Middle Ages 500-1500

Question 1

Algemeen middle ages

Answer 1

• most people could neither read nor write (except for monks, nuns and scribes)
• most stories were told instead of read
• professional storytellers travelled from town to town bringing tales
• 1440: invention of printing press

Question 2

Three orders of society

Answer 2

1. The clergy
2. The nobility
3. The people

Question 3

The clergy

Answer 3

A powerful political class, well educated

Question 4

The nobility

Answer 4

An influential class with strong military power

Question 5

The people

Answer 5

The tax paying bourgeoisie, peasants, serfs

Question 6

Beowulf

Answer 6

• not known who wrote it or how old it is
• developed orally
• setting: scandinavia
• beowulf is the protagonist
• epic poem

Question 7

Beowulf
The story

Answer 7

The hero Beowulf gains fame as a young man by defeating the Monster Grendel and his mother. Later, as an aging King, he kills a dragon but dies soon after, hounered and lamented.

Question 8

The canterbury tales

Answer 8

• writer: Geoffrey Chaucer
• setting: road to Canterbury
• style: collection of tales
• framestory
• alliteration

It is a frame story of a group of pilgrims travelling to Canterbury. Each pilgrim has to tell two tales on the way and two on the way back > framework

Question 9

Geoffrey Chaucer

Answer 9

• had a great knowledge of languages
• influenced by the italians
• had powers of human observation, a wry sense of humour and enormous dramatic skill
• very modern writer

Question 10

The nun’s priest’s tale

Answer 10

Chauntecleer is a rooster that belongs to a poor widow. He tells his favourite hen, Pertelote, about a nightmare.
Chauntecleer gets approached by a fox who grabs him, but Chauntecleer tricks him and escapes from his mouth.