A Legend of the Northland – Questions & Answers

Q1. Who is the poet of “A Legend of the Northland”?
Ans: Phoebe Cary is the poet of “A Legend of the Northland.”

Q2. What type of poem is “A Legend of the Northland”?
Ans: It is a ballad, a narrative poem that tells a story in short stanzas.

Q3. What is the central theme of the poem?
Ans: The central theme of the poem is that we should not be selfish and greedy. The poem shows how greed and selfishness are punished.

Q4. Where is the story of the poem set?
Ans: The story is set in the Northland.

Q5. Why can’t the people of the Northland sleep through the nights?

Ans: The people of the Northland can not sleep through the nights because the nights are very long in winter.

Q6. How do the children in the Northland look?
Ans: The children look like bear’s cubs because they wear funny, furry clothes to protect themselves from the cold.

Q7. What means of transport do people use in the Northland during snow?
Ans: The people of Northland use sledges pulled by reindeer.

Q8. Who came to the old woman’s cottage ?
Ans: Saint Peter came to the cottage of the old woman.

Q9. What did Saint Peter ask the woman for?
Ans: He asked her for a cake from her store.

Q10. How did the woman behave when Saint Peter asked for food?
Ans: The woman behaved selfishly and greedily, refusing to give him even the smallest cake.

Q11. Why did the woman refuse to give any cake?
Ans: The woman refuse to give any cake because every cake seemed too large to her to give away, though they were small.

Q12 What was Saint Peter’s reaction?
Ans: Saint Peter became angry at the woman's greed and selfishness.

Q13. What punishment did Saint Peter give her?
Ans: He cursed her to become a bird (woodpecker), to build nests like birds and bore for food in hard wood.

Q14. How did the woman transform?
Ans: The woman went up the chimney and flew out as a woodpecker, with a scarlet cap on her head.

Q15. What lesson does the story teach?
Ans: The lesson is that selfishness and greed are punished, and one should be kind and generous to others.

Q16. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem?
Ans: The rhyme scheme is ABCB.

Q17. Identify an example of Simile from the poem.
Ans: “And the children look like bear’s cubs” 

Q18. Identify an example of Alliteration from the poem.
Ans: “And being faint with fasting” (repetition of ‘f’ sound.)

Q19. Identify an example of Repetition in the poem.
Ans: “By boring, and boring, and boring” – (repetition of the word ‘boring.’)

Q20. What is the figure of speech in “Black as a coal”?

Ans: Simile (comparison with coal).

Q21. “So she made a very little cake,But as it baking lay,She looked at it, and thought it seemed Too large to give away.”

(i) Who is ‘she’ here?
Ans: The old woman.

(ii) Why did she think the cake was too large?
Ans:The woman thought the cake was too large because of her greed and unwillingness to share.

Q22. Why did Saint Peter punish the old woman? 
Ans: Saint Peter punished the old woman because she was greedy and refused to share even a tiny cake.