English Literature- From the Origins to the Middle Ages

FROM THE ORIGIN TO THE MIDDLE AGE

english literature

The Medieval prose writing

The Medieval Literature

The Medieval Ballads

Anglo-Saxon prose writing

Historical Background

INDEX

Historical Background

793 Viking attack on the monastery of Lindisfarne

368 The Roman start to leave Britain

122 Construction of Hadrian's Wall begins

878 King Alfred of Wessex defeats the Vikings

ca 450 The Angles, Saxons and Jutes begin the conquest and settlement of Britain

43 AD Conquest of Britain by Emperor Claudius

TIMELINE

1066 Norman invasion and conquest of Britain

55 BC Julius Caesar's expedition to Britain

700 BC The Celts begin to arrive in Britain

FROM THE ORIGINS TO THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD

1470s first printing press in England

1348-50 Black Death

1295 Edward I summons the Model Parliament

1215 King Jhon signs Magna Carta

1381 Peasants' Revolt

1337-1453 Hundred Years' War

1170 murder of Thomas Becket

TIMELINE

1455-85 War of Roses

introduced the feudal system and the values linked to chivalry

1154-89 Henry II, the first Plantagenet king

THE MIDDLE AGES

anglo-saxon prose writing

Exeter Book: it contains six pagan elegies imbued with a sense of fate and a melancholic atmosphere. The main themes of the elegies are exile and loneliness. The elegies are:

• Deor's Lament
• The Wife's Lament
• The Husband's Message
• The Wanderer
• The Saferer
• The Ruin

The Exeter Book contains also the poem Widsith (also known as The Traveller's Song) and almost 100 Riddles.

• the books traslated by King Alfred;
• the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
• 4 manuscripts: Nowell Manuscript (Cotton Vitellius), Exeter Book, Bodleain Junius 11 and Vercelli Book

The most important works of the Anglo-saxon period

Beowulf's features.

• the warrior Beowulf embodies the manners and the values of the Germanic heroic code such as bravery, loyalty and honour.
• it portrays an arictocratic society based on hierarchy
• it includes some Christian elements
• it is an alliterative poem
• it contains a lot of kennings

The Nowell Manuscript: composed around 700 A.D by an anonymous writer, it contains the most important epic poem in English history, the Beowulf.

The Anglo-Saxon Religious Poetry Caedmon and Cynewulf were two important writers of this period. Cædmon's only known surviving work is Cædmon's Hymn, the nine-line alliterative vernacular praise poem in honour of God which he reportedly learned to sing in his initial dream. The production of Cynewulf includes 4 major poems: The Fates of Apostles, Elene, Juliana and Christ II. The main sources of the poems are homilies and hagiographies and they are principally written in alliterative verse.

the medieval literature

The Medieval Verse Romance Medieval verse romance were composed and recited by professional minstrels. Romances can be classified into:

• the matter of France
• the matter of ancient Rome
• the matter of Britain (King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table)

The first account of King Arthur's life appeared in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae. Sir Guwain and the Green Knight (ca. 1380) is one of the most important romance in Middle English, whose author is unknown.It may be red as an allegory of life, the symbolical rapresentation of mens struggle against evil forces. In the same manuscript there is a dream poem called Pearl in which the poet laments the loss of his beloved daughter which symbolises the loss of grace.

John Gower (ca. 1330-1408) He was one of the major poets of the 14th century. His most important works are:

• Mimoir de l'Omme, an allegorical poem in French
• Confessio amantis, a collection of narrative poems written in English
• Vox Clamantis, is a Latin poem in which he condemned the misgovernment that led the Peasants'Revolt.

William Langland (ca. 1332-ca.1386) He is the author of Piers Plowman, a long allegorical dream poem in alliterative verse that juxtaposes actuality and vision. In fact Langland attacks the corruption of the church and the clergy because they are unable to encourage the rich to help the poor.

Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1343-1400) He's considered as the father of the English Literature for three main reasons: firstly, he's one of the first English poets to be known by name. Secondly, his language, the dialect of his native London, gradually bacame standard English, becoming the basis of Modern English. Thirdly, his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales, he was able to give a portrait of the English society of his time. Chaucer's works are usually divided in three periods: 1. The French period,: it includes poems modelled on French romances styles and subjects, such as The Romaunt of the Rose (translation of the popoular French poem Le Roman de la Rose) and The Book of the Duchess, a dream poem that shows Chaucer's knowledge of classical poets such as Ovid and Virgil. 2. The Italian period: it shows great skills in the manipulation of metres. It includes The Parliament of Fowls (dream poem), The House of Fame, Troylus and Criseide a love poem adapted from Boccaccio and The Legend of Good Women. 3. The English period: it is marjed by a greater realism and includes Chaucer's most famous work, The Canterbury Tales (ca 1387-1400).

THE CANTERBURY TALES Is a long narrative poem that tells the story of thirty people who are going on a pilgrimage to Tomas Becket's shrine in Canterbury.The work consists of a General Prologue and 24 tales, but it's unfinishedChaucer used rhyming couplets made up of ten-syllable lines. He offers a realistic portrait of Medieval society. The pilgrims come from different social classes, from the military (the Knight), the clergy (the Monk) or the middle classes (the Merchant), but Chaucer excluded the aristocracy or peasants. This is because no noblemen would have travelled with common people, and lower-class people could not afford the expense of such a trip.Chaucer's descriptions are gently humorous and ironical because he wanted to satirise the corruption of the classes rapresented.The pilgrim's journey symbolises the passage from worldly pleasure to a sacred destination, Canterbury.The poem covers a wide range of medieval themes, such as love, marriage, corruption, hypocrisy and chivalry.

• King James I of Scotland (1394-1437)
• Robert Henryson (ca. 1424-1505)
• William Dunbar (ca 1456-1513)
• Gavin Douglass (ca. 1475-1522)

• John Lydgate (ca. 1370-1450)
• Thomas Hoccleve (ca. (1368-1426)

ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH CHAUCERIANS

The medieval ballads

Medieval Ballads are oral narrative poems intended for common people which were originally accompanied by music and dances. Features:

• no moral aim
• they are short and focus on a single episode;
• the structure is often in the form of question and answer;
• simple language
• they are usually divided into four-line stanzas rhyming ABCB or couplets with an alternating repetition of one or more lines (refrain)

Medieval Ballads are classified into: border ballads, about the rivalry between the English and the Scottish people ballads of magic, about fairies, ghosts and witches; ballads of outlaws, with the cycle of Robin Hood religious ballads ballads of love and domestic tragedy

mEDIEVAL PROSE WRITING

Thomas Malory (ca. 1416-1471) He is the author of a cycle of Arthurian tales published as La Morte D'Arthur by William Caxton in 1485.

John Wycliffe (ca. 1330-1384) Wycliffe was a prominent theologian that found the religious reformist movement known as Lollardy. He attacked the Church for its wealth and corruption. His prose production includes tracts and treatises in Latin, but he chiefly remembered for having tranlsated the Bible into English for the first time.

Geoffrey of Monmouth The archdeacon Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote in Latin the greatest prose work of early Middle Ages, Historia Regum Britanniae; it chronicles the lives of the kings of the Britons over the course of two thousand years