Medieval Trivia and Not so Trivial Test Review

1. What year marks the official beginning of the medieval period?

Answer 1066

2 Who invaded England in 1066?

Answer William the Conqueror from Normandy

3 What language did William the Conqueror bring to England?

Answer French

4 What governmental, social, and military system did William the Conqueror bring to England?

Answer Feudalism

Question 5 What was the code of behavior expected of knights called?

Answer Chivalry

Question 6 What three loyalties did a knight have?

Answer God Country (or king) Lady

7 What was the purpose of the crusades?

Answer To reclaim the holy lands from the “infidels.”

8 Name three causes for the end of feudalism

Answer Bubonic plague that killed ¼ of the population, creating a demand for skilled laborers and therefore a rise in middle class Conversion to money system over land Invention of the long bow and gunpowder that could penetrate the armor of a knight

9 How was the Bubonic Plague spread?

Answer Through flea-bitten rats

10 Who wrote Morte d’Arthur?

Answer Thomas Malory

11 Who was involved in the love triangle in Morte D’Arthur?

Answer King Arthur Guenevere Lancelot

12 How did Sir Lucan show his loyalty to Arthur?

Answer He moved the wounded Arthur causing his own death.

13 What terrible coincidence caused the fighting between Mordred and Arthur’s men?

Answer A knight raising his sword to kill a snake

14 Who appeared to Arthur in a dream, warning him that he should delay the battle against Mordred?

Answer Gawain

15 Who of Arthur’s knights throws Excalibur into the lake?

Answer Sir Bedevere

16 How did Sir Gawain show that he was imperfect?

Answer He accepted the green sash from the lady of the castle

17 The Green Knight was also which other character in the romance?

Answer The lord of the castle

18 Name the three animals that the lord of the castle hunted

Answer 1. deer 2. boar 3. fox

19 Who were Mordred’s parents?

Answer Arthur and Morgause (his half sister)

20 Name two ballads that are in question/ answer format.

Answer “Lord Randall” “Edward, Edward” “Ballad of Birmingham”

21 What is a ballad stanza?

Answer 4 line stanza, second and fourth lines rhyme

22 Which ballad concerns a double suicide? Which ballad describes a murder of a father? Which ballad describes unquestioned loyalty to a king?

Answer “Barbara Allen” “Edward, Edward” “Sir Patrick Spense”

23 Which ballad concerns poison by a lover? Which ballad involves a deserted knight’s death? Which ballad involves a dispute between a husband and wife?

Answer 1. “Lord Randall” 2. “Barbara Allen 3. “Twa Corbies”

24 Which ballad concerns a ghostly visit of three sons to their mother?

Answer “The Ballad of Usher’s Well”

25 Name three characteristics of ballads

Answer Written to be sung Written for common people Use such techniques as incremental repetition, dialect, question/answer format Elements include supernatural and sensational stories

26 What are the three types of pilgrims that go on the pilgrimage to Canterbury?

Answer Religious Feudal Town

27 Name 2 corrupt religious figures and explain their corruption.

28 Name two moral pilgrims and tell why.

29 Name two pilgrims who are good at what they do?

30. Explain: “Damned by faint praise” as it applies to the Canterbury Tales.

31 What are the signs that a pilgrim is wealthy?

32 Generally, explain the gist of the following tales: 1. knight 2. pardoner 3. Oxford cleric 4. Wife of Bath

33 Name two ways that “Once Upon a Time” is like Canterbury Tales.

Answer 1. Satire 2. frame story

34 Name two methods of satire used by Jonathan Swift in “A Modest Proposal.”