film, a costly box-office bomb, was loosely based on Lloyd Alexander's Prydain novels?

The Black Cauldron was dark enough to become the first Disney animated film rated PG, and its losses put the studio's animation department in jeopardy.

Which composer won three Oscars for the music of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy?

Howard Shore shared one of the three with singer Annie Lennox and writer Fran Walsh, for the song Into the West.

Which Susanna Clarke novel, set in a House of infinite statue-lined halls, won the 2021 Women's Prize?

Piranesi is told as the journal of a man who meticulously tracks the tides of an ocean that surges through the lower levels of his vast home.

In Jim Henson's puppet fantasy The Dark Crystal, the questing heroes Jen and Kira belong to which race?

Gelfling puppets were so intricate that each needed as many as four puppeteers to achieve full movement and expression.

Which Warsaw-based studio adapted Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher stories into a trilogy of role-playing video games?

CD Projekt Red grew out of a company that started by translating major foreign video games into Polish.