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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the answer to the "best known riddle in this genre" (Anglo-Saxon literature)?
(a) God.
(b) Man.
(c) Dog.
(d) Woman.

2. What is the subject and tone of Anglo-Saxon riddles?
(a) Enormously varied.
(b) Commonly sad.
(c) Never emotional.
(d) Strictly upbeat.

3. What is the name of the woman who "begged men from Cwaespatric"?
(a) Fromberge.
(b) Geatfleda.
(c) Norschairt.
(d) Slavariac.

4. In what year did Alcuin of York leave England at the request of Charlemagne?
(a) 782.
(b) 677.
(c) 741.
(d) 598.

5. The riddles are described as being both "witty and obscene," and they are given this name?
(a) Allegories.
(b) Ceasuras.
(c) Alliterations.
(d) Double entendres.

6. In "A Colloquy" what does the pupil say he prefer to ignorance?
(a) To be mute.
(b) To be flogged.
(c) To be imprisoned.
(d) To be exiled.

7. Who is the first of the "Three Charms" against?
(a) A dog.
(b) A wen.
(c) A tree.
(d) A snake.

8. What does "he wolde fandian" mean?
(a) He fashioned the world.
(b) He would vanquish.
(c) He traveled the world.
(d) He wanted to search.

9. According to the introduction of Example and Exhortation, what language did King Alfred learn to translate texts into the "vernacular" of?
(a) Druid.
(b) Latin.
(c) Celtic.
(d) French.

10. What is the alternate name that the introduction to "I Saw a Strange Creature..." gives to kennings?
(a) Hyperbolies.
(b) Allegories.
(c) Personifications.
(d) Mini-Riddles.

11. In King Alfred's preface to "St. Gregory's 'Pastoral Care,' who does he "bids greet"?
(a) Rominast.
(b) Bede.
(c) Bishop Waerferth.
(d) Humber.

12. Who "asked" the best known riddle of the Anglo-Saxon riddles?
(a) The Nemean Lion.
(b) The Sphinx.
(c) The Griffin.
(d) The Centaur.

13. In the "Grant of Land at Crediton," the king of what area gave land to be used for a monastary?
(a) South Danes.
(b) Northumberland.
(c) West Saxons.
(d) Ireland.

14. What does the first object in "Thirty-One Riddles" plunge through?
(a) Wind.
(b) Minds.
(c) Waves.
(d) Brush.

15. What physical feature did Gregory state made the name of the "Angles" appropriate?
(a) Their hands.
(b) Their bowed heads.
(c) Their hair.
(d) Their faces.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does the introduction of "I Saw a Strange Creature..." say riddles similar to the semi-metaphorical riddles of the "Exeter Book" occur?

2. Who is named in the opening line of "A Grant of Land at Crediton"?

3. At dawn what is the first thing that the ploughman does in the morning?

4. The object in the second stanza of "Thirty-One Riddles" is what by nature?

5. In what century did Old English become a "vehicle capable of expressing scientific thought"?

(see the answer keys)

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