Beowulf

Short notes

1. Mead-hall

2. Hrothgar

3. Grendel's Mother

4. Fight with the Dragon

Questions

1. What traits of Beowulf help him to appear as the 'true hero'?

2. "Beowulf is an eloquent celebration of a heroic life and death"- discuss.

3. What is an epic? Evaluate Beowulf as a primary epic of the Anglo-Saxon period.

4. Beowulf, being an epic, promotes certain values. Do you agree? Justify your answer.

"The Dream of the Rood"

Short notes

1. The Dream vision

2. Kenning

3. The Vercelli Book

4. The Cells

Questions

1. Discuss how the Rood, with the use of extraordinary oratory skills, emerges to be the

main protagonist in the poem, "The Dream of the Rood".

2. Evaluate " The Dream of the Rood" as a Christian poem.

3. Discuss the Christian elements that you notice in the poem "The Dream of the Rood".

4. Do you think the personification of the cross in " The Dream of the Rood" helps convey

the poem's optimism? Justify your answer.

5. I saw the Lord of Mankind

hasten with such courage to climb upon me- explain.

"The Wanderer" & "The Seafarer"

Questions

1. Describe the theme of exile from your reading of the poem "The Wanderer"

2. Comment on the theme of exile as expressed in "The Wanderer" and "The Seafarer".

3. Discuss the elegiac qualities of " The Wanderer" and "The Seafarer".

4. Evaluate " The Seafarer" as an elegy.

5. Why is the speaker in "The Seafarer" so restless and unhappy? Why is he forced to travel

"the paths of exile"?

" General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales "

Short notes

1. The Summoner

2. Wife of Bath
 Questions

1. Compare the ideals of courtly love in "The Knight's Tale" and "The wife of Bath's Tale".

2. Discuss the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales.

3. " The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales" is a picture of Middle English society -

Do you agree? Justify your opinion.

Shot notes

1. Christian propaganda in "The Wanderer"

2. Fight with Dragon

3. The Summoner

4. Merlin

5. Kenning

6. Riddle

7. Grendel

8. The Dream vision

9. Allegory

10. Grendel's Mother

11. Mock-heroic poem

12. Elegy

13. Mead-hall

14. Wife of Bath

15. The Cells

16. The Vercelli Book

17. Hrothgar
 Language

1. Almost all current major European and Asian languages have a common Indo-European

ancestry. Elucidate.

2. What are the chief characteristics of the Old English language? Elaborate.

3. Discuss the reasons how English was established as the main language of England after

the Norman Conquest