Middle Ages  

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The Middle Ages is a period in European history following Classical antiquity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire, spanning roughly the 10 centuries from AD 500 to 1500. It was a period of great cultural, political, and economic change in Europe. The Middle Ages witnessed the first sustained urbanization of northern and western Europe. Modern European states owe their origins to the Middle Ages, and their political boundaries as we know them are essentially the result of the military and dynastic achievements in this tumultuous period. Science, technology, agricultural production, and social identity changed drastically during this period.

Culture

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.

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:

Culture




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Middle Ages" 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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