Okay, so here is the first foray of things to think about.  It's plenty, but keep checking back; if I think of more, I'm going to add them.

1.                  Know the plot of Beowulf .

2.                  Know who Beowulf, Wiglaf, Hrothgar, and Grendel are; know what Heorot is.  Know when the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded England.  Know who King Alfred is. 

3.        What's the relationship between Fate and (a Judeo-Christian) God in Anglo-Saxon poetry?

4.                  Anglo-Saxon prosody is based upon what?

5.                  Why's it so bad to be a "Wanderer"?

6.                  Name a couple of reasons why Beowulf marks the beginning of English literature, per se.

7.                  The wife in “The Wife’s Lament” and her husband are separated by what?

8.                  Who is the first pilgrim described in The Canterbury Tales’  “General Prologue” – and why?

9.                  Who loves hunting?

10.              Who loves food?

11.              Who loves love?

12.              What’s the problem with the cook?

13.              Harry Bailey tells all the pilgrims to tell tales that encompass what two qualities?  What do they mean?

14.              Be prepared to translate a dozen or so lines from Chaucer.

15.              Be prepared to discuss one of the pilgrims from “The General Prologue” in detail.

16.              Think hard about "lyst/lest/lust."

17.              What does “Goddes privetee” mean and how’s it figure into “The Miller’s Tale”?

18.              “Maken ernest of game” is how the Miller ends his prologue.  How might that reflect on the tale and The Tales?

19.              The Wife of Bath relies on what as her “authority” in her prologue?

20.              How many times has she been married?  Be prepared to talk about her last two husbands in particular.

21.              What is the Wife of Bath’s particular point in telling her prologue?

22.              Why does Oswald the Reeve react so badly to Robin the Miller's prologue, and tale?

23.              If you're thinking about Chaucer the Author v. Chaucer the Pilgrim, what might you be thinking?

24.              Review the works of Gwilym and Dunbar.  Note what’s characteristic in their verse.  What innovations do they bring?

25.              Know the kings and queens of England from 1400-1702, and what general positions they represented religiously and, if you know, politically.

26.              Wyatt introduced what verse form(s) into English?

27.              He loved whom?

28.              Why does “political poetry” become so pronounced during the Early Modern Era?

29.              What are some of the trends of the Early Modern Era?

30.              What is an English sonnet?  An Italian?  How do they work?

31. What is an allegory?
     

32. What led Henry VIII to start his own church?
     

33. Fate v. chance:  you figure it out.
     

34. What’s the difference between “renaissance” and “early modern period” as labels for a historical period?
     

35. Know the relative dates (i.e. one author to another) of all the authors we’ve read.
     

36. God v. the Bod.  'Splain.
     

37. What is Tottel's Miscellany?
     

38. What is accentual syllabic verse?
     

39. What happened in 1066?
     

40. Understand and be able to give examples of/scan English prosody.
     

41. Who does Sidney compare poets to in his Apology, primarily?  Why are poets always better?
     

42. Why did Sidney even feel the need to write his Apology in the first place?  (To answer that, you have to have a good sense of the controversy at the time.)
     

43. The definition of a "hero" changes even over the 500 years of literature that we've read.  From what to what, do you think, and why?
     

44. What's the relationship, if any, between fantasy and religion, or satire and religion, or courtliness and religion, given the examples of the things we've read?
     

45. Be prepared to discuss "genre" in "The Nun's Priest's Tale."
     

46. How do classical argumentative structures play a role in early modern poetry?
     

47. I decided that my Question 47 was bad.  Congrats.
     

48. So is "culture," since literature is always embedded in that culture, both reflective of it and helping to constitute it.  Be ready to address these notions.
     

49. How do "skeltonics" compare to other sorts of prosody?
     

50. How's Petrarch fit into an English Literature class, exactly?
     

51. What's Sidney mean by "poetry," exactly?
     

52. Pick a "transitional" figure of your choice and be prepared to discuss why he/she is transitional.
     

53. How's an Anglo-Saxon vision of love different from an Early Modern vision of it?
     

54. What's the first poem in English (Anglo-Saxon)?  Where did we find it?
     

55. What's the Ruthwell Cross?
     

56. What were the pilgrims going to Canterbury to see?
     

57. What is a "hlaford"?
     

58. What did Chaucer do for a living?  How's about Wyatt?  Why were their careers in their respective jobs so remarkable, on a very basic level?
     

59. What's a conceit, to us literary types?
     

60. For that matter, what's alliteration, assonance, simile, metaphor, and -- just for good measure -- personification and anthropomorphism?
     

61. According to the handout I gave you when we read it, what are some of the "problems" with "Wulf and Eadwacer"?
     

62. The legend of King Arthur occupies a central role in the British imagination.  Given what we read, be ready to talk about why.
     

63. Who has the "maistrye"?  'Splain.
     

64. Are there virtues to doing difficult work, really?  Prove it.
     

65. Don't you think 64 is enough?