How Well Do You Know the Opening Lines of Medieval Literary Works?
How Well Do You Know the Opening Lines of Medieval Literary Works?
Test yourself by trying to pick which famous work of medieval literature these opening lines are from.
Test yourself by trying to pick which famous work of medieval literature these opening lines are from.
There was a man named Mord whose surname was Fiddle
Charles the King, our Lord and Sovereign,
Full seven years hath sojourned in Spain,
Midway in the journey of our life
I came to myself in a dark wood,
for the straight way was lost.
It befell in the days of Uther Pendragon, when he was king of all England, and so reigned, that there was a mighty duke in Cornwall that held war against him long time.
The world under heaven, after a long period of division, tends to unite; after a long period of union, tends to divide. This has been so since antiquity.
In a summer season, when soft was the sun,
I enshrouded me well in a shepherd's garb,
And robed as a hermit, unholy of works.
The rustic's proverb says that many a thing is despised that is worth much more than is supposed. Therefore he does well who makes the most of whatever intelligence he may possess.
When the sweet showers of April have pierced to the root the dryness of March and bathed every vein in moisture by which strength are the flowers brought forth
From his eyes so sorely weeping,
he turned his head and was looking at them,
he saw open gates and doors without locks,
empty hangers, without furs or mantles
and without falcons or molted goshawks.
LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!