A Thousand Years
A thousand was their sentence
And therefore civilization was suspended
And poverty and war were presented
And wheredeath was embraced
As humor could not fade the daily stress
And misery still existed so they repent
And the plague could freely be spread
A thousand years, a thousand years oppressed
And when religion was seen as a bless
And literature was on his dying bed, so they said
As it left traces through the art of the pen
A thousand was their sentence
And therefore civilization was suspended
And poverty and war were presented
And wheredeath was embraced
As humor could not fade the daily stress
And misery still existed so they repent
And the plague could freely be spread
A thousand years, a thousand years oppressed
And when religion was seen as a bless
And literature was on his dying bed, so they said
As it left traces through the art of the pen
Introduction source: Wikipedia
The middle ages, also known as the dark ages existed for a thousand years. It started in the year 500 and ended in the year 1500. It was the period of time when the European society fell in a winter sleep, after the fall of the last Roman Empire. The civilization stopped developing at the pace of the Romans and the culture heritage of the Roman Empire laid under the dust of time as it was forgotten. Those times are also remarked by the tragedies such as the Black Death, which spread through Europe taking millions of lives and where people faced on disasters like wars and where many of them knew only poverty. But in my short trip through the dark ages in light speed, is to bring the literature side more to the front by telling something about it. This is the part people do not think when they hear the dark ages. Here, in my rapport of those times, you will only hear it.
Medieval Literature
When you think of literature, what is then you first thought? Is it Shakespeare or King Arthur. In my story, a described journey through time, I stop in medieval (middle ages) to see what kind literature they wrote and published. I saw that paintings and architecture were present in that time, as many countries in Europe had their own style and paintings were and are still seen as great works. But what about writing literature, what kind of themes did they use in those days and why. In little piece of work, I hope to clarify why, at least bring you little knowledge about those times of literature.
In the medieval, the times of the plague and other forms of tragedy, they had also lost most of the culture, after the fall of the last Roman Empire. But in today, men recovered many works of writers in those days. I will start with the points of view many writers wrote their works.
Religious
In the medieval times, the religious were the main form of literature as they were found in the libraries during those days. Why did the religious form of literature dominated? The answer is that clerics of the Catholic Church, who was the main religion in Europe were the intellectual center of society in the middle ages and because that is also why literature was produced in greatest quantity. They did use literature for theological and philosophical treaties or to write autobiographies of the lives of saints with a purpose as an encouragement to the devout and a warning to others. So religious literature had one goal, to bring the message across, no matter what the theme was.
An example is the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, what was popular in it’s time and even reported that it was read more than the Bible. Besides religious texts, there was also religious poetry such as Dies Irae and Stabat Mater, two of the most famous Latin poems on religious subjects. A religious clerics used Goliardic poetry, a four line stanzas of satiric verse with purpose to express their dissent. The mystery plays were not produced by the clerics at all. The mystery plays were plays that re-enact a scene from the Bible. But a mystery play texts were controlled by local guilds and were performed regularly on set feast days, sometime all night long. But not only Christians wrote religious texts in those days, but also Jewish population produced a number of outstanding writers. Examples are Maimondies and Rashi, who are the best known and most influential Jewish authors.
Secular
Secular literature is form of literature that was not produced very much as religious literature, but it survived time to be in our possession. One theme of these secular was courtly love, which became very important in 11th century in Roman languages (who influenced i French, Spanish, Provencal, Galician and Catalan language) Besides those language, it was also in Greek where travelling singers (who are called troubadours) made a living from their songs.
There is a lot of difference of secular writings. This depends mostly of the “country” feeling of the story. I mean by what kind of stories people desired to hear. The epic poems are different . An example the Matter of Britain, where courtly love was different than the Matter of France, where heroism or acts of war was more on the front than the Matter of Britain. But they did not only differ on the subject, but how emphasis the one (love and chivalry) against the other (acts of war). In every country, you have a famous story. In the German, is Beowulf one of the famous stories that is written in epic poetry. The French have the Song of Roland while the Britain has stories about courtly love.
Besides epic poetry, the literature went further than story telling, may I say. The form of poetry was writing political and goliardic, which the last was used by seculars and clerics. The travel literature – see adventure were in the middle ages as it had an entertaining purpose. But think also of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales where 27 pilgrims tell their stories with moral behind it.
Woman’s Literature
In the middle ages, those were the times where being a woman was not easy. In the society of then, woman were not treated equal than men. But that did not stop some woman to use their skill with written word to gain any respect, acknowledge or just express their thoughts on differ matters. A religious writing was an easy topic to write about and to be published. Those woman who chose religious writing, frequently published their reflections, revelations and prayers were canonized as saints. The famous ones were mostly nuns, such as Care of Assisi, Bridget of Sweden and Catherine of Siena. But not everyone did like the views or perspective of a woman, especially the ones who were in power. They saw the works of woman as unorthodox. Not only the religious female writers, but also the ones such as Julian of Norwich and Hildegard of Bingen, who provided mystical visions insight a part of the medieval experience less comfortable for the ones who ruled. Woman also wrote influential texts in the framework of secular about subjects as courtly love and society. Marie de France and Christine de Pizan are being studied to provide a glimpse of the middle ages.
I want to mention that many writers of works, which some are classic are anonymous.
And therefore, we will never know them.
The Theme’s source: literature without bounders
Chanson of Geste – heroic poem / heroic story
These kind of stories or poetry, retells a historic event that took place, for an example on a battlefield or somewhere else. They used this event and made up some things that made the story great, created a hero where greatness and power where the main elements. It is important, because these are the main ingredients to a heroic story. The famous story is Chanson de Rolland and it goes about the Charles the Great that tried to liberate a Spanish village, but the villagers do not see him as a liberator and attack him when he returns back home. In this attack, a soldier named Rolland dies. This is just a little preview in the story.
Adventure
Another theme for the literature in these days, was an adventure of a brave knight or king going to a far land and fight different enemies or have new experiences. These stories were sometimes true and many were made up, just to entertain people. One of the famous adventure stories was King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, where King Arthur was center piece of the story with his Excalibur, a powerful sword having adventures with his knights
Humour
Humour was also a famous theme what just to enlighten the dark times which people lived in. These were stories were made up to make people smile and with a hidden moral. In this days, you don’t see that often. But they used that with message to say something. An example is the story of Gloriant’s Den Buskenblasser where a man (farmer) tries to be young again and how he is tricked by evil magician by blowing in a tube. But instead of getting younger, he gets the chimney dust and turns ugly. This is a little summary what the story is about. Another famous humour stories with moral is Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. In the tales, told by the different person you see humour as redline through a story.
Fausttheme
The last theme is nothing compared to themes above. The theme is about stories where person trades his soul for a wishes and dreams, but at the end always loses from the devil. The stories take a little deeper, as many stories are written and told in the time spirit, so men in those times could easily recognize the person and his or her dilemma. One of the famous stories is tragically history of dr. Faustus, where a doctor sells his souls for knowledge and power, but he loses them, when the devil comes for him, to take him away.
