Early Medieval Literature?

[Elok]

I'm taking a Medieval Lit class, and I find it very strange that we've read Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy," which was written around the final collapse of the western Roman empire, and then skipped about a half-dozen centuries to "The Art of Courtly Love." What's between?

I know that "Beowulf" is from around that time, and some of the earlier histories we derive Arthurian legends from. But histories are, well, histories. They're academic records, not intended as an art form. And Beowulf was inherited from an oral tradition among the Germanic tribes who invaded well before Charlemagne (and may have been his ancestors). According to my prof, everyone literate read Ovid, Plato, and other classics, for which they had immense respect. He doesn't mention any indigenous accomplishments from that time period, and lots of the stuff we're reading from the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine is plainly indebted to, and references, the Ancients. No mention of any native works except exact contemporaries.

I'm tempted to just chalk this deficit up to the infamous backwardness of the time period, but that seems like taking the easy way out and I'm not sure I should jump to stereotypical conclusions. What literature, if any, do we have from western Europe from the fall of Rome to c.1000 AD? Or did they just spend five centuries being wowed by ancient texts and failing to produce anything of their own somehow?

[lord of the mark]

Re: Early Medieval Literature?

Originally posted by Elok
I'm taking a Medieval Lit class, and I find it very strange that we've read Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy," which was written around the final collapse of the western Roman empire, and then skipped about a half-dozen centuries to "The Art of Courtly Love." What's between?

I know that "Beowulf" is from around that time, and some of the earlier histories we derive Arthurian legends from. But histories are, well, histories. They're academic records, not intended as an art form. And Beowulf was inherited from an oral tradition among the Germanic tribes who invaded well before Charlemagne (and may have been his ancestors). According to my prof, everyone literate read Ovid, Plato, and other classics, for which they had immense respect. He doesn't mention any indigenous accomplishments from that time period, and lots of the stuff we're reading from the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine is plainly indebted to, and references, the Ancients. No mention of any native works except exact contemporaries.

I'm tempted to just chalk this deficit up to the infamous backwardness of the time period, but that seems like taking the easy way out and I'm not sure I should jump to stereotypical conclusions. What literature, if any, do we have from western Europe from the fall of Rome to c.1000 AD? Or did they just spend five centuries being wowed by ancient texts and failing to produce anything of their own somehow?

Written down then? Mainly theological works in Latin, Id think, as almost everyone literate (leaving aside a certain "people who may not be named", and they didnt actually produce anything in Europe till 1000, AFAIK, and even then no belles lettres till about 1200) was a monk. Im pretty sure the whole patristic thing didnt stop with the fall of Rome. Some guy named Isidor of Seville maybe?

IIUC there was some secular poetry written at Charlemagnes court, but it wasnt very good.

In England, Alfred wrote some history I guess. Then theres the Venerable Bedes History of the English Church and People, but again thats history, not "lit". Ditto for the Anglo-Saxon chronicles.

There are of course works that existed in oral form but were written down later. The Icelandic Eldar Edda, I think. Maybe other early versions of the Ring story?

[Elok]

"The people who may not be named?"

Dude, I'm not saying you can't mention the Jews or anything; if you have information on that particular group, by all means share it, though IIUC the Jews were rather isolated from mainstream medieval society. I just get annoyed when you act indignant that we're all not thoroughly educated in the ways and traditions of your culture.

I mean, I'm Orthodox Christian. Half the history books seem to treat us as a group of schismatic Catholics who got uppity. The other half ignore us as much as they possibly can given the important role Byzantium played in history. All you in particular seem to know about us is the number of church officials who have led pogroms. But you don't see me going nuts. I don't expect the whole bloody world to know my heritage.

[Odin]

All I know about Early Midieval Lit is that it is mostly Hagiography, stories telling the lives of saints.

[Bosh]

Yeah most of the stuff that was written down at the time was written by priests, and they weren't much into art for arts sake. I'm sure there were plenty of ballads/sagas/whatever they just weren't written down much.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Elok
"The people who may not be named?"

Dude, I'm not saying you can't mention the Jews or anything; if you have information on that particular group, by all means share it, though IIUC the Jews were rather isolated from mainstream medieval society. I just get annoyed when you act indignant that we're all not thoroughly educated in the ways and traditions of your culture.

I mean, I'm Orthodox Christian. Half the history books seem to treat us as a group of schismatic Catholics who got uppity. The other half ignore us as much as they possibly can given the important role Byzantium played in history. All you in particular seem to know about us is the number of church officials who have led pogroms. But you don't see me going nuts. I don't expect the whole bloody world to know my heritage.

Orthodox Christianity doesnt come up every time some fundies and some Atheist commie types are having a disputation.

And yes, I know a BIT more about Orthodox Christianity than that - in the course of reading medieval history ive heard about some of the councils, disputes with monophysites, iconoclast disputes, and the issues that prevented reunification in the early 15th c. Very shallow knowledge of course, but far beyond the gentiles who think that reading an english bible tells them what Judaism is.

[BeBMan]

Quite famous here in Germany is the "Hildebrandslied" - Lay of Hildebrand - a heroic epic, one of the earliest pieces of text in German (of course not the modern language we use today). A manuscript found of it is from the 9th century AD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lay_of_Hildebrand

[BeBMan]

Also that indeed most texts are religious stuff isn't too surprising since the religious guys were mainly those who could read and write. Doesn't mean automatically that there was no other stuff like poems, tales or songs, but it was probably rarely written down because a) religious content was seen more important and b) because due to the mentioned high grade of analphabetism which made oral tradition more important. So while there's less "literature" in the sense of written stuff it's not necessarily proof for a lack of creativity (if you mean that by "backwardness"). Should be noted IMO that many topics you find in medieval literature after 1000 AD date back to much earlier times before 1000 AD (like in the 11th century "Song of Roland" or the 13th century "Nibelungenlied").