Medieval Literature (Important Points)

Medieval Literature

1. Thomas Hoccleve or Occleve (c. 1368–1426) was an English poet and clerk. Hoccleve wrote in a number of genres popular in his day. His first major work, the “Letter of Cupid,” is an example of courtly poetry in the manner of the lines of the Roman de la Rose. It contains a dream vision, complex allegory, and wit typical of the courtly style.

2. The Alexiad is a medieval historical and biographical text written around the year 1148 by the Byzantine historian and princess Anna Komnene. In the Alexiad, Komnene describes the political and military history of the Byzantine Empire during the reign of her father, the Byzantine Emperor, which makes it a reference to the Byzantium of the High Middle Ages. The Alexiad documents the Byzantine Empire's interaction with the First Crusade (despite being written nearly fifty years afterwards), and the text highlights the conflicting perceptions of the East and West in the early 12th century. The text was written in the form of artificial Attic Greek and shows the Byzantine perception of the Crusades.

3. Beowulf is an Old English epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative lines. It is the oldest surviving long poem in Old English and is commonly cited as one of the most important works of Old English literature. The poem is set in Scandinavia. Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall in Heorot has been under attack by a monster known as Grendel. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother attacks the hall and is then also defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland (Götaland in modern Sweden) and later becomes king of the Geats. After a period of fifty years has passed, Beowulf defeats a dragon but is fatally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants cremate his body and erect a tower on a headland in his memory.

4. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written by the Venerable Bede in the 8th century is a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between the pre-Schism Roman Rite and Celtic Christianity. It was originally composed in Latin, is considered to be one of the most important original references on Anglo-Saxon history and has played a key role in the development of an English national identity. It is believed to have been completed in 731 when Bede was approximately 59 years old. The History of the English Church and People has a clear polemical and didactic purpose. Bede sets out not just to tell the story of the English, but to advance his views on politics and religion.

5. Cædmon's Hymn is a short Old English poem originally composed by Cædmon, in honour of God the Creator. It survives in a Latin translation by Bede in his Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum and in vernacular versions written down in several manuscripts of Bede's Historia.

6. The Roman de la Rose, is a medieval French poem styled as an allegorical dream vision. It is a notable instance of courtly literature. The work's stated purpose is to both entertain and teach others about the Art of Love. At various times in the poem, the "Rose" of the title is seen as the name of the lady, and as a symbol of female sexuality in general. Likewise, the other characters' names function both as regular names and as abstractions illustrating the various factors that are involved in a love affair.

7. Book of the Civilized Man by Daniel of Beccles (Latin: Urbanus Magnus Danielis Becclesiensis, also known as Liber Urbani, Urbanus Magnus, or Civilized Man) is believed to be the first English courtesy book (or book of manners), dating probably from the beginning of the 13th century. The book is significant because in the later Middle Ages, dozens of such courtesy books were produced. Because this appears to be the first in English history, it represented a new awakening to etiquette and decorum in English court society, which occurred in the 13th century. As a general rule, a book of etiquette is a mark of a dynamic rather than a stable society, one in which there is an influx of "new" men, who have not been indoctrinated with the correct decorum from an early age and who are avid to catch up in a hurry.

8. John Bale (21 November 1495 – November 1563) was an English churchman, historian and controversialist, and Bishop of Ossory. He wrote the oldest known historical verse drama in English (on the subject of King John), and developed and published a very extensive list of the works of British authors down to his own time, just as the monastic libraries were being dispersed. His unhappy disposition and habit of quarrelling earned him the nickname "bilious Bale".

9. The Book of Good Love (El Libro de Buen Amor), is considered to be one of the masterpieces of Spanish poetry is a semi-biographical account of romantic adventures by Juan Ruiz, the Archpriest of Hita, the earliest version of which dates from 1330; the author completed it with revisions and expansions in 1343. The work is considered the best piece in the medieval genre known as Mester de Clerecía. The Book begins with prayers and a guide as to how to read the work, followed by stories each containing a moral and often comical tale. The Book of Good Love is a varied and extensive composition of 1728 stanzas, centring on the fictitious autobiography of Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita.

10. The Book of Margery Kempe is a medieval text attributed to Margery Kempe, an English Christian mystic and pilgrim who lived at the turn of the fifteenth century. It details Kempe's life, her travels, her alleged experiences of divine revelation (including her visions of interacting with Jesus as well as other biblical figures), and her presence at key biblical events such as the Nativity and the Crucifixion. Kempe's book is written in the third person, employing the phrase "this creature" to refer to Kempe in order to display humility before God. Kempe claimed to be illiterate and her book was dictated to two scribes who set it down. Kempe's book is widely cited as the first autobiography in English; however, scholars disagree on whether it can accurately be called an autobiography, or whether it would be more accurately classified as a confession of faith or autohagiography.

11. Layamon or Laghamon - spelt Laȝamon or Laȝamonn in his time, occasionally written Lawman - was a poet of the late 12th/early 13th century and author of the Brut, a notable work that was the first to present the legends of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in English poetry.

12. Layamon's Brut (ca. 1190 - 1215), also known as The Chronicle of Britain, is a Middle English poem compiled and recast by the English priest Layamon. The Brut is 16,095 lines long and narrates the history of Britain: it is the first historiography written in English since the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Named for Britain's mythical founder, Brutus of Troy, the poem is largely based on the Anglo-Norman Roman de Brut by Wace, which is in turn a version of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin Historia Regum Britanniae. Layamon's poem, however, is longer than both and includes an enlarged section on the life and exploits of King Arthur. It is written in the alliterative verse style commonly used in Middle English poetry by rhyming chroniclers, the two halves of the alliterative lines being often linked by rhyme as well as by alliteration.

The verification of the Brut has proven extremely difficult to characterise. Written in a loose alliterative style, sporadically deploying rhyme as well as a caesural pause between the hemistichs of a line, it is perhaps closer to the rhythmical prose of Ælfric of Eynsham than to verse, especially in comparison with later alliterative writings such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Piers Plowman. Layamon's alliterating verse is difficult to analyse, seemingly avoiding the more formalised styles of the later poets. Layamon's Middle English at times includes modern Anglo-Norman language: the scholar Roger Loomis counted 150 words derived from Anglo-Norman in its 16,000 long lines. It is remarkable for its abundant Anglo-Saxon vocabulary; deliberately archaic Saxon forms that were quaint even by Anglo-Saxon standards. Imitations in the Brut of certain stylistic and prosodic features of Old English alliterative verse show a piece of knowledge and interest in preserving its conventions. Layamon's Brut remains one of the best extant examples of early Middle English. During an era in English history when most prose and poetry were composed in French, Layamon wrote to his illiterate, impoverished religious audience in Worcestershire. In 1216, around the time Layamon wrote, King Henry III of England came to the throne. Henry regarded himself as an Englishman above any other nationality, unlike many of his recent predecessors, and moved his kingdom away from the Old French dialects that had ruled the country's cultural endeavours. Several original passages in the poem-at least in accordance with the present knowledge of extant texts from the Middle Ages-suggests Layamon was interested in carving out the history of the Britons as the people 'who first possessed the land of the English'.

13. Roman de Brut or Brut is a verse literary history of Britain by the poet Wace. Written in the Norman language, it consists of 14,866 lines. It is based on Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae and was probably begun around 1150 and finished in 1155. It was intended for a Norman audience interested in the legends and history of the new territories of the Anglo-Norman realm, covering the story of King Arthur and taking the history of Britain all the way back to the mythical Brutus of Troy. The Brut was the most popular of Wace's works and survives in more than 30 manuscripts or fragments. It was used by Layamon as the basis for his Brut. It contained a number of significant elaborations of Geoffrey, including the first mention of King Arthur's Round Table.

14. The Cloud of Unknowing (Middle English: The Cloude of Unknowing) is an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century. The text is a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer in the late Middle Ages. The author is unknown. A second major work by the same author, The Book of Privy Counseling (originally titled Prive Counselling), continues the themes discussed in the Cloud. It is less than half the size of the Cloud, appears to be the author's final work, and clarifies and deepens some of its teachings.

15. Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Boccaccio wrote a number of notable works, including The Decameron and On Famous Women. He wrote his imaginative literature mostly in the Italian vernacular, as well as other works in Latin, and is particularly noted for his realistic dialogue which differed from that of his contemporaries, medieval writers who usually followed formulaic models for character and plot.

16. The Decameron, subtitled Prince Galehaut, is a collection of novellas by the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375). The book is structured as a frame story containing 100 tales told by a group of seven young women and three young men sheltering in a secluded villa just outside Florence to escape the Black Death, which was afflicting the city. Boccaccio probably conceived the Decameron after the epidemic of 1348 and completed it by 1353. The various tales of love in The Decameron range from the erotic to the tragic. Tales of wit, practical jokes, and life lessons contribute to the mosaic. In addition to its literary value and widespread influence (for example in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales), it provides a document of life at the time. Written in the vernacular of the Florentine language, it is considered a masterpiece of classical early Italian prose.

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