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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 did Merewyn ask of her husband and father-in-law, Ketil?

2. How long does it take the ships to get to the land Erik speaks of?

3. What year is it at the beginning of Chapter 10?

4. What is the name of the chief Viking?

5. What does Rumon offer to do for Merewyn when he meets her at the place where she has taken her aunt's heart?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the grand commotion that happened in Greenland in June of 1000?

2. When did Rumon get word of Merewyn's whereabouts when he followed her back to Padstow?

3. How did Merewyn describe the Hafnarfell Mountains?

4. How were Merewyn, Orm, and Thora received at the hostel at Glastonbury Abbey?

5. Why did Orm stiffen when the porter at Glastonbury Abbey referred to the Vikings as "dreadful Danes?"

6. How had Bishop Ethelwold done his duty by Merewyn for her trip to St. Petroc's?

7. When Finian and Rumon went up to the monastery, what did the prior, Poldu, say happened to Merewyn during the Viking raid?

8. What is the Allthing?

9. What did the Abbess Merwinna request of Merewyn?

10. What was Ethelred like in the year 1002?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain how and why the ending of "Avalon" appropriately or inappropriately concluded the story. Did the ending of "Avalon" provide the reader with a significant closure or did it merely end? Does the reader have to adjust to ambiguity or uncertainty or does "Avalon" satisfy the reader need to know what happens to Merewyn and Rumon?

Essay Topic 2

How does the title of the novel, "Avalon," relate to the novel itself? Is the title descriptive? A statement of the theme? Or something else altogether? Why Did Seton choose the title "Avalon" over other possibilities? Analyze the relationship between title and novel, paying attention to the reasons that the title highlights something that the Seton wants readers to know or come to understand about the novel.

Essay Topic 3

In "Avalon," many brutal Viking raids are described. Compare and contrast the English views of Vikings or Norsemen to what we see when Merewyn becomes an accepted member of Icelandic society.

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