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50 free Discworld trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Discworld is a flat world on the backs of four elephants on the back of a turtle, and across 41 novels Terry Pratchett used it to satirise everything from opera and rock music to policing, banking, religion and the postal service. More than 80 million copies have sold in 37 languages, and the books regularly topped the Sunday Times list through the 1990s, when Pratchett was Britain's best-selling author. These 50 questions move through the sub-series. The Rincewind books with Twoflower and the Luggage, Death with Binky, Albert and Susan Sto Helit, the Lancre witches and their headology, the Ankh-Morpork City Watch from a hopeless gang of three to Commander Vimes and his boots theory, Unseen University and the orangutan Librarian, Lord Vetinari, Moist von Lipwig's post office, and Tiffany Aching and the Nac Mac Feegle. There are questions on the author too: the 506-copy first printing of The Colour of Magic, the Carnegie Medal, the knighthood, the sword he forged from meteoric iron, and the last novel finished before his death in 2015. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who wrote the Discworld novels?
Terry Pratchett
He published the first in 1983 and the 41st, posthumously, in 2015.
Q 02The Discworld rests on the backs of how many elephants?
Four
They in turn stand on the back of the giant turtle Great A'Tuin, swimming through space.
Q 03What is the name of the giant turtle that carries the Discworld through space?
Great A'Tuin
The other three names belong to the elephants; the turtle's sex is a matter of fierce scholarly debate.
Q 04How many novels make up the Discworld series?
41
The Colour of Magic opened it in 1983 and The Shepherd's Crown closed it in 2015.
Q 05What was the title of the first Discworld novel, published in 1983?
The Colour of Magic
Colin Smythe published it in hardback with a first printing of just 506 copies.
Q 06How many copies were in the first British printing of the 1983 debut novel?
506
More than 80 million Discworld books have been sold since, in 37 languages.
Q 07What is the biggest city on the Disc, its corrupt mercantile capital?
Ankh-Morpork
It is run by the Patrician and its economy by the Guilds, on a system of one man, one vote.
Q 08Which cowardly, incompetent wizard was the first Discworld protagonist?
Rincewind
A spell lodged in his mind scares all the others away; he was born with a wizard's spirit and a sprinter's body.
Q 09Twoflower, the Disc's first tourist, is an insurance clerk from where?
Agatean Empire
His homeland is so rich in gold that a mere clerk is a millionaire by Ankh-Morpork standards.
Q 10The Luggage is made from which magical material?
Sapient pearwood
It walks on hundreds of little legs and Twoflower gave it to Rincewind at the end of The Light Fantastic.
Q 11Pratchett said he unwittingly took his cowardly wizard's name from a column in which paper?
Daily Express
'Churm Rincewind' was a fictitious person in the early Beachcomber columns.
Q 12What is the name of Death's pale horse?
Binky
Death is a seven-foot skeleton who speaks in small caps; Albert is his butler and Quoth his raven.
Q 13Death appears in every Discworld novel except Snuff and which other?
The Wee Free Men
Sometimes he has only a few lines, and his dialogue never carries quotation marks.
Which 1987 novel was the first to focus on Death, who takes on a human apprentice?
Q 21Wyrd Sisters, the 1988 witches novel, mainly parodies which playwright?
Shakespeare
A murdered king, a usurping duke with an ambitious wife and a troupe of travelling players do the heavy lifting.
Q 22Equal Rites, the third Discworld novel, introduced which character?
Granny Weatherwax
Its heroine Esk, a girl born an eighth son of an eighth son, was based on Pratchett's daughter Rhianna.
Q 23Sam Vimes is introduced in Guards! Guards! as captain of which force?
The Night Watch
It is a hopeless gang of three, with Sergeant Colon and Nobby Nobbs, until Carrot arrives.
Mort
It is the fourth Discworld book; the apprentice later marries Death's adopted daughter Ysabell.
Q 15What is the name of Death's granddaughter, a key character in Soul Music and Hogfather?
Susan Sto Helit
She is the daughter of Mort and Ysabell and turns up again in Thief of Time.
Q 16The title of Reaper Man references which film?
Repo Man
Death, sacked by the Auditors for developing a personality, works as a farmhand for Miss Flitworth.
Q 17In Hogfather, the Auditors hire an Assassin named what to eliminate the Hogfather?
Mr Teatime
He pronounces it Teh-ah-tim-eh; the Hogfather brings presents on the 32nd of December.
Q 18The principal witch of the series lives in which small mountain kingdom?
Lancre
Its entire army and civil service is Nanny Ogg's youngest son Shawn.
Q 19What do Discworld witches call the cunning psychology they prefer to magic?
Headology
Witches act as herbalists, nurses and adjudicators, using magic only when nothing else will do.
Q 20Nanny Ogg's murderous cat is called what?
Greebo
Errol is a swamp dragon, Gaspode a talking dog and Wuffles the Patrician's elderly terrier.
Q 24Carrot Ironfoundersson is a human raised by which people?
Dwarfs
He is six foot six, a dwarf by adoption, and joins the Watch as an idealistic recruit.
Q 25What creature terrorises the city in Guards! Guards!?
A dragon
A secret society summons it so a puppet king can 'slay' it; Lady Sybil's pet Errol ends up doing the job.
Q 26Which Watch member is a werewolf?
Angua
Detritus is a troll, Cheery a dwarf forensics expert and Reg Shoe a zombie and Dead Rights campaigner.
Q 27Vimes's 'boots theory' of socioeconomic unfairness appears in which 1993 novel?
Men at Arms
The rich stay rich by buying boots that last ten years while the poor keep replacing cheap ones.
Q 28What noble title does Sam Vimes eventually hold?
Duke of Ankh
He marries Lady Sybil Ramkin, who breeds swamp dragons, and rises reluctantly through society.
Q 29In the 2002 time-travel novel, Vimes is sent back and must assume whose identity?
John Keel
The sergeant-at-arms who trained young Vimes was murdered by Carcer on arrival.
Q 30What is the first name of Lord Vetinari, the Patrician?
Havelock
A former student of the Assassins' Guild, he was partly modelled on Machiavelli and despises street mimes.