Anglo-Saxon Study Questions

Answer in complete sentences.

1. Which country has given the world Robin Hood, Stonehenge, Shakespeare, the theory of gravity, the Industrial Revolution, radar, penicillin, and the Beatles?

2. How did the Magna Carta change England’s political system and influence our own political system?

3. The Romans founded London as what?

4. In what year did William the Conqueror become the King of England?

5. What four peoples invaded England in the period covered by the time line?

6. What effects might a series of invasions—one every 300-500 years—have on a culture?

7. What thread unites all the literary events that take place in Britain up to the time of Bede?

8. What inference can students make about the monks’ cultural role during the Anglo-Saxon era?

9. What native military leaders are identified? Why were these people revered?

10. Explain wergild.

11. What can you conclude about medieval lifestyles? What tasks occupied the lives of medieval peasants? What threats to health marked the medieval period? Who had the power and wealth in the medieval period?

12. What is the Domesday book? Who is responsible for it? Explain the book’s purpose.

13. What political system was introduced after the Norman conquest?

14. Read pages 10 and 11. What is the main idea of these two pages? What are some of the details that support this main idea?

15. Alliteration: What examples of alliteration do you find in this excerpt from “The Batle of Maldon?”

16. Define the literary element conflict. What is internal conflict and give an example. What is external conflict? Man has external conflicts against whom/what.

17. Define sequence. Now, list the Beowulf poem’s events in sequence. (You may write on the back of this page.)