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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 is the name of the hero in "The Finnesburh Fragment"?

2. Who was "Letter to the English" meant to act as moral support for?

3. How many men does Grendel murder just before his fight with Beowulf?

4. What is the name of the person that "was a crucial member of a tribe or a society" and existed as "a living memory"?

5. Who wrote "Letter to the English"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did one of King Edwin's men state were the differences between their time and the time of "which we have no knowledge"?

2. What does Beowulf do right after killing Grendel's mother?

3. Explain the procedure of lawsuits for Anglo-Saxons.

4. Why does the author of the introduction to "The Elegies" state that "The Ruin" is "an antiquarian's delight"?

5. What happened on Christmas day in 597 in Anglo-Saxon history?

6. What is the main theme of the poem "The Wanderer"?

7. Why were some laws of the Anglo-Saxon period never put into writing?

8. What is the topic of the six "so-called Elegies"?

9. What was the order that needed to be followed to exact punishments and define laws during the Anglo-Saxon period?

10. According to the author of the introduction to "Heroic Poems," what purpose do/did the heroic poems serve historically?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose one of the riddles presented in "I Saw a Strange Creature..." Look at the final page from the section and list the author's possible answer to the riddle. Choose a contrasting answer for the riddle. Support your answer in a fully developed essay paying special attention to specific textual evidence that supports your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Many of the Anglos were by trade seafarers. What did a typical seafarer face during their lives? What were the highlights of being a seafarer? What were the pitfalls of being a seafarer?

Essay Topic 3

Religion seemed to have saved the lives of many a seafaring man. Compare the religious thought in both "The Wanderer" and "The Seafarer." How are the authors' thoughts similar? In what ways was religion necessary for survival?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 891 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample