Q 01/05

Roughly how many lines long is Beowulf?

A) About 300

B) About 1,000

C) About 3,000

D) About 10,000

Answer · why

C) About 3,000

About 3,000: two scribes copied them, and the second took over in the middle of a sentence.

Q 02/05

Beowulf is a hero of which people?

A) The Jutes

B) The Geats

C) The Danes

D) The Frisians

Answer · why

B) The Geats

The Geats lived in Götaland, and Beowulf, who first sails out as a young warrior among them, ends the poem as their king.

Q 03/05

What drives Grendel to raid Hrothgar's hall?

A) Greed for gold

B) The sound of song

C) Revenge for his mother

D) A royal insult

Answer · why

B) The sound of song

The sound of song pains him, and his raids go on for twelve years, leaving the great hall unusable.

Q 04/05

What is the name of the great mead hall King Hrothgar built for himself and his warriors?

A) Valhalla

B) Folkvangr

C) Heorot

D) Gladsheim

Answer · why

C) Heorot

Heorot means 'hart', a stag, and Tolkien later modelled Meduseld, King Théoden's golden hall in Rohan, on it.

Q 05/05

Grendel is described in Beowulf as a descendant of which biblical figure?

A) Esau

B) Goliath

C) Cain

D) Nimrod

Answer · why

C) Cain

Cain killed his brother Abel, and the poet says God avenged that murder on Cain's kin, the line Grendel comes from.