Dark Ages - The God was the most supreme. Then the king was the most important in the country, in the family – the father was the most important figure. The king and his warriors after the battles gather in a mead-hall (some kind of castle) and they celebrated victory. The king used to give his warriors jewellery so he was called the ring-given. During this celebrity gleemen used to play harps and wing. prosopopeia - the object speaks in the first person and this is some kind of personification. Riddles, The Dream of the Rood Subject of Anglo-Saxon literature Religion – The Dream of the Rood Sadness –The Seafarer Happiness - The Seafarer Sea - The Seafarer Life of saints – Caedmon’s Hymn Heroic deeds – Beowulf Death - The Dream of the Rood Division of Anglo-Saxon literature We can divided A-S works according to presents or absents of pagan elements. The first A-S works were mainly pagan. Late works were mainly Christian. The oldest A-S poetry pagan with few Christian additions: heroic epics - Beowulf elegies – The Seafarer charms and riddles. Christian works inspired by the Bible or life of saints – Caedmon’s Hymn, The Dream of the Rood Heroic lays which described heroic deeds and priced them – The Settle of Maldom Latin prose – Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum by Venerable Bede A-S prose – Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of King Alfred the Great and His Scholars. Christian elements in A-S literature God as a creator of the world – Beowulf, Caedmon’s Hymn Cross as a symbol of Jesus Christ suffering and death - The Dream of the Rood Monster in Beowulf is compared to biblical Kain, they both were killers Tree in The Dream of the Rood is a symbol of cross Black nails in The Dream of the Rood might be a symbol of sins	MIDDLE AGES 1066 – 1485 or 1516. 1485 – the date of the publication of works by sir Thomas Mallory, 1516 – the date connected with Tudor dynasty The French became the main language in Britain. It was the time of Holy crusades. Church was the most important institution represent for education, law. Ballads. Bonny Barbara Allan, Sir Patrick Spencer, Get up and bar the door They were called traditional or folk ballads. oral they were written down after several centuries. So we can find several version. The subject was taken from everyday life. These were tragic love, jealous, revenge disasters, adventures. they contain dialogs and refrains with are called incremental repetition. The form is simple and regular. The typical ballad stanca consist of 4 lines. There is a clear and definite beat. Incremental repetition means that the refrain is repeated each time with slide changes. The most popular ballads are: MEDIEVAL DRAMA There are two kinds of Medieval drama: 1) Miracle plays. 2)Morality plays. Miracle plays - Noah, The Second Shepherd’s Play were based on the stories from the Bible or life of saints. they were performed on Corpus Christi Day on moving platform Usually they told the story of Mary who was looking for the Christ tomb. were written by several people there were called guild members. Other typical subjects of miracle plays were: Creation of the world The fall of man Crucifixion, resurrection Judgement day Morality plays – Everyman, The Castle of Perseverance this were allegorist which presented the struggle between protagonist God and Devil. The typical protagonist was mankind, everyman. Among other figures are: angels, demons, death. Convention in Medieval literature Anonymous Allegory (names of characters are allegorical (Sin, Death) - Everyman Personification of characters as: angels, demons- Everyman Dream – vision convention (a person falls asleep and has a dream) - Piers Plowman, Pearl Alliterative revival Piers Plowman, Pearl, Bonny Barbara Allan Field full of folk (presented the panorama of English society) - Piers Plowman
Bonny Barbara Allan The main topic is the tragic love. The was the close division. Sir John loved the simple woman. Sir John was sick fell in love. Bed is a symbol of coffin. After dead they were buried near. The red and white roses grow with their graves and they intertwined .There is an instrumental repetition - Barbara Allan There is a dialog – sir John and Barbara Allan talk together. It was autumn – autumn is a symbol of death, sickness. Nature reflects the feelings of two lovers. The atmosphere is dark, gloomy, unpleasant. The roses are the symbol of eternal love and the symbol of the fact that after death all people are equal. Rhymes are not regular but they are in this ballad. The language is simple. We can also see the a French influence (adie, adie). Pearl it is written in dream vision convention (The speaker fell asleep and tells his dream). It’s unknown author, designated the "Pearl poet”. The poem is an example for alliteration: Pearl, delighting a prince’s pleasure. The whole poem consist of 101 parts. Each stanza consists of 12 lines. Each stanza finished the same line. This is an example of allegorical poem. The pearl is a daughter who died. There are some words which describe grave. There are 3 interpretation of pearl: 1 – as a pearl. 2 – as a daughter 3 – as a faith. The title of the poem, Pearl, indicates something of high value to the audience. The pearl is indeed valuable to the father as he lives in misery as he mourns (opłakiwać) the death of his daughter however the poem discusses many aspects of worthiness. William Langland – “The Visions of Piers Plowman It is written in two conventions: dream-vision convention, field full of folk.( he sees panorama of society - represented different classes and professions) alliterative revival panorama of society: 1 part – critics of entertainment society – he criticises people who are jesters and jugglers = children of Judas because they make folk fools (money). 2 part – critics civil service - people serve the King but really they serve the King’s money. 3 part – earn money honestly - He describes the people and he criticises them. He prises good deeds. The refers the religious: “That faith without deed is right nothing worth”. – the most important thing, the main idea of the poem. Generally the poem shows the search true religious. It shows how to be religious person and how to reject material things. This is the criticism on society and institution of Church. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Medieval romance) long poem full of symbolism and presents supernatural features. It’s also anonymous poem written in alliterative verse. The story is simple but symbolised. These belts are the symbol of friendship and brotherhoods. There are similar symbols in this story: Green Knight – symbol of God Bertilac’s wife – symbol of temptation (kuszenie) Sir Gawain – symbol of ideal Medieval Knight (he’s loyal, brave, religious, honest) – he was loyal not only to his king but also to religious and to Bertilac who invited him. King Arthur – symbol of ideal king (“but Arthur would not eat until all were served”) The story shows that the human nature is the same for everyone. People are expose to different temptations. Everyman The figures are personifications. They have human qualities (they talk). The story started the Messenger. In the speech of Messenger is very moralistic. God describes people – he died for people but people forgot about him, they forgot God’s law. God isn’t here merciful (miłosierny). He is angry. God tells Death to go and bring Everyman to a confession. Death comes to Everyman and Everyman is surprised. He wasn’t prepared for death. Good Deeds is the only person who can accompany him. Good Deeds rises from the ground but they are weak - this is an allegory. The names of characters are allegorical. Sins make good deeds be lied to the ground. Everyman reflects the views of Medieval Church, which is: Life is a struggle between god and evil Salvation (zbawienie) is the central purpose of life Things of the world are insignificant. The Church is a necessary guide to salvation. God is presented as an angry man, and human is presented as sinful. Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales Pilgrims go to Canterbury (place of martyrdom of Thomas Becket). Pilgrims take a journey to his grave in Cathedral. 30 pilgrims tell 2 stories on the way to C. And 2 stories on the back. (120 tales). Main narrator (General Prologue), secondary narrators (pilgrims). Story within a story – casket composition - main narrator introduces pilgrims (panorama Medieval English society) Knight – nobleman, brave, honest, honourable, perfect example Medieval knight Squire – ideal young man, lover, soldier, lusty, elegant, handsome Prioress – well-educated speak French, has good manners, “Amor Vinci Omnia “ The Pardoner – sells in diligences, source of all evil in Greed. He describe himself and his profession, reader achieves interpretative freedom – the most important literary achievements. The Pardoner criticises people’ sins, alcohol overuse, greed, gambling. Refers to legendary and historical figures (Herod, Seneca, Adam and Eva)	Symbols in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Magic Belt –ideal knight, loyalty, friendship Woman – symbol of temptation Green Knight –spring, Fertility God King Arthur –ideal ruler Fall of Troy – beginning of Britain Sir Gawain – ideal knight, loyal, brave, religious Antic elements in Medieval literature Seneca – Canterbury Tales The fall of Troy – Sir Gawain and Green Knight Latin sentences – The Canterbury Tales Christian elements Cross, tree - The Dream of the Rood God as Maker of Kingdom, Father of Glory – Bede asks about the heavenly Jerusalem – Pearl God ,Death, Salvation - Everyman Cathedral pilgrims, Herod, Adam&Eva - The Canterbury Tales Medieval knight loyal, brave, religious, honest – Sir Gawain and Green Knight nobleman, brave, honest, honourable - The Canterbury Tales
	The Seafarer Originally there was no division into the old sailor and the youth. The division comes from the publisher. The poem is based on the opposites, so we’ve got the old person and the young person. They both speak about the life on the sea but their vision is totally different. The poem is a great example of alliteration. The old sailor describes his life on the sea as heavy burden. He compares his life to life on the land. The old sailor symbolized experience and the young person in nonsense and lack of experience. The sea might be the symbol of freedom for a young man and dangerous for the old sailor. Land is the prison for a young man and shelter (schronienie) for the old. The Dream of the Rood Christian literature – it’s very religious poem. The poem is a story of crucifixion. There are a lot of alliteration. The poem starts with the man who wants to tell a story. Tree is a symbol of cross but it is light, bright – it wasn’t the usual cross. The tree is gold, precious – the symbol of power, king. The speaker tells his dream. In which he saw unusual tree – shining, wearing in gold, jewellery. These unusual things are symbols of a power of the king – Jesus Christ. Everybody admire the tree, people feel respect ion. The man said that he soiled the tree with his sins. Then the cross started to speak. This is some kind of personification. Cross is personification – the most specific the ability where the object speaks is prosopopeia. The poem is written in dream convention which means that the speaker falls asleep and he has a dream, and he tells this dream. This is literary convention. The tree speaks about the past: about how he was a tree, how was cut and when he saw a King. Usually in the poem is that the crucifixion is presented from the point of view of the cross. The cross accepted Christ body, it was a honour for this cross. The cross really respects Jesus and he’s honoured. Black nails might be a symbol of sins. They mocked us both – szydzili z nas – the cross identify himself with the suffering the Christ. The cross suffer as Jesus. Nature accompanied with the events. When Christ died was darkness. There is a description of burying process . After Christ’s death the cross was worship, was adored. Almost the end is the cross’s speech. On the end of the poem there is a rhetorical question. Bede Christian work – hymn by Caedmon – author of this poem. This is the first song of Christ in English literature. Caedmon is said to be given a talent of praising God in his dream. God is called Maker of Kingdom, Father of Glory Riddles Riddles were some kind of entertainment during celebrations. Riddles used specific stylistic figure: prosopopeia (the object speaks in the first person and this is some kind of personification).