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Written by Sei Shonagon.
It’s made up of random thoughts she had.
She wrote them down each night before bed.
What is the Pillow Book?
Stories that teach lessons and morals.
What are parables?
A famous Persian epic.
Tells the story of two men, Sohrab and Rostam, who do not know they are father and son, but fight each other to the death.
The father kills the son, but they both learn the truth as the son is dying.
What is the Shaname?
The man who wrote it made himself the main character.
His love, Beatrice, sends Virgil to rescue him and bring him to paradise.
The story of a man who travels through the nine circles of Hell.
What is The Inferno?
Or
The Divine Comedy
These types of stories explain the beginnings of various natural phenomena. (plus 100 points for each of the two we haven't seen in another question yet)
What are origin stories?
Extra: "Coyote and the Origin of Death"
“How the World Was Made”
The Islamic scriptures.
What is the Quran?
“On a withered branch
A crow has settled
Autumn nightfall.”
A type of Japanese poetry.
Usually short, focused on nature.
The American version says three lines with five, seven, and five syllables.
This was the first story written in “English”-- Old English.
Tells the story of a man who fights a monster named Grendel
He also fights the monster’s mom and a dragon.
What is Beowulf?
A frame story of people travelling to a town.
On the way they tell stories about marriage and other aspects of life.
We watched a weird claymation version of one of the stories.
What were the Canterbury Tales?
Two famous Chinese philosophers and the names of their philosophies. (100 points for each term, 400 total)
Who was Confucius (Confucianism) and Lao Tzu (Taoism)?
A famous collection of Chinese poems that were well loved by Confucious.
What was the Book of Songs? (or Classic of Poetry, Book of Odes, Shijing or Shih-ching, or Confucian Odes)
“I waited and I
Yearned for you.
My blind
Stirred at the touch
Of the autumn breeze.”
Another type of Japanese poetry.
A thirty-one-syllable poem, traditionally written in a single unbroken line.
What is a tanka?
A frame story about a king who kills his new wife each morning.
His last wife tells a story that always ends with a cliffhanger to survive another day.
We read about a man who found a genie and tricked it into going back into the bottle.
Some of the most famous stories that were added later include Aladdin and Sinbad.
What was the Arabian Nights or 1001 Nights?
Written by Snorri Sturluson.
Tells the story of Norse gods who try to compete in challenges to show they are stronger than their enemies.
They are tricked and embarrassed.
What is the Prose Edda?
Or
What is "Thor and Loki in Giantland".
Name as many of the historians that we have read as you can. (100 points each, 400 points total).
Who were Herodotus, Thucydides, Tacitus, and Ssu'ma Chien?
This is a story about a young man who was killed by a warrior on a beach.
The warrior did not want to kill the young man, and promised to pray for him.
Now he goes back to the beach and is visited by the ghost of the young man he killed.
What is the Atsumori?
Famous ones include Li Po and Tu Fu and Li Ch’ing-chao
Who were famous Chinese poets?
The national epic of France
Tells the story of a man with a horn who refuses to blow it to save his people.
He tries to destroy his famous sword before he is killed.
What was The Song of Roland?
A King Arthur story.
The main character was taught not to talk to much.
Misses his chance to acquire the famous Holy cup that Jesus used.
What is "Perceval"?
What is the name of an African story-teller, whose job it was to preserve ancient stories?
What is a griot?
A collection of ancient Hindu scriptures.
What are the Vedas? Or the Rig Veda?
The stories are usually about ghosts visiting priests.
Most of the story isn’t written down, but acted out.
It’s a very unique type of Chinese drama.
What is Noh Theatre?
The national epic of Germany.
Tells the story of a man who was invincible.
His wife revealed his one weakness.
He was killed by his brother-in-law, King Gunther and a servant Hagen.
What is the Nibelungenlied?
Or
"How Siegfried Was Slain"
One of the Canterbury Tales.
Told by a woman who had already married five times.
In this story, a young man rapes a girl and must answer the question: “What does every woman most desire.”
He is forced to marry an old woman.
What was "The Wife of Bath's Tale"?
Name as many of the Greek gods in the pantheon as you can. Bonus for also giving their Roman names. (50 points each, 25 for Roman names)
Who were Zeus (Jupiter), Hera (Juno), Demter (Ceres), Poseidon (Neptune), Hades (Pluto), Hestia (Vesta), Athena (Minerva), Ares (Mars), Dionysus (Bacchus), Hermes (Mercury), Aphrodite (Venus), Apollo (Phoebus), Artemis (Diana), Hephaestus (Vulcan),