U5 L4 Elegies, Riddles, And Gnomes

Question 1

What is an elegy?

Answer 1

• formal poem

- serious subject

Question 2

What is Widsith?

Answer 2

• elegy
• 7th cent
• about traveling minstrel who told stories about heroes
• describes 50 tribes
• set in pre-Anglo-Saxon times

Question 3

What is most likely the oldest poem in English?

Answer 3

Widsith

Question 4

What were the main characters of most old English elegies?

Answer 4

Exiles

Question 5

What is the Wanderer and the Seafarer?

Answer 5

• elegiac monologues

- questions about salvation

Question 6

What do the 2 parts of the Wanderer tell?

Answer 6

1-searching for a new lord, his lord died

2-flashback to former happines and meadhall

Question 7

How did the poet end the Wanderer?

Answer 7

it is good to seek God’s forgiveness and to keep the faith

Question 8

When was the Seafarer most likely written?

Answer 8

5 or 6th century

Question 9

What books contains The Seafarer?

Answer 9

The Exeter Book

Question 10

What are examples of works about the sea?

Answer 10

• Biblical accounts of the Flood
• parting of Red Sea
• works by Cynewulf

Question 11

What is the Seafarer about?

Answer 11

• sailor’s adventures and perils
• hard times at sea
• his doubts
• mortality of humans
• fame can be accomplished by work against the devil

Question 12

What form is the Seafarer composed in?

Answer 12

Soliloquy

Question 13

How does the Seafarer end?

Answer 13

• idea of futility (uselessness) of life

- especially the life of a sinner

Question 14

What does The seafarer find uncertain?

Answer 14

• age
• illness
• hostility

Question 15

What is the Ruin about?

Answer 15

remains of a roman city in England

Question 16

When was the Ruin most likely written?

Answer 16

• 8th cent

- 300 years after Romans left England

Question 17

What do Old English riddles describe?

Answer 17

objects and animals common to people of the time

Question 18

What could have influenced Old English riddles?

Answer 18

riddles in Latin

Question 19

Does a person’s ability to solve a riddle partially dependent on their experiences?

Answer 19

yes

Question 20

What is the length of a gnome?

Answer 20

brief

Question 21

What do Gnomes express?

Answer 21

• principle of life
• rule of conduct
• general truth
• proverbs
• morals
• nature

Question 22

Can Gnomes be combined into groups? What is an example?

Answer 22

• yes

- The Exeter Book: Gnomic Verses