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Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 beyond and during the Middle Ages
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
 (encompassing the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500
500

Events...
 to the beginning of the Florentine Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
 in the late 15th century). The literature of this time was composed of religious writings as well as secular works. Just as in modern literature, it is a complex and rich field of study, from the utterly sacred
SACRED

SACRED was a Cubesat built by the Student Satellite Program of the University of Arizona. It was the product of the work of about 50 students, ranging from college freshmen to Ph....
 to the exuberantly profane, touching all points in-between.






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Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 beyond and during the Middle Ages
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
 (encompassing the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500
500

Events...
 to the beginning of the Florentine Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
 in the late 15th century). The literature of this time was composed of religious writings as well as secular works. Just as in modern literature, it is a complex and rich field of study, from the utterly sacred
SACRED

SACRED was a Cubesat built by the Student Satellite Program of the University of Arizona. It was the product of the work of about 50 students, ranging from college freshmen to Ph....
 to the exuberantly profane, touching all points in-between. Because of the wide range of time and place it is difficult to speak in general terms without oversimplification, and thus the literature is best characterized by its place of origin and/or language, as well as its genre.

Languages

Since Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 was the language of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
, which dominated Western
Western Europe

Western Europe refers to the countries in the western most half of Europe. This concept has had different meanings, political and cultural as well as geographical issues have influenced the area....
 and Central Europe
Central Europe

Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern Europe and Western Europe Europe. In addition, Northern Europe, Southern Europe and Southeastern Europe may variously delimit or overlap into Central Europe....
, and since the Church was virtually the only source of education, Latin was a common language for Medieval writings, even in some parts of Europe that were never Romanized. However, in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is a term that applies to the geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the Europe. Throughout history and to a lesser extent today, parts of Eastern Europe has been distinguishable from Western Europe and other regions due to cultural, religious, economic, and historical reasons, even though there i...
, the influence of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian communion in the world with an estimated 225 million members worldwide. It is considered by its adherents to be the Four Marks of the Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles nearly 2000 years ago....
 made Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 and Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic

Old Church Slavonic, also known as Old Bulgarian, or Old Macedonian, was the first literary Slavic language, based on the old Solun dialect of the Thessaloniki region by the 9th century Byzantine Greeks missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who used it for translation of the Bible and other Ancient Greek language ecclesiastica...
 the dominant written languages.

The common people continued to use their respective vernacular
Vernacular

Vernacular refers to the native language of a country or a locality. In general linguistics, it is used to describe local languages as opposed to Lingua franca, official standards or global languages....
s. A few examples, such as the Old English
Old English language

Old English is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written in parts of what are now England and south-eastern Scotland between the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century....
 Beowulf
Beowulf

Beowulf is an Old English language heroic Epic poetry of unknown authorship, dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between the 8th to the early 11th century, and relates events described as having occurred in what is now Denmark and Sweden....
, the Middle High German
Middle High German

Middle High German , abbreviated MHG , is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German....
 Nibelungenlied
Nibelungenlied

The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poetry in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Sigurd at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife Gudrun's revenge....
, the Medieval Greek
Medieval Greek

Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek , is a cover term for all forms of the Greek language that were spoken and written during the time of the Byzantine Empire....
 Digenis Acritas
Digenis Acritas

Digenis Acritis , known in folksongs as ???e??? ????ta? , is the most famous of the Acritic songs. The epic details the life of its eponymous hero, Digenes, a hero of mixed Roman and Syrian blood....
 and the Old French
Old French

Old French was the Romance languages dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from around 1000 to 1300....
 Chanson de Roland, are well known to this day. Although the extant versions of these epics
Epic poetry

An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation....
 are generally considered the works of individual (but anonymous
Anonymity

Anonymity is derived from the Greek word a??????a, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, the term typically refers to a person, and often means that the Identity , or personally identifiable information of that person is not known....
) poets, there is no doubt that they are based on their peoples' older oral traditions. Celt
Celt

Celts , is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic languages. The term is also used in a wider sense to describe the Modern Celts of those peoples, notably those who participate in a Celtic culture....
ic traditions have survived in the lais
Breton lai

A Breton lai, also known as a narrative lay or simply a lay, is a form of medieval Old French and English language romance literature....
 of Marie de France
Marie de France

Marie de France was a poet evidently born in France and living in England during the late 12th century. Virtually nothing is known of her early life, though she wrote a form of Old French that was copied by Anglo-Norman scribes....
, the Mabinogion
Mabinogion

The Mabinogion is a collection of eleven prose stories from medieval Welsh manuscripts. They draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and on early medieval historical traditions....
 and the Arthurian cycles
King Arthur

King Arthur is a legendary Britons leader who, according to medieval histories and Romance , led the defence of Britain against the Saxon invaders in the early 6th century....
.

Anonymity

A notable amount of medieval literature is anonymous
Anonymity

Anonymity is derived from the Greek word a??????a, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, the term typically refers to a person, and often means that the Identity , or personally identifiable information of that person is not known....
. This is not only due to the lack of documents from a period, but also due to an interpretation of the author
Author

An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created....
's role that differs considerably from the romantic
Romanticism

Romanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution....
 interpretation of the term in use today. Medieval authors were often overawed by the classical
Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome....
 writers and the Church Fathers
Church Fathers

The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential theology and writers in the Christian Church, particularly those of the first five centuries of Christian history....
 and tended to re-tell and embellish stories they had heard or read rather than invent new stories. And even when they did, they often claimed to be handing down something from an auctor instead. From this point of view, the names of the individual authors seemed much less important, and therefore many important works were never attributed to any specific person.

Types of writing


Religious

Theological works were the dominant form of literature typically found in libraries during the Middle Ages. Catholic
Catholic

Catholic is an adjective derived from the Greek language adjective , meaning "whole" or "complete". In the context of Christianity ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages....
 clerics were the intellectual center of society in the Middle Ages, and it is their literature that was produced in the greatest quantity.

Countless hymn
Hymn

A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity/deities, a prominent figure or an epic tale....
s survive from this time period (both liturgical
Liturgy

A liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to their particular traditions. The word may refer to an elaborate formal ritual such as the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy and Mass , or a daily activity such as the Muslim salat and Jewish Jewish services....
 and paraliturgical). The liturgy itself was not in fixed form, and numerous competing missals set out individual conceptions of the order of the mass
Mass (liturgy)

The Mass is the Eucharistic celebration in the Latin liturgical rites of the Roman Catholic Church. The term is used also of similar celebrations in Old Catholic Churches, in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of Anglicanism, and in some largely High Church Lutheranism Lutheranism regions, including the Scandinavian and Baltic states countries....
. Religious scholars such as Anselm of Canterbury
Anselm of Canterbury

Saint Anselm of Canterbury was an Italian medieval philosopher, theology, and church official who held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109....
, Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in the Dominican Order from Italy, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis....
, and Pierre Abélard wrote lengthy theological
Theology

Theology is the study of the existence or attributes of a deity or gods, or more generally the study of religion or spirituality. It is sometimes contrasted with religious studies: theology is understood as the study of religion from an internal perspective , and religious studies as the study of religion from an external perspective....
 and philosophical
Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, and language....
 treatises, often attempting to reconcile the teachings of the Greek and Roman pagan authors with the doctrines of the Church. Hagiographies
Hagiography

Hagiography is the study of saints. A hagiography, from Greek ' and ' , refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically the biography of ecclesiastical and secular leaders....
, or "lives of the saints", were also frequently written, as an encouragement to the devout and a warning to others.

The Golden Legend
Golden Legend

The Golden Legend, Legenda Aurea, or Legenda Sanctorum by Jacobus de Voragine is a collection of fanciful hagiography or lives of the saints, that became a late Middle Ages bestseller....
 of Jacobus de Voragine
Jacobus de Voragine

Blessed Jacobus de Varagine or Voragine...
 reached such popularity that, in its time, it was reportedly read more often than the Bible
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
. Francis of Assisi
Francis of Assisi

Francis of Assisi was a friar and the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans.He is known as the patron saint of animals, the Natural environment and Italy, and it is customary for Catholic Church es to hold ceremonies honoring animals around his feast day of 4 October....
 was a prolific poet, and his Franciscan
Franciscan

The term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic religious orders that follow a body of regulations known as "The rule of St....
 followers frequently wrote poetry themselves as an expression of their piety. Dies Irae
Dies Irae

Dies Irae is a famous thirteenth century Latin hymn thought to be written by Tommaso da Celano. It is a medieval Latin poem, differing from classical Latin by its accentual stress and its rhymed lines....
 and Stabat Mater
Stabat Mater

Stabat Mater is a thirteenth century Catholic church Sequence variously attributed to Innocent III and Jacopone da Todi. Its title is an abbreviation of the first line, Stabat mater dolorosa ....
 are two of the most powerful Latin poems on religious subjects. Goliardic poetry (four-line stanzas of satiric verse) was an art form used by some clerics to express dissent. The only widespread religious writing that was not produced by clerics were the mystery play
Mystery play

Mystery plays and Miracle plays are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in Church as tableau vivant with accompanying antiphonal song....
s: growing out of simple tableaux
Tableau vivant

Tableau vivant is French for "living picture." The term describes a striking group of suitably costumed actors or artist's models, carefully posed and often Theatre lit....
 re-enactments of a single Biblical scene, each mystery play became its village's expression of the key events in the Bible
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
. The text of these plays was often controlled by local guild
Guild

File:Windsorguildhall.jpgA guild is an association of artisan in a particular trade. The earliest guilds were formed as confraternities of workers....
s, and mystery plays would be performed regularly on set feast-days, often lasting all day long and into the night.

During the Middle Ages, the Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
ish population of Europe also produced a number of outstanding writers. Maimonides
Maimonides

Moses Maimonides, also known as Rabbi Moses ben Maimon , the Rambam, and Musa ibn Maymun , was born in C?rdoba, Spain, Spain on March 30, 1135, and died in Egypt on December 13, 1204.....
, born in Cordoba, Spain
Córdoba, Spain

viktor chucchuc he sucsuck my dick||-||-|File:Cordoba Water Wheel.jpg|}Cordova is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the C?rdoba ....
, and Rashi
Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, , better known by the acronym Rashi , , was a rabbi from France, famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, and Jewish commentaries on the Bible....
, born in Troyes
Troyes

Troyes is a communes of France, the Prefectures in France of the northeastern Aube departments of France in France and is located on the Seine river....
, France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, are two of the best-known and most influential of these Jewish authors.

Secular

Beowulf
Secular literature in this period was not produced in equal quantity as religious literature, but much has survived and we possess today a rich corpus. The subject of "courtly love
Courtly love

Courtly love was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalry expressing love and admiration. Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility....
" became important in the 11th century, especially in the Romance languages
Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages comprising all the languages that descend from Latin language, the language of ancient Rome....
 (in the French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
, Spanish
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
, Provençal
Provençal language

Proven?al is one of several dialects of Occitan spoken by a minority of people in southern France, mostly in Provence. In the English language-speaking world, "Proven?al" is often used to refer to all dialects of Occitan, but it actually refers specifically to the dialect spoken in Provence, as well as in the southern portion of the Dauphin?...
, Galician-Portuguese
Galician-Portuguese

Galician-Portuguese was a West Iberian languages spoken in the Middle Ages, in the northwest area of the Iberian Peninsula. It was first spoken in the area between the Bay of Biscay and the Douro River, but it expanded South with the Reconquista....
 and Catalan
Catalan language

Catalan is a Romance languages, the national language and official language of Andorra, and a official language in the Autonomous Communities of Spain of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community and in the city of Alghero in the Italy List of islands in the Mediterranean of Sardinia....
 languages, most notably) and Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
, where the traveling singers—troubadour
Troubadour

A troubadour was a composer and performer of Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages .The troubadour school or tradition began in the eleventh century in Occitania, but it subsequently spread into Italy, Spain, and even Greece....
s—made a living from their songs. The writings of the troubadours are often associated with unrequited longing, but this is not entirely accurate (see aubade
Aubade

An aubade is a poem or song of or about lovers separating at dawn.Aubade has also been defined as "a song or instrumental composition concerning, accompanying, or evoking daybreak."...
, for instance). In Germany, the Minnesänger continued the tradition of the troubadours.

In addition to epic poems in the Germanic tradition (e.g. Beowulf
Beowulf

Beowulf is an Old English language heroic Epic poetry of unknown authorship, dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between the 8th to the early 11th century, and relates events described as having occurred in what is now Denmark and Sweden....
 and Nibelungenlied
Nibelungenlied

The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poetry in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Sigurd at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife Gudrun's revenge....
), epic poems in the tradition of the chanson de geste
Chanson de geste

The chansons de geste, Old French for "songs of heroic deeds [or lineages]", are the epic poetry that appear at the dawn of French literature....
 (e.g. The Song of Roland
The Song of Roland

The Song of Roland is the oldest surviving major work of French literature. It exists in various different manuscript versions, which testify to its enormous and enduring popularity in the 12th to 14th centuries....
 & Digenis Acritas
Digenis Acritas

Digenis Acritis , known in folksongs as ???e??? ????ta? , is the most famous of the Acritic songs. The epic details the life of its eponymous hero, Digenes, a hero of mixed Roman and Syrian blood....
) which deal with the Matter of France
Matter of France

The Matter of France, also known as the Carolingian cycle, is a body of legendary history that springs from the Old French medieval literature of the chanson de geste....
 and the Acritic songs
Acritic songs

The acritic songs are the heroic or epic poetry that emerged from 10th century Byzantine Empire, inspired by the almost continuous state of warfare with the Arabs in eastern Asia Minor....
 respectively, courtly romances in the tradition of the roman courtois which deal with the Matter of Britain
Matter of Britain

The Matter of Britain is a name given collectively to the legends that concern the Celtic and legendary history of Great Britain, especially those focused on King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table ....
 and the Matter of Rome
Matter of Rome

According to the Middle Ages poetry Jean Bodel, the Matter of Rome was the literature cycle made up of Greek mythology and Roman mythology, together with episodes from the history of classical antiquity, focusing on military heroes like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar....
 achieved great and lasting popularity. The roman courtois is distinguished from the chanson de geste not only by its subject matter, but also by its emphasis on love and chivalry rather than acts of war.

Political poetry was written also, especially towards the end of this period, and the goliard
Goliard

The Goliards were a group of clergy who wrote wikt:bibulous, satire Latin poetry in the twelfth century and thirteenth century. They were mainly clerical students at the university of France, Germany, Italy, and England who protested the growing contradictions within the Church, such as the failure of the Crusades and financial abuses, expre...
ic form saw use by secular writers as well as clerics. Travel literature was highly popular in the Middle Ages, as fantastic accounts of far-off lands (frequently embellished or entirely false) entertained a society that, in most cases, limited people to the area in which they were born. (But note the importance of pilgrimage
Pilgrimage

File:Supplicating Pilgrim at Masjid Al Haram. Mecca, Saudi Arabia.jpgIn religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long quest or search of great moral significance....
s, especially to Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous communities of Spain of Galicia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located in the north west of Spain in the A Coru?a , it was the "European City of Culture" for the year 2000....
, in medieval times, also witnessed by the prominence of Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer was an English author, poet, philosopher, Bureaucracy, Noble court and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales....
's Canterbury Tales.)

Women's literature

While it is true that women in the medieval period were never accorded full equality with men (in fact, misogynist tracts abound, although many sects, such as the Cathar
Cathar

Catharism was a name given to a Christian religious sect with dualism and gnostic elements that appeared in the Languedoc region of France in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries....
s, afforded women greater status and rights), some women were able to use their skill with the written word to gain renown. Religious writing was the easiest avenue—women who would later be canonized as saint
Saint

A saint in Christianity is a human being who has been called to holiness. The term is used differently by various denominations, with some, such as the Anglicans, Methodists, and Lutherans distinguishing between Saints and saints....
s frequently published their reflections, revelations, and prayers. Much of what is known about women in the Middle Ages is known from the works of nun
Nun

A Nun is a woman who has taken special vows committing her to a religious life. She may be an monasticism who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent....
s such as Clare of Assisi
Clare of Assisi

Saint Clare of Assisi, born Chiara Offreduccio is an Italian people saint and one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. She founded the Order of Poor Ladies, a monasticism religious order for women in the Franciscan tradition....
, Bridget of Sweden
Bridget of Sweden

Birgitta Birgersdotter , later known as Saint Birgitta, also known as Santa Brigida or St. Bridgid of Sweden and Birgitta of Vadstena , was a Mystic and saint, and founder of the Bridgettines, after over 20 years of married life before her husband died....
, and Catherine of Siena
Catherine of Siena

Saint Catherine of Siena, Ordo Praedicatorum was a Tertiaries of the Dominican Order, and a Scholasticism philosopher and theologian. She also worked to bring the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon Papacy, and to establish peace among the Italian city-states....
.

Frequently, however, the religious perspectives of women were held to be unorthodox by those in power, and the mystical visions of such authors as Julian of Norwich
Julian of Norwich

Julian of Norwich was considered one of the greatest England mysticisms. Little is known of her life aside from her writings. Even her name is uncertain, the name "Julian" coming from the Church of St Julian in Norwich, where she was an anchorite, meaning that she was a type of hermit, who lived in a cell attached to the church and spent t...
 and Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen , also known as Blessed Hildegard and Saint Hildegard, was a German people abbess, author, counselor, Linguistics, naturalist, scientist, philosopher, physician, herbalist, poet, visionary and composer....
 provide insight into a part of the medieval experience less comfortable for the institutions that ruled Europe at the time. Women wrote influential texts in the secular realm as well—reflections on courtly love and society by Marie de France
Marie de France

Marie de France was a poet evidently born in France and living in England during the late 12th century. Virtually nothing is known of her early life, though she wrote a form of Old French that was copied by Anglo-Norman scribes....
 and Christine de Pizan
Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan was a woman of the medieval era who strongly challenged misogyny and stereotypes that were prevalent in the male-dominated realm of the arts....
 continue to be studied for their glimpses of medieval society.

Allegory


While medieval literature makes use of many literary devices, allegory
Allegory

Allegory is generally treated as a figure of rhetoric, but an allegory does not have to be expressed in language: it may be addressed to the eye, and is often found in realistic painting, sculpture or some other form of Mimesis, or representative art....
 is so prominent in this period as to deserve special mention. Much of medieval literature relied on allegory to convey the morals the author had in mind while writing--representations of abstract qualities, events, and institutions are thick in much of the literature of this time. Probably the earliest and most influential allegory is the Psychomachia
Psychomachia

The Psychomachia by the Late Antiquity Latin poet Prudentius is probably the first and most influential "pure" medieval allegory, the first in a long tradition of works as diverse as the Roman de la Rose, Everyman , and Piers Plowman....
 (Battle of Souls) by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius. Other important examples include the Romance of the Rose, Everyman
Everyman (play)

Everyman is a late 15th-century England morality play, There is a similar Dutch language morality play of the same period called Elckerlijc....
, Piers Plowman
Piers Plowman

Piers Plowman or Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman is the title of a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in unrhymed alliterative verse divided into sections called "passus" ....
, Roman de Fauvel
Roman de Fauvel

The Roman de Fauvel, translated as The Story of the Fawn-Colored Beast, is a 14th century French language poem accredited to French royal clerk Gervais du Bus, though probably best known for its musical arrangement by Philippe de Vitry in the Ars Nova style....
, and The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy , written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature....
.

Notable literature of the period

  • Alexiad
    Alexiad

    The Alexiad is a medieval biographical text written around the year 1148 by the Byzantine historian Anna Comnena, daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos....
    , Anna Comnena
  • Digenis Acritas
    Digenis Acritas

    Digenis Acritis , known in folksongs as ???e??? ????ta? , is the most famous of the Acritic songs. The epic details the life of its eponymous hero, Digenes, a hero of mixed Roman and Syrian blood....
    , anonymous
    Anonymous work

    Anonymous works are works, such as art or literature, that have an Anonymity, undisclosed, or unknown creator or author. In the United States it is legally defined as "a work on the copies or phonorecords of which no natural person is identified as author."...
     Greek author
    Greek literature

    Greek literature refers to those writings autochthonic to the areas of Greeks influence, typically though not necessarily in one of the Greek dialects, throughout the whole period in which the Greek language people have existed....
  • Beowulf
    Beowulf

    Beowulf is an Old English language heroic Epic poetry of unknown authorship, dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between the 8th to the early 11th century, and relates events described as having occurred in what is now Denmark and Sweden....
    , anonymous
    Anonymous work

    Anonymous works are works, such as art or literature, that have an Anonymity, undisclosed, or unknown creator or author. In the United States it is legally defined as "a work on the copies or phonorecords of which no natural person is identified as author."...
     Anglo-Saxon
    Anglo-Saxons

    Anglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading tribes in the south and east of Great Britain starting from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, lasting until the Norman conquest of England of 1066....
     author
  • Cantigas de Santa Maria
    Cantigas de Santa Maria

    The Cantigas de Santa Maria are manuscripts written in Galician-Portuguese, with music notation, during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile and are one of the largest collections of monophonic songs from the Middle Ages....
    , Galician
    Galician literature

    Galician language literature is the literature written in Galician language. The earliest works in Galician language are from the early 13th-century trovadorismo tradition....
     authors
  • Caedmon's Hymn
  • David of Sassoun by an anonymous Armenia
    Armenia

    Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in South Caucasus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea....
    n author
  • Cato
    Distichs of Cato

    The Distichs of Cato , is a Latin collection of proverbial wisdom and morality by an unknown author named Dionysius Cato from the 3rd or 4th century AD....
     (Distichs of Cato), Dionysius Cato
  • The Book of the City of Ladies
    The Book of the City of Ladies

    The Book of the City of Ladies was Christine de Pizan's response to Jean de Meun?s The Romance of the Rose. Christine combats Meun?s misogynist beliefs by creating an allegorical city of ladies....
    , Christine de Pizan
    Christine de Pizan

    Christine de Pizan was a woman of the medieval era who strongly challenged misogyny and stereotypes that were prevalent in the male-dominated realm of the arts....
  • Book of the Civilized Man
    Book of the Civilized Man

    Book of the Civilized Man by Daniel of Beccles . Also known as Liber Urbani or Urbanus Magnus or Civilized Man....
    , Daniel of Beccles
  • The Book of Good Love
    The Book of Good Love

    The Book of Good Love , considered to be one of the masterpieces of Spain poetry, is a semi-biographical account of romantic adventures by Juan Ruiz, the Archpriest of Hita, dating from 1330....
    , Juan Ruiz
    Juan Ruiz

    Juan Ruiz , known as the Archpriest of Hita, Spain , was a Middle Ages Spain poet. He is best known for his ribald, earthy poem, Libro de buen amor ....
  • The Book of Margery Kempe, Margery Kempe
    Margery Kempe

    Margery Kempe is known for writing The Book of Margery Kempe, a work considered by some to be the first autobiography in the English language....
  • Brut
    Brut (Layamon)

    Brut is a Middle English poem compiled and recast by the English priest Layamon. It is named for Great Britain's mythical founder, Brutus of Troy....
    , Layamon
    Layamon

    Layamon , or Lawman, was a poet of the early 13th century, whose Brut is a history of England in verse written in a form of Middle English, although this is at times bastardized to include more modern Anglo-Norman forms, and at times, deliberately "archaistic" Saxon forms which were quaint even by Anglo-Saxon standards....
  • Brut
    Roman de Brut

    Roman de Brut or Brut is a verse literary history of Britain in the Middle Ages by the poet Wace. Written in the Norman language, it consists of 14,866 lines....
    , Wace
    Wace

    Wace was an Anglo-Norman poet, who was born in Jersey and brought up in mainland Normandy , ending his career as canon of Bayeux.His extant works include:...
  • Consolation of Philosophy
    Consolation of Philosophy

    Consolation of Philosophy is a philosophy work by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, written in about the year 524. It has been described as the single most important and influential work in the West on Medieval and early Renaissance Christianity, and is also the last great Western work that can be called Classical....
    , Boethius
    Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

    Anicius Manlius Severinus Bo?thius was a Christian or pagan philosopher of the 6th century. He was born in Rome to an ancient and important family which included emperors Petronius Maximus and Olybrius and many Roman consul....
  • The Canterbury Tales
    The Canterbury Tales

    The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century . The tales, some of which are originals and others not, are contained inside a frame tale and told by a collection of pilgrims on a pilgrimage from London Borough of Southwark to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathed...
    , Geoffrey Chaucer
    Geoffrey Chaucer

    Geoffrey Chaucer was an English author, poet, philosopher, Bureaucracy, Noble court and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales....
  • The Cloud of Unknowing
    The Cloud of Unknowing

    The Cloud of Unknowing is a practical spiritual guidebook thought to have been written in the latter half of the 14th century by an anonymous English monk, possibly a Carthusian, who counsels a young student to seek God not through knowledge but through what he speaks of as a "naked intent" and a "blind love."...
    , anonymous English
    English people

    The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England who speak English language in England. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
     author
  • Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio
    Giovanni Boccaccio

    Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italy author and poet, a friend and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanism and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular....
  • The Dialogue, Catherine of Siena
    Catherine of Siena

    Saint Catherine of Siena, Ordo Praedicatorum was a Tertiaries of the Dominican Order, and a Scholasticism philosopher and theologian. She also worked to bring the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon Papacy, and to establish peace among the Italian city-states....
  • The Diseases of Women, Trotula of Salerno
    Trotula of Salerno

    Trotula of Salerno , also known as Trotula di Ruggiero, Trotula Platearius, Trota and Trocta, was a female physician who wrote several influential works on women medicine, the most prominent of which is The Diseases of Women, or Passionibus Mulierum Curandorum, also known as Trotula Major....
  • La divina commedia
    The Divine Comedy

    The Divine Comedy , written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature....
     (The Divine Comedy), Dante Alighieri
    Dante Alighieri

    Durante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante Alighieri, was a Florence poet of the Middle Ages. His Magnum opus, the Divine Comedy , is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature....
  • Dukus Horant
    Dukus Horant

    Dukus Horant is a 14th-century narrative poem in Judeo-German .It is the best known of a number of works which survive in the famous Cambridge Codex T.-S.10.K.22....
    , the first extended work in Yiddish.
  • Elder Edda, various Iceland
    Iceland

    Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland , is an island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean between mainland Europe and Greenland....
    ic authors
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
    Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

    'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' is a late 14th-century Middle English Alliterative verse chivalric romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table ....
    , anonymous English
    English people

    The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England who speak English language in England. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
     author
  • Heimskringla
    Heimskringla

    Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca....
    , Snorri Sturluson
    Snorri Sturluson

    Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet and politician. He was two-time elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing....
  • Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
    Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum

    The Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a work in Latin by the Bede on the history of the Church in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman Catholic Church and Celtic Christianity....
     ("The Ecclesiastical History of the English People"), the Venerable Bede
    Bede

    Bede , , was a monasticism at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria....
  • Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
    Hypnerotomachia Poliphili

    Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is a romance by Francesco Colonna and a famous example of early printing. First published in Venice, 1499, in an elegant page layout, with refined woodcut illustrations in an Early Renaissance style, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili presents a mysterious arcane allegory in which Poliphilo pursues his love Polia thr...
    , Francesco Colonna
    Francesco Colonna

    Francesco Colonna , was an Italy Dominican Order priest and monk who was credited with the authorship of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili by an acrostic in the text....
    ?
  • The King's Mirror, anonymous Norwegian
    Norway

    Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....
     author
  • The Knight in the Panther Skin, Shota Rustaveli
    Shota Rustaveli

    Shota Rustaveli was a Georgia poet of the 12th century, and the greatest classic of Georgian secular literature. He is author of "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" , the Georgian national epic poetry....
  • The Lais of Marie de France
    The Lais of Marie de France

    The Lais of Marie de France are a series of twelve short narrative poems in Anglo-Norman language, generally focused on glorifying the concepts of courtly love through the adventures of their main characters....
    , Marie de France
    Marie de France

    Marie de France was a poet evidently born in France and living in England during the late 12th century. Virtually nothing is known of her early life, though she wrote a form of Old French that was copied by Anglo-Norman scribes....
  • The Letters of Abelard and Heloise
  • Das fließende Licht der Gottheit, Mechthild of Magdeburg
    Mechthild of Magdeburg

    Mechthild of Magdeburg was a medieval mysticism, a Beguine, and a Cistercian nun, whose book Das flie?ende Licht der Gottheit described her visions of God....
  • Ludus de Antichristo
    Ludus de Antichristo

    The Ludus de Antichristo is a liturgy drama from the 1100s whose original author is unknown. Its origins are almost certainly from southern Germany, possibly from someone writing in the town of Regensburg....
    , anonymous German
    Germany

    Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
     author
  • Mabinogion
    Mabinogion

    The Mabinogion is a collection of eleven prose stories from medieval Welsh manuscripts. They draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and on early medieval historical traditions....
    , various Welsh
    Wales

    native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
     authors
  • Metrical Dindshenchas, Irish
    Irish literature

    For a comparatively small island, Ireland has made a disproportionate contribution to world literature in all its branches. Irish Literature encompasses the Irish Language and English Language languages....
     onomastic poems
  • Le Morte d'Arthur
    Le Morte d'Arthur

    Le Morte d'Arthur is Sir Thomas Malory's compilation of some French language and English language Arthurian Romance . The book contains some of Malory's own original material and retells the older stories in light of Malory's own views and interpretations....
    , Sir Thomas Malory
    Thomas Malory

    Sir Thomas Malory was an English people writer, the author or compiler of Le Morte d'Arthur. The antiquary John Leland believed him to be Welsh, but most modern scholarship assumes that he was Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire....
  • Nibelungenlied
    Nibelungenlied

    The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poetry in Middle High German. The story tells of dragon-slayer Sigurd at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife Gudrun's revenge....
    , anonymous German
    Germany

    Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
     author
  • Njál's saga
    Njál's saga

    Nj?ls saga is arguably the most famous of the Sagas of Icelanders. Among Icelanders, the saga is most often referred to simply as Nj?la....
    , anonymous Iceland
    Iceland

    Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland , is an island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean between mainland Europe and Greenland....
    ic author
  • Parzival
    Parzival

    Parzival is a major medieval Germany epic poem attributed to the poet Wolfram von Eschenbach, written in the Middle High German language. The poem is commonly dated circa the first quarter of the 13th century....
    , Wolfram von Eschenbach
    Wolfram von Eschenbach

    Wolfram von Eschenbach was a Germany knight and poet, regarded as one of the greatest epic poetry poets of his time. As a Minnesang, he also wrote lyric poetry....
  • Piers Plowman
    Piers Plowman

    Piers Plowman or Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman is the title of a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in unrhymed alliterative verse divided into sections called "passus" ....
    , William Langland
    William Langland

    William Langland is the conjectured author of the 14th-century English dream-vision Piers Plowman....
  • Poem of the Cid
    Cantar de Mio Cid

    El Cantar de Mio Cid , also known in English as The Lay of the Cid, is the oldest preserved Spanish Epic poetry . The Spanish medievalist Ram?n Men?ndez Pidal included the "Cantar de M?o Cid" in the popular tradition he termed the mester de juglaria....
    , anonymous Spanish
    Spain

    Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
     author
  • Proslogium
    Proslogion

    The , , written in 1077-1078, was an attempt by the medieval clergy Anselm of Canterbury to prove beyond contention the existence of God....
    , Anselm of Canterbury
    Anselm of Canterbury

    Saint Anselm of Canterbury was an Italian medieval philosopher, theology, and church official who held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109....
  • Queste del Saint Graal (The Quest of the Holy Grail), anonymous French
    France

    France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
     author
  • Revelations of Divine Love
    Revelations of Divine Love

    The Revelations of Divine Love is a book of Christian mystical devotions written by Julian of Norwich. It was the first published book in the English language to be written by a woman....
    , Julian of Norwich
    Julian of Norwich

    Julian of Norwich was considered one of the greatest England mysticisms. Little is known of her life aside from her writings. Even her name is uncertain, the name "Julian" coming from the Church of St Julian in Norwich, where she was an anchorite, meaning that she was a type of hermit, who lived in a cell attached to the church and spent t...
  • Roman de la Rose
    Roman de la Rose

    The Roman de la rose is a Middle Ages France Poetry styled as an allegory dream vision. It is a notable instance of Courtly love#Literary convention....
    , Guillaume de Lorris
    Guillaume de Lorris

    Guillaume de Lorris was a France scholar and poet, and was the author of the first section of the Romance of the Rose. Little is known about him, other than that he wrote the earlier section of the poem around 1230, and that the work was completed forty years later by Jean de Meun....
     and Jean de Meun
    Jean de Meun

    Jean de Meun or Jean de Meung was a France author best known for his continuation of the Roman de la Rose....
  • Scivias
    Scivias

    Scivias is an illustrated work by Hildegard von Bingen, completed in 12th century in literature, describing 26 religious vision s she experienced....
    , Hildegard of Bingen
    Hildegard of Bingen

    Hildegard of Bingen , also known as Blessed Hildegard and Saint Hildegard, was a German people abbess, author, counselor, Linguistics, naturalist, scientist, philosopher, physician, herbalist, poet, visionary and composer....
  • Sic et Non
    Sic et Non

    Sic et Non, an early scholasticism text whose title translates from Medieval Latin as "Yes and No," was written by Peter Abelard. In the work, Ab?lard juxtaposes apparently contradictory quotations from the Church Fathers on many of the traditional topics of Christianity theology....
    , Abelard
  • The Song of Roland
    The Song of Roland

    The Song of Roland is the oldest surviving major work of French literature. It exists in various different manuscript versions, which testify to its enormous and enduring popularity in the 12th to 14th centuries....
    , anonymous French
    France

    France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
     author
  • Spiritual Exercises
    Gertrude the Great

    Saint Gertrude the Great or Saint Gertrude was a Germany Benedictine and mystic writer.She is recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, and is inscribed, as "Saint Gertrude", not as "Saint Gertrude the Great", in the Roman Catholic calendar of the saints, for celebration throughout the Latin Rite on November 16....
    , Gertrude the Great
    Gertrude the Great

    Saint Gertrude the Great or Saint Gertrude was a Germany Benedictine and mystic writer.She is recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, and is inscribed, as "Saint Gertrude", not as "Saint Gertrude the Great", in the Roman Catholic calendar of the saints, for celebration throughout the Latin Rite on November 16....
  • Summa Theologiae
    Summa Theologiae

    The title Summa Theologiae refers to several different theological works:#Summa Theologica by Sanctus Antoninus#Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas...
    , Thomas Aquinas
    Thomas Aquinas

    Saint Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in the Dominican Order from Italy, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis....
  • Táin Bó Cúailnge
    Táin Bó Cúailnge

    File:Cuinbattle.jpg is a legendary tale from early Irish literature, often considered an Epic poetry, although it is written primarily in prose rather than verse....
    , anonymous Irish
    Ireland

    Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
     author
  • The Tale of Igor's Campaign
    The Tale of Igor's Campaign

    The Tale of Igor's Campaign is an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language and tentatively dated to the end of 12th century....
    , anonymous Russian
    Rus' (people)

    Rus? are the historic population of the medieval Rus' Khaganate and Kievan Rus' whose name survives in the cognates Russians, Rusyns, and Ruthenians, and who are viewed by the modern Belarusians, Russians, and Ukrainians as the predecessors of their own peoples....
     author
  • Tirant lo Blanc
    Tirant lo Blanc

    Tirant lo Blanch is an Epic poetry Romance written by the Kingdom of Valencia knight Joanot Martorell, supposedly finished by Mart? Joan de Galba and published in Valencia in 1490....
    , Joanot Martorell
    Joanot Martorell

    Joanot Martorell was the Kingdom of Valencian author of the novel Tirant lo Blanch, which is written in Valencian . First published in Valencia in 1490, it was reprinted in Barcelona in 1497, and some consider it the first modern novel in Europe....
  • Il milione
    The Travels of Marco Polo

    The Travels of Marco Polo is the usual English language title of Marco Polo's travel book, nicknamed Il Milione or Le Livre des Merveilles ....
     (The Travels of Marco Polo), Marco Polo
    Marco Polo

    Marco Polo was a trader and exploration from the Venetian Republic who gained fame for his worldwide travels, recorded in the book Il Milione also known as Oriente Poliano and the Description of the World....
  • Tristan
    Tristan

    Sir Tristan is one of the main characters of the Tristan and Iseult story, a Cornwall hero and one of the Knights of the Round Table featuring in the Matter of Britain....
    , Thomas d'Angleterre
  • Tristan
    Tristan

    Sir Tristan is one of the main characters of the Tristan and Iseult story, a Cornwall hero and one of the Knights of the Round Table featuring in the Matter of Britain....
    , Béroul
    Béroul

    B?roul was a Normans poet of the 12th century. He wrote Tristan, a Norman language version of the legend of Tristan and Iseult of which a certain number of fragments have been preserved; it is the earliest representation of the so-called "vulgar" version of the legend ....
  • Troilus and Criseyde
    Troilus and Criseyde

    Troilus and Criseyde is Geoffrey Chaucer's poem in rhyme royal re-telling the tragic love story of Troilus, a Troy prince, and Cressida. Scholarly consensus is that Chaucer completed Troilus and Criseyde by the mid 1380's....
    , Geoffrey Chaucer
    Geoffrey Chaucer

    Geoffrey Chaucer was an English author, poet, philosopher, Bureaucracy, Noble court and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales....
  • Waltharius
    Waltharius

    Waltharius, a Latin language poem founded on Germany popular tradition, relates the exploits of the west Goths hero Walter of Aquitaine....
  • Younger Edda, Snorri Sturluson
    Snorri Sturluson

    Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet and politician. He was two-time elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing....
  • Yvain: The Knight of the Lion, Chrétien de Troyes
    Chrétien de Troyes

    Chr?tien de Troyes was a France poet and trouv?re who flourished in the late 12th century in poetry. Little is known of his life, but he seems to have been from Troyes, or at least intimately connected with it, and between 1160 and 1172 he served at the court of his patroness Count of Champagne Marie de Champagne, daughter of Eleanor of Aquit...
  • Gesta Danorum
    Gesta Danorum

    Gesta Danorum is a work of Denmark history, by the 12th century author Saxo Grammaticus . It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history....
    , Saxo Grammaticus
    Saxo Grammaticus

    Saxo Grammaticus also known as Saxo cognomine Longus is thought to have been a secular clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund....


Specific articles


By region or language

  • Anglo-Norman literature
    Anglo-Norman literature

    Anglo-Norman literature is literature composed in the Anglo-Norman language developed during the period 1066?1204 when the Duchy of Normandy and England were united in the Anglo-Norman realm....
  • Byzantine literature
    Byzantine literature

    Byzantine literature may be defined as the Greek literature of the Middle Ages, whether written in the territory of the Byzantine Empire or outside its borders....
  • Anglo-Saxon literature
    Anglo-Saxon literature

    Anglo-Saxon literature encompasses literature written in Old English language during the 600-year Anglo-Saxon England period of England, from the mid-5th century to the Norman Conquest of 1066....
  • Early English Jewish literature
    Early English Jewish literature

    English Jewish Literature:...
  • Medieval French literature
    Medieval French literature

    Medieval French literature is, for the purpose of this article, literature written in Langues d'o?l during the period from the eleventh century to the end of the fifteenth century....
  • Medieval German literature
    Medieval German literature

    Medieval German literature refers to literature written in Germany, stretching from the Carolingian dynasty; various dates have been given for the end of the German literary Middle Ages, the Protestant Reformation being the last possible cut-off point....
  • Medieval Latin literature
    • Latin translations of the 12th century
  • Old Norse literature
    Old Norse literature

    Old Norse literature refers to the vernacular literature of the Scandinavian peoples up to ca. 1350. It chiefly consists of Icelandic writings....
  • Pahlavi literature
    Pahlavi literature

    Middle Persian literature is Persian literature of the 1st millennium AD, especially of the Sassanid period....
  • Medieval Welsh literature
    Medieval Welsh literature

    Mediaeval Welsh literature is the medieval literature written in the Welsh language during the Middle Ages. This includes material from the time of the tongue's formation between the 5th and 8th centuries to the works of the 16th century....


By genre

  • Medieval poetry
    Medieval poetry

    Because most of what we have was written down by clerics, much of extant medieval poetry is Religion. The chief exception is the work of the troubadours and the minnes?nger, whose primary innovation was the ideal of courtly love....
  • Medieval drama
  • Medieval allegory
  • Fabliau
    Fabliau

    The fabliau is a comic, often anonymous tale written by jongleurs in northeast France in the 12th and 13th centuries. They are generally bawdy in nature, and several of them were reworked by Giovanni Boccaccio for the Decamerone and by Geoffrey Chaucer for his Canterbury Tales....
  • Medieval travel literature
  • Arthurian literature
  • Alexander romances
  • Chanson de geste
    Chanson de geste

    The chansons de geste, Old French for "songs of heroic deeds [or lineages]", are the epic poetry that appear at the dawn of French literature....
  • Eddic poetry
  • Skaldic poetry
  • Alliterative verse
    Alliterative verse

    In meter , alliterative verse is a form of poetry that uses alliteration as the principal structuring device to unify lines of poetry, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme....
  • Miracle plays
  • Morality plays
  • Mystery plays
  • Passion plays


By period

  • Early Medieval literature
    Early Medieval literature

    See also: Ancient literature, 10th century in literature, list of years in literature.Literature of the 6th to 9th centuries .The bulk of Sanskrit literature dates to the Early Medieval period, but in most cases cannot be dated to a specific century....
     (6th to 9th centuries)
  • 10th century in literature
    10th century in literature

    See also: Early Medieval literature, 11th century in literature, list of years in literature....
  • 11th century in literature
    11th century in literature

    See also: 10th century in literature, 12th century in literature, list of years in literature....
  • 12th century in literature
    12th century in literature

    See also: 11th century in literature, 13th century in literature, list of years in literature.----The twelfth century saw an increase in the production of Latin texts and a proliferation of literate clerics from the multiplying cathedral schools....
  • 13th century in literature
    13th century in literature

    See also: 12th century in literature, 13th century, 14th century in literature, list of years in literature....
  • 14th century in literature
    14th century in literature

    See also: 13th century in literature, 14th century, 15th century in literature, list of years in literature....


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ChaucerLiteraturePoetryMythologyMiddle AgesAstrology


External links

  • . See also Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
  • - listen to recorded excerpts of Medieval English literature with text alongside for translation help. (Dr. Anthony Colaianne, Chris Baugh)
  • - includes articles, book introductions and other resources related to medieval literature
  • at the Icelandic Saga Database