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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Merewyn want Sigurd to do while at the Althing?

2. What did Merewyn ask of her husband and father-in-law, Ketil?

3. Where does Ketil die?

4. When does Merewyn become an official lady-in-waiting to Queen Elgifu?

5. Where do Ketil and his group arrive when Rumon has been gone a fortnight?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Merewyn's mother-in-law, Asgerd feel about Merewyn?

2. How were Merewyn, Orm, and Thora received at the hostel at Glastonbury Abbey?

3. What did Orm feel for his mother once Orm sold the Bylgia to the Bristol Thane, Odo?

4. How does Merewyn describe Thorbjorg, the seeress from Brattalid?

5. What did Merewyn see as the differences between Greenland and Iceland?

6. How did Merewyn describe the Hafnarfell Mountains?

7. When did Rumon get word of Merewyn's whereabouts when he followed her back to Padstow?

8. When Brother Finian told Rumon that he smelled smoke as they came to the broad estuary of the Camel River in their search for Merewyn, how did Rumon respond to Finian?

9. How was Merewyn dressed as she followed her men on the way to the Allthing?

10. Why did Orm stiffen when the porter at Glastonbury Abbey referred to the Vikings as "dreadful Danes?"

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In "Avalon," Merewyn must contend with her past and the truth of who she is. Explain how Merewyn's relationship to her past and how she deals with who she is affects what she does, what she thinks and even some of her values and how the way Merewyn deals with who she is contributes to the novel.

Essay Topic 2

Compare England with Great Ireland where Rumon was held captive for 3 years with the Culdees. Explain how the two places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.

Essay Topic 3

Think about how the characters, setting, and themes in "Avalon" relate to the period in which it was written. (The early to mid 1960s.) How is it a reflection, and how is it a criticism of that time period? How does Seton make her opinions about that world clear to the reader?

(see the answer keys)

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