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Medieval Era | Literary Eras

By hndeadmin • August 03, 2021 • Introduction to Literature • 4,332 views

The Middle Age, or Medieval Era, in Europe was a long period of history from 500 AD to 1500 AD.

That's 1000 years!

It covers the time from the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the Ottoman Empire. This was a time of castles and peasants, guilds and monasteries, cathedrals and crusades. Medieval literature is defined broadly as any work written in Latin or the vernacular between c. 476-1500 CE, including philosophy, religious treatises, legal texts, as well as works of the imagination.

More narrowly, however, the term applies to literary works of poetry, drama, romance, epic prose, and histories written in the vernacular (though some histories were in Latin). While it may seem odd to find histories included with forms of fiction, it should be remembered that many 'histories' of the Middle Ages contain elements of myth, fable, and legend and, in some cases, were largely the product of imaginative writers.

Medieval Literature is a presentation of idealized behavior and deals with ideal country love.

Literary works were originally composed in Latin, but poets began writing in vernacular (the common language of the people) as early at the 7th century CE. Vernacular literature was further popularized in Britain in the Kingdom of Wessex by Alfred the Great (r. 871-899 CE) in an attempt to encourage widespread literacy, and other nations then followed suit. Medieval vernacular literature evolved naturally from the folktale which was a story recited, probably with the storyteller acting out different parts, before an audience.

Medieval English literature begins with Beowulf (7th-10th century CE) which was no doubt a story known much earlier and transmitted orally until written down. This same pattern of development holds for the literature of other countries as well. The storyteller would gather an audience and perform his or her tale, usually with variations based on the audience, and members of that audience would then retell the story to others. Early written medieval literature is mostly legend or folktale set down on a page rather than recited but the storyteller still needed to gather and hold an audience and so wrote in the vernacular to be understood and in poetic meter to be remembered.

Poetry, with its regular cadence, sticks in the mind far better than prose. Poetry would remain the preferred medium for artistic expression throughout most of the Middle Ages.

The epic masterpiece Beowulf was written, which relies on the same cadence of the alliterative long line rhythm to move the story forward and impress the tale upon an audience. This verse form resonates in the present day as well as it must have in the past since recitations and performances of Beowulf remain popular. The story is the epic tale of the lone hero facing down and defeating the dark monster that threatens the people of the land; a theme perennially popular from ancient times to the present day.