1. “There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light.” Which dragon?

   1. JRR Tolkien’s Smaug

   2. Ursula Le Guin’s Orm

   3. Robin Hobb’s Tintaglia

   4. The dragon from Beowulf

2. Which colour are the two dragons who fight in front of Vortigern and Merlin in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain?

   1. Red and black

   2. Black and white

   3. Red and white

   4. Silver and Gold

3. Who turns into a dragon in CS Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader?

   1. Eustace Scrubb

   2. Reepicheep

   3. Caspian

   4. Lucy

4. How are dragons brought back to life in George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series?

   1. Humans are sacrificed by the sinister Red Priest to bring dragons back to the world

   2. Fossilised eggs hatch after lying in a funeral pyre

   3. Life is brought to stone statues of dragons

   4. Lizards are genetically modified to become dragons

5. Which part of a dragon must be sown to grow an army in Apollonius of Rhodes’s ancient Greek epic poem Argonautica?

   1. Its claws

   2. Its scales

   3. Its gold

   4. Its teeth

6. “Never laugh at live dragons,” says Bilbo Baggins, wisely. But which of the following is not one of JRR Tolkien’s dragons?

   1. Glaurung

   2. Smaug

   3. Ancalagon

   4. Erkenbrand

7. What is the point of the dragons in Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series?

   1. They are the only source of fuel for the stranded explorers

   2. They protect the planet from a deadly threat which falls from the skies

   3. Battling and killing a dragon is the ultimate test in young Perneses' journey to manhood

   4. They guard the settlers’ treasures

8. Which author created a world in which dragons begin life as sea serpents?

   1. Robin Hobb

   2. Terry Goodkind

   3. Robert Jordan

   4. Ursula Le Guin

9. Who dreamed up Norwegian Ridgeback and Hungarian Horntailed dragons?

   1. Terry Pratchett

   2. JRR Tolkien

   3. JK Rowling

   4. Cornelia Funke

10. What is the name of the dragon in Christopher Paolini’s bestselling young adult series?

    1. Eragon

    2. Saphira

    3. Icefyre

    4. Jewelclaw

Solutions

1:A, 2:C, 3:A, 4:B, 5:D, 6:D, 7:B, 8:A, 9:C, 10:B

Scores

1. 2 and above.

   The quiz has slain you. But take heart and do battle again

2. 5 and above.

   Some smoke, no fire.

3. 8 and above.

   Slow burn

4. 10 and above.

   Flaming hot! You have slain the quiz