The Song of Roland (Penguin Classics)
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Song of Roland Quizzes

by Anonymous - Song of Roland

Song of Roland Quiz 1

1. The <i>chansons de geste</i> are

  • long poems in alexandrine verse celebrating French kings
  • Renaissance-era celebrations of Charlemagne's reign
  • medieval epic poems in French
  • bawdy tales mixing stories of war with outrageous sexual antics

2. <i>The Song of Roland</i> is

  • originally in Latin
  • considered the greatest <i>chanson de geste</i>
  • both the oldest surviving poem in French and considered the greatest <i>chanson de geste</i>
  • the oldest surviving poem in French

3. Most scholars place <i>The Song of Roland</i>'s composition around the time of

  • the First Crusade
  • the crowning of Charlemagne
  • the fall of Constantinople to Islam
  • the early Renaissance

4. A <i>chanson de geste</i> is made up of poetic units called

  • <i>laisses</i>
  • sonnets
  • thrusts
  • <i>gestes</i>

5. Charlemagne was

  • a Frankish king of the fifteenth century
  • a Roman emperor of the fourth century
  • a Frankish ruler of the eighth and ninth century
  • a Saxon king of the seventh century

6. <i>The Song of Roland</i> is

  • a legendary account with some basis in history
  • a faithful historical account
  • full of fanciful predictions of the future, some of which have come true
  • complete fiction

7. During Charlemagne's time, Islam

  • was a besieged and battered faith, attacked on all sides by valiant Christian kings
  • was the faith of some of the most advanced and sophisticated kingdoms in the world
  • spreading rapidly
  • both spreading rapidly and was the faith of some of the most advanced and sophisticated kingdoms in the world

8. Among the poem's most striking features is/are

  • extraordinary empathy for the Moslems
  • the use of "parallel <i>laisses</i>"
  • both the use of "parallel <i>laisses</i>" and elegant, lengthy, developed metaphors
  • elegant, lengthy, developed metaphors

9. The <i>chansons de gestes</i> were

  • considered heretical by most French
  • written to be performed
  • elegant, refined, literary creations meant for study in an academic setting
  • delivered in latin

10. Parataxis is

  • the historian who wrote Charlemagne's chronicles
  • juxtaposition of religious imagery and political symbols
  • placing clauses one after another without conjunctions
  • the oldest form of theatre

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