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

2. What is the general consensus about Freydis after her trip to Vinland?

3. What size crew does Leif Eiriksson take with him?

4. What does Eirik do when he finds Greenland?

5. What happens between Thorgest and Eirik when Eirik returns to Iceland?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the saga of Gudrid's Ancestry tell us about Aud's faith and what she does to practice it?

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

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

4. Where do Karlsefni and Gudrid travel? What becomes of them?

5. What happens to Thorstein and his crew when they set sail for Vinland? Where do they end up spending the winter?

6. Describe the woman that Gudrid sees and the discourse between them.

7. How long does Thorvald spend in Vinland, and what are his primary activities while he is there? Give details.

8. Why is Bjarni away when his father emigrates to Greenland?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Eirik the Red and his sons explored a considerable amount of new land. Write an essay about the family that may have been the first Europeans to discover America.

Part 1. What lands were Eirik the Red and his sons the first Europeans to discover and explore?

Part 2. Each of the four of the explorers had a different motivation for their exploration. What was the motivation of each and how did they differ from one another?

Part 3. There are descriptions of Eirik, Leif, Thorvald, and Thorstein in the sagas. What were they like? Is there evidence to suggest how they get along together?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay on the runic alphabets.

Part 1. When were the runic alphabets used?

Part 2. What different runic alphabets are there? How do they differ from each other?

Part 3. What runic alphabet did the Vikings use? Give particulars of this alphabet.

Part 4. Give an example of how to translate something into runes.

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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