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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who is Grendel a descendant of?
(a) God.
(b) Hrothgar.
(c) Lucifer.
(d) Cain.

2. Where is Hrothgar's kingdom?
(a) Daneland.
(b) Hwicca.
(c) Northumbria.
(d) East Saxon.

3. What is the name of the island that Cuthbert died on?
(a) Frumberia.
(b) Great Farne.
(c) Viestiern.
(d) Geatland Isle.

4. Where does the author state that the emotional center of "Deor" lies (which lines)?
(a) The center stanza.
(b) The first eight.
(c) The last eight.
(d) The first four lines.

5. What two words were used in a trial by ordeal to define the seriousness of the crime?
(a) "MIsendon" and "Candicet".
(b) "Single" and "Threefold".
(c) "Misson" and "Molten".
(d) "Thricen" and "Shrine".

6. Who does the author in the introduction to the Laws section say, "most of us" need to turn to in order to "establish the exact wording of a law"?
(a) A law writer.
(b) A barrister.
(c) A solicitor.
(d) A priest.

7. In "The Wife's Lament," where is the wife forced to live?
(a) In a barn.
(b) In an earth-cave.
(c) In a well.
(d) In a foreign castle.

8. At what age (the boys' age) did Irish monks begin to train Anglo-Saxon boys as novices?
(a) 7.
(b) 11.
(c) 10.
(d) 5.

9. In what book are the "six so-called Elegies" found?
(a) Exeter.
(b) Chronicles of Wyrd.
(c) Byron's Canon.
(d) Cathedral Chronicles.

10. Whose translation of "The Wanderer" is best known?
(a) Shakespeare's.
(b) Ezra Pound's.
(c) J.R.R. Tolkien's.
(d) Socrates'.

11. What is Grendel unable to approach in Heorot?
(a) The banner.
(b) The throne.
(c) Beowulf.
(d) The queen.

12. According to number 19, in "Letter to the People of England," how many men are to go to church and "make supplication"?
(a) All men.
(b) All priests.
(c) Only the bards.
(d) Only the lords.

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

14. According to the author in the introduction what (other than "Beowulf") is the best -known Anglo-Saxon poem?
(a) "The Husband's Message."
(b) "The Wife's Lament."
(c) "The Seafarer."
(d) "The Wanderer."

15. Where is Beowulf from?
(a) Britland.
(b) England.
(c) Geatland.
(d) Scotland.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who made the weapon with which Beowulf beheads Grendel's mother?

2. Who was the patron saint of Northumbria?

3. In what year was Cuthbert's coffin opened in Durham Cathedral?

4. According to "The Wife's Lament," what "goes side by side with those who suffer longing for a loved one"?

5. According to the introduction to the Heroic Poems section, what do heroic poems link our Anglo-Saxon ancestors to?

(see the answer keys)

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