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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. Where do the brothers stay when they arrive in Vinland?

2. What do Thorvald and his men do with the natives they encounter?

3. What is Iceland like when Eirik the Red arrives there?

4. What causes the Bjarni to lose his bearings at sea?

5. Where does the search party find Tyrkir?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Thorir and what happens to him?

2. What happens between the natives and Thorvald and his crew? Describe the encounter.

3. How do Leif and his men find grapes? Describe the incident.

4. What response does Bjarni receive when he shares his sighting of the new land?

5. What kind of person is Freydis? Give examples.

6. Describe how Eirik the Red felt about the possibility of joining Leif's exploration crew and why he did not.

7. Describe the events surrounding Thorstein's death.

8. What do we know about the emigration from Iceland to Greenland?

9. Describe the interactions the settlers have with the natives.

10. Describe what happens as Leif and his crew try to approach the shore of the mainland.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

There are many characters that make a brief appearance in the sagas that merit more attention, for example, Aud the Deep-Minded. Choose a minor character in the sagas and do some further research about them. If there is little information about the person you choose, then write about two different characters.

Part 1. What character or character did you choose to learn more about? Why?

Part 2. Describe the person or persons and what they did.

Part 3. Why is this significant or meaningful? What impact did they have?

Essay Topic 2

The historical novel "The Thrall's Tale" takes place during the sagas. Read the novel and then analyze the novel's connections to the sagas.

Part 1. Introduce and summarize the novel.

Part 2. During which saga does the action of the novel take place? What events happen in both?

Part 3. Which characters from the novel are also characters from the sagas? Are they consistent with their portrayal in the sagas? Does the fiction created surrounding the characters seem likely or plausible? Why or why not?

Part 4. According to you, how well did the author of "The Thrall's Tale" weave her fiction into the sagas? What did she do well and what could she have done better?

Essay Topic 3

Several times in the sagas we see a prophecy delivered and taken seriously. Write an essay about the Viking tradition of prophecy.

Part 1. Were the Vikings, in general, a superstitious people? Give examples. What, other than prophecies, did they believe in?

Part 2. How seriously did the Vikings take prophecies?

Part 3. What were some of the common ways for Vikings to receive prophecies?

Part 4. What evidence of prophecies is there in the Vinland Sagas?

(see the answer keys)

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