The Forest (Edward Rutherfurd Novel)
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40 free The Forest (Edward Rutherfurd Novel) trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Edward Rutherfurd's The Forest follows a handful of invented families through nine centuries of life in the New Forest, the ancient royal woodland on England's south coast. Kings, monks, merchants, sailors and commoners all pass through, and the trees themselves come close to being the main character. This quiz covers the novel from its medieval opening to its modern-day frame: the people and places of each chapter, the real events the story borrows, the customs that still shape the Forest, and the author's life and other books. It is written for readers who have finished the book and want to test what stuck, for book clubs looking for discussion starters, and for anyone curious about how much of the story is true.
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Q 01Rutherfurd's The Forest tells part of its 1099 chapter from the point of view of which animal?
A deer
A deer shares the opening chapter, The Hunt, which follows the animal through an elaborate courtship and then through being hunted.
Q 02Rufus, the king whose death opens Rutherfurd's The Forest, was killed by which weapon while hunting?
An arrow
An arrow hit Rufus during a hunt in the New Forest, and nobody has ever settled whether it was an accident or murder.
Q 03Which king, father of the Rufus killed in Rutherfurd's The Forest, made the New Forest a royal forest?
William the Conqueror
William the Conqueror proclaimed it a royal forest around 1079, and it already appears in his great survey, Domesday Book.
Q 04Fanny Albion's trial in Rutherfurd's The Forest echoes a real scandal involving which novelist's aunt?
Jane Austen
Jane Austen's family lived just east of the New Forest, which she visited, and her aunt's real courtroom ordeal gave Rutherfurd his plot.
Q 05Rutherfurd's summary of The Forest promises witchcraft, the inner life of trees and even which creature?
A dragon
A dragon closes the author's list of the Forest's hidden side, which also takes in the secret lives of its trees and animals.
Q 06In the modern opening of Rutherfurd's The Forest, a descendant of the characters views the woods from what?
A small plane
A small plane flies her over Sarum and down to the Forest in April 2000, a modern frame that leaves her wondering about its past before the story drops back to 1099.
Q 07New Forest commoners, central to Rutherfurd's The Forest, turn out which animals each autumn to eat acorns?
Pigs
Pigs are loosed for at least 60 days under the ancient right of pannage, clearing acorns that in large amounts can poison ponies and cattle.
Q 08In Rutherfurd's The Forest, New Forest oaks are felled to build warships for which admiral's navy?
Lord Nelson
Lord Nelson's fleet was built partly of Forest oak, timber the novel shows being felled to guard England's shores against Napoleon.
Q 09The New Forest, setting of Rutherfurd's The Forest, lies mostly in which English county?
Hampshire
Hampshire holds most of the New Forest, one of the largest tracts of unenclosed pasture, heath and woodland left in southern England.
Q 10The New Forest of Rutherfurd's The Forest borders England's south coast opposite which island?
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight lies across the narrow Solent from the Forest's shore, waters the novel's sailors, fishermen and merchants work.
Q 11Edward Rutherfurd bills The Forest as the natural companion to which earlier novel, his bestselling debut?
Sarum
Sarum spans ten thousand years around Stonehenge, and the New Forest lies just south-east of that setting.
Q 12Reviewers of Rutherfurd's The Forest compared its centuries-spanning sweep to which American novelist's work?
James Michener
James Michener set the pattern Rutherfurd follows, tracing invented families through the whole history of one place; Kirkus called Rutherfurd England's answer to him.
Q 13Rutherfurd's The Forest has the powerful Clare family frame which Norman lord for the killing of Rufus?
Walter Tyrrell
Q 21Which merchant family of the harbour town of Lymington features in Edward Rutherfurd's The Forest?
The Tottons
The Tottons are one of five invented families the author names as standing for the Forest people, and one part of the book is titled after their town.
Q 22Lymington, a chapter title in Rutherfurd's The Forest, was long famous for making what?
Salt
Salt was made at Lymington from the Middle Ages into the 19th century, with an almost continuous belt of workings along the coast.
Q 23In Rutherfurd's The Forest, local fishermen help which sea captain fight off the Armada?
Sir Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake sailed as vice admiral of the 55 English ships that left Plymouth, and the novel sends men from Christchurch and Lymington to join the fight.
Walter Tyrrell fled at once, which looked like guilt; Rutherfurd also moves the killing well away from the Rufus Stone that marks the traditional spot.
Q 14Which Norman heroine of The Forest did the Kansas City Star call bold in the face of injustice?
Adela
Adela opens a line of memorable women in the novel: the same review names Alice Albion, who lives through the Civil War, as her descendant.
Q 15Which gnarled, Druid-like old man darkly personifies the woodland in Rutherfurd's The Forest?
Puckle
Puckle first appears in the opening tale of the king's death, and the author lists the Puckles among the old families who stand for the Forest people.
Q 16Rufus, the nickname of the king killed in Rutherfurd's The Forest, is Latin for which colour?
Red
Red was probably a nod to his hair, though some say his ruddy face; either way the nickname has outlived his official title, William II.
Q 17After Rufus died in the New Forest, as Rutherfurd's novel relates, which brother seized the throne?
Henry
Henry hastened to secure the royal treasury and was crowned within days, before either archbishop could arrive.
Q 18In Rutherfurd's The Forest, which monk of Beaulieu Abbey has his calm faith upset by meeting Mary Furzey?
Brother Adam
Brother Adam is content serving God until a poaching incident brings him into contact with Mary, and in the 1294 chapter he fathers her child.
Q 19The monks of Beaulieu Abbey in Rutherfurd's The Forest belong to which sheep-farming religious order?
Cistercians
Cistercians settled Beaulieu with 30 monks sent from Cîteaux in France, the mother house of the order, a founding unique in Britain.
Q 20Which notorious judge condemns Alice Lisle in the 1685 trial dramatised in Rutherfurd's The Forest?
George Jeffreys
George Jeffreys opened his Bloody Assizes with her case and pressed a reluctant jury until it found her guilty.
Q 24Rutherfurd's The Forest wrecks a Spanish galleon full of bullion near which coastal fort?
Hurst Castle
Hurst Castle guards the western entrance to the Solent from a shingle spit, and the author says the wreck story rests on local evidence.
Q 25Alice Lisle, whose fate Rutherfurd's The Forest dramatises, sheltered fugitives from which duke's 1685 rising?
Monmouth
Monmouth's rebel army was crushed at Sedgemoor, and a fortnight later she took in a fugitive minister for a single night.
Q 26Alice Lisle, a tragic figure in Rutherfurd's The Forest, was the last woman in England executed in which way?
Beheading
Beheading was a mercy of sorts: she was first sentenced to burn at the stake, and the king allowed the axe as befitting her rank.
Q 27Beaulieu Abbey, scene of a monk's romance in Rutherfurd's The Forest, was founded by which English monarch?
King John
King John founded it in 1203–4 and endowed it richly; the abbey's Latin name means the beautiful place of the king.
Q 28Leonard Hoar, named in Rutherfurd's The Forest, was an early president of which American college?
Harvard
Harvard made Hoar its third president in 1672, the first to be one of its own graduates; he had married a daughter of the Lisle family.
Q 29In Rutherfurd's The Forest, a storyteller named Purkiss tells which Stuart-era king a tale about Rufus's death?
Charles II
Charles II hears the tale centuries after the event, and Kirkus singled out the novel's portrait of this monarch as intriguing.
Q 30In which fashionable spa town is Fanny Albion put on trial in Edward Rutherfurd's The Forest?
Bath
Bath, a Roman spa revived as a fashionable resort in the eighteenth century, sees its decorous society shattered by the scandal.