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The Middle Ages (to ca. 1485): A Comprehensive Overview

The Middle Ages (to ca. 1485): A Comprehensive Overview. Literature 207 Gazzara. Introducing the Period. Treasures from the oldest Writers of English Ancient Celtic poets of England and its neighboring lands Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Potter…

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The Middle Ages (to ca. 1485): A Comprehensive Overview

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  1. The Middle Ages (to ca. 1485): A Comprehensive Overview Literature 207 Gazzara

  2. Introducing the Period Treasures from the oldest • Writers of English • Ancient Celtic poets of England and its neighboring lands • Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Potter… • Characteristics of modern heroism and heroic plots/stakes

  3. Strengths of Medieval Poetry • Powerful storytelling • Moments of riddling wit • Moral and political challenges • Incantatory patterns of sound • Surreal landscapes • Piercing invasions of the supernatural

  4. Pagan and Christian • Germanic art of writing post conversion • 597 Pope Gregory the Great to southeastern kingdom of Kent • Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People • From illiterate cowherd to poet • Predominance of religious works comprise preserved works from Anglo-Saxon/medieval period • Produced and preserved by Church, where literacy thrived • Christianity used Germanic poetry for its own purposes

  5. “Quid Hinieldus cum Christo?” • 797  Alcuin’s letter to the bishop of Lindisfarne • “What has Ingeld to do with Christ?” • Alcuin’s “Ingeld” = “heroic poetry” recited to the monks • “We have heard of those princes’ heroic campaigns.” • A little versus A lot.

  6. Beowulf hints… • Knowledge of Germanic mythology and heroic literature = limited • Archaeology and Beowulf (a Christian conception of paganism) • Alcuin’s letter  Beowulf poet HEARD and adapted oral poems • Scholars think, though, that writing of the poem occurred (not oral first)

  7. The Legend of Arthur • History and Romance • The French barons  rulers in the Twelth Century • Britannia versus Anglo-Saxon invaders • “The Britons told stories…”: LEGEND BORN

  8. Medieval Sexuality • Idealization NOT as motive • Sexual love heavy in medieval romance • “Courtly love” idealizes women but emphasizes their difference (“mercy”) • LOVE AS SERVICE (slavery, religion, politics) = women as objects of erotic-worship • Usually presented as extramarital

  9. Old English Epic and Bede • Celebrated the deeds of heroes in a warrior society • Psychodynamics of orality (Walter Ong); possible in Twitter age? • Similar traditions in German • Connections between epic and history: “We have heard…” Remember that Bede was a scholar of rhetoric—

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