Medieval
Exam Review
Beowulf
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Summary
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Beowulf tells the story of a young hero he seeks
to prove himself by fighting a murderous monster named Grendel who had been
terrorizing a neighboring kingdom. After successful defeating Grendel and his
mother, Beowulf returns home and eventually becomes the leader of his country.
As he slips into old age a new threat, in the form of a dragon, rises and
Beowulf must defend his kingdom. He eventually defeats the dragon, but he loses
his life in the process.
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Characters
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Beowulf
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Grendel
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Hrothgar
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Wiglaf
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Dragon
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Grendel’s Momma
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Analysis
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Quotes
Lanval
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Summary
o
Lanval’s a story about an Arthurian knight who’s
not particularly well liked by his peers or his king–jealousy being the reason.
One day he gets called into the woods at the behest of a fairy who claims to be
in love with him. She showers him with love, gifts, and her body and tells
Lanval that she will be his so long as he doesn’t reveal their love to anyone.
This presents a problem when king Arthur’s wife makes a pass at Lanval, and
challenges his manhood when rejected. As a result, Lanval reveals to Guinevere
that he has the love of the most beautiful woman in the world. Scorned,
Guinevere accuses Lanval of making romantic advancer toward her and king Arthur
puts him on trial for his offenses. Lanval is demanded to present in order to
show the truth in his statement, yet she has turned her back on him for
revealing their romance to Guinevere. The story concludes with the fairy coming
to the trial at the last minute to prove Lanval was truthful when describing
her beauty, and whisking him away to live happily ever after with her.
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Characters
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Lanval
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Fairy
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Guinevere
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King Arthur
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Analysis
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Quotes
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
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Summary
o
Gawain accepts a challenge from a green knight.
The challenge: Gawain gets to chop the green knight’s head off and in exchange
the knight gets to do the same one year later. Assuming that the green knight
wouldn’t be alive to deliver his blow, Gawain chops the knight’s head off.
Shockingly, the knight picks up his head, and leaves after telling Gawain that
he must seek out the green knight in one year’s time to fulfill his oath. The
year passes and Gawain eventually must leave the castle to seek out the green
knight, though he until the last moment to begin his journey. After searching
for weeks to no avail, Gawain comes across the castle of Lord Bertilak and his
court. Bertilak welcomes Gawain into his castle and treats him like a king.
When Lord Bertilak leaves to go on a hunting trip he makes a pact with Gawain
that he shall receive whatever the Lord catches on the hunt, but in exchange
Gawain must give Bertilak anything he receives while he’s away. While Gawain is relaxing at the castle, Lady
Bertilak begins a number of attempts to seduce him. Gawain receives kisses from
Lady Bertilak on two occasions, which he then gave to Lord Bertilak when he
returned from his hunting trip, fulfilling their bargain. On the third
occasion, in addition to kisses, Lady Bertilak gives Gawain a green garter.
Gawain keeps the garter for himself–breaking the oath–and eventually leaves to
find the green knight. When he finds the knight, its revealed that it was Lord
Bertilak all along, and the plot was setup to test Gawain’s virtue. For keeping
the garter Bertilak gives Gawain a cut on his neck, but otherwise forgives him
for the oath breaking. Gawain adopts the garter as a reminder of his sin (oath
breaking) and upon returning to Arthur’s castle, the knights of the round adopt
the garter as a symbol of virtue.
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Characters
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Gawain
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King Arthur
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The Green Knight/Lord Bertilak
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Lady Bertilak
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Analysis
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Quotes
Miller’s Tale/Prologue
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Summary
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A drunken miller tells a story in a tavern to
group of pilgrims on their way to visit Canterbury Cathedral.
o
The story: An old carpenter marries a young
woman and out of jealousy keeps her under watch for fear that she might have an
affair. In addition, the carpenter rents out a room of their house to a young,
suave, university student. Predictable, the student and the young wife begin
develop a relationship, and a desire to spend the night together, the student
comes up with a plan to trick the carpenter into spending the night outside of
the house so he and the young wife can spend the night together in his bed. The
student tells the carpenter that he received a message from God indicating
there will be a flood bigger than Noah’s, and that the three of them must sleep
in wooden buckets in the barn so that when the flood comes they will float
safely. The night of the supposed flood, the three of them lay in their
individual buckets, and as soon as the carpenter falls asleep the student and
the young wife escape to the carpenter’s bed to fulfill their passion. The next
morning a clerk who’s romantically interested in the young wife comes by the house
to woo her. After some convincing the young wife agrees to give the clerk a
kiss, but when the clerk leaned in to for it the wife presents her butt
instead. To get back at the wife, the clerk grabs a red hot poker with the
intention of burning the wife’s butt. He asks for another kiss but instead the
student sticks his butt out and the clerk burns it with the poker. The student
jumps up screaming for water, which wakes the carpenter up who takes the scream
as a sign the flood has come. He cuts rope that bound his bucket to the rafters
of the barn, which caused him to fall to the floor.
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Characters
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Jon the carpenter
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Alison
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Absilon
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Nicholas
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Analysis
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Quotes
Wife of Bath’s Prologue/Tale
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Summary
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A woman who had been married five times goes
into length about the merits of giving domestic control to women.
o
The story: An Arthurian knight is accused and
convicted of rape, but before being sentenced to death king Arthurs wife
intercedes on the knight’s behalf. In order to spare his life, the Guinevere
charges the knight with finding out what women truly want. After searching for
a year, and getting completely different answers depending on which woman he’s
speaking to, he comes across an old ugly hag who promises to give him the
answer at the cost a favor to be paid after.
The knight takes the hag back to court and tells Guinevere that what
women want most is total control over men. Guinevere agreed and his life was
spared. The hag then request marriage as payment. The knight begrudgingly
agrees and the two get married. After complaints from the knight, the hag gives
him a choice: either take the woman as she is, old and ugly, yet faithful, or
she can become young and beautiful but likely to have an affair. After a deep
contemplation the knight finally tells the hag to choose the option that she
thinks is best for the couple. Since he gave his wife control in making the
decision, the hag becomes youthful and beautiful, but unquestionably faithful;
the ideal situation.
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Characters
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Knight
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Old Hag
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Rape Victim
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King Arthur
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Guinevere
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Analysis
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Quotes
Pardoner’s Prologue/Tale
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Summary
o
A sketchy man who sells absolution be means of
fake relics tells a story.
o
The story: Three boys seek Death to get
vengeance for taking one of their friends. After searching they find an old man
who tells them Death is hanging out by a large tree. When the get to the tree
the find a large sack of gold. Knowing they’d be branded as thieves if they
took the large sack of gold into town, the two boys sent the third into town to
get vessels to hide the gold in. realizing they would be richer if the third
boy was out of the picture, the two plot to murder him when he gets back from
town. However, the third boy realizes the same and plots to kill the other two
and take all the gold for himself. So, while in town he purchases some poison
and spikes a bottle of wine with it. Upon returning to the tree the two boys
ambush and murder him. To celebrate the newfound wealth they both take a drink
from the poisoned wine and die.
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Characters
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Death
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Two boy
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Younger boy
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Old Man
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Analysis
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Quotes
Margery Kemp
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Summary
o
After nearly dying during childbirth a woman
seeks absolution from a priest by confessing her sins. Instead of forgiveness
the priest berates the woman for her sins, which eventually leads to the woman
to have a mental breakdown. She begins to act crazy, going so far as
self-inflicting wounds. The woman then has a vision that Christ came down from
heaven to talk to her, asking only why she’s intent on forsaking him when he’s
never forsook her. From then on the woman rededicates herself to Christ. She
negotiates a deal of celibacy with her husband, and eventually goes off on a
pilgrimage to Jerusalem. While there, the woman engages in extremely emotional
outburst when visiting places Christ was said to have been. Her load, public
cries annoyed many patrons. She eventually has a vision that God wants her to
marry his son, Jesus. Thus, she enters into a mental marriage that was at times
erotic.
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Characters
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Margery Kemp
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Analysis
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Quotes
Everyman
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Summary
o
Everyman is called by Death to go to heaven and
account for his sins in front of God. Not wanting to go alone, Everyman asks
Death if he can take a companion. Death agrees if Everyman can find someone
willing to make the journey with him. First, Everyman asks Fellowship to go
with him to death; Fellowship declines. Everyman then petitions Kinship and
Cousin to go with, yet both decline. Everyman then turns to Goods to make the
trip, but Goods declines. Lastly, Everyman asks Good Deeds to journey with him.
Good Deeds is willing to go, except because Everyman didn’t spend enough time
doing Good Deeds in his life, Good Deeds reluctantly declines. Instead Good
Deeds refers Everyman to Knowledge to help solve the problem. Knowledge
instructs Everyman to confess his sins, which is the only good deed needed to
allow Good Deeds to venture to heaven with him. After confession, Good Deeds
goes with Everyman to Death.
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Characters
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Everyman
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Good Deeds
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Cousin
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Kinship
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Fellowship
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Death
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Knowledge
o
Goods
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Analysis
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Quotes
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