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SECOND PUBLIC EXAMINATION 
 
 
HONOUR SCHOOL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 
  
COURSE II 
 
Paper 1 Literature in English from 650 to 1100 
 
HONOUR SCHOOL OF HISTORY AND ENGLISH   
Literature in English from 650 to 1100 
 
 
 

TRINITY TERM 2019 
 
Tuesday, 21 May, 9.30am – 12.30pm 
 
Time allowed – Three hours 
 
 
 
Answer three questions. You should pay careful attention in your answers to the 
precise terms of the quotations and questions. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Do not turn over until told that you may do so. 

 
1. 
Sar eal gemon, 
synna wunde,     þe ic siþ oþþe ær 
geworhte in worulde.     Þæt ic wopig sceal 
tearum mænan.  
 
 
 
(CYNEWULF, Juliana
 
[I remember all of the suffering, the wounds of sin, which, early or late, I 
brought about in the world. For that must I, grief-stricken, lament with tears.] 
 
2. 
Sio gesceadwisnes     sceal on gehwelcum 
þære wilnunge     waldan semle, 
and irsunge     eac swa selfe; 
hio sceal mid geþeahte     þegnes mode, 
mid andgite,     ealles waldan. 
 
 
 
(Old English Boethius
 
[In everyone, reason must always govern desire, and also anger in the same 
way; through thought and discernment, it must completely govern the thane’s 
mind.] 
 
3. 
‘In the sources enterprise, the chronologically later (specifically, the Old 
English text) reforms the earlier, making it something it had not been at its 
inception by entering into a relationship with it’ (KATHERINE O’BRIEN 
O’KEEFFE). 
 
Discuss in relation to Anglo-Saxon practices of translation AND/OR other 
forms of textual adaptation. 
 
4. 
Hleopon hornboran,     hreopan friccan, 
mearh moldan træd.     Mægen samnode, 
cafe to cease.     Cyning wæs afyrhted, 
egsan geaclad. 
 
 
 
(Elene
 
[The trumpeters rushed forward, the heralds shouted, the horse trod the earth. 
The host gathered quickly for battle. The king was afraid, petrified with fear.] 
 
5. 
‘Whilst the manuscript still poses many questions for the critic, it is safe to 
say that the Exeter Book represents a snapshot of the poetry that was 
circulated, read and valued by a tenth-century religious community shortly 
before and after the Benedictine reform’ (TOM BIRKETT). 
 
What do Anglo-Saxon manuscripts have to tell us about the circumstances of 
their production AND/OR reception? Your answer need not address the 
Exeter Book specifically.  
 
 
 
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6. 
‘Butan tweon, lar is haligdomes dæl, 7 ealles swiðost gif hio hyre gymeleste 
fram adrifeð 7 ælce gitsunge afyrreð 7 þyssa woruldlicra þinga lufan 
gewanige 7 þæt mod to Godes lufan gehwyrfeð’ (Vercelli Homily VII). 
 
[Without doubt, teaching is a portion of holiness, and most of all if it drives 
away negligence and casts out each type of avarice and causes the love of 
these worldly things to wane and the mind to turn to the love of God.] 
 
7. 
‘Multae sunt aquarum congregationes inter me et te, tamen caritate iungamur 
quia vera caritas numquam locorum limite frangitur. Sed tamen dico quod 
umquam non recessit tristitia ab anima mea, neque per somnium mente 
quiesco, quia fortis est ut mors dilectio’ (BERHTGYTH the nun writing to 
her brother Balthard). 
 
[Many are the congregations of water between me and you, yet let us be 
joined in love because true love is never divided by the borders between 
places. But still I say that sadness never recedes from my soul, nor can I rest 
my mind in sleep, because love is as strong as death.] 
 
Write about intimacy AND/OR separation in Anglo-Saxon literature. 
 
8. 
Swylce se halga     herigeas þreade, 
deofulgild todraf     ond gedwolan fylde. 
Þæt wæs Satane     sar to geþolienne, 
mycel modes sorg. 
 
 
 
(Andreas
 
[In the same way, the saint attacked the idols, drove out devil-worship and 
destroyed heresy. That was painful for Satan to endure, a great sorrow in the 
mind.] 
 
9. 
‘Although Beowulf and other heroic verse seem emblematic of Anglo-Saxon 
secular literature and have received extensive scholarly attention, more 
Anglo-Saxon material comes down to us about Alexander the Great than 
about Germanic heroes’ (ELIZABETH M. TYLER). 
 
10. 
Salomon cuæð:     
‘Modor ne rædeð,     ðonne heo magan cenneð, 
hu him weorðe geond worold     widsið sceapen. 
Oft heo to bealwe     bearn afedeð, 
seolfre to sorge.’ 
 
 
 
(Solomon and Saturn II
 
[Solomon said: ‘A mother does not determine, when she gives birth to a 
child, how his wide-journey throughout the world will be shaped. Often she 
raises the child for destruction, to her own sorrow.’] 
 
 
 
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TURN OVER 
 
 

 

11. 
‘Ic ðara frætwa     frean ealles ðanc, 
wuldurcyninge,     wordum secge, 
ecum dryhtne,     þe ic her on starie, 
þæs ðe ic moste     minum leodum 
ær swyltdæge     swylc gestrynan.’ 
 
 
 
(Beowulf
 
[‘For these treasures on which I here gaze I offer all thanks in words to the 
ruler, the king of glory, the eternal lord, that I was able to win such for my 
people before my death day.’] 
 
12. 
‘Gif wif biþ bearneacen feower monoð oþþe fife 7 heo þonne gelome eteð 
hnyte oþþe æceran oþþe ænige niwe bleda þonne gelimpeð hit hwilum þurh 
þæt þæt þæt cild biþ disig’ (Omens for Pregnancy). 
 
[If a woman is four or five months pregnant and she then often eats nuts or 
acorns or any fresh fruits, then it sometimes happens that because of that the 
child will be foolish.] 
 
13. 
Wiht cwom æfter wege     wrætlicu liþan; 
cymlic from ceole     cleopode to londe, 
hlinsade hlude.     Hleahtor wæs gryrelic, 
egesful on earde;     ecge wæron scearpe. 
 
 
 
(Exeter Book Riddle 33
 
[A wonderful creature came gliding over the wave; beautiful, it called to the 
land from the ship, resounded loudly. Its laughter was horrible, terrifying on 
the land; its edges were sharp.] 
 
14. 
‘[Saints’ lives] reflect a world where God’s presence and judgment, rather 
than being as agonizingly remote as they seem to be in the world of 
experience, are immediate and omnipresent and where Christian ideas and 
values have decisive finality unhindered by any “realistic” consideration’ 
(THOMAS D. HILL). 
 
15. 
Hwæt! We feor and neah     gefrigen habað 
ofer middangeard     Moyses domas, 
wræclico wordriht,     wera cneorissum,– 
in uprodor     eadigra gehwam 
æfter bealusiðe     bote lifes, 
lifigendra gehwam     langsumne ræd,– 
hæleðum secgan.     Gehyre se ðe wille! 
 
 
 
(Exodus
 
[Lo! We have heard the judgements of Moses, the wonderful proclamation—
life’s reward in heaven for each of the blessed after the terrible journey, 
lasting council for each of the living—declared to heroes, to the generations 
of men, far and near across the earth. Let him hear who will!] 
 
 
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16. 
‘[A]t certain historical moments, when literacy has been introduced to a 
society that still sustains a traditional oral poetics (like Anglo-Saxon 
England), the combination can produce extraordinary individuals with both 
traditional oral skills and advanced literacy’ (DANIEL DONOGHUE).  
 
17. 
‘Ic wolde þæt þa ongeaten þe þa tida ures cristendomes leahtriað, hwelc 
mildsung siþþan wæs, siþþan se cristendom wæs, […] hu gelimplice ure God 
on þæm ærran tidum þa anwaldas 7 þa ricu sette, se ilca se þe giet settende is 
7 wendende ælce onwaldas 7 ælc rice to his willan’ (The Old English 
Orosius
). 
 
[I wish those who revile the period of our Christendom to perceive what 
mercy there was after Christendom was established, […] how fittingly our 
God established empires and kingdoms in those earlier times, He who is still 
establishing and directing all empires and each kingdom according to his 
will.] 
 
18. 
‘There is not abundant evidence that Old English sermon collections were 
meant for reading specifically in mass […], but generically sermons were 
certainly written with the idea of performance in worship in mind’ 
(BRANDON W. HAWK). 
 
19. 
‘Old English literature is sadly lacking in the comic spirit’ (SUSIE I. 
TUCKER). 
 
20. 
Þæt gesyne wearþ, 
widcuþ werum,     þætte wrecend þa gyt 
lifde æfter laþum,     lange þrage, 
æfter guðceare.     Grendles modor, 
ides aglæcwif,     yrmþe gemunde. 
 
 
 
(Beowulf
 
[It became evident, widely known to men, that an avenger yet survived the 
hostile one, a long time after the battle-sorrow. Grendel’s mother, the lady, 
the fearsome woman, remembered misery.] 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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