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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 was the second work translated?

2. Why did Alfred alter passages in the second work translated?

3. What document is included after the will?

4. How does Alfred divide the laws the he himself did not write?

5. What relative of Alfred's died in 888?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who swore oaths to King Alfred in 893? What happened when the Vikings split into roving bands that same year?

2. What is the final document in King Alfred the Great?

3. What is Bishop Wulfsige's preface to the translation of Gregory's Dialogues?

4. What is the penultimate document? What are double acrostics?

5. What is a charter in Anglo-Saxon terms? How many survive from the Anglo-Saxon period?

6. Why does King Alfred alter passages of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy? What do these alterations reveal about Alfred?

7. Why was Alfred so careful about his financial affairs?

8. When did Alfred die? How long did he rule?

9. How were people who were disobedient to Alfred handled?

10. Explain the preface of the translation of Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast primary documents and secondary documents as they are used in historical research. Which of the resources used in Alfred the Great are primary? Which are secondary?

Essay Topic 2

Explain King Alfred's law-code. What did his law-code reveal about him as a ruler and as a person?

Essay Topic 3

Explain who Asser was, and what authority he had to write a biography of King Alfred. Explain how he wrote the biography, including its publication and distribution.

(see the answer keys)

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