What Are Some Obscure Facts About Great Britain's History and Culture?

In summary, the conversation revolved around a quiz about the island of Great Britain. The participants discussed various questions related to British history, including the archetypal country gent used to represent England, the patron saints of England, and the last independent Prince of Wales. They also debated the pronunciation of the word "Celt" and shared interesting facts about British monarchs. The conversation ended with the presenter throwing the quiz open for anyone to answer.
  • #1
jcsd
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I'm going to muscle my way in on the quiz action with the following quiz about the island of Great Britian (hopefully not too hard):


1) What is the name of the archetypal country gent, often depicted as wearing a waistcoat with the Union Jack emblazoned on it, used to represent England in poltical cartoons (esp. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries)?

2) St. George is the patron saint of England since the 14th century, but who was generally regarded as the patron saint of England before him?

3) More patron saints: which part of Great Britain is St. Pirian the patron saint of?

4) Who according to legend lies asleep under a hill in Glastonbury ready to awake in Britain's hour of need?

5) Rhys ap Gruffyd, King of Deheubarth in Wales was the ancestor of which line of English monarchs?

6) Which queen of England (not always listed) reigned for only 8 days?

7) Who was the last independent Prince of Wales?

8) Which Scottish King was, according to legend, inspired to to retake his throne by a spider?

9) Welsh, Cornish and Breton are examples of which type of Celtic language?

10) The 'Stone of Scone' was brought to Scone at the joining together under one kingdom of which two peoples?
 
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  • #2
Oops! can someone move this to the general discussion section?
 
  • #3
I'll take the easy one...no, not (1)...or (8)...I'll take :

4) King Arthur. Glastonbury is the Grail Center of England, is it not ? (what with the mysterious Glastonbury Manuscript and such)


PS : This has been bugging me since time immemorial (which reminds me that there is an official definition for 'time immemorial' - since the reign of George I) : How do you Brits pronounce the word 'Celt' ? KELT or SELT ? I've heard both versions...
 
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  • #4
Gokul43201 said:
I'll take the easy one...no, not (1)...or (8)...I'll take :

4) King Arthur. Glastonbury is the Grail Center of England, is it not ? (what with the mysterious Glastonbury Manuscript and such)


PS : This has been bugging me since time immemorial (which reminds me that there is an official definition for 'time immemorial' - since the reign of George I) : How do you Brits pronounce the word 'Celt' ? KELT or SELT ? I've heard both versions...

Correct.

Celt is pronounced 'Kelt', though the British football team (not American football) Glasgow Celtic (so-called because it wa sstrated Irish immigrants to the city) is pronounced 'Seltic'.
 
  • #5
(6) Lady Jane Grey
 
  • #6
5) The Tudors
 
  • #7
jimmy p said:
(6) Lady Jane Grey

Correct, beheaded a year later IIRC.
 
  • #8
arildno said:
5) The Tudors

Correct. That was a tough one too, I had to look that one up to check that it was correct.
 
  • #9
Attention, Attention

Wow, this thread's lasted a day in the wrong forum without the uberlords noticing ? Wassamattah ?

Hope this catches their attention...
 
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  • #10
1) John Bull
 
  • #11
jcsd said:
5) Rhys ap Gruffyd

Gesundheit! :rofl:

Hey, now where are all the mentors when we want them to move a thread? :cool: :biggrin:
 
  • #12
plover said:
1) John Bull

Correct! I remeber reading once that his named after a Lollard priest, but I couldn't find any refrence to that, so it may be incorrect.
 
  • #13
I thought it was from a character in a play...will look to see.

Edited to add...

I quote verbatim from Curious Word Origins, by Charles Funk :

"The long drawn out War of the Spanish Succession, 1701 - 1714, in which the allied armies of England, Austria, the Netherlands, and Prussia were finally victorious over the forces of France and Spain, was not altogether popular in England. It cost many lives; it disrupted commerce, and the expense was enormous. All this was seen by the eminent physician and witty author Dr. John Arbuthnot. To get others to share his views, he resolved, in 1712, to satirize the struggle for power. The first of his satires bore the title Law is a Bottomless Pit. Exempified in the case of Lord Strutt, John Bull, Nicholas Frog, and Lewis Baboon, who spent all day in a lawsuit. These characters were intended to represent, respectively, Spain, England, Holland and France - especially, as of the first and fourth, their rulers, Charles II and Louis XIV. The satires were later expanded into five parts, published under the title, History of John Bull. From Arbuthnot's generalized characterization of the English people in this series, England has subsequently been personified as John Bull."

Out here, in the US, the Funk family (they are all into the Word business) is well respected, and usually, the stuff they write holds water.
 
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  • #14
I'm starting to think that the mentors have their hands tied by the knot of limited power. This has got to be an access issue. There is no official moderator for the Feedback Forum...so I wonder if someone (Chroot/Greg) has to actually hack the code some to move threads outta here. A design faux pas, perhaps ?
 
  • #15
jcsd said:
Correct, beheaded a year later IIRC.

Lady Jane Grey was Queen for about 9 days between the reigns of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, before she was locked in the tower of London and subsequently executed. She was a puppet queen for a few Lords.

Just to boost a few people's knowledge :tongue2:
 
  • #16
Can I answer some others?
 
  • #17
Hmm..I always thought she was between Edward and Mary; thanks jimmyp.
 
  • #18
I'm pretty sure she was before Mary I. I'll leave it a littele longer before I throw it open.
 
  • #19
jcsd said:
I'm pretty sure she was before Mary I. I'll leave it a littele longer before I throw it open.

Yes it's hardly been in GD a few hours...it deserves at least a full day here.

Nice quiz, jcsd !
 
  • #20
arildno said:
Hmm..I always thought she was between Edward and Mary; thanks jimmyp.


I may be wrong, I tried to find my history book but I think it has been eaten by my room, like everything else that is important, or I need to help answer a question/start a car or whatever. Stoopid keys.
 
  • #21
Seeing as no-ones answered anymore, I'll thorw it open. i'll be particularly impressed if anyone gets 2) or 3) as they're very obscure, but they are guessable.
 
  • #22
jcsd said:
Seeing as no-ones answered anymore, I'll thorw it open. i'll be particularly impressed if anyone gets 2) or 3) as they're very obscure, but they are guessable.

I'm kinda sure of 8 & 9, so I'll try those.

8) Kind Robert the (can't remember number :grumpy:)

9) I think this is Britannic or Britonic - the language spoken by Obelix's cousin, twice removed ?
 
  • #23
I know this is definitely wrong but anyways for (2) Andrew or Patrick ? (only other patron saints related to GB that I know)
 
  • #24
Gokul43201 said:
I'm kinda sure of 8 & 9, so I'll try those.

8) Kind Robert the (can't remember number :grumpy:)

9) I think this is Britannic or Britonic - the language spoken by Obelix's cousin, twice removed ?

8) It was Robert I of Scotland better known by the anglicization of his family surname 'de Brus' (infact he was he eighth Robert de Brus, the others being his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, etc, but the only one to rule Scotland).

9) very close, but not quite right.
 
  • #25
9) Damn, I was feeling good about knowing that one...:grumpy:

"de Brus" - of Bruce ? :confused:
 
  • #26
Gokul43201 said:
I know this is definitely wrong but anyways for (2) Andrew or Patrick ? (only other patron saints related to GB that I know)

St. patrick is Patron saint of Ireland and St. Andrew is patron saint of Scotland, in many ways the person in question is a much more logical choice than the semi-historical personage of St. George who has no connection to England other than being it's patron saint.
 
  • #27
Gokul43201 said:
9) Damn, I was feeling good about knowing that one...:grumpy:

"de Brus" - of Bruce ? :confused:

Robert the Bruce.
 
  • #28
was there a St. Jimmy? Should have been if there wasn't.
You know what the coolest thing about GB is? I don't have to live there. Freaking monarchy, fish and chips and bangers and mash. They had a cool bridge once, now it's in the USA in the middle of a desert. Okay, Monty Python and the Beatles are cool, granted, but other than that--not much to speak of.
 
  • #29
Say jcsd, how about the remaining answers ? Just a reminder, in case you forgot.
 
  • #30
I had just about forgot:

1) John Bull

2) Edward the Confessor (King of England 1042-1066, canonized in 1161)

3) Cornwall, England's most Southern county, was one of the few areas in England not taken over by the Anglo-Saxons and has it's own language (which died out a few cneturies ago, but is now subject to a revivialists movemnt). Some such as the Cornish indepence moveemtn regard it as a country in it's own right and as far as I know it's the only county in the UK to have it's own patron saint.

4) King Arthur

5) The Tudors

6) Lady Jane Grey

7) Llywelyn the Last a.k.a. Llywelyn ap Gruffydd died 1282

8) Robert the Bruce

9) Brythonic, the language of the Celts of Great Britian. The only other branch of the Celtic family that is known is Goidelic/Gaelic the language of the Celts of Ireland.

10) The (Dalriadian) Scots and the Picts. According to legend 'the Stone of Destiny' was brought over with the Scots when they arrived from the orginal Dalridian kingdom in northern Ireland in the dark ages. Though the Picts dominated the Scots militarily and probably in terms of population too, the culture and language of the Scots completely supplanted the culture and the language of the Picts.
 
  • #31
jcsd said:
9) Brythonic, the language of the Celts of Great Britian. The only other branch of the Celtic family that is known is Goidelic/Gaelic the language of the Celts of Ireland.

10) The (Dalriadian) Scots and the Picts. According to legend 'the Stone of Destiny' was brought over with the Scots when they arrived from the orginal Dalridian kingdom in northern Ireland in the dark ages. Though the Picts dominated the Scots militarily and probably in terms of population too, the culture and language of the Scots completely supplanted the culture and the language of the Picts.

9) Would this be the language that was spoken by the Britons around the time of Julius Caesar (early BC), or is this much later ? I think I read something about this (about 10 years ago) in an article that talked about the level of historical accuracy in the Asterix comics. I'm (less now than before) a big fan of Goscinny & Uderzo. :biggrin:

10) Wow ! Never heard of Picts. I've heard of the Celts, Caledonians, Scots, Britons, Saxons, and Angles, but never Picts. Worth a read, you'd say ?
 
  • #32
Gokul43201 said:
10) Wow ! Never heard of Picts. I've heard of the Celts, Caledonians, Scots, Britons, Saxons, and Angles, but never Picts. Worth a read, you'd say ?
The person who started the Pink Floyd thread has never heard of a Pict? I refer you to the track list for Umma Gumma... :biggrin:
 
  • #33
plover said:
The person who started the Pink Floyd thread has never heard of a Pict? I refer you to the track list for Umma Gumma... :biggrin:

I think I know what you're talking about - "several furry animals in a cave with a pict" : that track while interesting, thanks to the sounds of several small, furry animals, didn't actually tell me what a pict was...were there any lyrics in that track at all ?? Or in most of UmmaGumma ? (I haven't listened to UmmaGumma in some 7 or 8 years now. :redface:)

Hmmm plover, is there some trivial connection to the Picts that made Floyd put one of them into a cave with furry creatures ?
 
  • #34
There's no lyrics per se, but the Pict does say something...


Not that it's comprehensible...


So...
Well... okay I didn't say it was a useful reference... :wink:
 
  • #35
Robert de Brus=Robert the Bruce.

I don't mean to be technical, but I think you mean Robert of Bruce.?.

Paden Roder

EDIT: I've always took "de" or "del" to mean "of". Tierra del fuego = Ring of Fire. ? Maybe. :confused:
 
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