The NeverEnding Story Trivia
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49 free The NeverEnding Story trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
40 free The NeverEnding Story trivia questions with answers. The NeverEnding Story is two things at once: Michael Ende's 1979 German novel, printed in red and green ink and topping the bestseller list for 113 weeks, and Wolfgang Petersen's 1984 film that gave a generation Falkor, the Swamps of Sadness and a synth-pop theme sung by the frontman of Kajagoogoo. This NeverEnding Story trivia quiz covers both: Bastian, Atreyu and the Childlike Empress, Auryn and its inscription, the Nothing and Gmork, the second half of the book the film never reached, Ende's lawsuit against the producers, the two sequels, the Stranger Things revival and the making of the film in Munich, Vancouver and Spain. The 49 questions start with things every 80s kid remembers and end with details only readers of the novel will know. Every answer is checked against the book and documented production history.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In The NeverEnding Story, what is the full name of the boy who steals the book?
Bastian Balthazar Bux
Bastian Balthazar Bux ducks into a bookshop to escape bullies, takes the book he finds there, and hides in his school attic to read it.
Q 02In The NeverEnding Story, what is the name of the bookshop owner whose book Bastian takes?
Carl Conrad Coreander
Carl Conrad Coreander gruffly warns Bastian off the book; when the boy later confesses the theft, the old man says he never owned such a book and has visited its world himself.
Q 03The 1984 film calls it Fantasia, but what is the land named in the English translation of The Neverending Story?
Fantastica
Fantastica is Ralph Manheim's 1983 English rendering of the German Phantásien; the film's shorter name then stuck in the sequels, TV series and games.
Q 04In The NeverEnding Story, what is the formless force devouring the land called?
The Nothing
The Nothing is no monster: it is what is left as people stop believing in fantasy, and in the novel those it swallows turn into lies in our world.
Q 05In The Neverending Story novel, what does the orphan Atreyu's name mean in his people's language?
Son of all
Son of all: a purple buffalo killed Atreyu's parents soon after his birth, so his whole village raised him together.
Q 06In The NeverEnding Story, what is the name of the protective amulet Atreyu is given?
Auryn
Auryn, two snakes each biting the other's tail, marks its wearer as the Childlike Empress's representative, so no creature of her realm will harm him.
Q 07In The NeverEnding Story, what kind of dragon is Falkor?
A luckdragon
A luckdragon has little strength or magic, only incredible luck; the film gave Falkor white fur and a dog-like face instead of a fierce reptile's.
Q 08In the novel The Neverending Story, Atreyu finds Falkor caught in whose web?
Ygramul the Many
Ygramul the Many is a swarm of hornet-like insects with one mind; her deadly poison lets a victim travel anywhere in the land at once, which is how both escape.
Q 09In The NeverEnding Story, whom does Atreyu consult in the Swamps of Sadness?
Morla the Aged One
Morla the Aged One is a giant turtle so weary and indifferent that she will not help directly, sending Atreyu ten thousand miles on to the Southern Oracle.
Q 10In the novel The Neverending Story, what is the name of the invisible oracle Atreyu seeks?
Uyulala
Uyulala is only a voice: she speaks in rhyme and must keep singing to go on existing, and the film simply calls her the Southern Oracle.
Q 11In The NeverEnding Story, what is the wolf-like creature sent to kill Atreyu called?
Gmork
Gmork fails to recognise his prey: he explains his whole mission to Atreyu before the boy reveals that he is the hero Gmork was sent to kill.
Q 12In The NeverEnding Story, what must a human child do to cure the Childlike Empress?
Give her a new name
Give her a new name is the cure, but no creature of her own world can do it, which is why the quest ends up reaching out of the book to its reader.
Q 13In The NeverEnding Story, what does Bastian finally cry out from the attic to save the Empress?
Moon Child
Moon Child is what he shouts; in the novel he holds back so long that the story starts repeating itself, and only his cry breaks the loop.
Q 21Who directed the 1984 film The NeverEnding Story, his first in English?
Wolfgang Petersen
Wolfgang Petersen came to this children's fantasy straight from the grim U-boat drama Das Boot, and went on to Hollywood epics such as Troy.
Q 22What new ending did the film The NeverEnding Story add?
Bastian chases the bullies on Falkor
Bastian chases the bullies on Falkor until they dive into a dumpster; the film covers only the novel's first half, and the 1990 sequel drew loosely on the second.
Q 23How did author Michael Ende react to the 1984 film of The NeverEnding Story?
He sued the producers and lost
Q 14In the novel The Neverending Story, who reads the tale aloud until it loops?
The Old Man of Wandering Mountain
The Old Man of Wandering Mountain is the chronicler whose book records everything as it happens, so when he reads it aloud the whole story starts again from its first page.
Q 15In The Neverending Story, what is inscribed on the back of the amulet the Empress gives Bastian?
Do What You Wish
Do What You Wish sounds like permission to do anything, but the German 'Tu, was du willst' also means finding out what you truly want, which is the task it sets him.
Q 16In The Neverending Story novel, what does each wish cost Bastian?
A memory of his human life
A memory of his human life vanishes with each wish, until Bastian has forgotten almost everything about himself, in the end even his own name.
Q 17In The Neverending Story, which sorceress manipulates Bastian into trying to crown himself emperor?
Xayide
Xayide flatters Bastian into turning on Atreyu and reaching for the throne, and she returned as the villain of the 1990 film sequel, played by Clarissa Burt.
Q 18In the novel The Neverending Story, what does Bastian finally discover is his strongest wish?
To be capable of love
To be capable of love is all he has left to want; the Water of Life then lets him return home to his grieving father.
Q 19How did the original German edition of The Neverending Story mark its two worlds apart?
In red and green ink
In red and green ink: red for Bastian's world and green for the fantasy realm, while the chapter illustrations mix both colours to show the two worlds entwining.
Q 20Which German weekly's bestseller list did The Neverending Story top for more than two years?
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel's list kept the novel at number one for more than two years, though its first printing in 1979 ran to only 20,000 copies.
He sued the producers and lost, having failed to get the film stopped or retitled; he called it 'that revolting movie' and had his name taken off the credits.
Q 24Who plays Atreyu in the 1984 film The NeverEnding Story?
Noah Hathaway
Noah Hathaway did many of his own stunts as the young warrior, aged about twelve, and won a Saturn Award for the performance.
Q 25Which actress plays the Childlike Empress in the 1984 film The NeverEnding Story?
Tami Stronach
Tami Stronach was approached in San Francisco by the film's casting director and asked to audition; afterwards she turned to dance instead of Hollywood.
Q 26In The NeverEnding Story, what is the name of Atreyu's horse, lost in the Swamps of Sadness?
Artax
Artax sinks because the swamp's sadness overcomes him, but he is alive again once Bastian wishes Fantasia back at the end of the film.
Q 27Which voice actor provides the voices of both Falkor and Gmork in the English film?
Alan Oppenheimer
He was also the voice of Skeletor in the original He-Man cartoon.
Q 28In The NeverEnding Story, which two gnomes live near the gates of the Southern Oracle?
Urgl and Engywook
Urgl and Engywook are a quarrelsome couple: she heals Atreyu with her potions, while he has studied the Oracle's gates for most of his life without ever passing through.
Q 29In the film The NeverEnding Story, what does the Empress give Bastian as the last remnant of Fantasia?
A grain of sand
A grain of sand is all that remains, yet she tells him he can wish the whole world back from it, and he does.
Q 30Where was the bulk of the 1984 film The NeverEnding Story shot?
Bavaria Studios in Munich
Bavaria Studios in Munich kept the creatures: visitors on the studio tour can still climb onto Falkor and ride him in front of a blue screen.