Celts to Beowulf Test 2021

800 CE

approximate year of the beginning of Viking invasions of England

1000 CE

approximate date of the Nowell Codex

Alfred the Great

Anglo-Saxon King who defeated the Danes

Angles

Germanic tribe that gave its name to the island and the language that would dominate that island

Saxons

Germanic tribe that put the -sex in Essex and Wessex

Britons

name of Celtic tribe that settled in modern England

Caesura

name for the pause in the middle of a line of Anglo-Saxon poetry

Celts

an umbrella term for the Indo-European tribes that settled throughout modern Europe

Cymry

name of the Celtic tribe that settled in modern Wales

Danelaw

the part of England dominated by the Vikings during the reign of Alfred the Great

Denmark

the setting of Beowulf (not England)

Epic

A long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds

Ethandun

place where Alfred the Great decisively defeated the Vikings in 878 CE

Gaels

name of the Celtic tribe that settled in modern day Ireland

Indo-Europeans

name for the ancient people who originated in the Indus valley and migrated eventually to Europe

Kenning

a specific kind of Anglo-Saxon metaphor, like "the whale's way" for the ocean

Mead Hall

the center of social life in the Anglo-Saxon world

Northumbria

the region of England where Beowulf was probably written down--scholars can tell by the dialect

Nowell Codex

name given to the oldest existing manuscript of Beowulf

Oral tradition

Literature that passes by word of mouth from one generation to the next, as Beowulf probably did before it was finally written down

Picts

name for Celtic tribe that settled in modern day Scotland

Scribe A

authored lines 1-1938 of Beowulf

Scribe B

authored lines 1939-End of Beowulf

Sweden

actual homeland of Beowulf; he was a Geat, not a Dane

Genesis Creation Story

one of the clearly Christianized aspects of Beowulf

Cain

Biblical brother who committed the 1st murder; Grendel descends from him

Abel

the Biblical brother who is the victim of the murder in Genesis

Hrothgar

Danish king Beowulf goes to aid

Herot

the name of the mead hall terrorized by Grendel

Unferth

Beowulf's foil in the epic, in part because he killed his own brothers

Julius Caesar

Roman general who attempted an invasion of Britannia in 55 BCE

Scop

a bard or storyteller