Short Answer Questions:

1. What is the date of a raid by Hygelac which was recorded by a Roman historian? [1]
2. What is the latest possible date of the transcription of the text of Beowulf? [1]
3. What is the date of the Norman Conquest? [1]
4. What is the year of Chaucer's death? [1]
5. What is the year of the first printing of Malory's Morte Darthur? [1]
6. How many beats are there in a line of Old English verse? [1]
7. Old English verse does not rhyme. What kind of sound repetition does it have? [1]
8. Could Chaucer have read Beowulf? [1]
9. Does any of the action of Beowulf take place in England? [1]
10. We say that society portrayed in Beowulf was "heroic." What was the function of the hero, and what would happen if the hero did not fulfill his function? Cite an example from Beowulf. [3]
11. What are two parallels between the stories of "Scyld, Scef's son" and Beowulf? [2]
12. After a battle, what does a king do which is supposed to assure the loyalty of his followers? [1]
13. What is a torque and what was it made of? [2]
14. Where does the fight between Beowulf and Grendel take place? [1]
15. Where does the fight between Beowulf and Grendel's mother take place? [1]
16. What is the nature of the mortal wound which Beowulf gives Grendel? [1]
17. When Hygelac dies, his Queen, Hygd, offers Beowulf her support if he wishes to take over the kingdom. Why does she do that? And how does Beowulf respond? [2]
18. In Beowulf (and in Anglo-Saxon Culture, and in European History) who are the "peace-weavers"? [1]
19. What is horrifying about the story of Hildeburh, the wife of Finn? [1]
20. According to our class discussion, what is the primary worry of the Queens who we see in Beowulf? Support your answer with an example. [2]
21. Beowulf says, "Fate often spares / the hero not fated to die when his courage endures." What happens to the hero who is "fated to die"? [1]
22. What does Beowulf's boasting do for him? [1]
23. What does Beowulf's boasting do for his friends and followers? [1]
24. How does the story of Herebald's death show the weakness of the warrior code? [1]
25. To what place in what building are the Chaucer's pilgrims headed? [2]
26. How is Chaucer's sense of humor made apparent in the opening of the General Prologue? [1]
27. What are the three "estates" of Chaucer's time? [1]
28. Why does it accord with the medieval world view that of all the pilgrims the Knight is mentioned first? [1]
29. How does the Knight show his courtesy? [1]
30. What satirical point is made about the Prioress's conscience? [1]
31. What is the Prioress's idea of what it means to be courteous? [1]
32. What is the contrast between the Prioress's appearance and her role as a nun? Support your answer with a quotation. [2]
33. What are the cononical hours? [1]
34. What is the last thing that Geoffrey says about the Merchant? [1]
35. Explain why the following lines are shocking: "But greet harm was it, as it thoughte me, / That on his shyne a mormal hadde he. / For blankmanger, that made he with the beste." [1]
36. Who says the following, and what is his point? "And shame it is, if preest take keep, / A shiten shepherde and clene sheep." [2]
37. About whom does Geoffrey say, "he hadde a thombe of gold, pardee"? [1]
38. What good thing does Geoffrey have to say about the Pardoner? [1]
39. What, according to the Wife of Bath, gives her the right to speak about marriage? [1]
40. How old was the Wife of Bath when she was first married? [1]
41. What two characteristics did the Wife of Bath's first three ("good") husbands have in common? [2]
42. How old was the Wife of Bath when she married her fifth husband? How old was he? [2]
43. Explain at least two ways in which the Wife of Bath fits the description of women's faults given by St. Jerome when, in Against Jovinianus, he quotes Theophrastus. [2]
44. The Wife of Bath made the same mistake in her last two marriages. What was it? [1]
45. The Wife of Bath picked a quarrel with her fifth husband by tearing three pages out of a book he was reading to her. What was the subject of the book? [1]
46. What was the Wife of Bath's attitude about her sexual relations with her old husbands? [2]
47. What psychological technique did the Wife of Bath use to bring her fifth husband under control? Show how her actions produce the desired effect. [2]
48. In the "Wife of Bath's Tale," what is the accepted answer to the question of what women most desire? [1]
49. After saying that she can fix their marital problems, what two alternatives does the crone give to her husband, and what does she say will be the consequence of each choice? [4]
50. What does the Wife of Bath think the point of her tale is? Quote to support your answer. [2]
51. In "The Merchant's Tale," how old is January and what is his requirement regarding the age of his bride? [2]
52. What is the contrast between reason Dorigen (in "The Franklin's Tale") agrees to marry Arveragus and the reason May (in "The Merchant's Tale") agrees to marry January? [2]
53. When Pluto and Prosperina see what May is up to in January's garden, what does Pluto vow to do? In response, what does Prosperina promise to do? [2]
54. What two arguments does May use to wiggle out of January's accusations of infidelity in the pear tree? [2]
55. What is a strong similarity between the subject matter of "The Wife's Lament" and the subject matter of "The Wanderer"? [1]
56. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, what game does the Green Knight propose just after he rides into Arthur's hall on his green horse? [1]
57. What is the genre of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight? [1]
58. Why does Gawain keep the girdle after his final encounter with the Green Knight? [1]
59. Why does the wanderer (of "The Wanderer) wander? [1]
60. What is the main similarity between the situation in "The Wanderer" and the situation in The "The Wife's Lament"?[1]
61. When a peace was being negotiated between Arthur and Mordred, new fighting erupted when a knight swung his sword at an adder. Explain why this caused hostilities to resume. [1]
62. When a peace was being negotiated between Arthur and Mordred, new fighting erupted when a knight swung his sword at an adder. Explain why this caused hostilities to resume. [1]
63. In "Lanval" how does the relationship between Lanval and the Fairy challenge the tradition of courtly love? [1]

Essay Questions:

1. Explain how Grendel violates the ideals of the culture of Beowulf.
2. Explain how the Dragon violates the ideals of the culture of Beowulf.
3. In Chaucer's time, what was the meaning of the word "fredom," and how is that quality exemplified in "The Franklin's Tale"?
4. Compare and contrast Chaucer's portrait of the Knight and the portrait of Beowulf in the poem Beowulf.
5. What do Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale" and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight have in common?
6. Compare and contrast the sort of courtesy displayed by Chaucer's Knight, Squire, Prioress, and Friar.
7. What are the similarities between the character of the Knight and the character of the Parson?
8. Compare and contrast the portrayal of women in Beowulf and in The Canterbury Tales.
9. What's the difference between the way the Court of Arthur is portrayed in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the way it is portrayed in Morte Darthur?