Anglo-Saxon Literature and the Norman French Period: 17 MCQs with answers

The 7th century to the Norman Conquest of 1066

Old English (Anglo-Saxon) literature covers the 7th century to the Norman Conquest of 1066. The other options describe later or unrelated periods.

The Nowell Codex

The Nowell Codex is the manuscript that contains Beowulf. The Exeter Book, Vercelli Book, and Junius manuscript are the other three major manuscripts but do not contain Beowulf.

Cædmon's Hymn

Cædmon's Hymn, from the 7th century, is the oldest extant work of literature in English. Beowulf is the national epic but is not the oldest surviving work.

A caesura

The caesura is the pause dividing each verse line into two half-lines, each carrying two stressed syllables. A kenning is a poetic phrase, litotes is understatement, and a scop is the poet.

Latin

Latin continued as the language of the Church and scholars down to the 16th century or later. Anglo-French was the language of government and the upper class, and English was the language of the subject race.

True

Cædmon's Hymn from the 7th century survives as the oldest extant work of literature in English.

A kenning

A kenning is a formulaic phrase describing one thing in terms of another, such as the sea as 'the whale's road'. Litotes is understatement, caesura is a pause, and alliteration is repeated sound.

Literacy was largely confined to monks, nuns, and ecclesiastics

Literacy in Anglo-Saxon England was largely the province of monks, nuns, and ecclesiastics, so most surviving prose consists of sermons and translations of religious works originally composed in Latin.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.

Both statements are true, and the reason explains the assertion: because French became the language of power and English was left to the subject race, formal English writing lost its patrons and almost ceased until about 1200.

Rime and identical line-length

The derived English metrical system adopted rime and identical line-length from French, while retaining regularity of stress and alliteration (as a subordinate device) from Anglo-Saxon.

East Midland, aided by London, Oxford, and Cambridge

Success fell to the East Midland dialect, partly through the influence of London (which replaced Winchester as capital) and partly through Oxford and Cambridge.

The Domesday Book

The four major manuscripts are the Junius manuscript, Exeter Book, Vercelli Book, and Nowell Codex. The Domesday Book is a Norman administrative record, not an Old English literary manuscript.

Sievers' Old English alliterative verse

This is the pattern described by Eduard Sievers' 1885 theory of Old English alliterative verse: the first stressed syllable of the second half-line alliterates with one or both stressed syllables of the first half-line, while the second stressed syllable of the second half-line does not.

I, II and III are all correct.

All three statements are supported: Latin served the Church and scholars, Anglo-French served the governing and upper class, and formal English writing made a new beginning about 1200.

It restored the other dialects to positions of equal authority

The Conquest halted West Saxon's rise by restoring the dialects of other parts of the island to positions of equal authority, producing the Southern, Midland, and Northern groups.

Norman and Saxon stock fused, confirmed by the loss of Normandy and the Hundred Years' War

The fusion of the two races was confirmed by the loss of Normandy in the 13th century and the Hundred Years' War. The Saxon population was not replaced but largely reduced to serfs, and Latin did not replace the other languages.

It restored the equal authority of various dialects, leading to a diversified literary activity across England.

The correct option is true because the Norman Conquest disrupted the progress of the West-Saxon dialect and restored the dialects of other regions to equal authority. This led to a diversified literary activity, as indicated by the emergence of Southern, Midland, and Northern dialects in the subsequent centuries.