MEDIEVAL LITERATURE I

1. THE MIDDLE AGES

The world of the Middle Ages is much more active and fascinating than it might appear at first
sight, disproving the name of dark ages.
Major changes occurring up to the 13th century:
Stability of political conditions;
Development of trade and agriculture, development of towns and the gradual rise of the
bourgeoisie;
Chivalry, the knights code, courtly literature with a taste for luxury and extravagance;
Gothic architecture;
New religious orders coming with a new religious sensibility (esp. expressed in the cult of
the Virgin Mary);
Revival in the taste for classical literature (the 12th century Renaissance);
Development of education in cathedral schools and later in the first universities (Paris,
Oxford);
The Mediterranean Sea becomes more open to the Europeans (the beginning of the
Crusades) who become acquainted to the Muslim world and, through them, with the
Greek world, resulting in the rediscovery of Aristotle and the start of the age of
scholasticism.
2. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE: GENERAL GUIDELINES
The Medieval period in England stretches from the Norman period (1100-1150) to the
end of the War of the Roses (1487). The Norman Conquest was a conquest of the land but also
one of the arts. The language of the Anglo-Saxons, especially in the realm of politics,
administration, law and culture was replaced by the French language spoken by the new king and
his lords and by Latin, the language of the church. Therefore, for several centuries, literature was
trilingual, as French, Latin and English were used. Many families were, for a while, bilingual, as
they needed to learn the language of the conquerors while they kept their own dialect.
By the second half of the fourteenth century the fusion between the Normans and the
English was already completed and English became official language of the court and parliament.
In 1362, for instance, the Parliament opened its session in English. The increasing use of the
English language also comes as a result of the growing hostility between England and France.
However, even if during the reign of Richard II (1372-1398) English gained equal literary
importance to French, there was still no fixed English standard. The great writers of the period:
William Langland, Geoffrey Chaucer and the Gawain poet, all three wrote in three dialects: the
Worcestershire English, the London dialect and that of the Stafford-Cheshire border, respectively.
There were also other dialects in use. Even London English was a mixture of dialects. The
introduction of the printing press in 1476 helped spread a literary standard, that of the London
English, under the Tudors (1485-1603). The Kings English was disseminated through religious
boos, such as the authorized version of the Bible (King James Bible, 1611), but the spelling was
fully standardized only after Dr. Johnsons Dictionary of 1755.
The Norman Conquest brought about a change in literary tastes as well. The new
aristocracy preferred a different type of literature, thus widening the cultural borders of the Anglo1

Saxon world towards a modern literary model shared by other European cultures. There are
formal changes as well as thematic changes. Among the formal changes, the most evident is the
replacement of the old alliterative style with rhymed patterns, whereas the aristocratic character of
literature becomes evident in a different choice of themes and characters, replacing the heroic and
elegiac spirit of the Anglo-Saxons with a courtly literature, romances of chivalry, whose focus is on
love and adventure, or allegories, in the search of deeper meaning, of a moral or spiritual sort,
under the surface of things.
For a long time, especially during the Anglo-Norman period, literature was written mainly
in French or in Latin, since literature was either produced for the court, where French was used, or
in monasteries and religious centers, in which case Latin was favored.
It does not mean, however, that the Anglo-Saxon literary tradition disappears completely.
The Anglo-Saxon prose tradition represented by Aelfric and Wulfstan influenced the writing of the
Ancrene Wisse and alliterative poetry is still present in Layamons Brut, for instance. The AngloSaxon tradition survived, but it no longer occupied the central position.
3. THE ANGLO-NORMAN PERIOD
The early Middle Ages in England are marked by the coexistence of the Anglo-Saxon
culture with the Norman culture. It is usually referred to as the Anglo-Norman period, stretching
from the Norman Conquest to the beginning of the Hundred Years War (1337) a period of
transition that is still extremely important because of: a) the language change and the passage from
Old English to what is known as Middle English, clearly influenced by the contact with the French
language spoken by the conquerors and with the Latin used by the Church; and b) the change in
artistic taste, again clearly influenced by the Norman and French aristocracy, with a stressed
impact, in literature, on the transformation of style, language, tone, themes and characters.
3.1. THE NORMAN CONQUEST AND THE ANGLO-NORMAN WORLD
The Vikings had not attacked only England, but also France. They had already occupied the
territory of upper Normandy, and the Franks had to give them control over more land in presentday France. Their king was converted to Christianity (912) and he adopted the language, customs,
laws, religion, political organization and war methods of the Franks. These Vikings started being,
henceforward, known as THE NORMANS, men of Normandy the land of the Nordmanni or
the Norsemen. They were those who, a century later, would conquer England, subdue the AngloSaxons, and exert a tremendous influence on all cultural, social and political aspects, from
language and literature to laws, administration, social structure. When they conquered England,
the Normans already had a hierarchical feudal system and a well-organized army.
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM:
After the conquest, William was careful not to make the mistake of the King of France and
give too much land to the noblemen without keeping any of it to himself. The result, in France,
was that the lords, such as the duke of Normandy, were extremely powerful and the King found it
hard to control them. So, William divided the land of the territory he conquered between his lords
and the Church, keeping also land to himself. The political system that he introduced was

relatively similar to the Anglo-Saxon system, since the feudal allegiance of the vassal to his lord was
in many ways similar to the loyalty pledged by the thane to his lord.
The medieval system was a hierarchical system, the society being divided in oratores, bellatores
and laboratores, namely the clergy, the noblemen / warriors and those who work. This division of
the society and the justification for the unequal separation of people in social groups is given with
the help of religion, regarding social inequality as part of Gods hierarchical ordering of the
universe from Him down to angels, men, women, animals, plants and minerals. In this system, the
King is the most important person, having the loyalty of this subjects and the support of the
Church that has the power to ordain him.
The feudal system introduced by the Norman conquerors is such a hierarchical system based
on two rules: 1. the ownership of land; and 2. the loyalty of vassals. The king was connected, as if
through a chain to all his people since, at each level of the society, a man had to promise loyalty
and service to a lord. This homage meant that, in return of the land given by the lord, the vassal
promises service and goods, namely military service or rent and products. The lowest group of
people were the serfs, who did not have any land and were bound to the land of their lord, being
little more than slaves.
William wanted to know exactly who owned the land and he had a complete economic survey
made regarding the ownership of land, the number of people, the livestock, and so on. This
document was called the Doomsday Book and is a valuable source of information about England
at that time.
The Anglo-Norman kings strengthened their power, keeping the noblemen under control and
they consolidated their influence in France as well, where they acquired even more territories,
through conquest, inheritance or marriage, up to the point when King Henry II controlled more
land in France and his lord, the King of France. Unfortunately, his followers were less worthy, and
his son, John Lackland, lost his fathers possessions, including even Normandy. He was also forced
to sign, in 1215, the document called Magna Carta, through which the noblemen restricted the
absolute authority of the king marking the decay of the feudal system.
CULTURAL AUTHORITY
The culture and mentality of the time were dominated by a number of institutions: the King
and the noblemen, the Church and the Universities.
The Kings court as well as the courts of some powerful noblemen became centers of culture.
The kings commissioned artists, poets, musicians to their court. Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 or
1124 1204 ), king Henry IIs wife or Richard II (1357 1400) were rulers who encouraged art,
their courts becoming cultural centers setting the trend in literature and art. The kings and the
noblemen became patrons of art and artists could create under their support and protection.
The Church was, however, the most influential institution in the promotion of literature and
art. The growth of literacy was dependent on the schools founded by monasteries, so learning was
mostly religious. Other branches of art such as architecture, sculpture, wood-carving, wall-painting,
stained glass, enamel, jewelry, embroidery, book production, writing, illumination and music could
develop under the patronage of the church. Medieval drama developed from the performances
destined to various church celebrations and they were reenactments of biblical tales meant to
spread the gospel to the laity. The chronicles were written by monks, keeping the record of the
historical events of their time. There is no wonder, therefore, that some of the best writers and
writings of the time were religious, such as Langlands Piers the Plowman, or Julian of Norwich.
Starting with the 12th century, the intellectual initiative passes to Universities. Oxford university
was founded in 1167 and Cambridge around 1284.
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4. MEDIEVAL LITERATURE: GENRES AND MAJOR TEXTS

A. CHRONICLES
The chronicles preserve their importance from Anglo-Saxon times. The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, for instance, was still updated in the 12th century, in 1154. The Benedictine chroniclers
were the most active in writing chronicles, at least until the end of the 13th century. Though many
remain unknown, history still preserved some names such as that of William of Malmesbury
(c.1196/96 c.1143), author, among others, of the Gesta Regum Anglorum (449-1127). The
chronicler sees himself as a continuator of Bede, of whom he appears to be a great admirer and
takes into consideration, in writing his chronicle, both written sources and other types of evidence,
such as visual proof, material remains, architecture.
Another example is that of Matthew Paris (c. 1200-1259), who gave ample details about
contemporary life (he lived during the reign of Henry III: 1207-1272) in his Chronica Majora,
though imbued with his own personal ideas, which makes him rather unreliable, at times.
The last great Benedictine chronicles was Thomas Walsingham (d. 1422), covering mostly
the events connected with the reigns of Richard II (1367-1400) and Henry IV (1366-1413). In spite
of a biased attitude, he is still the major source of information on important events such as the
Peasants Revolt.
Probably the most famous chronicler was Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100 - 1154),
especially with his Historia Regum Britanniae (The History of the Kings of Britain), an extremely
famous history of England though, today, considered unreliable. This chronicle is rather a
compilation of various sources gathered by the cleric and imbued with his own fantasy and not a
translation of an ancient book in the British language as the author pretends. Whatever it might
be and however unreliable it may be considered nowadays, his text stands at the basis of other
literary works that drew inspiration from it (like those of Gorboduc, Lear and Cymbeline, for
instance). His greatest influence, however, remains in the creation of the Arthurian myth, of the
Round Table and of Merlin as well as of the legend that the founder of Britain is Brut, a
descendent of Aeneas.
B. MEDIEVAL ROMANCES AND COURTLY LITERATURE
The idea of courtly love was a widely-spread conception of the Middle Ages that
envisaged the love between the chevalier / the knight and the mistress as being led by a set of
complicated rules. In an aristocratic world in which marriage had nothing to do with love, being
often more influenced by politics, the fulfillment of these emotions would be possible only
between unmarried individuals.
The complicated behaviors required by courtly love are connected with the behavior
accepted within the feudal system between the lord and the knights. In other words, the
relationship of loyalty and obedience established between the lord and his knight is transferred to
the relationship between the knight and the lady he loves, the latter having the superior position of
the lord. The knight, therefore, has to demonstrate that he is worthy of the ladys love through
honorable and courageous deeds, and by doing whatever is required of him. The texts combine
love with the spirit of adventure. As far as the English literary context, the Arthurian legends are
the most popular texts connected to the spirit of love and adventure required by courtly literature.
4

Henry IIs wife, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, was the one who brought this conception to
the English court, by encouraging the presence of poets and troubadours to sing these love
romances. It is very likely, therefore, that French writers such as Marie de France and Chretien de
Troyes might have written some of their texts in England. Marie de France wrote one text explicitly
referring to the Arthurian cycle, entitled Lanval, whereas Chretien de Troyes Yvain, Lancelot,
Perceval or Le Conte du Graal, became so famous that they were translated in English and
influenced later writers of the Middle Ages, such as Chaucer, Gower, or Thomas Malory.
The English romances are visibly influenced by the literary conventions brought to England
by the Norman and French noblemen and their artists, but the most famous are connected to
stories about the birth of the nation: the legendary king Brutus, descendant from Aeneas and
founder of Britain and King Arthur and his knights.
LITERARY TERMS
ROMANCE. In OF romaunt/ roman meant approximately, 'courtly romance in verse' or any
popular book'. Thus romances in verse (and to start with most of them were in verse) were works
of fiction, or non-historical. In the 13th c. a romance was almost any song of adventure story be it
of chivalry or of love. Gradually more and more romances were written in prose. Whatever else a
romance may be (or have been) it is principally a form of entertainment. It may also be didactic
but this is usually incidental. It is usually concerned with characters (and thus with events) who live
in a courtly world somewhat remote from the everyday. This suggests elements of fantasy,
improbability, extravagance and naivety. It also suggests elements of love, adventure, the
marvelous and the 'mythic'. For the most part the term is used rather loosely to describe a
narrative of heroic or spectacular achievements, of chivalry of gallant love, of deeds of derring-do.
In medieval romance there were three main cycles:
(a) the matter of Britain, which included Arthurian matter derived from Breton lays;
(b) the matter of Rome, which included stories of Alexander, the Trojan wars and Thebes;
(c) the matter of France, most of which was about Charlemagne and his knights.
(J.A. Cuddon, The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms)
The genre of romance is resistant to definition, nowhere more so than in its manifestation in
medieval England. Gestes, if the term refers to epic narratives, can be seen as too heroic, the
layes of the Breton tradition too lyrical. It is not the purpose of this chapter to adopt any
demarcation that excludes such important contributions to the narrative literature of the period;
rather we will work with a recent definition that is also one of the simplest, the principal secular
literature of entertainment of the Middle Ages. (The Cambridge History of Medieval English
Literature)
LAY/ LAI. A short narrative or lyrical poem intended to be sung. The oldest narrative lays are
the Contes of Marie de France (c. 1175). They were stories of romance believed to have been
based on Celtic legends. The lyric lays were Provencal and usually had love themes. The term
'Breton lay' was applied to 14th c. English poems with a Breton setting and similar to those by
Marie de France. A dozen or more are extant in English, the best known being Sir Orfeo,
Haveloc the Dane, Sir Laanval and Chaucer's Franklin's Tale.) (J.A. Cuddon, The Penguin
Dictionary of Literary Terms)

The Lais of Marie de France were economically enigmatic tales of love and magic, focusing on
female action. They created in the Breton lai5an alternative to the long narratives of war and
chivalry. (The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Literature)

The preference for romance characterizes the passage from the Anglo-Saxon world, with its
heroic epics to the Norman civilization. The epic describes heroic battles and the heroes need to
fight monsters to save their kingdoms/communities. The idea of the hero includes that of savior of
his nation or tribe or clan. He needs to be valiant, skilful, honorable, just and loyal and he fights
because he must; there is no other choice to save his nation. The romances pertain to a more
refined age in which the quest, the adventure and the danger in facing supernatural beings is a
matter of choice not of instinct of survival. The romance is a form of entertainment of the
aristocracy, and the hero no longer fights for his nation, but for an ideal.
The French chanson de geste stands at the basis of the later English romances. The
chanson de geste (song of deeds) describes the adventures of the Carolingian noblemen, their wars
with the Saracens or among themselves, intrigues and rebellion. They are all based on a code of
chivalry reflecting the ages conception of the ideal relationship between the lord and the knights
connected with both social and religious duties. The medieval romances are closely connected with
the chansons de geste, and are stories of adventure or of love including real and supernatural
elements.
The first Middle English writing to discuss the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of
the Round Table is Layamons Brut (c. 1200). Layamon, an English clergyman, was influenced by
the French Roman de Brut composed by the Norman poet Wace, who, in turn, based his text on
Geoffrey of Monmouths History of the British Kings. The poem is named after the legendary
Brutus of Troy, grandson of Aeneas and founder of Britain, allegedly named after himself. A part
of the poem is dedicated to the life and exploits of King Arthur, a courageous and noble warrior,
defender of Christianity, of law and order, generous, courteous and sensible, with a wondrous
birth and a mysterious death. Layamon tries to unite the old and the new, adapting the sound of
the Old English verse to the new requirements of rhyme and rhythm. He retains the Old English
tradition being also, the first one to make extensive use of the French material.
In general, however, English romances, which are, in general, translations, adaptations,
rewritings and copies of French romances are simpler and more direct. They are closely connected
to the French lays. The first one that survived the test of time is King Horn (c. 1225), followed by
Floris and Blanchefleur (early 13th century), Haveloc the Dane (c. 1300), Bevis of Hampton, Guy
of Warwick and Sir Orfeo.
SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT (late 14th century)
Four texts are attributed to a poet whose name is not known, but who seems to have composed
four exquisite works: Pearl, Purity or Cleanness, Patience and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Nothing is known of the life of the poet, but his works are considered some of the finest English
literary pieces of the period, Pearl, an elegy, Purity and Patience, verse homilies or religious
meditations and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a romance belonging to the Arthurian cycle.
Due to his knowledge of aristocratic literary conventions as well as details of the life of the
noblemen, from clothing, armors and weapons, architecture, dishes and entertainment such as
hunting, hawking or chess, it is believed to be close to a noblemans court. He also knew the Bible
and was familiar to the language of the lawyer, courtier, priest, or lover. The imagery that he uses
in his poems is complex and sophisticated, sometimes employing concrete images for abstract
ideas (like the hunted animals in Sir Gawain as symbolic for the three qualities of his souls). He
also alludes to allegory, drawing on the allegorical religious writings. His symbols are sophisticated
and complex, like Gawains shield that does not point only to Gawains virtues but calls to mind
the virtues of chivalric life and the conflict between Christian virtues and love depicted in the
6

poem. There are several conjectures about his profession, from priest or chaplain to lawyer, but
nothing is certain except the fact that he had a daughter who died and which prompted the writing
of the poem Pearl.
The poems belong to the alliterative renaissance, which was a fourteenth century revival of
the old Anglo-Saxon alliterative poetic tradition. In fact, the lack of manuscripts might suggest that
the tradition of alliterative poetry might have never disappeared in the Midlands (Northeast) and it
was only in the 14th century that it was written down. The very existence of such poems is seen by
some critics as a proof of the continuation of the Anglo-Saxon tradition. The existence of other
alliterative 14th century texts suggests that the alliterative conventions used by the Gawain-poet are
not unique, but part of the tradition. However, his works also testify of a remarkable talent and
subtlety: The Gawain-poets work abounds with sharply defined images, powerfully conceived
scenes, richly sensuous details colors, scents, textures. He is a master of suspense, irony, humor.
His castles are the noblest, most dazzling in English poetry; his gloomy woods are the gloomiest;
his ladies are the most alluring. In addition to all this, his poetry is the most ornamental successful
poetry in English. In Pearl, lines both alliterate and rhyme, and verbal echoes link the stanzas. In
all his poems he echoes his opening lines in his closing lines; and his alliteration within individual
lines or groups of lines is ingenious. His organization of each poem is remarkably complex, yet
flawless, scene balanced against scene, image balanced against image. (John Gardner)
Sir Gawain, King Arthurs nephew is, probably, alongside Perceval, the most famous knight
in the Arthurian cycle. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, he appears as an ideal knight, an
embodiment of chivalric values, loyal, honest and courteous. During the story, Sir Gawain needs to
past through a series of trials that test different virtues that a knight is supposed to possess.
The story begins with Gawain proving his loyalty to king Arthur, by accepting, in the place
of his king, a game set by a mysterious Green Knight and thus save the kings life while putting his
own in danger.

Would you grant me the grace,

To be gone from this bench and stand by you there,
If I without discourtesy might quit this board,...
I am the weakest, well I know, and of wit feeblest;
And the loss of my life would be least of any;
That I have you for uncle is my only praise;
My body, but for your blood, is barren of worth;
And for that this folly befits not a king,
And 'tis I that have asked it, it ought to be mine,
And if my claim be not comely let all this court judge,
in sight. (Norton Anthology)
This is the first glimpse of his character, in which he demonstrates his loyalty to the lord as
well as his modesty.
The year passes quickly and saddened by the prospect of going to death, he takes his horse
and armor. He is given a shield: on the outside it has a five-pointed star, the Pentangle, or
endless knot, a symbol perfectly appropriate for Gawain. Each point represents five virtues: he is
faultless in his five senses, unfailing in his five fingers, devoted to Christs five wounds (received on
the Cross), and supported by the five joys of Mary, and he is a master of five virtues generosity,
good fellowship, purity, courtesy, and charity. (The pentangle is also, traditionally, a symbol used
to ward off black magic.) On the inside of the shield he has an image of the Virgin, who gives him
strength in battle. The shield becomes one of the controlling symbols of the poem: The outside
of the shield the side others see shows the virtues and talents with which he defends social and
7

religious order; the inside the side Gawain sees is a reminder of that humility and otherworldliness
which ought to preserve him from involvement in the worldly order he defends. (Don Howard).
He roams the country in search of the Green Chapel and he fights monsters and foes, but
the worst foe is winter as he needs to sleep in his armor. He prays to the Virgin Mary to guide him
to a resting place and soon he sees a castle on a hill. It is strange and mysterious, all white as if cut
from a piece of paper. He is welcomed by the lord of the Castle, given clothes and invited to the
table. He also meets the two ladies of the castle: one is extremely beautiful and the other is very
ugly. The old ugly lady is a witch (Morgan le Fay) and the young is the castles lady, Lord Bercilaks
wife. Bercilak tells him the Green Chapel is nearby and he can stay till the New Year. In the
meantime, being tired, Gawain can remain in the castle to keep the ladys company while Bercilak
rides out to hunt. However, he has to accept a game of exchanging gifts with Bercilak whatever
each wins in his adventures must give it freely to the other. There are three days and tests, and
while the host hunts deer, boar and fox, the lady tempts Gawain. First, lured by the lady, receives a
kiss, then two, then three. When the host returns, he exchanges the kiss(es) but does not tell how
he got it. As the test is continued, the advances of the lady are bolder. Gawain resists out of respect
for the host and concern for his good name (obeying the knightly virtues). The lady persuades him
to accept a gift, a magical sash or green girdle who is supposed to protect the wearer. Even if he
swore to exchange gifts, Gawain does not give Bercilak the green girdle, thus failing to keep his
oath. There is a parallelism between the three hunted animals and Gawains behavior, first he is
scared like a deer, then he is bold like the boar in resisting the lady, and then he is cunning like the
fox.
On the New Years Day, Gawain leaves the castle to go to the Green Chapel. He wears the
girdle not out of vanity, but to save his life. If the shield symbolized his virtues, the girdle
symbolizes the fall, It represents worldliness (the medieval sash or belt is used to carry money
bags, keys, and the like), and it probably also represents secrecy, Gawains loss of that openness
and courtesy which formerly distinguished him. But Gawains worldliness, the poet insists, is
tempered: he is not proud in the sense that he craves worldly glory but only in the sense that,
valuing his own life above all other things, he forgets his higher nature. (John Gardner)
The Green Knight seems to but does not cut his throat, only scratches his skin. Eventually,
Bercilak reveals himself as the Green Knight and says that the girdle was his property. However, he
forgives Gawain for failing the test, saying that he is an honorable man and that he was only trying
to do whatever he could to save his life. However, Gawain is devastated and ashamed. The whole
trick was planned by Morgan le Fay, the old lady, who wanted to frighten lady Guinevere by
sending the Green Knight to Camelot.
Upon his return home, King Arthur and the other knights do not condemn him for this
failure, considering that he emerged victorious from the tests. However, Gawain holds the standard
of knightly perfection extremely high, and he is unable to forgive himself and to be rid of the sense
of shame and of failure. The green girdle that he received as a sign of Bercilaks forgiveness for his
trespassing is, for him, a symbol of his failure:

"But your girdle, God love you! I gladly shall take

And be pleased to possess, not for the pure gold,
Nor the bright belt itself, nor the beauteous pendants,
Nor for wealth, nor worldly state, nor workmanship fine,
But a sign of excess it shall seem oftentimes
When I ride in renown, and remember with shame
the faults and frailty of the flesh perverse,
How its tenderness entices the foul taint of sin;
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And so when praised and high prowess have pleased my heart,

A look at this love-lace will lower my pride.
But one thing would I learn, if you were not loath,
Since you are lord of yonder land where I have long sojourned
With honor in your house-may you have His reward
That upholds all the heavens, highest on throne!
How runs your right name?-and let the rest go."
In the readers eyes, it is only meant to make him more human. The Gawain poet,
however, does not make him err beyond pardon, since his mistake is not committed for lust, but
for the love of life, the less, then, to blame. In the end, he is the one who cannot forgive himself,
while, going home, he presents the girdle as a sign of shame, the sin once committed, will never be
forgiven.
It is interesting to notice how the story is drawn in such a way as to question the validity of
ready-made ideals and constructions. The real test for Sir Gawain is not the test that one knight
would expect, a test in courage and valor; he would have passed such a test. It is a test of his
virtues, a moral dilemma that he needs to solve: remain true to the promise made to his lord or
honor the requests of the noble lady, both being rules in the chivalric code that he is supposed to
obey. His failure suggests the frailty of human constructions, Sir Gawain being disillusioned not
only by his own reactions and mistakes, but also learning that everything was a ruse set by Arthurs
step-sister and enemy, Morgan le Fay, who created a test for King Arthurs court. So, in the end,
everything was a game, but that game revealed to himself his weakness and made it impossible for
him to forget his own transgression. By losing his blind trust that the chivalric code will always
support him and help him find a solution to any danger or dilemma, Gawain loses his innocence.
The laughter of the King and of the knights at the end, when he presents the girdle and confesses
his sin as well as their decision to all wear green girdles sound rather ironic and seem to contradict
Gawains sincere distress and loss of faith in his own worth.
C. MEDIEVAL LYRICS
Poetry was the genre in which the linguistic change as well as that in artistic taste was the
most evident. The old alliterative style was replaces by regular lines, containing a precise number
of syllables and an end-rhyme.
As far as the tone and atmosphere are concerned, the somber, melancholic vision of the
Anglo-Saxons was replaced by a more joyful spirit, a brighter view of life indebted to the French
love and adventure poems.
The hundreds of poems that remained in manuscripts can be only roughly dated, but the
authors are unknown. In general, they are popular songs and poems on different topics
The poem The Cockoos Song (c. 1250) is believed to be the earliest English lyric and it is
a good example of the shift in tone and atmosphere from Anglo-Saxon poetry to medieval lyrics.
SUMER is icumen in,
Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweth sed, and bloweth med,
And springth the wude nu-Sing cuccu!

Summer has come in,

Loud sing cuckoo!
Grows seed and blows mead
And blossoms the wood now
Sing cuckoo!

Awe bleteth after lomb,

The ewe bleats after the lamb,

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Lhouth after calve cu;

Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth,
Murie sing cuccu!
Cuccu, cuccu, well singes thu, cuccu:
Ne swike thu naver nu;
Sing cuccu, nu, sing cuccu,
Sing cuccu, sing cuccu, nu!

The cow lowes after the calf;

The bullock leaps, the buck jumps,
Merily sing cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo, well singeth thou,
cuckoo:
Never cease now;
Sing, cuckoo, now sing, cuckoo,
Sing, cuckoo, sing, cuckoo, now

The change in the spirit of the poem is evident, the dark view of nature that was visible in
poems such as The Seafarer, is replaced here with the beauty of spring and of the rebirth of
nature, the joy produced by the blossoming of woods and meadows, the spirit of youth and the
energy transmitted through the presence of playful animals and the regeneration of nature with the
mention of sheep and cow with their babies.
Formally, the drop of inflections allows the possibility of end-rhymes, whereas the poem is
organized in stanzas, with lines of approximately equal number of syllables.
The poems had different topics. The Song of the Husbandman (c. 1350), for instance, is a
satire against lords that own the land and impoverish the country. It was probably connected to the
spirit around the Peasants Revolt (1381).

For might is right,

Light is night,
And fight is fight,
For might is right, the land is lawless,
For light is night, the land is loreless,
For flight is fight, the land is nameless.
The Owl and the Nightingale an anonymous poem from the middle of the 13 century (c. 1250)
th

epitomizes the medieval spirit, with its scholastic philosophy, based on debate and analysis, the
preference for allegory and the beast-fable form. The debate between an owl and a nightingale is a
debate between the old and the new, asceticism and joie de vivre, isolation and social life.
However, it is quite difficult to see it simply as an allegory, since the two sides represented in the
poem are just characters, neither one being placed in a central and commanding position but
merely exposing its side of the story and so they function more like characters than emblems.
In a valley, in springtime, a poet once heard a quarrel between an own and a nightingale.
The owl, sitting on a bough covered in ivy appears to the nightingale that sits on a blossomed
branch, as an ugly, gloomy, pompous, dirty, nasty creature with a wretched howling that frightens
all the other birds. The poem ends with the decision of the two birds to find an arbitrator of their
dispute, one Nicholas of Guildford, since the owl refuses to engage in useless verbal attacks against
the nightingale, but the author of the poem breaks of before we manage to find out the result, so,
the dispute remains opened to further debate.
D. POPULAR BALLADS
Fundamentally, the ballad is a song that tells a story. They are oral compositions composed in
an unaffected, simple, straightforward style to be enjoyed by the simpler audiences. The medieval
English ballads are popular creations, anonymous and they were probably accompanied by music.
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Though ballads have been composed through centuries, there are some elements that are
maintained: a) the beginning is often abrupt and, in general, they deal with a single episodes, the
events leading to the crisis adding up swiftly; b) the story is usually dramatic: revenge, murder, war,
tragic love; c) the language is simple, the story is usually rendered through dialogue and action and
there is often a refrain; d) they are usually structured in four-line stanzas.
There are different types of ballads, but Medieval English ballads can be grouped in fie main
categories:
1. Ballads of love and jealousy (The Nut-Brown Maid)
2. Ballads bout religious subjects (Judas)
3. Ballads about the supernatural events (The Wife of Ushers Well)
4. Ballads about outlaws (the Robin Hood ballads)
5. Ballads about the rivalry between the English and the Scots - the Border Ballads (Chevy
Chase)

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