43.
ORALLY-TRANSMITTED MEDIEVAL LITERATURE: THE
LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR. G. CHAUCER: THE CANTERBURY
TALES
I am going to divide this topic into four different areas. First of all, I am
going to give a brief account of the historical setting of the Middle Ages. Then, I
will deal with the orally-transmitted medieval literature. The third area will be
related to the legend of King Arthur and the Arthurian romances. Finally, I will
give an overview of Geoffrey Chaucer’s works and will focus mainly on The
Canterbury Tales.
I am going to start with a brief historical introduction. The first
literature in English goes back to the period between AD 410 and 1066. These
Anglo-Saxons times are known as the early medieval period. In 410 the
Romans left Britain, and in 1066 the Norman conquest began the late medieval
period of history.
It was a time of wars and invasions – Britain was invaded by many
peoples from Europe: Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vikings and finally Normans.
These invasions left many traces in the form of castles and towns, as well as in
culture and in language. The language known as Old English is the language of
the first literature in English. But it was a long time before it was actually written
down: the first stories and poems were spoken, and we do not know exactly
when these stories were first told. There were two cultures through the Anglo-
Saxon period: the Christian culture, which had arrived in England in 597 with
1
Saint Augustine, and the heroic culture, of leaders and heroes who defended
their lands against invaders.
The Norman conquest (1066) was the last successful invasion of
Britain. The Normans took power and William the Conqueror became king of
England. The Normans brought with them many French influences, and the
French language began to mix with Old English, into a more modern language.
Scandinavian and Latin influences were also important on English language
and culture. Out of these influences a new national identity began to develop.
The first parliament was in 1265 and English became the language of
national law in 1362. The Magna Carta of 1215 reduced the power of the kings,
giving more power and property rights to the aristocrats.
Once I have introduced a brief account of the historical background of
the time, I am going to move on to present the orally-transmitted medieval
literature.
The language of the earliest English literature came from many
different places. The literature itself and its subjects were influenced by different
countries and by different places, peoples and cultures. The topics of the first
literature are topics which are familiar even now: war, religion, personal
sadness and happiness. It was the Christian monks in the monasteries who first
wrote down the words of the early literature – they were the only people who
could read and write, and for many centuries they guarded culture and learning.
2
Poetry was originally oral, whereas prose was mostly preserved in
manuscripts. For this reason, I am going to concentrate on analysing the orally-
transmitted medieval poetry. About 30.000 lines of the Old English poetry have
survived through copies made at the time of the 10 th century monastic
reformation. Old English poetry can be divided into two genres:
The pagan epic or traditional Germanic epic.
The Christian epic.
It is supposed that poetry was originally composed and delivered orally.
Old English poets were called scops and were itinerant artists who composed
songs and poems and memorised them to be delivered. Poetry was an
aristocratic form of entertainment. The kind of poetry composed by these scops
has some typical features:
The most important device of this kind of poetry is alliteration.
The poetic line consisted of two sections or half-lines which have a space
between them called caesura. Every half-line has two main stresses and
many possible secondary stresses.
We find an important use of variation or synonyms, that is, expressing
the same idea in different ways.
There is an important use of kennings, which consist of the use of an
idea represented by means of something that appears something.
Sea = hronrad (the road of the whale)
3
I am going to analyse first the Old English pagan epic and later on I will
move on to the Old English Christian epic.
Regarding Old English pagan epic, the main text is called Beowulf, the
name of the hero of a long anonymous poem. The poem, which is made up of
3280 lines, is set around the 6 th century, but was probably not written down until
the 8th century. The poem is written in the best traditional style and metre, and
narrates the combat between an ideal Germanic hero and demon monsters.
The story is part history, part myth, but the hero is remembered as the man who
can win battles and give safety to his people over a long period of time.
Questions of the passing of time through generations, and of what it means to
be a human being are central. A new translation of Beowulf came out in 1999,
written by the Irish Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney. It was a great success
and won the Whitbread Book of the Year prize.
Beowulf is preserved in the Exeter Book, together with other
anonymous poems such as The Wanderer, The Seafarer and The Battle of
Maldon.
Up to this point I have dealt with the pagan epic, and now I am going to
deal with the Old English Christian epic.
4
The Christian epic follows the same pattern as the original Germanic
epic. The main characters are usually religious or biblical characters taken as a
model of virtues.
We find some important names within the Christian epic. The first one
is Caedmon. There is a legend that he was a shepherd who heard the voice of
God coming to him. He composed his “Hymn”, the first song of praise in English
literature.
Another name from this period is Deor. In Deor’s Lament, the narrator,
Deor, is a writer and singer who has no job. The poem is not only about the
search for work, but it is one of the first texts to talk of the passing of time and of
personal suffering. It combines the Christian and the pagan tradition, and is
probably from the beginning of the 8th century.
The other important Old English poet is Cynewulf. Cynewulf’s poems
are religious in tone and celebrate the lives of saints and other similar poems.
The most important ones are “The Fates of the Apostles”, “Ascension” or “Christ
B”, “Juliana” and “Elena” or “Andreas”.
Among the anonymous religious texts which remain, the best known is
The Dream of the Rood. It is found in the Vercelli Book and in a standing stone
in Ruthwell in Southern Scotland. It is the first example of a kind of poem which
became very popular in later literature: the dream-vision. The poem shows a
5
great range of words to describe the cross of Christ, and a range of images
which later poems developed.
Before moving on to a different area, I would like to mention that both
the Exeter Book and the Vercelli Book above mentioned are collections of
poems which constitute two of the few examples which remain of the work of
monks in preserving texts from the Dark Ages.
I have finished talking about orally-transmitted medieval literature and
now I am going to move on to present the Arthurian legend.
One of the most popular themes in English literature from the Middle
Ages is the Arthurian legend. The Arthurian legend is the body of stories
concerning King Arthur, themes and incidents treated by medieval writers in
most western European languages. The historical basis of the romances
concerning the legendary British king has not been demonstrated.
The story of king Arthur and the knights of the Round Table is the
greatest national myth in English. There may have been a real Arthur
somewhere in south-west England around the year 500. About 200 years later,
the story began to appear in the spoken tradition in Wales. Characters such as
the magician Merlin, Lancelot, Guinevere and features like the sword in a stone
(Excalibur) began to appear. Later, other myths, like the Holy Grail, a religious
symbol of perfection, became part of the Arthurian legend. The myth returns
again and again in English literature, especially in times of crisis or war.
6
Arthur first achieved European fame through Geoffrey of Monmouth’s
Latin text, Historia Regum Britanniae (1130’s), an account of British kings who
reigned before Christ. It includes most of the legends and figures at Arthur’s
court. An Old English translation by Robert Wace was completed about 1185.
Between 1170 and 1190 the French romances of Chrétien de Troyes
mixed the legends of King Arthur and the Holy Grail. Welsh versions of scenes
from his works were also collected in The Mabinogion.
In 1200, Layamon’s Brut used many sources, including Wace, to retell
Old Englsh story in a chivalric style. It has a great importance because it
includes the earliest surviving English legends of King Arthur. It contains some
material that does not appear in earlier sources, especially in connection with
the Round Table and Avalon.
As the same time as England’s involvement in the Hundred Years War,
in the 1300’s, many Arthurian stories were produced. Sir Gawain was usually
the most heroic knight, as in the most famous 14 th century romances, Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight. Two romances, however, placed Lancelot at the
centre of the story.
Around 1430 we find the first Arthurian romance by a named author,
Launfal Miles by Thomas Chestre, based on an earlier telling of the story. In
7
1485 Caxton printed Sir Thomas Malory’s romance Le Morte d’Arthur, written
around 1470.
Edmun Spenser, in The Faerie Queene (1590-96) used features of the
Arthurian legend to praise Queen Elizabeth I.
In the 19th century, Alfred Tennyson included many poems inspired by
the Arthurian legend in his Poems. Later he published Idylls of the King (1859-
85) in several books.
In the 20th century writers continued to draw on the legend. In 1937 T.
H. White wrote a story for children, The Sword in the Stone, filmed by Disney;
this was republished in 1958, with the addition of 3 more Arthurian stories, as
The Once and the Future King. This became the stage and film musical
Camelot in the 1960’s. Another successful film about King Arthur, Excalibur,
followed in the early 1980’s. In 2004 a new film, King Arthur, was produced.
Once I have presented the orally-transmitted medieval literature and
the Arthurian legend, I will move on to expose the last area of the topic:
Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales.
One of the best-known names in English literature is Geoffrey Chaucer.
He was born around 1340, and was a member of the mercantile bourgeoisie.
During his lifetime, he had basically two activities: the merchant activity and a
diplomatic activity, as he was a civil servant who worked as a diplomat. For this
8
reason, he was sent to several countries (France, Italy…). This allowed him to
be in touch with different literary traditions.
Chaucer’s works can be divided into three different periods:
The French period: England was still highly influenced by French culture
as Anglo-Norman was still spoken. In this period Chaucer wrote many
romances. The most remarkable works of the period are The Book of the
Duchess, an elegy written to commemorate the death of Blanche of
Lancaster; The Parliament of the Fowles, a dream allegory full of
symbolism with an humorous treatment of courtly love; The House of
Fame, an allegorical poem; and The Legend of Good Women, an
unfinished collection of tales.
The Italian period: there is an influence of Dante, Petrarch and
Boccaccio. Chaucer introduced into English the rhymed iambic
pentameter. In this period we find works such as Knight’s Tale, an epic
love tale; and Troilus and Criseyde, Chaucer’s longer poem, strongly
influenced by Boethius’s De Consolatione Philosophiae and by
Boccaccio.
The English period: in this period we find The Canterbury Tales.
Chaucer is considered to be the creator of English versification. His
main aim is to express in English the beauty he has found in French and Italian
verse. His metre is extremely varied and skilful, notably musical.
9
The language Chaucer used is the language of the court and the city of
London. It is the main source of modern Standard English.
The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400) is Chaucer’s best-known work. It is
a series of linked stories, told by a group of people on their way from an inn in
Southwark to the cathedral of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury. There is a
group of 30 pilgrims, including the poet himself, each of which was to tell two
stories going and two returning. But only 22 of these stories were in fact
completed. Chaucer took the idea of a linked series of stories from the writings
of Boccaccio.
The book begins with a prologue of 858 lines of five stresses each, in
rhyming couplets. There is a description of the spring, where the world comes lo
life again after a long winter. After that, the group of pilgrims is described one by
one in a series of brilliant brief portraits. The pilgrims are taken from the varied
14th century society, and the group is like a microcosm of society. Almost all of
the pilgrims are in some degree objects of Chaucer’s comic satire.
The tales show the social interests of the characters: Knightly affairs,
pious tales, moral tales, exempla, fablieaux…
The Canterbury Tales is the great mirror of its time. Chaucer describes
a society that is changing, and its people and their values are changing too.
Again and again the stories and the story-tellers contrast old ways of behaving
10
and of thinking with more modern attitudes. For instance, religion is less
important than enjoying life and making money is a new ambition.
Chaucer, in his own time and ever since, has been recognised as one
of the greatest English poets and as the first founder of the English language.
To conclude, the different aspects dealt with in this topic –the orally-
transmitted medieval literature, the Arthurian legend and The Canterbuty Tales-
had a great importance in its time and have survived throughout time,
influencing modern literature and even cinema and drama.
11