Letters of Abelard and Heloise - 2026 ACF Nationals

Packet 3: Tossup 4

Description acceptable. Constant Mews built on the work of Ewald Koensgen on these texts by asserting that a set of 113 “lost” examples (10[1])were actually part of this group. An archaizing translation (10[1])of these texts by C. K. Scott Moncrieff was derided by Betty Radice, whose translation divided them into “personal” and “directional” subsets. One of these texts boldly claims that its author would rather be one man’s “whore” than be the wife of Emperor Augustus. (10[1])Most editions of these texts open with one of them describing a castration carried out by men loyal to Fulbert. (10[3])These texts reveal the theological (10[1])positions (10[1])of their two authors: (10[1]-5[1])a logician (10[1])at the University of Paris and his (10[1])pupil, (10[2])who (10[1])gave birth (10[1])to a son (10[1])named Astrolabe and became (10[1])Abbess (10[2])of the Paraclete. (-5[1])For 10 points, (10[1])name this collection of philosophical and devotional exchanges between two (10[1])medieval (10[1])lovers. ■END■ (10[1]0[1])

ANSWER: Letters of Abelard and Heloise [or Correspondence of Abelard and Heloise; accept answers indicating letters or epistles exchanged between Peter Abelard and Heloise; prompt on letters by asking “between what two authors?”; prompt on letters by Heloise or letters by Abelard until “two” is read; prompt on AH-1 or AH-2]

<Editors, European Literature> | L. Playoffs 3 (Editors 3)

= Average correct buzzpoint

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Buzzes

Player	Team	Opponent	Buzzpoint	Value
Joel Miles	Minnesota	Illinois A	22	10
August Vanskike	Maryland B	Brown	31	10
Kevin Zheng	Michigan	Ohio State	75	10
Jakob Myers	Indiana	UC Berkeley A	95	10
Jack Lewis	Bruin	NYU B	95	10
Michał Gerasimiuk	Stanford A	Maryland A	95	10
Benjamin Chapman	Toronto A	NYU A	100	10
Rayton Lin	Waterloo	North Carolina	101	10
Zachary Joseph	Columbia B	Virginia	105	10
Kevin Wang	Georgia Tech B	Johns Hopkins	105	-5
Ben Hellman	Swarthmore	Illinois B	107	10
Yrwin Batan	MIT	Cambridge	114	10
Christopher Sims	Northwestern A	Harvard	115	10
Charles Hang	WashU	UCLA	115	10
Noah Chin	Virginia Tech	Chicago A	116	10
Charles Young	Columbia A	UC Berkeley B	118	10
Evan Gniadek	Purdue	Georgetown	121	10
Jacky Xu	Cornell	Chicago B	125	10
Athena Shadden	Texas	Georgia Tech C	126	10
Mitch McCullar	Penn State	Georgia Tech A	126	10
Truman Hill	Vanderbilt	British Columbia	129	-5
Ryan Fang	Stanford B	Rutgers	132	10
Hadley Green	Northwestern B	UCF	142	10
Travis Johnson	Pittsburgh	Toronto B	143	10
Sinecio Morales	Johns Hopkins	Georgia Tech B	145	10
Matthew Wang	British Columbia	Vanderbilt	145	0

Summary

Tournament	Edition	Match	Heard	Conv. %	Neg %	Avg. Buzz
Main Site	2026-04-17	✓	24	96%	8%	107.13