The Companions Quartet
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40 free The Companions Quartet trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Julia Golding's Companions Quartet starts with a girl who can talk to animals and ends with the fate of the planet at stake. Connie Lionheart discovers that the creatures of legend are real, that a secret Society has guarded them for centuries, and that she has a rarer gift than any of its members. This quiz covers all of it: Connie, Col and their families, the Society for the Protection of Mythical Creatures, the villain Kullervo, and the plot of each book from Secret of the Sirens to The Chimera's Curse. A few questions look at the old legends the books borrow from, and a few at the author and what came after the series. It is written for readers who grew up with the books and for anyone meeting them now. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will leave knowing a little more about the series than when you started.
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Q 01In Greek myth, the sirens behind the title Secret of the Sirens lured sailors to their deaths using what?
Their singing
Their singing was so hard to resist that Odysseus had his crew plug their ears with beeswax and tie him to the mast.
Q 02The Gorgon's Gaze is named for monsters of Greek myth whose look turned people into what?
Stone
Stone was the fate of anyone who looked at the three Gorgon sisters; in Julia Golding's novel, just one gorgon is left in the world.
Q 03In which seaside town does Connie Lionheart go to live with her aunt at the start of the Companions Quartet?
Hescombe
Hescombe is a fictional town in the south of England, and most of the four books take place there.
Q 04Connie Lionheart and Col Clamworthy share which unusual physical feature in the Companions Quartet?
Mismatched eyes
Mismatched eyes set both friends apart, and Connie's gift for talking to animals had already seen her moved from school to school.
Q 05The Gorgon's Gaze features the last gorgon; which gorgon of Greek myth was beheaded by Perseus?
Medusa
Medusa was the only mortal one of the three sisters, which is why Perseus could kill her; Stheno and Euryale were immortal.
Q 06The monster of Greek myth behind Mines of the Minotaur has a man's body and which animal's head?
A bull
A bull supplied the head and tail in the classical picture of the Minotaur, which sits at the centre of many depictions of the Labyrinth.
Q 07Col Clamworthy, whose partner is called Skylark, is companion to which species in the Companions Quartet?
Pegasus
Pegasus companions such as Col can also talk to ordinary horses and ponies, and his riding later wins him a place in the British squad.
Q 08In the Companions Quartet, the villain Kullervo says humans deserve annihilation for doing what?
Polluting the earth
Polluting the earth is the charge Kullervo lays against humankind, which gives the villain a real argument and the series its green conscience.
Q 09Selkies, a companion species in the Companions Quartet, shift between human form and which animals?
Seals
Seals give selkies their name, from the Scots word for the animal; in legend they shed their skins to walk on land as humans.
Q 10One companion in The Chimera's Curse bonds with Nemean lions; which Greek hero killed the Nemean lion of myth?
Heracles
Heracles found that arrows bounced off the lion's golden fur, so he stunned it with his club and strangled it with his bare hands.
Q 11Which eccentric aunt takes in Connie Lionheart at the start of Julia Golding's Companions Quartet?
Evelyn
Evelyn turns out to belong to the secret Society for the Protection of Mythical Creatures, which is how Connie learns that such creatures are real.
Q 12Kullervo, the enemy of the Society in Julia Golding's Companions Quartet, is what kind of being?
A shapeshifter
A shapeshifter, Kullervo leaves a dark place inside Connie's mind after one encounter and later uses it to reach her.
Q 13In Mines of the Minotaur, what does Connie Lionheart unknowingly raise while she is asleep?
Storms
Storms rise as she sleeps, and Col finds her on the shore after one; the cause is a mark Kullervo left inside her.
Q 21Which golden dragonet is Connie Lionheart's own special companion in the Companions Quartet?
Argand
Argand has a golden hide that makes her resistant to fire and heat; Argot and Morjik are dragons bonded to other Society members.
Q 22Which woodland, home of the last gorgon, does the Society fight to save in The Gorgon's Gaze?
Mallins Wood
Mallins Wood shelters the only gorgon left in the world, a secret known to just a handful of people.
Q 23In The Gorgon's Gaze, what is due to be built through the ancient forest where the last gorgon lives?
A road
A road through the trees is the plan that unites the Society with local eco-activists, while most townspeople have no idea what lives there.
Q 14Col's father, a traveller in the Companions Quartet, is companion to which legendary sea monster?
Kraken
Kraken legends come from Norway and may have begun with sightings of giant squid; Col's father belongs to the Society's Sea Snakes.
Q 15Connie's aunt in the Companions Quartet is companion to which spirit from Irish folklore?
Banshee
Banshee companionship explains some of her odd habits; in folklore the spirit heralds a death in the family by wailing or keening.
Q 16In The Chimera's Curse, the chimera has three heads: a lion, a goat and which other creature?
A serpent
A serpent completes the trio, matching Homer, who described the monster as a lion in front, a goat in the middle and a serpent behind.
Q 17On which English moor is a mysterious creature first spotted in The Chimera's Curse?
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is where the beast is seen before it attacks and badly wounds Connie; the real moor has been a national park since 1951.
Q 18Mines of the Minotaur holds which place in the order of the four Companions Quartet books?
The third
The third book follows Secret of the Sirens and The Gorgon's Gaze, and The Chimera's Curse closes the series.
Q 19The Chimera's Curse features Amalthean goats; in Greek myth, Amalthea nursed which infant god?
Zeus
Zeus was hidden on Crete as a baby and fed by Amalthea, who is a goat in some tellings and a nymph who owns one in others.
Q 20In Secret of the Sirens, what kind of business angers the sirens by moving into their waters?
An oil firm
An oil firm is the modern villain of the first book, a shady business that even covers up the deaths of its own employees.
Q 24In The Gorgon's Gaze, the last gorgon is the companion of which member of Col Clamworthy's family?
His mother
His mother, Cassandra, is one of the few people who know the gorgon survives, and Kullervo tries to use her to get to Connie.
Q 25Which younger brother of Connie Lionheart is a Society member in The Chimera's Curse?
Simon
Simon, about two years younger than his sister, is companion to the very creatures that combine to make a chimera.
Q 26Julia Golding, author of the Companions Quartet, also wrote which series that opens with The Diamond of Drury Lane?
Cat Royal
Cat Royal follows an orphan raised in a London theatre in the 1790s, and its opening book won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize.
Q 27Which Society member gets Connie thrown out in Mines of the Minotaur, then helps Kullervo kidnap her?
Ivor Coddrington
Ivor Coddrington, newly made a trustee, paints Connie as dangerous to get her expelled; as the Society's assessor he had once tried to deny her entry.
Q 28Which great-aunt takes Connie away from her seaside home in The Gorgon's Gaze to keep her from the Society?
Godiva
Godiva was once a Society member herself, yet now firmly opposes it and denies Connie any contact with mythical creatures.
Q 29Which sequel to the Companions Quartet follows George, the youngest universal companion?
Water Thief
Water Thief arrived in 2011 and sends George on his first Society mission with a team that includes a cyclops and a phoenix.
Q 30Kullervo, villain of the Companions Quartet, shares his name with a tragic hero of which national epic?
The Kalevala
The Kalevala, Finland's national epic, casts Kullervo as an ill-fated figure bent on revenge, and his story went on to influence J. R. R. Tolkien.