Read the summary and the most important questions on Engels - Literature 5V

• 1 The Old English period: Beowulf

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• What did Beowulf's followers try to do?

  They tried to defend the life of Beowulf, so they were protecting their chief.

• What did Beowulf's followers not know about the monster?

  He could be injured by a sword made by men.

• Where did Grendel go after he was injured?

  Under the hills of the fen.

• 2 The Middle English Period: Geoffrey Chaucer

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• Describe the rising of different languages in England

  William the Conqueror invaded the island of Britain from his home base France. Thats how Anglo-Norman French arose in England. Anglo-Norman was the verbal language while Latin was mostly used for written language espacially by the church and in official records.

• Who brought the Canterbury tales together and how?

  Geoffrey Chaucer collected troughout his life over 60 books. This was an impressive library before the invention of printing, when books were rare and expensive. He took a lease on a house in the garden of Westminster Abbey, where he worked on his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales.

• The prologue of Canterbury Tales

  The pilgrims are described in the general prologue: Together, they represent a wide cross-section of fourtheenth-century English life

• The Tales of Canterbury Tales

  The tales are structured as a series of interlinked stories. Each tale is preceded by a prologue in which the storyteller speaks about himself.

• Why is The Canterbury Tales a masterpiece?

  - it is written in English - in that period it would be logic if it was in Latin or French
  - it is a valuable social document as it gives us an insight into cross-section of fourtheenth-century society
  - it includes experimentation  with rhyme and rhythm pattern that greatly affected the literature that followed
  - it contains a cast of memorable characters that are brought to life by Chaucer's superpowers of characterisation

• Why the Nun's Priest?

  It follows the sad and depressing story of the Monk, so they need a new, happy story.

• What is the Nun's Priest Tale about?

  The Nun's Priest's Tale is a fable, a simple tale about animals that concludes with a moral lesson. If viewed as a parody, the story is an ironic and humorous retelling of the fable of the fox and the rooster in the guise of, alternately, a courtly romance and a Homeric epic