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UNIT 1
MEDIEVAL LITERATURE – THE DREAM OF THE ROOD
Anglo-saxons to middle english literature.
- Early medieval period: (410-1100) → Old english and Anglo-Saxons literature
- Late medieval period: (1100-1500) → Middle English literature.
CONTEXTS:
In the early 5 thc. AD the south was populated by the Roman legions and the north and west by the Celtics.
By 410, Roman empire left Britain and the Anglo-Saxons (Germanic people from northern Europe, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany) invaded Britain. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes were the most prominent tribes that share similar languages (Germanic languages with the same roots). Their social structure was clannish (each clan had a king) and they were also pagans (they worshiped Gods of Nature).
When these tribes arrived they created different kingdoms (Mercia, Norhtumbria, Essex). But then, the vikings from Scandinavia invaded Britain in 9 th^ c.
King Alfred the Great (849-899) was able to unite all the kingdoms to fight against the vikings. But in the battle of Hastings (1066) against North France, William the conqueror (a Norman king who descended from Vikings) defeated the Anglo-Saxons and it caused the end of their period. William began to reign Britain.
Religion :
They were pagans (they worshipped Gods of Nature, river, lands, animal, sky..)Thor, Wodin, Freya, Loki. They used magic spells, charms, invocations and sacrifices to ensure their success in material things (good harvest, victory in battle...). In this context, Augustine, a benedict monk was sent by the Pope Gregory to Kent to convert the Anglo-Saxons to christianity in 597 AD. They were converted because Christianity gave them solid principles and security and provided them with a happy message and hope.
Society:
They had a warrior society. Had lots of clans each one with a king, and the kings gather with his warriors and fisted together drinking mead (kind of ancient beer) in the meadhall. The kings had blood relationships with their noblemen (retainers, thanes) and all of them had blind loyalty to their kings. There was a mutual relationships of respect and trust between kings and thanes.
They followed the law of germanic revenge. “wergild” → If a you kill someone you have to pay money (depending on the importance of the person you killed) or your life. This had the goal of stopping blood feuds (very long fight between two families or groups in which each group kills members of the other group in order to punish the group for earlier murders)
Women were married to important men to maintain peace between clans (peace weavers).
The scop → a tribal poet or bard (key figure) who sang about victories, teaching and recording
Repetition: oral speech redundant to give emphasis.
- Variation: repetition of a noun with a different set of words. Ex: Glory/ reputation for valor...(paraphrase)
- Formula: set phrase → usually half a line, easy way to memorise and compose poetry.
- Kenning → compound metaphorical term (clever, misterious). Ex: ring-giver(king) / battle-dress(armor) / helmet-bearers(soldiers)
Genres:
- Heroic poetry: 1 epic poetry → longer (Beowulf) / 2 lays → shorter narrative poems (Battle of Maldom)
- Religious poetry: 1 dream vision (dream of the rood) / 2 biblical (Caedmon´s hymn)
- Elegiac poetry: (mournful, emotional) ex: the wanderer.
- Wisdom poetry: 1 gnomic verses → poems dealing with knowledge / 2 Riddles → puzzle compositors / 3 Charms → Magic spells, invocations (to ferility, good harvest...)
Religious poetry → (Caedmon´s hymn) AD 657-680. Earliest christian poem known by name and it was the first english poem with authorship known → included in Bede´s Ecclesiastical history of the english people. The poem mixes Anglo-Saxon and Christian tradition.
CÆDMON'S HYMN (ca. 670)
Now must we praise of heaven's kingdom the keeper
Of the lord the power and his Wisdom
The work of the Glory-Father, as he of marvels each,
The eternal Lord, the beginning established.
He first created of earth for the sons
Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator.
Then the middle enclosure of mankind the Protector
The eternal Lord, thereafter made For men,
earth the Lord almighty
(in Historia Ecclesiastica (731), Book IV, Chapter XXIV)
- Theme: Motif of praise as in many Old Testament psalms.
- Cultural synthesis: Traditional heroic poetic idiom. To present and promote Christian themes.
- Structure: 1ºsection → 1-4 general statement of reason to praise God creation. / 2ºperiod → 5-9 two main aspects of creation: Heaven, Earth.
- Style variation.
The Dream of the Rood → unknown autorship, inserted in a manuscript called Vercelli Book which was written in England in 10 th^ c. It was left in the Italian town of Vercelli on 11 th^ c. Contains 23 prose homilies and 6 poems. It is an intense and original treatment of cruxifixion. But it is older than the book since some lines are carved in Runic characters.
The aim of the poem was to convert Anglo-Saxons to Christianity.
Analysis
- → Context: 7 th^ and 8th^ theological debates about the pharadox of Christ dual Nature (God/Man). The church condemned both herethical.
- → Form: dream vision poem (poem in which a speaker has a dream that gives him some information or truth not available to the dreamer otherwise). The poem recalls OE genres like elegy (full of emotions, mournful → God´s death) and the Riddle (Non- animate object speaking 1ºperson to the audience)
- → Tone: Intensely emotional but changes throughout the poem.
- → Diction: military world /ecclesiastical choice of words.
- → Structure: 1ºpart → Dreamer´s account of his vision of the cross. 2ºpart → Rood´s words describing the Cruxifiction. 3º part → Dreamer´s resolution to seek salvation from the Cross.
- → Themes: Christ suffering and triumph through cruxifiction. Transformation from the cross (tree of death to tree of glory.) Abasement and exaltation of the Cross. Dreamer´s penitence and hope for heavenly bliss through whorship of the cross (Conversion of dreamer).
- → Treatment: Crucifixion: described from the cross as a battle. The cross has loyalty to their Lords and he couldn´t help Christ. (prosopopoeia, lines 27-120, cross personification / Riddle-like narration) Christ: Heroic, warrior like figure (suffering) Cross: loyal retainer in the epic mode.
- → 3 conversions: 1 the defeat and victory of Christ. 2 the cutting down and raising up the cross. 3 the sleep and awakening of the sinful dreamer(from sin to hope).
- → 4 th^ conversion: could be the audience as the aim of the poem is to convert them.
https://prezi.com/obbg0-taffqs/the-dream-of-the-rood/
The Dream of the Rood
Although the Vercelli book was copied in the tenth century, The Dream of the Rood may be
considerably older. Several lines from the poem are carved in runic characters on a large stone
monument known as the Ruthwell Cross, found in a small church in Dumfriesshire. The Cross,
which has been dated to the early eighth century, is elaborately carved with scenes from the Gospels
and lives of the saints.
The Dream of the Rood tells the story of the Crucifixion of Christ from the point of view of the Cross, which appears to the narrator in a dream and recounts its experiences. Christ is presented as a heroic warrior, eagerly leaping on the Cross to do battle with Death; the Cross is a loyal retainer who is painfully and paradoxically forced to participate in his lord’s execution.
The narrator who witnesses all then shares his vision, describes the virtues of devotion to the Cross,
and looks forward to the time when the righteous, protected by the Cross, will be taken up into the
banquet-halls of heaven. The blending of Christian themes and heroic conventions is a striking
example of how the Anglo-Saxons vigorously re-imagined Christianity even as they embraced it.
The Dream of the Rood interweaves biblical, liturgical, and devotional material with the language
of heroic poetry and elegy, and something of the ambiguity and wordplay of the Riddles ; its
complex structure of echoes, allusions, repetitions, and verbal parallels makes it one of the most
carefully constructed poems in Old English.
- Some critics have contended that the poet had knowledge of the imagery of warfare.The term of warfare itself used as depicting of conflict in whichChrist and the Rood forced by men to be crossed.
- Others believe that the composer of the poem must have beenwell acquainted with religious and ecclesiastical
- The representation of the Crucifixion as a battle.
- In the metaphoric battle within the poem, Christ and the Cross are warriors. The existence of those can called as heroicelements. It is because; usually the term of religiosity in Anglo-Saxon cannot be separated with the term of heroic. Forexample is Beowulf. Within the poem, there is a strugglebetween the heroic values and Christian ethics in which thepoet serves as a mediator.
UNIT 2
MEDIEVAL LITERATURE / Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Middle English Literature (1100-1500) → late medieval period.
- It was a period of changes.
- The war had a great importance
- Chaucer and many more authors began to be important, cause the authorship in literature began to be known and that gave honor and fame to the author.
- Predominance of feelings of love and relationship apart from epic and war
- Women started to become important (the ones who lived in the court were so influencial / and some writers and reader women started to appear
- Religion is still a key aspect of the society → Christianism
Context:
- 1066: Normans invaded Britain and took power. William the Conqueror became King of England.
- Consolidation of rule through establishment of the highly organized Norman concept of feudalism (division of society into estates: 1 hyerarchy lords, 2 Folk.)
- William distributed the lands and gave the power to his noble men
- French influences: military and political imposition upon England, though they showed resistance to the new laws and system.
- Black death: a terrible disease that killed the 1/3 of world population in 1347. → as a consequence, there was a shortage of labourers (lack of workers → end of feudalism)
- The Peasant´s Revolt (1381) → sign of a new independence, since they realised that they were important to keep the system working, they demanded improvements on their living and working conditions. They marched to London and killed lots of people (higher-clases).
- Language: there was a coexistence between Anglo-Saxon (spoken by folk), French (Lords) and Latin (Church)
- After 1350, English became the language spoken by those who had used French as a result of a mixture of Anglo.saxon and Frech loandwords. Here the Vernacular(native) literature got started.
Summing up: The change in literary sensibility after 1100 is characterised by a change from epic to romance.
Old English Literature Medieval English Literature Heroic: key theme, loyalty to one´s Lord or God Courtly Romances(novelas de caballeria): key theme, ideal of courtly love. Adventure and feast: Warrior pursues glory and honor to his king
Adventure and feast: the knight´s lady. Importance of the chivalric code. Warrior Knight Meadhall Castle / Court Comitatus (loyal relationship between lords- kings)
Feudal relationship
Heroic code Ideals of courtly love.
Foundation for the legends surrounding king Arthur and his knights.
- Arthur legend appealed to the nationalism
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Authorship said to be the Pearl Poet or Garwain Poet.
Genre :
Arthurian Romance. Typical romance elements:
- Adventuring knights(Garwain), noble ladies(Ginebra) and the supernatural(Green knight).
- (^) Folklore (i.e. Beheading of knight)
- Arthurian legend.
- Testing of hero
- Courtly ideal vs. Worldly reality.
Prosody → Consonant Rhyme ABABA in the cuartets / the other ones, no rhyme but alliteration.
- Alliterative verse but also rhyme.
- Alliteration
-Alliterative revival
- Single lines of poetry are held together by words that alliterate. - Bob-and-Wheel
- -At the end of stanzas
- -5 short lines rhyming ababa
- -Bob: short connecting line (two syllables).
- -Wheel: 4 lines that follow
- -Iambic trimeter.
Narrator´s point of view
- Third person (limited omniscient).
- Gawain’s point of view for the most part.
- Exceptions:
-Beginning (3rd person but not Gawain’s point of view): setting of the tale. -Shift of narrative voice to first person (ll. 30-31) -Insertion of narrator’s point of view: reminder that we hear the story through the filter of narrator.
Tone
- Fantastical (marvellous events)
+Enlightening, epic
- Full of praise
- Awe & amazement -Hyperbole: ll. 51-53; 141-142.
Imagery
- Green colour.
- Green knight’s holly branch & axe (woods).
- Green chapel: wild, natural place.
- The Green Knight’s test: awareness of Gawain’s survival instinct.
Characters
- King Arthur (ll. 85-108)
- Queen Guenevere (ll. 74-84)
- Green knight (ll. 136-156)
- Gawain (l. 109)
Structure
- First 36 lines: introduction to story. -Mythological & historical allusions: - Siege of Troy • Aeneas • Romulus • Brutus • Arthur -Authoritative tone -Idea that Britain has a long & heroic past -Authenticating devices (ll. 30-36; 25-26).
- The story proper begins (l. 37).
- Rest of the poem: ironic questioning of the value of historical myths of heroism in those changing times.
Little is known about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight apart from what the poem itself tells us. Its author is anonymous. The work is preserved in a single manuscript copy that was originally bound up with three other poems, Pearl, Cleanness, and Patience, which are generally regarded as having the same author. Like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight they are written in alliterative verse.
lines followed by a “bob and wheel”: five short lines rhyming ababa, of which the first consists of only two syllables. The number of stressed alliterative words in each long line also varies, the norm being three.
Backgrounds to Romance:
"Courtly Love"
"Romance" originally referred not to a specific literary genre but to the vernacular French language which was called romanz (meaning that it was derived from the language spoken by the Romans, i.e. Latin). In the 12th century, literature which was written down in the French vernacular was referred to as "romance" to distinguish it from "real" literature, which was invariably written in Latin. Gradually, the term "romance" began to refer not to any narrative written in the French vernacular, but to the specific sort of narrative literature that was most popular among the French- speaking court audiences of France and Anglo-Norman England: stories of the chivalric adventures of knights and their ladies, often set at the court of King Arthur.
The audience for these early vernacular narratives was largely made up of women- -the queen, duchess or countess and the other ladies of her court. These women naturally tended to be interested in stories in which women played more central roles than was true in Germanic epics such as Beowulf (which centred almost exclusively on the exploits of male warriors). Because the vernacular language poet's livelihood depended upon pleasing his/her audience, the vernacular narratives written for these courts ("romances") tended to focus on other plot developments than the fighting and malebonding emphasized in epic poetry. The narratives still concern the deeds of brave warriors, but the Middle English knight (unlike the Old English thane) is motivated by love for his lady. Accordingly, women play an increasingly important and active role.
WHAT GAWAIN LEARNED ABOUT HIMSELF
Introduction: The delightful fourteenth-century Middle English romance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, illustrates both the secular and the spiritual concerns of romance narratives. In this passage, Gawain returns to Camelot after his adventure with the Green Knight at the Green Chapel, presenting the Green Girdle he accepted from Bertilak's lady and revealing to the court what his adventure, in which he broke his covenant with the Green Knight, taught him about his own moral limitations. The translation attempts to mimic the original alliterative poetic style of the Middle English poem in which the same consonant or vowel begins three words in each line.
The medieval nun → almost always of noble birth. But Chaucer´s nun is an ambiguous portrait, as
a target of criticism (she should not have been in the Pilgrimage)
- Impoverished novel woman had no prospect in life and became wives of God
- An assortment of characters and their activities that mirror changes → depicts the wishes of people wanting social mobility
Chaucer Life. He came from a poor family, but they were connected to the royalty, since his father was a wine merchant. That way Chaucer could high his class and began to work as an attendant in the court of Edward III. And he also was controller of Customs in the port of London. He was fighting in the war of 100 years and was captured and ransomed, but he was freed by paying money.
Literary side:
- Chaucer was never a proffesional poet, but he developed a great interest in works of Italian writers while he was visiting Italy for business → Boccaccio (Decameron), Dante, Petrarch.
- He was considered the father of english literature as we know it today.
- Born in London and used only english for the composition of all his works (the dialect he used would eventually become standart english)
- Was the first poet of the nation and became very influential.
- Extense production of works. Ex: Book of the Dutchess.
Chaucer´s prologe to Canterbury Tales (1387-1400) 29 pilgrimages meant to tell 2 tales on the way to Canterbury and back home
Composition: → the aim was to write a composition of contemporary stories. → the functions of the prologe: 1 → tell the story of how the tales came to be told (gives them coherence) 2 → It introduce the tellers giving a full descriptions of them.
Genre → the medieval estates satire: Analysis of society in terms of hierarchy, social function and morality → Chaucer´s conformity with the model of the basic tripartition of society (Knight, parson, plowman) → Chaucer´s originality:
- Pilgrims are single individuals, not plural groups (description of a nun, not nuns in general).
- Every pilgrim is known by proffesion, not by name.
- Chaucer can move freely between group characteristics and individual eccentricity.
- There is an interplay between the type and the individual → a monk is expected to do something (expected) / instead, he hunts animal (unexpected)
- Estates satire took the form of invective (direct attack). But he avoided the satirical model.
- He was an ironist: All the pilgrims are the best of their kind (superlatives everywhere)
- His language demands aproval.
- Common topics of condemnation are treated as positive virtues
Persona: Chaucer, the naive(fool) Pilgrim narrator.
- We shouldn´t confuse the Chaucer author with Chaucer Pilgrim.
- The judgement depends on the reader´s picking up cues in the text
- Most Pilgrims reveal themselves by what they value.
Metrical Pattern:
Rhythm → iambic pentameter (5 feet, stressed and unstressed, 10 syllables) Structure → Spring setting / later, porttraits: almost a disgression that introduce the tellers, since GP tells the story of how CT came to be told.
Text analysis → 1º part opening (line 1-18) Traditional spring opening following conventions of medieval manuals on poetry:
- Striking beginning to get the attention of the audience and show the poet´s skill(l.18)
- High sounding tone and elaborate style with many figures of speech:
- -personification -classical references -scientific allusions(zodiac) -conventional epithets(adj) → sweet showers, small birds. - metaphors
5 subordinate clauses introduced by when → natural order of universe. → the 4 elements: water, earth, fire, wind (rain, dry earth, sun) → The chain of being → ascension in soil/plants/birs/pilgrims.
Themes
- Nature and generative power of spring (cause/effect)(Shower/flower)
- Humans and their participation in the renewal of physical vitality
- Comparison of both resources is made explicit by means of Rhyme(11-12)
- ¿Spring-love of earth- love of God?
- Chaucer sets up a tension and equivalence between secular and religious aspects.
2º part (19-42) Brings the reader focus back on earth Change of tone and language to more chatty and conversational Contrast: more realistic description of preparation of Pilgrimage. Narrow the focus : → from large vision of the Zodiac to the Tabard inn → From unspecified shrines to a peculiar one in Canterbury → From unknown pilgrims to Chaucer´s travelling companion.
https://www.shmoop.com/canterbury-tales-prologue/literary-devices.html
