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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 the word "wergild" mean?

2. When does the author believe that "Waldere" was written?

3. What does "The Seafarer" learn that ships are homes of?

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. What is Grendel unable to approach in Heorot?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the author of the introduction to "Heroic Poems" call "The Battle of Maldon" one of "the best battle poems in the English language"?

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

3. What were the many reasons that Bede was renowned?

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

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

6. What were some of the earliest codes found to survive from the kingdom of Kent (690-725)?

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

8. Why did Caedmon state that he left the feast and went to the stables?

9. What did King Edwin say must be done before he would accept the Christian faith?

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

"Beowulf" has distinct imagery associated with light and dark. Choose three light images in the text; define the image, and show the contrasting dark image. Please explain the images use in the text. What purpose do the images serve?

Essay Topic 2

The text gives six examples of elegies from the Anglo-Saxon period. Which elegy do you believe was the most important? Why? Support your answer textually--make sure that your answer includes the characteristics of an elegy and why your choice best exemplifies the traditional Anglo-Saxon period.

Essay Topic 3

What are the multiple facets that the "Exeter Book" performed? Why was it important? What did it address? What did it provide to the Anglo-Saxon society?

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This section contains 844 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample