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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What century was it when pagan Germanic tribesman "swarmed" into England?
(a) 6th.
(b) 5th.
(c) 7th.
(d) 4th.

2. What is the name of the hero in "The Finnesburh Fragment"?
(a) Wyglaf.
(b) Beowulf.
(c) Hrothgar.
(d) Hengest.

3. According to The Laws of Wihtred, who is free from taxation?
(a) Knights.
(b) The Bards.
(c) The Church.
(d) Scops.

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"?
(a) The clergy.
(b) The knave.
(c) The scop.
(d) The jester.

5. According to the author, what did Anglo-Saxons fail to do for their poetry?
(a) Title them.
(b) Honor God.
(c) Pay hommage to their past.
(d) Follow the "code".

6. Besides "The Wife's Lament," what is the only other Anglo-Saxon poem written by a woman?
(a) Wulf.
(b) The Marriage-Oath.
(c) The Promise
(d) Brazen.

7. What is the oldest surviving poem written in Old English?
(a) The Dream of the Rood.
(b) Hymn.
(c) Wulf.
(d) Beowulf.

8. How many men, in a trial by ordeal, are required to test the heat of the water?
(a) 3 from "each side".
(b) 4 from "each side".
(c) 2 from "each side".
(d) 1 from "each side".

9. Where does the wanderer's "best source of comfort lie"?
(a) In himself.
(b) In hope for land.
(c) In his sails.
(d) In his lord.

10. What does Beowulf tear off of Grendel?
(a) His arm.
(b) His tail.
(c) His hand.
(d) His leg.

11. Wihtred was king over what people?
(a) South Dane.
(b) Geatland.
(c) Kent.
(d) Daneland.

12. Who translated Bede's "History of the English Church and People"?
(a) Sintertra.
(b) Pound.
(c) Alfred.
(d) Columbia.

13. What is the date of Bede's death?
(a) October 28, 739.
(b) January 4, 704.
(c) May 25, 735.
(d) December 25, 631.

14. What does Beowulf give to Wiglaf to signify Wiglaf's rise to king?
(a) A goblet.
(b) A banner.
(c) A necklace.
(d) A sword.

15. What is the name of the governing assemblies from the Anglo-Saxon period?
(a) Wyrds.
(b) Soothslayers.
(c) Folk-moots.
(d) Cleric-bards,

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Hrothgar know from Beowulf's family?

2. How many shillings will it cost someone if they were to "breach the Church's protection"?

3. What does the author in the introduction to the Heroic Poems section state is the "finest expression of the code" (the Germanic Heroic code)?

4. What adjective does the poet of "The Seafarer" use to describe the song that he sings of himself?

5. According to Byrhthelm in "The Battle of Maldon," who alone can say who would control the battle field?

(see the answer keys)

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