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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. As the author states in the introduction to "I Saw a Creature...," what do some riddles reflect?
(a) Memories of times at their best.
(b) The normal grind of everyday life.
(c) The turmoil of the times.
(d) Recollections of seafareres.

2. What was the name of the first book that King Alfred translated into the vernacular?
(a) "Sins and Sinners."
(b) "Pastoral Care."
(c) "Historical Moments in the Catholic Church."
(d) "The Importnace of Christianity."

3. Who raided Lindisfarne on June 8, 793?
(a) Celtic monks.
(b) Vikings.
(c) Christians.
(d) Pagan heathens.

4. What is embedded in the hilt of the sword of Constantine the Great?
(a) A Widow's mite.
(b) A nail from the Cross.
(c) A parable from the Book of Mathew.
(d) A marking denoting the Annunciation.

5. Whose will is the earliest surviving will of any Anglo-Saxon king?
(a) King Alfred.
(b) King Bede.
(c) King Solomon.
(d) King Hreather.

6. In late Anglo-Saxon England, what were women at liberty to accept or reject?
(a) Their children.
(b) Marriage suitors.
(c) Financial proposals.
(d) Exile based upon family err.

7. What was the name of the most powerful English king "prior to Alfred"?
(a) Stewenard.
(b) Frestern.
(c) Offa.
(d) Leunstead.

8. In the "Grant of Land at Crediton," the king of what area gave land to be used for a monastary?
(a) South Danes.
(b) Ireland.
(c) West Saxons.
(d) Northumberland.

9. What was the first English secular biography?
(a) "Life of King Alfred."
(b) "Charlemagne."
(c) "Common Sense."
(d) "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle."

10. Who is named in the opening line of "A Grant of Land at Crediton"?
(a) Columbia.
(b) God.
(c) King Alfred.
(d) Bede.

11. In King Alfred's preface to "St. Gregory's 'Pastoral Care,' who does he "bids greet"?
(a) Humber.
(b) Bede.
(c) Bishop Waerferth.
(d) Rominast.

12. Who was the godson of Aethelstan?
(a) Constantine.
(b) Mercia.
(c) Alan the Great.
(d) Alucin.

13. In the stanza beginning "I'm a strange creature," what does the strange creature state it satisfies?
(a) Thirst.
(b) Women.
(c) Cravings.
(d) Hunger.

14. Where does the introduction of "I Saw a Strange Creature..." say riddles similar to the semi-metaphorical riddles of the "Exeter Book" occur?
(a) The Bible.
(b) Beowulf.
(c) Writings of the Pearl Poet.
(d) Chaucer's texts.

15. What was the name of the monk in the monastery at Ramsey who complied a handbook on computus?
(a) Stephen.
(b) Byrhtferth.
(c) Synthegrth.
(d) Detriech.

Short Answer Questions

1. One of the riddles in the "Exeter Book" was used "to show the way in which the runic alphabet was a kind of"?

2. According to Aelfric, who was "cruelly martyred" in 870 after he refused to give the Danes "wergild"?

3. How many times a day does the shepard milk his sheep?

4. What physical feature did Gregory state made the name of the "Angles" appropriate?

5. The object in the second stanza of "Thirty-One Riddles" is what by nature?

(see the answer keys)

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