English Literature of the Middle Ages

1. English Literature of the Middle Ages

Anglo-Saxon literature
Anglo-Norman literature
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2. CONTENTS:

1. Old-English literature, its periodization
2. Middle-English literature
3. The Age of Chaucer
4. Folklore poetry
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3. The Old-English literature mid-5th century-1066

Epic poetry
Hagiography
Sermons
Bible translations
• Legal works
• Chronicles
• Riddles
• others

4. Manuscripts (about 400)

• Beowulf - poetry
• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - history
• Caedmon's Hymn – poetry (7th century)

5. Written form of English

• The Danish invasions – illiteracy
• King Alfred the Great – education in OE
• Teaching and student-oriented texts
• Manuscripts – historic value and aesthetic
beauty

6. Old-English Poetry

Types:
• The heroic Germanic pre-Christian
• The Christian

7. Four manuscripts:

• Caedmon manuscript –a poetic anthology
• Exeter Book – an anthology
• Vercelli Book – a mix of poetry and prose
• Nowell Codex – a mixture of poetry and
prose
no poetic rules or explicit system

8. OE poets:

• Caedmon – the father of OE poetry
• Bede
• King Alfred the Great
• Cynewulf

9. CAEDMON (d. c. 670)

• the founder of a school of Christian poetry;
• the first to use the traditional metre diction
for Christian religious poetry;
• this period of Old English poetry is called
"Caedmonian“.

10. CYNEWULF (late eighth or early ninth century)

• Anglo-Saxon religious poetry moves
beyond biblical paraphrase into the
didactic, the devotional, and the mystical;
• All poems possess both a high degree of
literary craftsmanship and a note of
mystical contemplation;
• Christ, Juliana, The Fates of the Apostles

11. The Venerable Bede

• the most learned theologian and the best
historian of Christianity of his time;
• a teacher and a scholar of Latin and
Greek;
• Ecclesiastical History of the English
People - is the first account of AngloSaxon England ever written.

12. Nowell Codex

Beowulf - heroic poem
• England’s national epos
• fictional elements + real historical events
• Scandinavian sources
• 1936 – J.R.R.Tolkien’s essay
“Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics”

13. Nowell Codex

• Judith – a Biblical poetic paraphrase – the
cult of the True Cross
• The Wonders of the East – a map of the
world

14. Exeter Book

• Elegiac poetry - wisdom poetry – short
lyrical poems (the topic itself is loss)
• Christ – a series of poems - the cult of the
True Cross
• A collection of 95 riddles – non-supplied
answers

15. Vercelli Book

• Dream of the Rood – one of the most
beautiful of all OE poems – a dream vision
of Christ on the cross, with the cross
personified

16. Poetic forms

King Alfred’s contribution
• Translated books from Latin into OE;
• The prolific writer of sermons;
• Translated the first 6 books of the Bible;
• Wrote a wisdom poem over the course of
his reign based loosely on the neoplatonic
philosophy of Boethius called the Lays of
Boethius

17. King Alfred’s contribution

Prose
• Sermons and Latin translations of religious
works;
• Legal texts (donations, wills, court cases)
– valuable insights into the social history;
• Rules and calculations;
• Medical works

18. Prose

OE poetry
• Heroic poems - Beowulf; Waldere; The
Fight at Finnsburth
• Elegiac poetry – Consolation of
Philosophy
• Christian poetry – Judith; Christ; Dream of
the Rood
• Prose – The Pastoral Care; The Wonders
of the East

19. OE poetry

OE literature
• Up to 14th century – read and used;
• 15-16th centuries – catalogued and
organized;
• 17th century – OE literature dictionaries
and references;
• 18th century – a part of university
curriculum

20. OE literature

Anglo-Norman literature
(1066-1204)
• A new form of English – Middle English –
comprehensible
• The Duchy of Normandy and England
were united
• The Norman language – William the
Conqueror – the language of nobility

21. Anglo-Norman literature (1066-1204)

The Norman language
• 12th c. – Norman French Latin – the
literary language – at the court
• Schools for teaching French
• Changes: graphical characteristics,
individual modifications
• French - great prestige

22. The Norman language

• 1363 – the parliamentary session in
English
• French - the language of the courts of
justice until the 17th c.
• French and Latin – the language of
government until the mid-1480s.

23. The Norman language

Anglo-Norman literature
• The most flourishing period – the
beginning of the 12th c. to the end of the
first quarter of the 13th c.

24. Anglo-Norman literature

Genres
• Epic and romance
• Fables and religious
tales
• History
• Lyric poetry
• Satire

25. Genres

Epic and romance
chansons –”Chanson de Roland” – the
oldest manuscript; the story of Tristan and
Iseult (Beroul and Thomas) – the most
celebrated love-legend; “Life of Richard
Coeur de Lion” – an English version

26. Epic and romance

Fables and religious tales
• Marie de France – translations from King
Alfred;
• The Mary legends - 2000 tales

27. Fables and religious tales

History
• Geoffrey Gaimar – the first AN
historiographer;
• Paul Meyer’s edition of “The History of
William the Marshal” (1186-1219) – of
great value for the history of the period

28. History

Lyric poetry and satire
• 71 ballads of John Gower – Latin, French,
English – written in 2 or 3 languages
• Drama - the imitations of the French
moralities

29. Lyric poetry and satire

14th century
• An era of forming English nation and its
language
• An epoch of Langland and Chaucer
• An epoch of weakening feudalism and the
fight against the Catholic church
• John Wycliffe – religious reforming ideas
• William Langland “Vision of Pier the
Plowman”

30. 14th century

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)
• An English author, poet, philosopher, and
diplomat;
• The first author to demonstrate the artistic
legitimacy of the vernacular English
language;
• “The Book of the Duchess” – the first
major work

31. Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)

• Periods – French, Italian, English;
• Metrical innovation- the rhyme royal- the
iambic pentameter;
• Standardized the London Dialect;
• The Oxford English Dictionary –
acceptable, amble, annoyance, arrogant,
etc.);
• 16-17th cc.- the most printed English
author

32. Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)

“The Canterbury Tales”
• Naturalism of its narrative;
• The variety of stories and the varied
characters;
• Real life for the cast of pilgrims;
• Speech and manners of the types of
pilgrims.

33. “The Canterbury Tales”

Folklore poetry
• A song
• A ballad – a dramatic song with a plot;
chorus performing, accompanied by music
and dancing
• Types: historical, legendary, and social
• Robin Hood cycles

34. Folklore poetry

Scottish literature
• The ethnic language - Gaelic
• The Fenian Cycle - ballads
• Allusions to Gaelic legendary characters