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Middle Ages

Homework Questions on the Middle Ages

1. What time period does the Middle Ages roughly cover?

The years between 500 and 1500 A.D.

2. What three cultures influenced and transformed the Roman and Greek cultures and eventually produced the culture of the Middle Ages?

The first was the Germanic culture of the tribes that invaded and conquered the western half of the Roman Empire. The second was the spread of Christianity from Palestine that quickly engulfed Western Europe. The third was the rise of Islam in North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula

3. Why are the Middle Ages called that?

It was named by the people who lived in the time period immediately following the Middle Ages.

4. The Song of Roland promotes what religion over what?

The Song of Roland promotes Christianity.

5. What is a thematic contradiction that this poem contains which deals with differing culture influences?

It shows a great warrior according to Germanic military tradition, but it also shows the need for subordinating individual accomplishments to the needs of a unified Christian community.

6. The editor mentions two descriptions for this time period that include the terms “age of….” What are these two general descriptions?

The “age of faith” and the “age of chivalry”.

7. According to the editor, what does the literature of this time period reveal about how people allowed their faith to affect their daily lives?

Their daily lives were untroubled by the moral and spiritual demands of religion.

8. Medieval literature tended to express the values of which class of society? What values did this encompass?

The writings of the Middle Ages expressed the values of the aristocracy which were valor, loyalty and personal honor.

9. What does the editor conclude is the central concern of medieval literature?

The central concern of medieval...