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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. Who counsels the messengers who take Kriemhild's message across the Rhine?

2. What oath has Kriemhild taken?

3. What does the messenger tell Dame Uta to prepare for Gunther's return?

4. In whom does Kriemhild take comfort as she makes her decision about where to live?

5. What does Kriemhild do, without her husband's knowledge, when her family is invited to the summer festival in Hungary?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Kriemhild's welcome of Hagen and Gunther and their men.

2. Explain how it comes to pass that Siegfried cannot be wounded, except in one small spot.

3. Gunther falls in love with a queen across the sea who has an unusual gift and plan to find a husband. Who is this queen and what are her unusual gifts and ideas?

4. Was the death of the single Hun, which was caused by Volker's lance, an accident?

5. How do Gunther's men react to the news that Kriemhild still mourns?

6. What is that deception that Kriemhild learns about when she rages at Hagen because he sinks the treasure of the Nibelungs in the Rhine?

7. What happens when Dietrich hears the cry that goes up when Rudeger is killed?

8. Describe the test of innocence that Kriemhild demands of the men she deems guilty of her husband's murder.

9. What does Siegmund ask Kriemhild to do after Siegfried's funeral, and what does she do instead?

10. What does Hagen do when he hears that Dankwart has been attacked and that Bloedelin has been killed?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

King Gunther and his brothers are trapped in the hall with violence that escalates out of control once Hagen kills the infant child of Etzel and Kriemhild. Write an essay that describes the reaction of each of the brothers to the violence. How does each react as it starts and as it continues? What does this reaction reveal or confirm about each king's character? Be sure to discuss the kings' reaction to Dietrich's request to remove himself and others from the violence, if applicable. Use the poem to support your assertions.

Essay Topic 2

What role do the tournaments have in setting up the action that takes place in the rest of the narrative? Can the tournaments be considered a microcosm of the rest of the Burgundian or Hun society?

Essay Topic 3

Iring identifies himself as a man who has abandoned himself to the pursuit of honor. Write an essay that explains what Iring shows the reader about honor. Write an essay to answer these questions:

Part 1: Which of his actions show that he is honorable? In light of those deeds, how does Iring appear to the reader when he runs to his kinsmen after being knocked unconscious? Why?

Part 2: Why does Iring returns to fight Hagen after he runs from the hall, wounding Hagen on the way out. Is he still exhibiting honorable behavior? Why or why not? Are his dying words honorable? Why or why not?

Use examples from the poem to support your argument.

(see the answer keys)

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