“Pop quiz!”

I’ve taken to giving pop quizzes with easy answers…if you’ve read the material. When I told my students they’d have one everyday as we went through Beowulf, they said, “Then it’s not a POP quiz.” So I starting calling them “Pop-Tart quizzes.” In any event, I always say, if you don’t know the answer, make me laugh–or draw a picture. My students never fail me!

Why I love my students….let me count the ways…

Concerning Tolkien’s “The Monsters and the Critics”

What is or are NOT “an inexplicable blunder of taste”?

• Literature critics
• It is an inexplicable blunder of taste to neglect the study of Beowulf in scholarly settings.
• My memory of what the answer to this question is
• Dr. Morrison’s hair

Well…that’s debatable….

What does Leyerle argue about interlace in Beowulf?

• No idea, so I drew Beowulf in a corset because inter[lace]. 🙂

• Another student wrote “I like your outfit today by the way :-)”

At least she was paying attention!

What does Leyerle say about digressions in Beowulf?

• That one’s mind should not digress from remembering what Leyerle says about digressions.

Concerning Jane Chance’s article “The Structural Unity of Beowulf: The Problem of Grendel’s Mother”

Why, according to Change, is Grendel’s Mother ‘monstrous’?

• Because she’s a strong independent woman who don’t need no man?

What overtones color her battle with Beowulf?

• Sexual!

• Sexual (bow chicka bow-wow)

Extra Credit: what is Euhemerism?

• I have no idea, but Robinson really likes to talk about it.
• I do not recall, but again, today’s outfit is REALLY cute.

According to Roberta Frank, what is the ultimate point of Beowulf?

• To claim an ultimate point is to reduce the text into nothingness. Maybe I’m just trying to cover up my ignorance.