Ch. 1: The Old English Period Flashcards
Who is illiterate?
Caedmon
How is Sparrow is a metaphor?
metaphor for man’s life is short, brevity.
3 philosophical questions from Bede
Origin
Meaning if life
Destiny.
What is the message of Caedmon’s Hymn?
Talking about creation
The earliest surviving English poem
Caedmon’s Hymn
a long, stylized narrative poem celebrating the deeds of a national hero
Epic
Types of Epics
Folk and literary
concerned with teaching
Didactic
Heroic virtues of Beowulf
Fortitude, prudence, loyalty, and generosity
offspring of Cain, is there to rebuke the danes for their pride
Grendel
starts and ends funeral of a king
Circular structure
Theme of Beowulf
the continuance of civilization requires virtuous heroes
How does Beowulf kill Grendel?
by ripping his arm off
fate
Wyrd
People in Beowulf had a ?
pride issue
Answers to the 4 riddles
a shield, resigned to it’s fate of getting beat up. a bookworm, a weather cock, iceberg . Water can be a blessing and a curse
Riddles 1 and 3 are ?
monologues
Written during reign of Alfred
Written about Edmund
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
army
Fyrd
Who invented the term Dark Ages to describe the medieval period, and why?
18th century rationalists. Catholic Church spreading
The most accurate assessment of the idle ages is that the period was not a static era, but a time of ?
Constant, dynamic change
What did England receive from the Norman Conquest of 1066?
New nobility and strongly futile administration
After the Norman Conquest of 1066, political change occurred how?
Gradually and from within
Which language’s impact on Old English is most apparent in ordinary speech and in grammatical influence?
Scandinavian
What became the language of the ruling class and business after the Norman invasion?
French
What made Old English a written as well as spoken language?
The intro of the Latin alphabet
What became the language not only of the church but of scholarship and diplomacy?
Latin
Transmission of Old English to ?
West Saxon
Alliteration, variation, and ? all commonly used in Old English poetry
Repetition
Humor in Old English poetry evidenced itself in what 2 forms?
Irony and riddles
a metaphoric compound of two words, such as whalepath for sea.
Kenning