Which of these works was composed prior to the pivotal Battle of Hastings?
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Answer: A. Beowulf
Explanation
Beowulf is an Old English epic poem composed centuries before the Norman Conquest and the Battle of Hastings. Linguistic and historical evidence places the composition of Beowulf well before the eleventh century. The poem preserves ancient Germanic heroic traditions that predated the arrival of Norman French culture in Britain. The Battle of Hastings took place in ten sixty-six, marking the decisive Norman conquest of Anglo-Saxon England. Beowulf survives in a single manuscript dating from roughly the year one thousand, authored by an anonymous poet. The Norman invasion fundamentally transformed the English language, introducing numerous French vocabulary words.
Geoffrey Chaucer composed Canterbury Tales in Middle English long after the Norman Conquest occurred. The Domesday Book was a comprehensive survey commissioned directly by William the Conqueror after ten sixty-six. Sons and Lovers is a twentieth-century modernist novel written by D.H. Lawrence in modern English.
- Subject
- English
- Category
- English Literature
- Topic
- —
- Difficulty
- medium
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