Arthurian Legends
This wizard mentors King Arthur in many versions of the legend.
Who is Merlin?
The hero of the earliest surviving epic poem in English literature.
Who is Beowulf?
He wrote The Divine Comedy.
Who is Dante Alighieri?
Chaucer’s most famous work, a frame narrative about a group of pilgrims.
What is The Canterbury Tales?
Term for a sung medieval story of chivalry and adventure, popular with troubadours.
What is a romance?
Arthur’s legendary sword, given by the Lady of the Lake.
What is Excalibur?
This monster is Beowulf’s first great foe.
Who is Grendel?
This French epic recounts Charlemagne’s battles and the betrayal at Roncevaux Pass.
What is The Song of Roland?
The Wife of Bath claims expertise in this topic due to her five marriages.
What is marriage?
These short didactic poems or stories used animals to teach moral lessons.
What are fables?
In the Mabinogion and later romances, she is Arthur’s queen.
Who is Guinevere?
In Norse tradition, these traveling poets preserved hero tales orally.
Who are skalds?
Author of The Decameron.
Who is Giovanni Boccaccio?
Chaucer’s social class term for non-aristocratic landowners, to which several pilgrims belong.
What are the yeomanry? (or What is the yeoman class?)
A medieval sermon on the topic of death and transience is called this.
What is an ars moriendi (the art of dying)?
This knight is known for his affair with Queen Guinevere.
Who is Lancelot?
This Icelandic saga tells of a man outlawed three times and regrets his violent temper.
What is Njáls Saga?
This Spanish epic features a hero whose real name was Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar.
What is El Cantar de Mio Cid?
The Pardoner sells these fraudulent objects to make money.
What are indulgences/holy relics?
This alliterative form of long narrative poem dominates Old English literature.
What is alliterative verse?
The quest for this object symbolized spiritual purity and divine grace.
What is the Holy Grail?
The Old Norse collection of mythological and heroic poems preserved in the Codex Regius.
What is the Poetic Edda?
This provocative French poetess authored The Book of the City of Ladies.
Who is Christine de Pizan?
This Chaucerian tale features a carpenter, a clever student, and a notorious bathtub trick involving a supposed flood.
What is “The Miller’s Tale”?
A poem structured as a debate between personified forces—like soul vs. body—is called this.
What is a debate poem (or prosopopoeia)?