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Center for Medieval Studies
cmedst@umn.edu
612-626-0805
cmedst@umn.edu
612-626-0805
In Dante Alighieri's conception of the afterlife, where can you find the souls of sinners with their eyes sewn shut as disembodied voices shout about the fate of Cain?
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line "trivia" directly to Gabriel Gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com). Previous weeks' trivia results will be announced en masse NEXT WEEK. We apologize for the continued delay.
November 6th, 2009What early medieval saint did Pope Benedict XVI defend in a recent speech?
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line "trivia" directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com). Previous weeks' trivia results will be announced en masse NEXT WEEK.
October 29th, 2009What is the given name of the titular figure in an Anglo-Saxon poem about a sea creature that can pretend to be an island in order to lure sailors to their doom?
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line "trivia" directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com). Previous weeks' trivia results will be announced en masse once a new prize has been decided on.
What book, surviving from the early 10th century, consists of just a palimpsest of a few wooden tablets and wax pages, but suggests the early origins of an Eastern European heresy as the author records prayers in which the place of God is taken by that of an Armenian prophet named Alexander?
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line "trivia" directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com).
October 15th, 2009Name the eighth century settlement on the Volkhov River that served as an important trading post and later as a capital city for a dynasty that then moved to Kiev and went on to survive in one form or another until shortly after the death of Ivan the Terrible.
Answers to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com) with the subject line "trivia" by noon on Wednesday, 30 September.
October 1st, 2009According to popular legend, what British insult was first used by English and Welsh longbowmen after they had won the battle of Agincourt in 1415?
Answers to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com) with the subject line "trivia" by noon on Wednesday, 23 September.
September 17th, 2009Trivia questions will be posted again starting on the 16th!
September 10th, 2009What was the name of the wife of the Emperor who created the corpus juris civilis?
Answers to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com) with the subject line “trivia” by noon on Wednesday, 20 May.
May 13th, 2009At the Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, how is the sponsoring “Societas Fontibus Historiae Medii Aevi Inveniendis, vulgo dicta” more colloquially referred to (bonus points for knowing what they do as well)?
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line “trivia” directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com).
April 30th, 2009In the attached photograph, it’s fairly obvious who’s rising out of the book. However, who is trapped under it and what sort of book is it that has crushed him?
Please send trivia answers directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com) with the subject line "trivia."
Answer: The picture is from folio 85r of the 13th century German law code Sachsenspiegel. http://www.sachsenspiegel-online.de/cms/ It is believed to have been compiled and translated from Latin by the Saxon administrator Eike von Repgow. Here, Repgow is being crushed by his own book, while two wrong-doers kick him in the head.
April 15th, 2009Who is widely credited as having invented the form of musical notation that we still use today?
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line “trivia” directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com) by noon on Wednesday 8 April.
Answer: Guido of Arezzo
April 8th, 2009Which Canterbury Tale has a possible reference to the tradition of April Fool’s Day?
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line “trivia” directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com) by noon on Wednesday 8 April.
Answer: The Nun's Priest's Tale, which makes reference to "March 32nd."
April 1st, 2009The life of Alexander the Great, written in Czech in the late 13th or early 14th century, is known as what?
Answer: The Alexandreis, based on a Latin version of Alexander’s life.
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line “trivia” directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com) by noon on Wednesday 1 April.Ermengard, the first wife of Louis the Pious, died while traveling to what city along with her husband and the court?
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line “trivia” directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com) by noon on Wednesday 25 March.
Answer: She was on route to Tours, but took sick in Angers, where she died.l March 18th, 2009What famous thing, depicting the Norman invasion of England in 1066, was parodied during the opening sequence of The Simpsons?
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line “trivia” directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com) by noon on Wednesday 18 March.
March 11th, 2009In “The Short Lay of Sigurd,” what does Brynhild do when she hears that the man she loves is dead?
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line “trivia” directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com) by noon on Wednesday 11 March.
Answer: She laughed.
March 4th, 2009In the romance Yvain, the knight Yvain comes across a palace gate that is described as functioning like what sort of device?
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line “trivia” directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com) by noon on Wednesday 25 February.
Answer: A rat trap.
February 18th, 2009What English charter promised the immediate return of all Welsh hostages?
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line “trivia" directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com) by noon on Wednesday 4 February.
Answer: The Magna Carta. February 11th, 2009What 7th century legal code mandated that a woman may only wed a man older than herself?
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line “trivia? directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com) by noon on Wednesday 4 February.
Answer: The Visigothic Code
January 28th, 2009Over a typical Romanesque monumental portal, in what position does Christ appear?
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Answer: In the "axial" position (ie, the horizontal center).
January 21st, 2009Who devised the "floating man" thought experiment, and where was he at the time?
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line “trivia? directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com)
Answer: Avicenna, while imprisoned in the castle of Fardajan near Hamadhan. January 14th, 2009In the 13th century, short pieces of Occitan prose were written as introductory pieces to poetry. These detailed the life of the troubadour or provided a preface to or commentary on the poem that followed. What were these two sorts of introductory pieces called?
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line “trivia? directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com)
Answer: vidas and razos. December 26th, 2008In the medieval romance “The Youth of Alexander the Great,? Alexander has a troubling dream. In it, he is represented by an animal. What is that animal and what does it emerge from?
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Answer: A dragon which emerges from an egg.
Who was the Governor of Tripoli in 1565?
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Answer: Dragut or Turgut Reis.
December 12th, 2008This week’s eNews trivia: what nation’s people invented the ‘traction trebuchet?’
Please send trivia responses in email with the subject line “trivia? directly to gabriel gryffyn (ggryffyn.cms@umn.edu)
Answer: China! Winner of the contest this week: Steve Bivans.
This week’s eNews trivia question is: What did Odin whisper in Balder's ear while Balder lay on his funeral pyre? Please submit answers in email to Gabriel Gryffyn (href="mailto:ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com">ggryffyn.cms@gmail.com) by Friday, 24 October at 12:00pm.
October 17th, 2008This summer, English Department PhD student Gabriel Gryffyn traveled to Ireland to attend the Summer School in Mediaeval and Modern Irish Language and Literature at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. The intensive two week program included courses in Modern and Old Irish in the morning with lectures on Medieval and Early Modern Irish Literature and its Transmission and Early Irish Law and Society, and the Learned Orders in the afternoon.
Gabriel was able to begin her foray into learning the twisty but beautiful mess that is Old Irish as well as use the excellent resources in the libraries both at DIAS and Trinity College, Dublin. She also had the opportunity to visit the medieval buildings at Glendalough in County Wicklow.
October 17th, 2008