Q 01/05

The word 'ski' comes from Old Norse skíð, which literally meant what?

A) Cleft wood

B) Frozen river

C) Long foot

D) Winter road

Answer · why

A) Cleft wood

Cleft wood: Old English already had a cousin of the word, scīd, a strip of wood, yet English still borrowed 'ski' from Scandinavia.

Q 02/05

Norse mythology's Ullr and Skaði are regarded as the god and goddess of skiing and what other pursuit?

A) Sailing

B) Weaving

C) Hunting

D) Poetry

Answer · why

C) Hunting

Hunting: in the Prose Edda Skaði skis and shoots wild beasts, and she chose a husband by his feet alone, hoping for Baldr but getting Njörðr.

Q 03/05

Skiing pioneer Sondre Norheim, the 'father of Telemark skiing', is buried in which US state?

A) South Dakota

B) Wisconsin

C) Montana

D) North Dakota

Answer · why

D) North Dakota

North Dakota: he settled there after emigrating in 1884, and the Olympic flames for the 1952 and 1960 Winter Games were lit at his birthplace.

Q 04/05

In 1868 Sondre Norheim won a national ski competition held in which city?

A) Bergen

B) Lillehammer

C) Trondheim

D) Christiania

Answer · why

D) Christiania

Christiania: the win spread word of his shorter, side-cut skis and heel bindings.

Q 05/05

Telemark skiing is named after a region in which country?

A) Norway

B) Denmark

C) Finland

D) Austria

Answer · why

A) Norway

Norway: the telemark turn bends the back leg and lifts that heel off the ski, so it only works with a free-heel binding.