Medieval literature  

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 +:''See [[medieval vernacular literature]], [[bestiary]], [[speculum literature]], [[manuscript culture]], [[Medieval and Renaissance bestsellers]]''
 +
 +'''Medieval literature''' is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in [[Europe]] and beyond during the [[Middle Ages]] (encompassing the one thousand years from the [[fall of the Roman Empire|fall of the Western Roman Empire]] ca. AD [[500]] to the beginning of the Florentine [[Renaissance]] in the late 15th century). The literature of this time was composed of religious writings as well as [[secular]] works. Just as in modern literature, it is a complex and rich field of study, from the utterly [[sacred]] to the exuberantly [[profane]], touching all points in-between. Because of the wide range of time and place it is difficult to speak in general terms without oversimplification, and thus the literature is best characterized by its place of origin and/or language, as well as its genre.
 +==Anonymity==
 +A notable amount of medieval literature is [[Anonymity|anonymous]]. This is not only due to the lack of documents from a period, but also due to an interpretation of the [[author]]'s role that differs considerably from the [[romanticism|romantic]] interpretation of the term in use today. Medieval authors were often overawed by the [[classical antiquity|classical]] writers and the [[Church Fathers]] and tended to re-tell and embellish stories they had heard or read rather than invent new stories. And even when they did, they often claimed to be handing down something from an [[auctor]] instead. From this point of view, the names of the individual authors seemed much less important, and therefore many important works were never attributed to any specific person.
 +
 +==Medieval satire==
 +:''[[Medieval satire]]''
 +In the [[Early Middle Ages]], examples of satire were the songs by [[goliards]] or [[vagants]] now best known as an anthology called [[Carmina Burana]] and made famous as texts of a composition by the 20th century composer [[Carl Orff]]. Satirical poetry is believed to have been popular, although little has survived. With the advent of the [[High Middle Ages]] and the birth of modern [[vernacular literature]] in the 12th century, it began to be used again, most notably by [[Chaucer]]. The disrespectful manner was considered "Unchristian" and ignored but for the '''moral satire''', which mocked misbehaviour in Christian terms. Examples are ''[[Livre des Manières]]'' (~1170), and in some of Chaucer's ''[[Canterbury Tales]]''. The [[Epic poetry|epos]] was mocked, and even the feudal society, but there was hardly a general interest in the genre.
 +
 +During [[Renaissance]] lived the two major satirists of the [[Medieval Europe]], [[Giovanni Boccaccio]] and [[François Rabelais]]. Other examples, part of the Renaissance reawakening of Roman literary traditions, were the satires ''[[Till Eulenspiegel]]'' and ''[[Reynard the Fox]]'' were published, and also in [[Sebastian Brant]]'s ''[[Ship of Fools|Narrenschiff]]'' (1494), [[Erasmus]]' ''[[Moriae Encomium]]'' (1509) and [[Thomas More]]'s ''[[Utopia]]'' (1516).'''
 +
 +== Chivalric romance ==
 +
 +[[Chivalric romance]]: In the later medieval and early Renaissance period, there was an important European trend towards [[fantastic fiction]]. Works such as ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'' (1485) and [[Amadis of Gaul]] (eC14) spawned a large number of imitators. By 1600, the poor quality of many of the romances had led to them being seen as harmful distractions. ''[[Don Quixote]]'' is the story of an elderly man driven insane by reading too many romances of chivalry.
 +==Women's literature==
 +:''[[antifeminism in Medieval literature]]''
 +While it is true that women in the medieval period were never accorded full equality with men (although some sects, such as the [[Cathar]]s, afforded women greater status and rights), some women were able to use their skill with the written word to gain renown. Religious writing was the easiest avenue—women who would later be canonized as [[saint]]s frequently published their reflections, revelations, and prayers. Much of what is known about women in the Middle Ages is known from the works of [[nun]]s such as [[Clare of Assisi]], [[Bridget of Sweden]], and [[Catherine of Siena]].
 +
 +Frequently, however, the religious perspectives of women were held to be unorthodox by those in power, and the mystical visions of such authors as [[Julian of Norwich]] and [[Hildegard of Bingen]] provide insight into a part of the medieval experience less comfortable for the institutions that ruled Europe at the time. Women wrote influential texts in the secular realm as well—reflections on courtly love and society by [[Marie de France]] and [[Christine de Pizan]] continue to be studied for their glimpses of medieval society.
 +
 +==The fantastique==
 +
 +The ''fantastique'' was virtually defined in the [[Middle Ages]]. This was a time when the supernatural was perceived as something to be avoided, but not unbelievable. The old [[Celtic mythology|Celtic]], [[Franks|Frankish]] and [[Germanic Europe|Germanic]] [[Religion and mythology|myths]] were translated from [[religion]] (implying [[belief]] and [[worship]]) into popular [[folklore]] (implying belief but not worship). At first, the [[Roman Catholic Church | Catholic Church]] allowed the telling of the stories as stories. As time went by, the people's practice of worship came to be more closely associated with Christian tradition and less with pagan tradition. In many cases, one prominent example being the [[King Arthur|Arthurian Romances]], this practice is reflected in the telling of the stories, which were also purposefully altered to incorporate Christian tradition as time went by.
 +
 +The root of modern thought about and artistic depiction of many things which are today often termed 'supernatural' (such as [[angel]]s, [[demon]]s, [[fairies]], [[witches]], et cetera) has its beginnings in the period often called the Middle Ages. Concepts and characters such as [[Melusine]], [[Harlequin]], [[Oberon (Fairy King)|Oberon]], [[Morgan Le Fay]], et cetera, were first given their definitive shapes at this time.
 +
 +Significant contributions of the times include:
 +* The ''[[Chanson de geste|Chansons de geste]]'' [Songs of Deed] such as ''[[The Song of Roland|La Chanson de Roland]]'' [The Song Of Roland] (c. 1100), ''[[Tristan and Iseult|Le Roman de Tristan et Iseult]]'' [The Novel Of Tristan & Ysolde] (c. 1170), ''[[Lancelot|Lancelot, ou Le Chevalier à la Charette]]'' [Lancelot, or The Knight With A Cart] (c. 1177) and ''[[Percival|Perceval, ou le Conte du Graal]]'' [Perceval, or The Tale Of The Grail] (c. 1182), both by [[Chrétien de Troyes]].
 +* Between 1215 and 1235, [[Robert de Boron]], a successor of Chrétien de Troyes, published ''[[Holy Grail|Histoire du Saint-Graal]]'' [The Story Of The Holy Grail], ''[[Merlin (wizard)|Histoire de Merlin]]'' [The Story Of Merlin], ''Le Livre de Lancelot du Lac'' [The Book Of Lancelot Of The Lake], ''La Quête du Saint-Graal'' [The Quest For The Holy Grail] and ''[[King Arthur|La Mort du Roi Arthu]]'' [The Death Of King Arthur]. These books formed the basis for all subsequent [[Round Table (Camelot)|Arthurian legends]], and established the now well known origins of the Holy Grail as the vessel in which [[Joseph of Arimathea]] collected the blood of [[Jesus Christ]].
 +* The ''[[Fables|Fabliaux]]'', satirical fables which relied on the tradition established by [[Aesop]] of using anthropomorphic animals such as ''[[Le Roman de Renart]]'', generally attributed to poet [[Pierre de Saint-Cloud]] (c. 1175). (By the 14th century, ''Le Roman de Renart included over 30 books.)
 +* Medieval [[poetry]] which often employed the supernatural as a mean of literary artifice, such as ''Le [[Roman de la Rose]]'' [The Romance Of The Rose] by [[Guillaume de Lorris]] (c. 1230), the ballads of [[Marie de France]] (c. 1170), ''Le Jeu de la Feuillée'' [The Game Of The Leaves] (c. 1275) by [[Adam de la Halle]], and the anonymous ''Le Livre de la Fontaine Périlleuse'' [The Book Of The Perilous Fountain] (c. 1425).
 +* The religious dramas called ''[[Mystery play|Mysteries]]'' and ''Miracles'' which often took several days to perform, and included spectacular stage effects, such as ''Le Jeu d'Adam'' [Play Of Adam]; ''La Résurrection du Sauveur'' [Our Savior's Resurrection]; ''Le Jeu de Saint Nicolas'' [Play Of Saint Nicolas] by [[Jean Bodel d'Arras]] and the monumental ''Le Mystère de la Passion ''[Mystery Of The Passion, or Passion Play] by [[Arnoul Gréban]], organist and choirmaster of [[Notre Dame de Paris]].
 +==Secular==
 +
 +[[Secular literature]] in this period was not produced in equal quantity as [[religious literature]], but much has survived and we possess today a rich corpus. The subject of "[[courtly love]]" became important in the 11th century, especially in the [[Romance languages]] (in the [[French language|French]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Provençal language|Provençal]], [[Galician-Portuguese]] and [[Catalan language|Catalan]] languages, most notably) and [[Greek language|Greek]], where the traveling singers—[[troubadour]]s—made a living from their songs. The writings of the troubadours are often associated with unrequited longing, but this is not entirely accurate (see [[aubade]], for instance). In Germany, the [[Minnesinger|Minnesänger]] continued the tradition of the troubadours.
 +
 +In addition to epic poems in the Germanic tradition (e.g. ''[[Beowulf]]'' and ''[[Nibelungenlied]]''), epic poems in the tradition of the ''[[chanson de geste]]'' (e.g. ''[[The Song of Roland]] & [[Digenis Acritas]]'') which deal with the [[Matter of France]] and the [[Acritic songs]] respectively, courtly romances in the tradition of the ''[[roman courtois]]'' which deal with the [[Matter of Britain]] and the [[Matter of Rome]] achieved great and lasting popularity. The ''roman courtois'' is distinguished from the ''chanson de geste'' not only by its subject matter, but also by its emphasis on love and chivalry rather than acts of war.
 +
 +Political poetry was written also, especially towards the end of this period, and the [[goliard]]ic form saw use by secular writers as well as clerics. Travel literature was highly popular in the Middle Ages, as fantastic accounts of far-off lands (frequently embellished or entirely false) entertained a society that, in most cases, limited people to the area in which they were born. (But note the importance of [[pilgrimage]]s, especially to [[Santiago de Compostela]], in medieval times, also witnessed by the prominence of [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]'s [[Canterbury Tales]].)
 +
 +==Notable literature of the period==
 +*''[[Alexiad]]'', [[Anna Comnena]]
 +*''[[Digenis Acritas]]'', [[anonymous]] [[Greek literature|Greek author]]
 +*''[[Beowulf]]'', [[anonymous]] [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] author
 +*''[[Cantigas de Santa Maria]]'', [[Galician literature|Galician]] authors
 +*''[[David of Sassoun]]'' by an anonymous [[Armenia|Armenian]] author
 +*''[[Distichs of Cato|Cato]]'' (''Distichs of Cato''), [[Dionysius Cato]]
 +*''[[The Book of the City of Ladies]]'', [[Christine de Pizan]]
 +*''[[Book of the Civilized Man]]'', [[Daniel of Beccles]]
 +*''[[The Book of Good Love]]'', [[Juan Ruiz]]
 +*''[[The Book of Margery Kempe]]'', [[Margery Kempe]]
 +*''[[Brut (Layamon)|Brut]]'', [[Layamon]]
 +*''[[Roman de Brut|Brut]], [[Wace]]
 +*''[[Consolation of Philosophy]]'', [[Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius|Boethius]]
 +*''[[The Canterbury Tales]]'', [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]
 +*''[[Decameron]]'', [[Giovanni Boccaccio]]
 +*''[[The Dialogue]]'', [[Catherine of Siena]]
 +*''[[The Diseases of Women]]'', [[Trotula of Salerno]]
 +*''[[The Divine Comedy|La divina commedia]]'' (''The Divine Comedy''), [[Dante Alighieri]]
 +*''[[Dukus Horant]]'', the first extended work in Yiddish.
 +*''[[Elder Edda]]'', various [[Iceland|Icelandic]] authors
 +*''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]'', anonymous [[English people|English]] author
 +*''[[Heimskringla]]'', [[Snorri Sturluson]]
 +*''[[Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum]]'' ("The Ecclesiastical History of the English People"), the Venerable [[Bede]]
 +*''[[Hypnerotomachia Poliphili]]'', [[Francesco Colonna]]?
 +*''[[The Knight in the Panther Skin]]'', [[Shota Rustaveli]]
 +*''[[The Lais of Marie de France]]'', [[Marie de France]]
 +*''[[The Letters of Abelard and Heloise]]''
 +*''[[Das fließende Licht der Gottheit]]'', [[Mechthild of Magdeburg]]
 +*''[[Ludus de Antichristo]]'', anonymous [[Germany|German]] author
 +*''[[Mabinogion]]'', various [[Wales|Welsh]] authors
 +*''[[Metrical Dindshenchas]]'', [[Irish literature|Irish]] onomastic poems
 +*''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'', Sir [[Thomas Malory]]
 +*''[[Nibelungenlied]]'', anonymous [[Germany|German]] author
 +*''[[Njál's saga]]'', anonymous [[Iceland|Icelandic]] author
 +*''[[Parzival]]'', [[Wolfram von Eschenbach]]
 +*''[[Piers Plowman]]'', [[William Langland]]
 +*''[[Cantar de Mio Cid|Poem of the Cid]]'', anonymous [[Spain|Spanish]] author
 +*''[[Proslogion|Proslogium]]'', [[Anselm of Canterbury]]
 +*''[[Revelations of Divine Love]]'', [[Julian of Norwich]]
 +*''[[Roman de la Rose]]'', [[Guillaume de Lorris]] and [[Jean de Meun]]
 +*''[[Scivias]]'', [[Hildegard of Bingen]]
 +*''[[Sic et Non]]'', [[Abelard]]
 +*''[[The Song of Roland]]'', anonymous [[France|French]] author
 +*''[[Gertrude the Great|Spiritual Exercises]]'', [[Gertrude the Great]]
 +*''[[Summa Theologiae]]'', [[Thomas Aquinas]]
 +*''[[Táin Bó Cúailnge]]'', anonymous [[Ireland|Irish]] author
 +*''[[The Tale of Igor's Campaign]]'', anonymous [[Rus|Russian]] author
 +*''[[Tirant lo Blanc]]'', [[Joanot Martorell]]
 +*''[[The Travels of Marco Polo|Il milione]]'' (''The Travels of Marco Polo''), [[Marco Polo]]
 +*''[[Tristan]]'', [[Thomas d'Angleterre]]
 +*''[[Tristan]]'', [[Béroul]]
 +*''[[Triumphs]]'', [[Petrarch]]
 +*''[[Waltharius]]''
 +*''[[Younger Edda]]'', [[Snorri Sturluson]]
 +*''[[Yvain: The Knight of the Lion]]'', [[Chrétien de Troyes]]
 +*''[[Gesta Danorum]]'', [[Saxo Grammaticus]]
 +==Specific articles==
 +===By region or language===
 +*[[Anglo-Norman literature]]
 +*[[Byzantine literature]]
 +*[[Anglo-Saxon literature]]
 +*[[Early English Jewish literature]]
 +*[[Medieval French literature]]
 +*[[Medieval German literature]]
 +*[[Medieval Latin literature]]
 +**[[Latin translations of the 12th century]]
 +*[[Old Norse literature]]
 +*[[Pahlavi literature]]
 +*[[Medieval Welsh literature]]
 +
 +===By genre===
 +*[[Medieval poetry]]
 +*[[Medieval drama]]
 +*[[Medieval allegory]]
 +*[[Fabliau]]
 +*[[Medieval travel literature]]
 +*[[Arthurian literature]]
 +*[[Alexander romances]]
 +*[[Chanson de geste]]
 +*[[Eddic poetry]]
 +*[[Skaldic poetry]]
 +*[[Alliterative verse]]
 +*[[Miracle plays]]
 +*[[Morality plays]]
 +*[[Mystery plays]]
 +*[[Passion plays]]
 +
 +===By period===
 +*[[Early Medieval literature]] (6th to 9th centuries)
 +*[[10th century in literature]]
 +*[[11th century in literature]]
 +*[[12th century in literature]]
 +*[[13th century in literature]]
 +*[[14th century in literature]]
 +==See also==
 +*[[Block books]]
 +*[[Antifeminist literature of the Middle Ages ]]
 +*[[Farces, sotternies, fabliaux, kluchten, boerdes and contes en vers]]
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Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (encompassing the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500 to the beginning of the Florentine Renaissance in the late 15th century). The literature of this time was composed of religious writings as well as secular works. Just as in modern literature, it is a complex and rich field of study, from the utterly sacred to the exuberantly profane, touching all points in-between. Because of the wide range of time and place it is difficult to speak in general terms without oversimplification, and thus the literature is best characterized by its place of origin and/or language, as well as its genre.

Contents

Anonymity

A notable amount of medieval literature is anonymous. This is not only due to the lack of documents from a period, but also due to an interpretation of the author's role that differs considerably from the romantic interpretation of the term in use today. Medieval authors were often overawed by the classical writers and the Church Fathers and tended to re-tell and embellish stories they had heard or read rather than invent new stories. And even when they did, they often claimed to be handing down something from an auctor instead. From this point of view, the names of the individual authors seemed much less important, and therefore many important works were never attributed to any specific person.

Medieval satire

Medieval satire

In the Early Middle Ages, examples of satire were the songs by goliards or vagants now best known as an anthology called Carmina Burana and made famous as texts of a composition by the 20th century composer Carl Orff. Satirical poetry is believed to have been popular, although little has survived. With the advent of the High Middle Ages and the birth of modern vernacular literature in the 12th century, it began to be used again, most notably by Chaucer. The disrespectful manner was considered "Unchristian" and ignored but for the moral satire, which mocked misbehaviour in Christian terms. Examples are Livre des Manières (~1170), and in some of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The epos was mocked, and even the feudal society, but there was hardly a general interest in the genre.

During Renaissance lived the two major satirists of the Medieval Europe, Giovanni Boccaccio and François Rabelais. Other examples, part of the Renaissance reawakening of Roman literary traditions, were the satires Till Eulenspiegel and Reynard the Fox were published, and also in Sebastian Brant's Narrenschiff (1494), Erasmus' Moriae Encomium (1509) and Thomas More's Utopia (1516).

Chivalric romance

Chivalric romance: In the later medieval and early Renaissance period, there was an important European trend towards fantastic fiction. Works such as Le Morte d'Arthur (1485) and Amadis of Gaul (eC14) spawned a large number of imitators. By 1600, the poor quality of many of the romances had led to them being seen as harmful distractions. Don Quixote is the story of an elderly man driven insane by reading too many romances of chivalry.

Women's literature

antifeminism in Medieval literature

While it is true that women in the medieval period were never accorded full equality with men (although some sects, such as the Cathars, afforded women greater status and rights), some women were able to use their skill with the written word to gain renown. Religious writing was the easiest avenue—women who would later be canonized as saints frequently published their reflections, revelations, and prayers. Much of what is known about women in the Middle Ages is known from the works of nuns such as Clare of Assisi, Bridget of Sweden, and Catherine of Siena.

Frequently, however, the religious perspectives of women were held to be unorthodox by those in power, and the mystical visions of such authors as Julian of Norwich and Hildegard of Bingen provide insight into a part of the medieval experience less comfortable for the institutions that ruled Europe at the time. Women wrote influential texts in the secular realm as well—reflections on courtly love and society by Marie de France and Christine de Pizan continue to be studied for their glimpses of medieval society.

The fantastique

The fantastique was virtually defined in the Middle Ages. This was a time when the supernatural was perceived as something to be avoided, but not unbelievable. The old Celtic, Frankish and Germanic myths were translated from religion (implying belief and worship) into popular folklore (implying belief but not worship). At first, the Catholic Church allowed the telling of the stories as stories. As time went by, the people's practice of worship came to be more closely associated with Christian tradition and less with pagan tradition. In many cases, one prominent example being the Arthurian Romances, this practice is reflected in the telling of the stories, which were also purposefully altered to incorporate Christian tradition as time went by.

The root of modern thought about and artistic depiction of many things which are today often termed 'supernatural' (such as angels, demons, fairies, witches, et cetera) has its beginnings in the period often called the Middle Ages. Concepts and characters such as Melusine, Harlequin, Oberon, Morgan Le Fay, et cetera, were first given their definitive shapes at this time.

Significant contributions of the times include:

Secular

Secular literature in this period was not produced in equal quantity as religious literature, but much has survived and we possess today a rich corpus. The subject of "courtly love" became important in the 11th century, especially in the Romance languages (in the French, Spanish, Provençal, Galician-Portuguese and Catalan languages, most notably) and Greek, where the traveling singers—troubadours—made a living from their songs. The writings of the troubadours are often associated with unrequited longing, but this is not entirely accurate (see aubade, for instance). In Germany, the Minnesänger continued the tradition of the troubadours.

In addition to epic poems in the Germanic tradition (e.g. Beowulf and Nibelungenlied), epic poems in the tradition of the chanson de geste (e.g. The Song of Roland & Digenis Acritas) which deal with the Matter of France and the Acritic songs respectively, courtly romances in the tradition of the roman courtois which deal with the Matter of Britain and the Matter of Rome achieved great and lasting popularity. The roman courtois is distinguished from the chanson de geste not only by its subject matter, but also by its emphasis on love and chivalry rather than acts of war.

Political poetry was written also, especially towards the end of this period, and the goliardic form saw use by secular writers as well as clerics. Travel literature was highly popular in the Middle Ages, as fantastic accounts of far-off lands (frequently embellished or entirely false) entertained a society that, in most cases, limited people to the area in which they were born. (But note the importance of pilgrimages, especially to Santiago de Compostela, in medieval times, also witnessed by the prominence of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.)

Notable literature of the period

Specific articles

By region or language

By genre

By period

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Medieval literature" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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