Test One Study Guide

                                                            Test 1 Study Guide

Beowulf

1. Basically, Beowulf is an epic poem that is about the protagonist Beowulf. He goes to help Hrothgar because his mead hall and men are being attacked by Grendel(monster). To begin with, the poem starts with the funeral of Sclyd who was the founder of the dynasty that Hrothgar, his father, and grandfather belonged. Beowulf, the protagonist of the poem hears that Hrothgar needs help in his kingdom so he takes his fourteen geat men with him and they land. Hrothgar and Beowulf talk about Grendel’s killing spree. Later on, Beowulf fights Grendel; Beowulf cuts off his arm, his claw and later cuts off his head when he fights his mother. Hrothgar rewards Beowulf with gold and gifts for killing Grendel. After that, Grendel’s mother seeks vengeance, but Beowulf finds her and they battle, Beowulf falls and she sits on him with a sword, but his armor saved him. He kills her, gets Grendel’s head and her famous sword; then Beowulf and his men go back to Hygelac. Beowulf also fights the dragon towards the end where he also dies. Beowulf eventually had to die because he was a heroic figure to the length in which he was needed.  

2.  Beowulf, Hrothgar, Grendel, Grendel’s mother, Kane, Weoltheow, Shield Sheafson (The legendary Danish king from whom Hrothgar is descended, Shield Sheafson is the mythical founder who inaugurates a long line of Danish rulers and embodies the Danish tribe’s highest values of heroism and leadership), Beow(The second king listed in the genealogy of Danish rulers,son of Shield Sheafson), Halfdane (The father of Hrothgar, Heorogar, Halga, and an unnamed daughter who married a king of the Swedes, Halfdane succeeded Beow as ruler of the Danes), Unferth (A Danish warrior who is jealous of Beowulf, Unferth is unable or unwilling to fight Grendel, thus proving himself inferior to Beowulf), Hygd( Hygelac’s wife, the young, beautiful, and intelligent queen of the Geats. Hygd is contrasted with Queen Modthryth),. Wiglaf (A young kinsman who helps him in the fight against the dragon while all of the other warriors run away), Ecgtheow(Beowulf’s father, Hygelac’s brother-in-law, and Hrothgar’s friend. Ecgtheow is dead by the time the story begins, but he lives on through the noble reputation that he made for himself during his life and in his dutiful son’s remembrances), King Hrethel( The Geatish king who took Beowulf in as a ward after the death of Ecgtheow), Breca( Beowulf’s childhood friend, whom he defeated in a swimming match), Sigemund(A figure from Norse mythology, famous for slaying a dragon. Sigemund’s story is told in praise of Beowulf and foreshadows Beowulf’s encounter with the dragon), King Heremod (An evil king of legend. The scop, or bard, at Heorot discusses King Heremod as a figure who contrasts greatly with Beowulf), Queen Modthryth( A wicked queen of legend who punishes anyone who looks at her the wrong way)

3. Death, Good v.s Evil(9-11; 99-101; 632-638; 744-752; 976-8; 1016-8), Religion- Christian Pagean beliefs (12-17; 86-98; 102-114;  170-180; 180-188; 696-697; 2327-2331; 1269-1274), Loyalty(code of honor), men/ women roles( women established hierarchy, and bond with men as beer wenches. Women were peace weavers, also important and they distributed bounty to the geats. (pg 54, 615-622; pg 82, 1929-1931; pg 68, 1225-1227; pg 82, 1928) (Men were providers, protectors, very limited). Vengeance, Fate, Greed.

4. “Choose, dear Beowulf, the better part, / eternal rewards. Do not give way to pride. / For a brief while your strength is in bloom/ but it fades quickly; and soon there will follow/ illness or the sword to lay you low,/ or a sudden fire or surge of water/ or jabbing blade or javelin from the air/ or repellent age. Your piercing eye/ will dim and darken; and death will arrive,/ dear warrior, to sweep you away” (1759-1768). 

“Wise sir, do not grieve. It is always better/ to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning./ For every/ one of us, living in this world/ means waiting for our end. Let whoever can/ win glory before/ death. When a warrior is gone,/ that will be his best and only bulwark” (1384–1389).

“But the Lord was weaving / a victory on His war-loom for the Weather-Geats” (696-697).

Lanval

1.      Lanval, is a Lais (short narrative poem in verse) and is about Lanval who is one of King Arthur’s knights. All of the knights and King are jealous of him so Lanval does not get money or land, but even though he is poor he still gives whatever money he has to people. Lanval came from nobility; he was the son of a king. One day, Lanval decided to go for a ride, he layed down next to a stream, and two beautiful women went towards him and said that their damsel wanted to see him. The women came up to him, and told him that their damsel wished to see him. The damsel told him that she had searched for him and that she loved him. Lanval immediately fell in love with her. Lanval promised to do whatever she asked of him, and told her that he never wanted to part from her. She gave him a boon, which would give him anything that he desired. There was only one catch, Lanval could not tell anyone about her; if he did tell someone, he would lose her forever. After they spent some time together, she told him that he had to leave, but whenever he wanted her, she would come to him. Lanval left and rode to where his men were. When he arrived, he saw that they were all dressed very well. No one could explain how or why this happened. Lanval lavished everyone with gifts and hospitality; he gave to everyone equally. No one went hungry or without a bed to sleep in. One day, the queen saw Lanval from her window, and decided to go down to see him. The queen went over to him and told him that she loved him. Lanval rejected her. The queen became angry, and said that the rumor about him liking boys was true. Lanval quickly responded by saying that he did love a woman, and even one of his lady's poorest servants was worth more than the queen.The queen went off in a hurry, humiliated. She went to the king and told him that Lanval had hit on her, and when she denied him her love, he insulted her. She told the king that Lanval had boasted that he a beloved that was better than her, even one of his beloved's servants was better than her. The king became very angry. So he gathered his men to get him, and Lanval said he would take any punishment. Lanval’s fairy lady did not want to help him, but she shows up and she tells the king telling him that she had loved Lanval for some time, and everything that the queen accused him of was false. The king released Lanval, and the lovers rode off together to Avalon.

2.      Lanval, King Arthur, Lanval’s beloved and Arthur’s queen.

3.      Chivalry, Courtly love, role reversal, duty(to lord or loved ones).

4.      “No man but you will see me / or hear my words” (169-170). “ There was no stranger or friend / to whom Lanval didn’t give” (213-214). “Now I don’t care if I am killed, / if only she forgives me” (598-599).

Sir Gawain

1.      Sir Gawain, Arthur’s nephew and a knight in the round table,  and the Green Knight is a Revival Alliterative poem (Pertaining to or characterized by alliteration). The story begins at Christmastime at King Arthur’s court in Camelot. The knights of the Round Table join Arthur in the holiday celebrations, and Queen Guinevere presides in their midst. The lords and ladies of Camelot have been feasting for fifteen days, and now it is New Year’s Day. Everyone participates in New Year’s games, exchanging gifts and kisses. When the evening’s feast is about to be served, Arthur introduces a new game: he refuses to eat his dinner until he has heard a marvelous story. As he waits, the Green Knight arrives and asks to talk to Arthur; he wants to play the game where a knight can chop off his head, but just as long as he gets to do the same the same year and day. None of the knights wanted to accept the challenge, so Green knight calls them cowards, and then Gawian steps forth to play the game. He chops off Green Knight’s head, but all he does is pick up his head and puts it back on. In autumn, King of Camelot prepares Gawain to to find the Green Chapel. Gawain takes his shield that has a gold five-pointed star, or pentangle, on a red background. On the inside of the shield is the face of Mary, Christ’s mother. Each of the five points of the pentangle represents a set of Gawain’s virtues: his five senses; his five fingers; his fidelity, founded on the five wounds of Christ; his force, founded on the five joys of Mary; and the five knightly virtues. As the season goes by and it is Christmas, Gawain prays to Virgin Mary in hopes of finding a place to have Christmas mass, and then he sees the Green Castle. He goes in and he is greeted by the people and the host even offers him to stay linger by telling him that he can show him how to get to the green chapel. Gawain accepts the invitation to stay longer since the host offers him to play another game in which Gawain relaxes all day while the host goes hunting; Gawain must give what he receives every three days. So during the three days, the wife of the host manipulates Gawain into giving her kisses by using his moral/ chilvaric code against him. The third day, the wife offers Gawain a green girdle that has magical powers and protects one from death, so he took it because he was fearful for his own death. Then Gawain gives the host kisses, but doesn’t mention the girdle. Later, he finds the Green chapel, and then the Green Knight strkes him three times because the first two times, Gawain flinches. The third time, Green Knight strikes his neck only leaving a scratch and then he tells Gawain that he deserves that because he was dishonest about the girdle. The green knight was the host of the castle, and Gawain takes off the girdle, cursing it and Green knight admires his bravery so he asks him to stay at the castle longer. Green Knight is actually named Bertilak de Hautdesert, servant of Morgan le Faye, who is the old woman in the castle. Le Faye is also Gawain’s aunt and Arthur’s half sister, as well as Merlin’s mistress; she sometimes helps and sometimes makes trouble for Arthur. Bertilak reveals that Le Faye sent him in disguise as the Green Knight to Camelot in order to scare Queen Guinevere to death. As Gawain returns to his home, he wears the girdle as a reminder of his sin.

2.      Sir Gawain, Green knight(Bertilak), Morgan La Feye(Gawain’s aunt), King Arthur.

3.      Chilvary, Temptation, courtly love, trial, fate, death, self-preservation, morality, mortality, women (evil).

4.      “I’ll afford one free hit from which I won’t flinch, / and promise that twelve months will pass in peace” (294-295). “First he was deemed flawless in his five senses; / and secondly his five fingers were never at fault; and thirdly his faith was founded in the five wounds” (640-642). “[…] that slanting green stripe was adopted as their sign / and each knight who held it was honored ever after” (2519-2520).

Miller’s Prologue/ Tale

1.      This tale is about John, the carpenter, who is married to Allison, young and beautiful, and Nicholas, young and handsome astrology guy whom is well educated. Nicholas is boarding with John and Allison; Nicholas is attracted to Allison and he makes aggressive moves on her like grabbing her by her genitals and asking if she would love him back. She is OK with having an affair with him, but Nicholas wants a night alone with Allison so they both plan to lie to John. Since Nicholas knows about astrology, he tells John that there is going to be a flood that is only going to last for a day and so he tells him to build three boats. John’s biggest concern is Allison, but he builds the individual boats and hangs them on the ceiling. The day of the flood, John is in one of the boats, but he falls asleep. Nicholas and Allison get to sleep together, but then there is Absolon who is also infatuated with Allison; he decides to serenade her outside her window. After he does that, he asks Allison for a kiss, and she puts her buttocks out and Absolon kisses her hairy butt! After Absolon realizes that it was her butt he decides to get a red hot poker and poke her buttocks, but Nicholas decides to be the funny one so he puts out his buttocks instead and farts in Absolon’s face. Absolon pokes Nicholas with the poker and after the burn, h yells out for “water!” John hears that and he thinks it is the flood so he cuts the ropes to the boat and he falls and breaks his arm. The moral of the story is to marry someone who is a good fit for you and to not mess with married women.

2.      John, the carpenter, Allison, young and beautiful, Nicholas, handsome and educated, Absolon, church clerk.

3.      Fablian, class issues, entrapment/ oppression of women, age, astrology, temptation(cuckoldry), religion, education, sexual deviance, vengeance.

4.      “That bad men sholde wedden after hire estat / For youthe and ele is often at debat (120-121). “Allas, my wif! / And shal she drenche? Allas, myn Alisoun!” (414-415). “Now John, […] I wol nought lie. I have yfounde in myn astrologye”(405-406).

Wife of Bath’s Prologue/ Tale

1.      The Wife of Bath’s prologue is about the wife talking about her five marriages and how she is ready to get married again. Her last marriage is where she married her husband for love and not money. The story of their love was about how he was 20 years younger than her, but that added to their problems because they were abusive to each other. One day the wife got frustrated so she tore out pages out of her husband’s Wicked Wives book that he would read aloud to her; she punches him in the face, and he punches her back, and then she punches him again. That is how the wife is deaf in one ear, but then they both make truce and the husband lets her control everything, and he even burns the book. She also talks about how people criticize her for being married so many times, and that she is no longer a virgin. The tale that she tells is about a knight who rapes a lady, and the king sentences him to death. The queen steps forth and decides to give him a chance, so she tells him that he has one year to find out what women want. The knight tries to find the answer, but it is difficult because each woman he asks says something different. There’s an old lady that tells the knight that she is willing to help him and that if he promises to do anything she asks then she will have every woman say the same answer. So the knight gives her his word and she helps him; the knight goes back to the queen and tells her that all women want is everything to go their way. The queen and king agree that he got the right answer so his life is spared. After that, the old lady asks the knight to marry her, and he wines because he does not want to marry an old ugly lady. The knight decides to marry her because he gave her his word, and then the old lady asks the knight if he wants her to stay old and ugly, but be faithful or young and promiscuous. The knight lets her choose so then the old lady turns young, beautiful and she is going to stay faithful.

2.      The wife, old/ ugly lady, King and queen, and knight.

3.      Marriage, control, role of women within marriage, sexual license within marriage, time, sovereignty of women, honor.

4.      “My lady and my love, and wif so dere, / I putte me in youre wise governaunce: ? Cheseth yourself which may be most pleasaunce (1236-1238). “For half so boldely can ther no man / Swere and lyen as a womman can (233-234). “Shal bere him on hond the cow is wood, / And take witnese of hir owene mayde / Of hir assent. (238-240)

Pardoner’s Prologue/ Tale

1.      The Pardoner’s prologue is basically about how the Pardoner sells fake relics and blessings. He admits that he does not believe his relics or blessings will work, but in a hypocritical manner, he preaches, “Avarice is the root of all evil”.  He is allowed to do what he does because the church allows him to do so. The Pardoner is very greedy because he does not care if he takes money from the poor or starving people. In his tale, there are three young men that are looking for death because they want to kill it since death killed their friend. So in their drunkenness, they look for death and along their journey they meet an old man who is looking for death because he wants to die. The young men think the old man is a spy, but then he tells them that death is by a tree; they do not find death, but they find gold. Once they see trhe gold, they plot against one another. Two of the older men tell the younger one to get them food and drinks to celebrate, but they both plan to kill him when he returns so they can have a larger share of the gold. The younger man buys poison and put its in the bottles of wine so the other two men can drink it, but when he returns, they kill him; to rejoice, the two remaining men drink the wine, but they both die because it was poisoned. The pardoner concludes the tale by saying that avarice is the root of all evil and that people should buy his relics even though he told them they were fake. Chaucer went through a lot of judgement and trouble to put his opinion about the Roman catholic church thorugh this, but the moral was that greed leads to death, and one must avoid it.

2.      The pardoner, three young men, old man, and host.

3.      Greed, hypocracy, cheat, exemplum(serman), lies, oride, gluttony, irony, Avarice(root of all evil), sin leads to death.

4.      “I wol have moneye, wolle, cheese, and whete, / Al were it yiven of the poorest page, / or of the poorest widwe in a village- / Al sholde hir children sterve for famine (160-163).  “And in the two his poison poured he- / The thirdde he kepte clene for his drinke” (584-585). “Now goode men, God forgive you youre trespass, / And ware you fro the sinne of avarice: / Myn holy pardon may you alle warice” (616-618).

Margery Kempe

1.      Margery Kempe is a well-off middle-class townswoman in the medieval English town of King’s Lynn. After the birth of her first child, Margery has a nervous breakdown, seeing hideous devils all around her. Margery recovers after having a vision of Jesus Christ, and she decides to devote her life to holiness and contemplation of God. One of the first hurdles Margery has to overcome is convincing her husband to live a life of celibacy with her—she succeeds, but only because she has already had fourteen children. After Margery becomes certain that God wants her to turn away from the world. In Jerusalem, Margery has several intense visions, and she begins to have spells in which she sobs and cries uncontrollably. When she returns to England, Margery does her best to live a life of devotion to Christ. She is respectful to authority but firm in her beliefs. Margery keeps having visions of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and several saints. Odd enough, Margery’s devotion to Christ is intense and is expressed in physical and even sexual, terms. As time goes on, Margery’s husband becomes old and sixk, and Margery returns to his household to care for him. One of Margery’s sons turns from his sinful ways after much praying his mom, and he marries a German woman. The couple comes to England for a visit, and the son becomes ill and dies, soon followed by his father. In her last extended journey, Margery goes with her daughter-in-law (who doesn’t want to go with her odd mother-in-law) back to Germany/. Margery’s trip overland from Germany to France is her most demanding and she is yelled at by other travelers from England, to whom she turns for help. Eventually, Margery is home and now an old woman, decides to record the story of her life and her devotions, and begins the dictation of her Book.

2.      Margery Kempe, John Lempe, Margery’s son and daughter-in-law, Alan of Lyn, Archbishop of Canterbury (“Arundel”), Julian of Norwich (“Dame Julian”),  The German Priest, Richard (“The Broken-Backed Man”), Margery’s confessor.

3.      Physical aspects of Jesus, physical experience of faith, women’s greater access to faith, class issues.

4.      “And, as soon as she perceived that she should cry, she would keep it in as much as she might, so that the people should not have heard it, for it annoyed them. for some it was a wicked spirit vexed her” (Kempe, 430). “Therefore I must be intimate with you, and lie in your bed with you. Daughter, you greatly desire to see me, and you may boldly, when you are in bed, take me to you as your wedded husband ” (P. 433). “And the firars always, as they went about, told them what our Lord suffered in every place” (Kempe, 429).

 Everyman

1.      The play is a morality play and basically means that it is a play that is about showing the audience a lesson in life. It is basically representing the Roman Vatholic point of view in which it implies that one can die with the good deeds he/she have done and not other materialistic things.
God speaks and says that his creatures live preoccupied with worldly prosperity, blinded to what is really important.  He summons a messenger, Death, and tells him to inform Everyman that his time on earth has ended and that he must now give an account of his life. Everyman asks for more time, but Death refuses to grant it. Everyman then attempts to muster acquaintances to support him. Everyman asks his kin and people from the church if they will go with him to death, but none of them want to.  Everyman now thinks that the material possessions he has stored up may enable him to buy his way into heaven. He becomes dersperate and asks his Good Deeds to help him, but it cannot because he is willing to go with Everyman, but he have enough strength to do so. However, he introduces Everyman to his sister, Knowledge, who says she can help him by taking him to Confession. Everyman must confess of his sins, and once he does, Knowledge informs Good Deeds that he is healthy and whole once again. Good Deeds himself then comes forth and says Everyman is now prepared for eternity. Good Deeds introduces Everyman to Discretion, Strength, his Five Wits, and Beauty and asks them to accompany Everyman on his journey. Knowledge then tells him before he leaves he must receive the last sacraments of the church, and the oil anointment. After he receives the sacraments, Beauty, Discretion, Strength, and the Five Wits go with Everyman to his grave but refuse to accompany him to the afterlife. Everyman is upset because he cannot take all that with him, but the only thing he can take to death with him is his Good Deeds. At the end, the Doctor validates the story and message.

2.      Everyman, Good Deeds, Death, God, Beauty, Five Wits, messenger, Kindred, Cousin, Goods, Knowledge, Confession, Strength, Discretion, Angel, Doctor.

3.      Morality, faith, good deeds are way to heaven, repentance, mortality, quest, time, class, and abandonment of worldly goods.

4.      “Ye think sin in the beginning full sweet / Which in the end causeth the soul to weep” (l.13-14 ). “That of our lives and ending shows / How transitory we be all day ( I. 5-6). “Everyman/ Yet of my good will I give thee, if thou will be kind / Yea, a thousand pound shalt thou have, / And defer this matter till another day (l.121-3)