How you should have answered the Midterm questions

“The demoiselle rode out the door. Swiftly he sprang the horse to straddle And sat behind her on the saddle. To Avalon they came away” This quotation is from “Lanval” by Marie de France. Here, the queen of fairies saves the knight Lanval from an unfair punishment, by showing up and proving to King Arthur’s court that Lanval indeed is loved by a lady much more attractive than the Queen. The lay/story seems to end happily; however, the fact that the knight sits behind the lady and is rescued by her is a reversion of the cliché, and seems ironical.

“So it misfortuned Sir Gawain and his brethren were in King Arthur’s chamber, and then Sir Agravain said thus openly, and not in no counsel, that many knights might hear: “I marvel that we all be not ashamed both to see and to know how Sir Lancelot lieth daily and nightly by the Queen.” This quotation is from Morte Darthur by Sir Thomas Malory. Here, Sir Agravain, who is jealous of Sir Lancelot and wants to destroy him, reveals to Arthur that the Queen and Sir Lancelot are having an affair.

“Some applied themselves to plowing, played very rarely, Sowing seeds and setting plants worked very hard; Won what wasters gluttonously consume.” This quotation is from the prologue of Piers Plowman by William Langland. Here “plowing”, “sowing seeds” and “working hard” allegorically stands for being a good Christian. Also, the reference to wasters’ gluttonous consumption might be a reference to the situation in Europe after the Black Death/ plague epidemic, which reduced the number of agricultural workers and led to starvation.

“And on the bugle of his backside he blew a fanfare So that all that heard that horn held their noses after And wished it had been waxed up with a wisp of gorse.” This quotation is from Piers Plowman by William Langland. This is an allegorical work about the way to salvation for good Christians, and here we see the personification of gluttony, which is a deadly sin. Although Gluttony intends to go to church for confession, he instead goes to a pub and gets so drunk that the above disgusting events occur.

“He ordered a good ship prepared for him, saying he wished to seek out the warrior king over the road of the swans, since that glorious leader had need of men.” This quotation is from the Old English epic, Beowulf, by an anonymous author. Here the title character, Beowulf, prepares to go and help Hrothgar, whose people are attacked by Grendel. Beowulf does this to achieve heroic fame and fulfil the Anglo- Saxon code of heroism. “Road of the swans” is a literary device peculiar to Anglo-Saxon literature, and it means “the sea”.

“He did not wish to stop his deadly evil, nor to settle the feud with payment- none of the counsellors had reason to expect great compensation from the hand of the murderer.” This quotation is from the Old English epic, Beowulf, by an anonymous author. Here, the Monster Grendel has attacked and killed many men in a Dane kingdom. Hrothgar, the king of the Danes is in a very difficult situation, because he is unable to avenge his men by killing Grendel, and so many men are killed he cannot compensate all their families with the blood money (“man gold”), which was an important tradition/unwritten law in the Anglo-Saxon society. However, the whole situation is stated in ironical understatement, because of course Grendel, being a monster, and having descended from Cain, does not care for human laws.

A few notes about the essays: If you were writing about English literature, you were supposed to mention “The Wanderer”, “The Wife’s Lament”, “The Seafarer” and Beowulf, with a brief summary of what they are about, Language (Old English/Anglo-Saxon, unwritten, hence the oral tradition) literary devices (such as kenning and irony/understatement) Cultural elements we learn from the works (chieftain, who is the ring-giver, meadhall, the heroic code, blood feud, etc,) Very important: There were no knights in the Anglo-Saxon world. That’s after 1066, which was the other essay’s topic.

The other essay topic, English literature between 1066 and the 16 th century, covered everything starting from “Lanval” by Marie de France, to Morte Darthur by Sir Thomas Malory, the anonymous “Three Ravens”, Piers Plowman by William Langland, and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, going on to Elizabethan literature. But not Beowulf.