Random Questions
2003 ACF Nationals - Packet by Arkansas and Florida - #10 [report this tossup]
It opens with a long speech by Aphrodite before the palace of Pittheus at Troezen, where one of the central characters has been exiled for killing a kinsman. The title character is killed while driving his chariot by the shore, when a giant wave rises from the sea and a massive bull emerges from the water. This fulfilled one of three wishes Poseidon granted to Theseus, a wish invoked after Theseus was tricked by a letter in the hand of his dead wife Phaedra. FTP, name this Euripides play in which Phaedra's love for the title character leads to Theseus killing his own son.
Answer: Hippolytus
2005 ACF Nationals - Packet by ACF Editors (#2) - #4 [report this tossup]
Two and a half weeks before this battle, the man who would lose it burned the fortress of Norham in retaliation for John "the Bastard" Heron's murder of Robert Kerr. While that man dallied with Elizabeth Heron at Ford Castle, the man who would beat him went from Pontefact to Wooler, assembling his army. After the English crossed the River Till on September 9, they assembled at the foot of Branxton Hill, where the 15-foot spears employed by the losing army proved to be no match for the 8-foot "long bills" of the victors. Over 10,000 Scots, including the king, were killed in this battle, which was a decisive triumph for a lieutenant of Henry VIII, the Earl of Surrey. FTP, name this battle in which James IV was defeated, which ended a Scottish invasion of England in 1513.
Answer: the battle of Flodden Field
2010 ACF Regionals - Packet by Minnesota A and Miami A - #7 [report this tossup]
The brief first section of this work describes how the protagonist is a servant of Mrs. Van Hopper in Monte Carlo before shockingly marrying an upper-class man. The protagonist of this novel is nearly hypnotized into jumping to her death before rockets signaling a shipwreck snap her back to sanity. At the end of this novel, a magistrate named Colonel Julwin deems a suspicious death a suicide before Jack Favell and Mrs. Danvers burn down the male protagonist's home. The unnamed protagonist of this novel marries Maxim de Winter, who shot the adulterous title character, his first wife, and sunk her corpse in a boat. The oft-quoted first line of this novel is "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again". For 10 points, name this novel by Daphne du Maurier.
Answer: Rebecca