STUDY POINTS
Medieval English Literature
Century Text and author OR Important elements and themes
Context
Seventh century (with later Cædmon’s Hymn, Cædmon ● Earliest surviving text
versions around the ninth or (found in Bede's Historia in English;
tenth century) Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum - ● Provides a model for
A History of the English Church later alliterative
and People) poetry
● Provides evidence of
England’s early
Christianization
Ninth or tenth century Beowulf, anonymous, found in ● Epic poem and its
the Nowell Codex or Beowulf elements;
manuscript ● The mead-hall;
● Heorot (place in
Denmark where king
Hrothgar holds
court);
● Geatland (Beowulf’s
nation);
● Grendel;
● Grendel’s mother;
● Hrunting (sword)
● Other characters:
Unferth, Breca,
Wiglaf, Hrothgar,
Wealhtheow (the
queen), Scyld
Scefing, Hygelac;
● wyrd (fate);
● kenning(ar)
(metaphors: whale-
road, word-hoard)
● Germanic vs
Christian cultural
elements (and how
they mingle);
● Heroic world view
THREE MAIN
“MODES”: elegiac,
heroic, religious
Ninth or tenth century Judith, anonymous, found in the ● Poetic adaptation of a
Nowell codex biblical story;
● Judith as the ideal
Germanic warrior;
● Judith as an
embodiment of
Christian ideals;
● Brief, effective
narrative effect
Tenth century The Wanderer, anonymous, ● The elegy and its
found in the Exeter Book elements;
● Exile and its
relevance in Anglo-
Saxon culture;
● Symbolic spiritual
and personal journey;
● Wisdom and
expression as
vehicles;
● Peculiar ending:
Christian solace;
Eleventh century Norman Conquest of 1066 ● Carried out by Duke
William of
Normandy (William
the Conqueror);
● Meant that England
changed politically,
socially, and
culturally;
● Introduction of
French language and
customs;
● Bayeux Tapestry;
Twelfth century Geoffrey of Monmouth, ● First literary mention
Historia regum britanniae (A of King Arthur and
History of the Kings of Britain) Merlin;
● Although written as
historiography, it
combines fictional
and fantastic
elements;
● Fiction as a central
element in
historiographical
writing in the Middle
Ages;
● Important text for the
Norman colonizing
project;
Twelfth, thirteenth, and early Trilingual England ● Latin, English, and
fourteenth centuries Anglo-Norman were
England's main
literary languages
from the late eleventh
to the early
fourteenth century;
● French (Anglo-
Norman) became
the dominant
vernacular in the
twelfth,
thirteenth, and
early fourteenth
centuries
● From the mid-
fourteenth century
onwards, English
became the dominant
literary vernacular
and eventually
superseded French
and Latin
Late twelfth/ early thirteenth Marie de France, Lais : Lanval, ● Marie wrote in
century Bisclavret Anglo-Norman and
was likely based in
England;
● Her work considers
chivalry, courtesy,
and la féerie (fairy
play) as main
elements;
● In Lanval, the
unnamed lady holds
the story's plot
together; in
Bisclavret, animality
holds the story’s plot
Old English (seventh or eight- Main differences between OE ● OE:
century through 1066) and ME ○ Heavily inflected (it
Middle English (1066-ca.1500) follows a case
Modern English (sixteenth system);
century-the present) ○ 100% Germanic;
regarding vocabulary
and morphology;
Special letters: thorn (þ)
eth (ð), yogh (ȝ) wynn
(ƿ), ash (æ), ethel (œ)
● ME:
○ Less inflected;
○ Borrows heavily from
French and Latin;
○ Largely phonetic and
has different literary
dialiects;
● ModE:
○ When English became
“modern”, it
underwent phonetic
changes in the
sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries
called “The Great
Vowel Shift”
Mid-fourteenth century Sir Gawain and the Green ● Genre: romance;
Knight, “anonymous Pearl Poet” ● “Alliterative
or “Gawain Poet” Revival”;
● Courtly code;
● Significance of the
color green;
● Allegory: the
pentangle
● Translatio: a transfer;
specific cases:
translatio imperii;
translatio studii;
● Arthurian tradition;
Auctor / auctoritas
● The exchange;
● Female role;
● Marvelous elements
Late fourteenth century (1380s) Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury ● Pilgrimage to
Tales, General Prologue Canterbury (from
Southwark to
Canterbury);
29 pilgrims (“well nyne-
and-twenty in a
compaignye”);
Storytelling competition;
(to quyt[e]);
● Estate satire (social
class);
● Medieval middle
class
(bourgeoisie);
● Church and
scholarly-related
professions;
● Guildsmen and
guildswomen;
● Military professions
Late fourteenth century (1380s) Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury ● Courtly romance (you
Tales, Knight's Tale know the
conventions…);
● Specific instances of
translatio;
● Boethian elements;
● Emily, Arcite,
Palamon, Theseus;
● Moral elements:
(Platonic love as a
value);
● Specific idea of
marriage in this tale
vs. other tales
Late fourteenth century (1380s) Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury ● How the miller
Tales, Miller's Tale “quites” the knight;
● Fabliau: the bodily,
the sexual, the
mundane;
● Erotic and sexual
desire vs romantic
love;
● Specific idea of
marriage in this tale
vs. other tales
Late fourteenth century (1380s) Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury ● Importance of
Tales, Wife of Bath's Prologue middle- class women;
& Tale ● Wife of Bath as a
character & as an
example of a
medieval reality &
author;
● Marriage as a
profession;
● Glossing vs.
“auctoritas”;
● Sovereignty in
marriage;
● Plot elements (what
women want);
● Gentillesse;
● Differences between
the Prologue and Tale
Late fourteenth century (1380s) Geoffrey Chaucer, Pardoner's ● Exemplum
Tale (moralizing tale)
and/or sermon;
● Death and greed as
driving forces;
● The pardoner as a
character: corrupt but
charismatic,
extremely intelligent
but morally flawed;
● Pardoning as a
profession and the
trafficking of relics;
● Difference between
this and the other
tales;
● Discourse on money
vs spirituality
Late fourteenth to early Margery Kempe, Book ● Elements of
fifteenth century autobiography;
● Elements of literature
written by female
mystics;
● Hagiography (saints’
lives);
● Authorship, authority
and auctoritas;
● Intimacy and
marriage;
● A proto-feminist
text?;
● Margery as wife,
mother, sister,
daughter, friend, and
exemplary saint;
● Margery as Christ
and Mary (imitatio
Christi & imitatio
Mariae);
● Margery's own view
of religion and its
interpretation;
● Meaning of heresy in
a medieval context
Late fifteenth century (1480s Everyman, anonymous ● Medieval vs early
but with a later printing date) modern theatre:
differences;
● Mystery plays
(miracle plays) vs.
morality plays;
● Everyman’s conflict;
● Allegory (who
accompanies
Everyman?);
● God and Death as
important characters;
● Print culture (William
Caxton introduced
the printing press in
England in 1477);
● Periodization: late
medieval vs early
“Renaissance”
