English Literature Before The Conquest

Question 1

What was the former practice among English historians

Answer 1

To draw a sharp line between Anglo Saxon and English after Norman conquest ( mix of Anglo Saxon and Norman French )

Question 2

What is the new practice by modern historians

Answer 2

Insist that English is a teutonic language and that English of 14th century grew out of Anglo Saxon in unbroken continuity

So Anglo Saxon is dropped and Old English is used instead

Question 3

What does the idea of unbroken continuity in English language development, imply for literature

Answer 3

Literature did not begin with Chaucer but far back with the history of when English people settled on continent of Europe

Question 4

We can still recognise the practical convenience of the older view of broken continuity which the new view replaced. What are differences between Chaucers and Caedmons english

Answer 4

Caedmons is like a foreign language while Chaucers is more like English. Caedmons literary style is radically different from English poetry today while Chaucers style more closely fits with it.

Question 5

We can therefore say that modern English literature definitely begins with __ in the _century

Answer 5

Chaucer, 14th

Question 6

Which is the best preserved piece of Anglo Saxon poetry by an anonymous author

Answer 6

Beowulf

Question 7

Beowulf grew among the ballads of ancestors of English in Denmark and south Sweden. Story of Beowulf?

Answer 7

Mighty feats of Beowulf, how he killed the monster Grendel who wasted the land of the king of Danes, next he killed Grendels mother, lastly as a old man he went to destroy a dragon and was mortally wounded in process of killing it.

Question 8

Other then author of Beowulf who are some known old English poets

Answer 8

Caedmon, Cynewulf

Question 9

Which period did Caedmon and Cynewulf belong to

Answer 9

Period immediately following conversion of Anglo saxons to Christianity which started at end of 6th century

Question 10

Give background of Caedmon

Answer 10

Servant attached to monastery of Whitby in Yorkshire

Question 11

What is the tale told about caedmon

Answer 11

The power of verse came to him in a divine gift. Until then he’d never been able to play the harp in the monastery. Then the voice of an angel appeared to him in a dream and said “ sing the beginning of created things “

Question 12

Works of caedmon

Answer 12

3 free paraphrases of scripture
One dealing with creation and fall
Second with exodus from Egypt
Third with history of Daniel

Now it is believed a considerable portion of them are by imitators and not caedmon himself.

Question 13

Give background of Cynewulf

Answer 13

He tells us in his Dream Of the Rood that he was a wandering gleeman converted to religious life by a divine vision of the cross

Question 14

Works of Cynewulf

Answer 14

Christ; poem dealing with incarnation, descent into hell, the ascension and the last judgment

Elene; an account of finding the true cross by St Helena the mother of Constantine

Juliana: tale of Christian martyrdom

Question 15

While generally sacred in subject and earnest in feeling. Anglo Saxon poetry is full of a love of __
Give example

Answer 15

Adventure and fighting, war poetry like Battle of Brunanburh

Question 16

What is a striking natural feature of Anglo Saxon poetry

Answer 16

Love of the sea

Question 17

What form does Anglo Saxon poetry use. State the broad rule.

Answer 17

Beginning rhyme or alliteration. Broad rule is that first line of Anglo Saxon poem contains two accented syllables and second line atleast 1 accented syllable. Accented syllables in each case begin with same latter. Unaccented syllables are irregular.

Question 18

Give a line from Beowulf using beginning rhyme or alliteration

Answer 18

Grendal gongan, Godes yrre baer
( Grendel going, Gods anger bore )

Question 19

Where did Anglo Saxon poetry flourish north or south

Answer 19

North

Question 20

Prose writing developed later in south. The old English prose writings possess little literary value. But who was the first translator to put the vernacular to systematic use?

Answer 20

King Alfred

Question 21

Which work did King Alfred translate and talk about it( also the greatest work he did is?)

Answer 21

Latin ‘ Ecclesiastical history’ of the venerable bede

Greatest monument of old English prose , Anglo Saxon Chronicle , under his guidance transformed into a national history and recorded until death of King Stephen.

Question 22

From the Norman conquest to the beginning of the 13th C, English had a severe struggle to maintain itself as a written language. Its revival began in the reign of _

Answer 22

King John

Question 23

Why was king John’s reign special wrt his people

Answer 23

The hostility between natives and invaders had ceased and they became a single people as shown by incident of Magna Charta 1215

Question 24

Mention some ways how English identity was solidfying

Answer 24

1) loss of French possessions by English crown

2) English began to assert itself beside French the rival tongue

Question 25

What was the first noteworthy work of the English revival, who wrote it, what is it about

Answer 25

Brut by Layamon a parish priest of Worcestershire

Enormous poem dealing legendary history of ancient Britain beginning with Aeneas the ancestor of Brutus who was the ancestor of the British people. Ends with Cadwallader the last of the native kings . Along the way many episodes of King Lear and King Arthur

Question 26

What is Brut based on and what is the significance of these influences

Answer 26

Based on a French paraphrase with additions of a Versified chronicle “ Brut d’ Engleterre” of the Anglo Norman poet wace.
WHICH itself was based on History Of Britain by romancing Welsh historian Geoffrey of Monmouth

Therefore in Layamons poem three influences. Celtic, French( uses rhyme), English( Anglo Saxon principle of alliteration)

Question 27

What is Ormulum and who wrote it

Answer 27

Series of metrical homilies in short lines with no rhyme or alliteration by a Lincolnshire priest Orm

Question 28

Who wrote Ancren Riwle or Rule of Anchoresses ; a prose work, what is it about

Answer 28

Anonymous
Guidance of ladies into religious life

Question 29

Name a last old English charming dialogue poem from the 13th century and talk about it( content and form)

Answer 29

The owl and the nightingale, in which both birds discuss their merits. It discards alliteration entirely and adopts French end rhyme

Question 30

The important productions of the 14th century belong to religious and not general lit. Name and Talk about them

Answer 30

Robert Mannyngs Handlyng Synne ( Manual of sins)
Prose by other writer, Ayenbite of Inwyt( Remorse of Conscience); both translated from French

Cursor Mundi; Versified account of scripture with legends of many saints

Question 31

The period between conquest and Chaucer is more historically than literature wise important. Modern English was evolving out of conflict of tongues. The result of it was a _ langauge the result of _ and _

Answer 31

Mixed, Anglo Saxon and Norman French

Question 32

Norman French continued for a long time to be an important and fashionable langauge. But by beginning of 14th century it lost its hold on the English. How do we know this

Answer 32

Complete triumph of English was seen in statue of 1362 where it was declared all law proceedings must be done in English

Question 33

At that time English was broken into dialects with no standardised form. Which dialect dominated

Answer 33

East midland English

Question 34

Why did East midland English dominate and which famous writer used it

Answer 34

EM English dominated as it was speech of London capital and centres of learning Oxford and Cambridge. Chaucer used it