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Medieval literature

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History 1500 and
before (including Roman Britain); Literature types

   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.

Languages

   Since Latin was the language of the Roman Catholic Church, which
   dominated Western and Central Europe, and since the Church was
   virtually the only source of education, Latin was a common language for
   Medieval writings, even in some parts of Europe that were never
   Romanized. However, in Eastern Europe, the influence of the Eastern
   Roman Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church made Greek and Old Church
   Slavonic the dominant written languages.

   The common people continued to use their respective vernaculars. A few
   examples, such as the Old English Beowulf, the Middle High German
   Nibelungenlied, the Medieval Greek Digenis Acritas and the Old French
   Chanson de Roland, are well known to this day. Although the extant
   versions of these epics are generally considered the works of
   individual (but anonymous) poets, there is no doubt that they are based
   on their peoples' older oral traditions. Celtic traditions have
   survived in the lais of Marie de France, the Mabinogion and the
   Arthurian cycles.

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.

Types of writing

Religious

   As shown in the chart to the right, theological works were the dominant
   form of literature typically found in libraries during the Middle Ages.
   Catholic clerics were the intellectual centre of society in the Middle
   Ages, and it is their literature that was produced in the greatest
   quantity.
   Libraries: A Matter of Content - Distribution of theological vs.
   secular works over time
   Libraries: A Matter of Content - Distribution of theological vs.
   secular works over time

   Countless hymns survive from this time period (both liturgical and
   paraliturgical). The liturgy itself was not in fixed form, and numerous
   competing missals set out individual conceptions of the order of the
   mass. Religious scholars such as Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas,
   and Pierre Abélard wrote lengthy theological and philosophical
   treatises, often attempting to reconcile the teachings of the Greek and
   Roman pagan authors with the doctrines of the Church. Hagiographies, or
   "lives of the saints", were also frequently written, as an
   encouragement to the devout and a warning to others.

   The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine reached such popularity that,
   in its time, it was reportedly read more often than the Bible. Francis
   of Assisi was a prolific poet, and his Franciscan followers frequently
   wrote poetry themselves as an expression of their piety. Dies Irae and
   Stabat Mater are two of the most powerful Latin poems on religious
   subjects. Goliardic poetry (four-line stanzas of satiric verse) was an
   art form used by some clerics to express dissent. The only widespread
   religious writing that was not produced by clerics were the mystery
   plays: growing out of simple tableaux re-enactments of a single
   Biblical scene, each mystery play became its village's expression of
   the key events in the Bible. The text of these plays was often
   controlled by local guilds, and mystery plays would be performed
   regularly on set feast-days, often lasting all day long and into the
   night.

   During the Middle Ages, the Jewish population of Europe also produced a
   number of outstanding writers. Maimonides, born in Cordoba, Spain, and
   Rashi, born in Troyes, France, are two of the best-known and most
   influential of these Jewish authors.

Secular

   The first page of Beowulf
   The first page of Beowulf

   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 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.)

Women's literature

   While it is true that women in the medieval period were never accorded
   full equality with men (in fact, misogynist tracts abound, although
   many 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.

Allegory

   While medieval literature makes use of many literary devices, allegory
   is so prominent in this period as to deserve special mention. Much of
   medieval literature relied on allegory to convey the morals the author
   had in mind while writing--representations of abstract qualities,
   events, and institutions are thick in much of the literature of this
   time. Probably the earliest and most influential allegory is the
   Psychomachia (Battle of Souls) by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius. Other
   important examples include the Romance of the Rose, Everyman, Piers
   Plowman and The Divine Comedy.

Notable literature of the period

     * Alexiad, Anna Comnena
     * Digenis Acritas, anonymous Greek author
     * Beowulf, anonymous Anglo-Saxon author
     * Cantigas de Santa Maria, Galician authors
     * David of Sassoun by an anonymous Armenian author
     * 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, Wace
     * Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius
     * The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
     * Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio
     * The Dialogue, Catherine of Siena
     * The Diseases of Women, Trotula of Salerno
     * La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy), Dante Alighieri
     * Dukus Horant, the first extended work in Yiddish.
     * Elder Edda, various Icelandic authors
     * Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, anonymous 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 German author
     * Mabinogion, various Welsh authors
     * Metrical Dindshenchas, Irish onomastic poems
     * Le Morte d'Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory
     * Nibelungenlied, anonymous German author
     * Njál's saga, anonymous Icelandic author
     * Parzival, Wolfram von Eschenbach
     * Piers Plowman, William Langland
     * Poem of the Cid, anonymous Spanish author
     * 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 French author
     * Spiritual Exercises, Gertrude the Great
     * Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas
     * Táin Bó Cúailnge, anonymous Irish author
     * The Tale of Igor's Campaign, anonymous Russian author
     * Tirant lo Blanc, Joanot Martorell
     * 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

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