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The Church was central to medieval education, culture, and morality, while Latin was the principal language of Western Christian scholarship and liturgy.
War, famine, and epidemics, especially the Black Death from 1348, fostered literary concerns with death, sin, and salvation.
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After the Norman Conquest, Anglo-Norman French became closely associated with the court and ruling aristocracy.
Peasants and workers formed most of the population, whose lives were affected by agricultural work, taxation, war, famine, and disease.
Urban and merchant groups became increasingly important in the later Middle Ages as trade and towns developed.
Medieval society included:
1066 begins the period; Bosworth in 1485 marks its traditional end.
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📌 Old English was the language of Anglo-Saxon England before and around the Norman Conquest, while Middle English developed later as evolving regional varieties.
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Further detail
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📌 An allegory has a literal level consisting of what happens in the narrative and a symbolic level consisting of what its characters or events represent beyond the narrative.
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Abstract qualities personified in allegory include:
Allegory can satirize people, institutions, or social behaviour.
The Tortoise and the Hare can be read allegorically as contrasting perseverance with overconfidence.
Alliterative verse was especially important in Old and Middle English and has roots in Germanic poetic traditions.
The professor’s example from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight repeats initial consonant sounds in “Then they brought him a steed, The strongest and best, That ever stepped in stables, With stamping hooves.”
Allegory has literal and symbolic levels; alliteration builds verse through repeated initial sounds.
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Chivalric ideals include:
The traditional bodies of romance matter are:
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Romance narratives often make a hero’s honour, reputation, and moral or social status central.
Romance marvels may include:
CHAM: courage, honour, adventure, marvels.
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Chaucer’s most famous work is The Canterbury Tales, written over several years, probably from the late 1380s into the 1390s.
Chaucer contributed to the development of literary English through complex characterization, irony, social observation, and experimentation with genre.
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Chaucer’s other works include:
The traditional honorific “Father of English Literature” describes Chaucer’s importance but does not mean he was the first English writer, since English literature predates him by centuries.
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🔄 The frame narrative proceeds as follows:
Twenty-four tales survive in The Canterbury Tales, and Chaucer’s unfinished project is generally understood to have planned four tales per pilgrim—two on the way to Canterbury and two on the return—for a theoretical total of 120.
Chaucer develops each character through:
The General Prologue’s descriptions can be realistic, comic, and ironic at once, as a narrator’s praise may be undermined by details that reveal contradictions.
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The Canterbury Tales combines verse and prose.
The Canterbury Tales ranges in tone from comic, ironic, and sometimes ribald to serious, religious, tragic, or moral.
The slide describes 29 pilgrims preparing to leave the Tabard Inn.
Major pilgrims include the Knight, Squire, Prioress, Monk, Friar, Merchant, Clerk, Sergeant of Law, Franklin, Wife of Bath, Parson, Miller, and Pardoner.
Named sources and traditions include:
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The Miller is portrayed as physically powerful, coarse, noisy, and morally dubious, with an accumulation of grotesque physical details.
The Miller is dishonest: he can steal corn and take extra tolls.
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The Miller’s portrait emphasizes strength through references to “brawn,” “bones,” wrestling, and his ability to break doors.
The portrait’s grotesque details include:
The Miller’s sword, buckler, and physical power suggest violence and aggression.
The Miller is called “janglere,” meaning talkative, and “goliardeys,” describing a coarse or jovial entertainer.
The proverb “An honest miller hath a golden thumb” is used ironically against the Miller’s dishonesty.
The Miller’s grotesque physical imagery makes him memorable, while his occupation and dishonesty support humorous comment on social morality.
The Miller’s dishonest conduct contrasts with the ideal of the honest miller.
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Further detail
The initial consonant groups kn- in knight and wr- in write were pronounced more fully in Chaucer’s time than in Modern English.
Chaucer’s r was pronounced more fully than the r in modern non-rhotic English.
The slide’s simplified vowel chart gives these guides (Professor):
The Middle English vocabulary list gives “adoun” = down; “agast(e)” = afraid or frightened; “agayn(s)” = against or toward; “ago / agoon” = gone or ago; “al” = all; “al be that” = although; “also” = also or as well; “anon” = at once; “artow” = art thou or you are; and “atte” = at or at the.
The Middle English vocabulary list gives “aventure” = chance; “axe” = ask; “ay” = always; “benedicite” = bless us; “bet” = better; “beth” = are or be; “bitwixen” = between; “blake” = black; “blyve” = quickly or soon; “brennen” = burn; “brest / brast” = burst; “can / kan” = know or be able; and “canstow” = can you or you can.
The Middle English vocabulary list gives “cas” = happening or chance; “certes” = surely or certainly; “certeyn” = certainly or sure; “chees / chesen” = choose or chose; “cheere / chiere” = facial expression; “clepe(n)” = call; “clerk” = scholar; “conne” = learn, know, or be able; “conseil” = counsel or advice; “coude” = could or knew how; “coy” = quiet; “deel” = bit or portion; and “delit” = delight or pleasure.
The Middle English vocabulary list gives “deme” = judge or suppose; “devyse” = tell or describe; “deye” = die; “dorste” = dare or dared; “fro” = from; “gan / gonne” = began; “hente” = take, seize, or get; “hende” = courteous or pleasant; “kepe” = heed or take care; “konnyng” = skill or knowledge; “maistow” = may you or you may; “nam” = am not; and “namoore” = no more.
The Middle English vocabulary list gives “noght” = not or nothing; “pardee” = by God, a common oath; “parfit” = perfect; “quyte / quitte” = requite or repay; “rede” = advise, interpret, or read; “rekke / recche” = heed or care; “seith” = says; “seke” = seek; “sooth / sothe” = truth or truly; “sped him” = hastened; “swynk / swynken” = work; “tellen” = tell or count; “ther” = there or where; and “thee” = you.
The Middle English vocabulary list gives “thilke” = that or those; “to” = to or too; “toward” = toward; “tweye” = two; “wende / wenden” = go or pass; “whan” = when; “where / wher” = where; and “which” = that, which, or who.
★ Must-know
The course’s historical sequence is Caedmon and the Old English tradition, the Norman Conquest in 1066, Middle English, Chaucer, and later Early Modern English.
Recurring themes include:
The medieval period involved profound linguistic, social, and literary change: multilingualism, the Church’s influence on education and morality, coexistence of romance and religious literature with varied secular writing, and the expressive possibilities of Middle English demonstrated by Chaucer.
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Caedmon’s Hymn is an Old English text that celebrates the Creator and begins “Nu scylun hergan hefaenricaes Uard…”.
Old English features shown by the text include:
Religious themes include:
Mortality themes include:
Social hierarchy themes include:
Chivalric ideals of honour are tested by action and temptation, while corruption exposes tension between religious ideals and material interests.
A text analysis can proceed by identifying context, form, description, language, tone, themes, and interpretation, including the difference between what a narrator says and what the text suggests.
Caedmon and Old English precede the Conquest, Middle English, Chaucer, and later Early Modern English.
Take a 11-question practice quiz on British Medieval Literature, with every answer explained.
1. Which feature best characterizes the structure of feudal society?
2. What historical change is traditionally associated with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485?
Memorize the key concepts of British Medieval Literature with 10 flashcards.
In which year did William of Normandy defeat Harold Godwinson at Hastings?
1066.
What dates conventionally define the English Middle Ages?
1066 to 1485.
How did Middle English differ from Old English in its regional form?
Middle English developed as evolving regional varieties.
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