San Antonio College LitWeb Outline of Medieval English Literature

A Brief Outline of Medieval English Literature

By Roger Blackwell Bailey, Ph.D.

The Venerable Bede ( 673 - 735 )

Click HERE for General References to Medieval English Literature

Old English Literature

Most of the individual works listed below, or at least selections from them, can be found in Modern English versions in one of the following collections:

The Anglo-Saxon World. Edited by Kevin Crossley-Holland. Oxford, 1984.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Translated, edited and introduced by G. N. Garmonsway. Everyman, 1972.
Alfred the Great.Translated with an introduction and notes by Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge. Penguin, 1983.
Anglo-Saxon Prose. Translated by Michael Swanton. Everyman, 1993.

Prose
Bede ( 673-735 ), The Ecclesiastical History of the English People ( 731 ). Originally in Latin.
Alfred the Great ( 848-901 ). Translations into Old English:

St. Gregory's Pastoral Care. A handbook for clerics.
Bede's Ecclesiastical History.
Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy. One of the most influential works in the Middle Ages.
Orosius' Against the Pagans. An influential historical work which Alfred supplemented by two northern voyages, by Ohthere and Wulfstan. ( Orosius was translated into Modern English by Irving Woodworth Raymond, Columbia, 1936.)

Asser's Life of Alfred ( 893 ). The first biography of an English king.
The Blickling Homilies ( 10th or 11th cent. ).
Ælfric ( c. 950-c. 1010 ).

Homilies and Lives of Saints.
The "Colloquy". Instruction in Latin conversation.

Wulfstan ( 11th cent. ). Sermons, esp. "Sermo Lupi ad Anglos," "The Sermon of the Wolf to the English."
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. This work, which survives in several versions, is a history that, while it begins as early as the birth of Christ, concentrates on the history of the Anglo-Saxons before the Norman invasion of 1066, although one version continues the history into the mid-12th century.
Poetry
Anglo-Saxon ( Old English ) Poetry comes to us from four collections of manuscripts:

Cotton Vitellius A xv. The unique copy, partially fire-damaged, is in the British Library. The main text it contains is Beowulf.
The Exeter Book. This beautiful collection is in the cathedral library in Exeter. It contains some of the most important Anglo-Saxon short poems: "Widsith," "The Wanderer," "The Seafarer," and a number of riddles. On-Line Image
The Junius Manuscript. This collection is in the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
The Vercelli Book. This collection is supposed to be in the Chapter Library in Vercelli, Italy, but access to it is next to impossible. If, in fact, it actually exists, it contains, among other works, "The Dream of the Rood." If anyone can correct and reassure me on this score, write to me at pmcquien@accd.edu

Middle English Literature

Geoffrey Chaucer ( c. 1340-1400 ) . The Father of English Poetry.
'Sir John Mandeville' ( fl. mid14th c.).
The Pearl Poet ( Late 14th Cent. ).
Langland, William ( 1330-1386 ).

John Gower ( c. 1330-1408 ), Confessio Amantis ( The Lover's Confession ).

English Mystics

Julian of Norwich ( 1343- c. 1416 ) A Julian Of Norwich Page.
Margery Kempe ( b. c. 1373 ), The Book of Margery Kempe. A Margery Kempe Page.

Middle English Lyrics. Harley Lyrics.
A Medieval Lyrics Page.

Medieval English Drama A Medieval English Drama Page.
Miracle Play Cycles of the 14th and 15th Centuries

Anon., The Chester Cycle, esp. The Harrowing of Hell
____, The Coventry Cycle
____, The Wakefield ( Towneley ) Cycle ,esp. The Second Shepherds' Play
____, The York Cycle

Morality Plays , esp. Everyman.
An Everyman Page.

Popular Ballads ( From the 15th Cent. ). About 300 survive, not counting variants. There are several decent collections. Perhaps the earliest collection, that by Bishop Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. popularly called Percy's Reliques, has been reprinted by Dover, as has the great collection by Francis Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Percy's collection dates from 1765; then Sir Walter Scott made a collection at the beginning of the 19th Century, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Child's collection was completed during the closing years of the 19th Century.

Love and Domestic Tragedy : e.g., " Edward ", " Barbara Alan. "
Disaster : e.g. " Sir Patrick Spens. "
Outlaws : e.g. the Robin Hood ballads.
The Supernatural : e.g. " The Wife of Usher's Well. "

Sir Thomas Malory ( c. 1405-1471 ), Le Morte D'Arthur.
A Malory Page
See also the Arthur Page.

Robert Henryson ( c. 1430-1506 ), Moral Fables and Testament of Crisseid.

Last updated 10/29/09 Back to the British Literature Index