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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. According to "The History of the English Church and People," how does Bede describe the complexions of the slaves seen by Gregory in the Roman marketplace?
(a) Darkened.
(b) Fair.
(c) Blemished.
(d) Pock-marked.

3. In what year was the "Exeter Book" bequeathed to the Cathedral Library?
(a) 758.
(b) 1072.
(c) 998.
(d) 874.

4. In "A Colloquy" what does the pupil say he prefer to ignorance?
(a) To be mute.
(b) To be exiled.
(c) To be imprisoned.
(d) To be flogged.

5. What does "eorpan motor" mean?
(a) Exiled man.
(b) Mother's ear.
(c) Eastern light.
(d) Mother of earth.

6. The riddles are described as being both "witty and obscene," and they are given this name?
(a) Double entendres.
(b) Alliterations.
(c) Ceasuras.
(d) Allegories.

7. How many poems are included in the canon of the "Exeter Book"?
(a) 114.
(b) 78.
(c) 52.
(d) 96.

8. Who does St. Gregory thank for having teachers "among us now"?
(a) God.
(b) Waerferth.
(c) Bede.
(d) Greeks.

9. In what century did Old English become a "vehicle capable of expressing scientific thought"?
(a) 8th.
(b) 5th.
(c) 10th.
(d) 12th.

10. Who "asked" the best known riddle of the Anglo-Saxon riddles?
(a) The Sphinx.
(b) The Griffin.
(c) The Centaur.
(d) The Nemean Lion.

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

12. What is "elf-shot"?
(a) Lumbago.
(b) Disambiguation.
(c) Mange.
(d) Dysentary

13. According to Aelfric, who was "cruelly martyred" in 870 after he refused to give the Danes "wergild"?
(a) St. Matthew.
(b) St. Roslin.
(c) St. Peter.
(d) St. Edmund.

14. What does the moth devour in "Thirty-One Riddles"?
(a) Hunger.
(b) Words.
(c) Breath.
(d) War.

15. One of the riddles in the "Exeter Book" was used "to show the way in which the runic alphabet was a kind of"?
(a) Gospel.
(b) Artifact.
(c) Conundrum.
(d) Useless knowledge.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who said "What use is the abundance of books if there are none to read and understand them?"

2. What is the alternate name that the introduction to "I Saw a Strange Creature..." gives to kennings?

3. Who was the king, whose will is the earliest surviving of Anglo-Saxon history, preoccupied with threat by?

4. In what year did Alcuin of York leave England at the request of Charlemagne?

5. What was the first use of the runic alphabet?

(see the answer keys)

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