Lit Terms
Two consonant sounds side by side, such as, “Terrible twos”
What is alliterative verse?
The time period we have been studying
What is Middle Ages?
name of Arthur’s sword
What is Excalibur?
This is what Gawain does to the Green Knight in the beginning of the story
What is beheading?
How Beowulf was originally recorded
What is oral tradition?
A type of literary device used in Anglo Saxon literature where a metaphorical phrase is used to describe something, example: blood as “battle sweat”
What is a Kenning?
The purpose of The Anglo Saxon Chronicle
What is “to inform”?
The relationship between Arthur and Modred
What is father and son (illegitimate)?
Used often in Gawain’s story, these items stand for some other deeper meaning in the text. Examples: the pentangle, the color green, the green girdle.
What is a symbol?
Beowulf begins right in the middle of the action, which is this literary device
What is en media res?
Describing what something is by explaining what it is not. Example:The team didn’t disappoint.
What is litotes?
This organization is responsible for bringing about widespread religious change to the island of Great Britain during the Middle Ages
What is the Roman Catholic Church
Arthur represents this type of literary figure, especially in the way he sacrificed himself for his people and by the myth that he is still alive.
What is a Christ figure?
This is who is responsible for the queen’s tempting of Gawain
Who is the king?
The monster in Beowulf
Who is Grendel?
This is the type of genre Beowulf is
What is an Oral epic?
This disease plagued Europe and killed a significant portion of the population during the medieval period
What is the Black Death?
This knight appeared to Arthur in a dream warning him not to face Modred in battle
Who is Gawain?
the king was disguised as this person.
Who is the Green Knight?
The Anglo Saxon term for Fate
What is wyrd?
A description of a person/place/occasion that is usually two words and is repeated many times in an epic. It was used in oral tradition to help speakers memorize the narrative.
What is a stock epithet?
Words to describe William the Conqueror
Stern and serious
Sir Bedivere is most like this disciple
Who is Peter?
The reason Gawain accepted the green girdle
What is “to protect his life”?
The name of the mead hall that Grendel destroyed in Beowulf
What is Herot?