80 - 98

Question 1

What happens in this passage?

Answer 1

The speaker focusses in on the general to the singular to explore different fates of each retainer. This explores the internal mental effects that it has on a person

Question 2

Sume / sumne

Answer 2

Some / one
Anaphoric structure develops the different fates of the retainers
sume is accusative plural and refers to all those who died in battle but sumne is accusative singular and refers to particular warriors
Sumne also occurs in The Fortunes of Man about the different ways people die

Question 3

fordwege + heanne holm

Answer 3

the way forth + high sea
both poetic words

Question 4

fugel + hara wulf

Answer 4

bird + grey haired wolf
includes the beasts of battle motif - usually the appearance of a wolf and raven announces that the battle is coming, but in this case they feast in the aftermath

Question 5

dreorighleor // in eordscraefe

Answer 5

sad faced warrior in a grave
sad-faced warrior is a hapax legomenon
could be a direct reference to the analepsis of him burying his lord

Question 6

eardgeard / aelda

Answer 6

destroyed the dwelling place
both poetic words
eardgeard was used to refer to Jerusalem in Christ

Question 7

eald anta geweorc

Answer 7

the ancient work of giants
This appears in The Ruin (OE elegy that contrasts the glorious past with the ancient present) and elsewhere in OE poetry
Refers to a building belonging to an old civilisation

Question 8

wealsteal

Answer 8

foundation
hapax legomenon

Question 9

deope geondpenced

Answer 9

deeply mediatates
hapax legomenon and compound shows unique internal struggle

Question 10

frod in ferde

Answer 10

wise in mind
double fricative alliteration of poetic words

Question 11

hwaer com mearg

Answer 11

Where has the horse gone
anaphoric structure and quintuplet of questions is passage most likely derived from ubi sunt passages in Latin homilies - hwae com is probably the equivalent English idiom
This is described by Mitchell and Robinson as a ‘haunting lament on the transience of earthly things’

Question 12

Eala beorht bune!

Answer 12

Alas the gleaming goblet
Anaphoric structure + triplet of exclamations
Eala is vocative O!
Similar passage is found in Christ and Satan

Question 13

swa heo no waere

Answer 13

as if it never were
alliteration means that never is stressed - more emphatic

Question 14

on laste / leofre dugupe

Answer 14

in the track of the beloved retainer
on laste with the dative of a person is common in OE

Question 15

wyrmlican fah

Answer 15

decorated with serpentine patterns
opaque phrase signals some sort of design - serpents were frequent decorative motifs in Roman stone friezes