Because most of what we have was written down by clerics, much of extant medieval poetry is religious, helping to preserve it. Various Religious symbols, including (first row) Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Bahai, (second row) Islamic, tribal, Taoist, Shinto (third row) Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu, Jain, (fourth row) Ayyavazhi, Triple Goddess, Maltese cross, pre-Christian Slavonic Religion is the adherence to codified beliefs and rituals that generally involve a faith in a spiritual...

Examples of medieval poetry

Old English religious poetry includes the poem Christ by Cynewulf and the poem The Dream of the Rood, preserved in both manuscript form and on the Ruthwell Cross. We do have some secular poetry; in fact a great deal of medieval literature was written in verse, including the Old English epic Beowulf. Scholars are fairly sure, based on a few fragments and on references in historic texts, that much lost secular poetry was set to music, and was spread by traveling minstrels, or bards, across Europe. Thus, the few poems written eventually became ballads or lays, and never made it to being recited without song or other music. Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... Christ is the English of the Greek word (Christós), which literally means The Anointed One. ... I wont stop until Dat dere cell-tech is on the English language article: Ronnie coleman! ... The Dream of the Rood is a famous Old English poem found in the Vercelli Book of the 10th century. ... A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... One or more images would improve this articles quality. ... This article concerns secularity, that is, being secular, in various senses. ... The first page of Beowulf Beowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem composed in the later Early Middle Ages (in the 8th, 9th or 10th century). ... For the 18th century American form of music and performance known as minstrelsy, see minstrel show. ... The Bard (ca. ... World map showing the location of Europe. ... Illustration by Arthur Rackham of the ballad The Twa Corbies A ballad is a story, usually a narrative or poem, in a song. ... For other uses, see Music (disambiguation). ...

Medieval Latin literature

In medieval Latin, while verse in the old quantitative meters continued to be written, a new more popular form called the sequence arose, which was based on accentual metres in which metrical feet were based on stressed syllables rather than vowel length. These metres were associated with Christian hymnody. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Meter (British English spelling: metre) describes the linguistic sound patterns of a verse. ... In Latin poetry, a sequence (Latin sequentia) is a poem written in a non-classical metre, often on a sacred Christian subject. ... Accent in poetry refers to the stressed portion of a word. ... In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word. ... A syllable (Ancient Greek: ) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. ... In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. ... Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. ... A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a god or other religiously significant figure. ...

However, much secular poetry was also written in Latin. Some poems and songs, like the Gambler's Mass (officio lusorum) from the Carmina Burana, were parodies of Christian hymns, while others were student melodies: folksongs, love songs and drinking ballads. The famous commercium song Gaudeamus igitur is one example. There are also a few narrative poems of the period, such as the unfinished epic Ruodlieb, which tells the story of a knight's adventures. Carmina Burana (IPA: ; note that the stress is on the first syllable of Carmina, not the second) also known as the Burana Codex is a manuscript collection, now in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, of over 1000 poems and songs written in the early 13th century. ... Parody of Back to the Future In contemporary usage, a parody is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ... Commercium songs are traditional academic songs that are usually being sung during commerciums and tablerounds. ... De Brevitate Vitae is a song in Latin that is a popular academic commercium song in many European countries. ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, and one of the major forms of narrative literature. ... Ruodlieb, a romance in Latin verse by an unknown German poet who flourished about 1030. ... The silver Anglia knight, commissioned as a trophy in 1850, intended to represent the Black Prince. ...

Topics

• Carmina Burana
• Cambridge Songs
• goliard
• Hiberno-Latin
• Gregorian chant
  • Dies Irae
  • Pange Lingua

Carmina Burana (IPA: ; note that the stress is on the first syllable of Carmina, not the second) also known as the Burana Codex is a manuscript collection, now in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, of over 1000 poems and songs written in the early 13th century. ... The Goliards were a group of clergy who wrote bibulous, satirical Latin poetry in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. ... Hiberno-Latin, also called Hisperic Latin, was a playful and learned sort of Latin literature created and spread by Irish monks during the period from the sixth century to the tenth century. ... Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the Roman Catholic Church. ... For the Polish death metal band Dies Irae, see Dies Irae (band). ... Pange Lingua is a hymn written by St. ...

Medieval Latin poets

• St Ambrose
• St Thomas Aquinas
• The Archpoet
• St Bernard of Cluny
• St Bonaventure
• St Columba
• Dante Alighieri
• St Hildegard of Bingen
• Hrabanus Maurus
• Paul the Deacon
• Petrarch
• Peter of Blois
• Thomas of Celano
• Walafrid Strabo
• Walter of Chatillon

For other uses, see Ambrose (disambiguation). ... Saint Thomas Aquinas (also Thomas of Aquin, or Aquino; c. ... The Archpoet, or Archipoeta, is a name given to the bibulous and boastful anonymous author of many of the poems contained in the Carmina Burana collection of mediæval Latin verse. ... Bernard of Cluny (or of Morlaix) was a Benedictine monk of the first half of the twelfth century, poet, satirist, and hymn-writer, author of the famous verses On the Contempt of the World. Life His parentage, native land, and education are hidden in obscurity. ... For other uses, see Bonaventure (disambiguation). ... Saint Columba (7 December 521 - 9 June 597) is sometimes referred to as Columba of Iona, or, in Old Irish, as Saint Colm Cille or Columcille (meaning Dove of the church). He was the outstanding figure among the Gaelic missionary monks who reintroduced Christianity to Scotland during the Dark Ages. ... Dante in a fresco series of famous men by Andrea del Castagno, ca. ... Illumination from the Liber Scivias showing Hildegard receiving a vision and dictating to her scribe Hildegard of Bingen (German: Hildegard von Bingen; Latin: Hildegardis Bingensis; 1098 – September 17, 1179), also known as Blessed Hildegard and Saint Hildegard, was a German magistra and later, abbess. ... Rabanus Maurus Magnentius (c. ... Paul the Deacon (c. ... From the c. ... Peter of Blois (1135 (?) - 1203 (?)) was a French poet and diplomat who wrote in Latin. ... Thomas of Celano, in Italian Tommaso da Celano from his hometown of Celano in the Abruzzo, (ca. ... Walafrid (also Walahfrid), surnamed Strabo (or Strabus, i. ... Walter of Châtillon was a 12th century French writer and theologian who wrote in the Latin language. ...

Medieval vernacular literature

One of the features of the renaissance which marked the end of the medieval period is the rise in the use of the vernacular or the language of the common people for literature. The compositions in these local languages were often about the legends and history of the areas in which they were written which gave the people some form of national identity. Epic poems, sagas, chansons de geste and acritic songs (songs of heroic deeds) were often about the great men, real or imagined, and their achievements like Arthur, Charlemagne and El Cid. The Renaissance (French for rebirth, or Rinascimento in Italian), was a cultural movement in Italy (and in Europe in general) that began in the late Middle Ages, and spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century. ... Look up Vernacular in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In mathematics, see epic morphism. ... Look up saga in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The chansons de geste, Old French for songs of heroic deeds, are the epic poetry that appears at the dawn of French literature. ... The acritic songs (Greek: ακριτικά τραγούδια — frontiersmen songs) are the heroic or epic poetry that emerged from 10th century Byzantium, inspired by the almost continuous state of warfare with the Arabs in eastern Asia Minor. ... A bronze Arthur in plate armour with visor raised and with jousting shield wearing Kastenbrust armour (early 15th century) by Peter Vischer, typical of later anachronistic depictions of Arthur. ... A portrait of Charlemagne by Albrecht Dürer that was painted several centuries after Charlemagnes death. ... Statue of El Cid in Burgos. ...

The earliest recorded European vernacular literature is that written in the Irish language. Given that Ireland had escaped absorption into the Roman empire, this had time to develop into a highly sophisticated literature with well-documented formal rules and highly organised Bardic schools. The result was a large body of prose and verse recording the ancient myths and sagas of the Gaelic-speaking people of the island, as well as poems on religious, political and geographical themes and a body of nature poetry. Vernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular - the speech of the common people. ... Irish () is a Goidelic language spoken in Ireland. ... Motto Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR) The Roman Empire. ... The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branches of Celtic mythology. ...

The formality which Latin had gained through its long written history was often not present in the vernaculars which began producing poetry, and so new techniques and structures emerged, often derived from oral literature. This is particularly noticeable in the Germanic languages, which, unlike the Romance languages, are not direct descendants from Latin. Alliterative verse, where many of the stressed words in each line start with the same sound, was often used in the local poetry of that time. Other features of vernacular poetry of this time include kennings, internal rhyme, and slant rhyme. Indeed Latin poetry traditionally used meter rather than rhyme and only began to adopt rhyme after being influenced by these new poems. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The Romance languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, comprise all languages that descended from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ... The Old English epic poem Beowulf is written in alliterative verse. ... This article is about kenning as a poetic notion. ... In poetry, internal rhyme, or middle rhyme, is rhyme which occurs within a single line of verse. ... Half rhyme, sometimes known as slant rhyme, is consonance on the final consonants of the words involved. ... Meter (British English spelling: metre) describes the linguistic sound patterns of a verse. ... A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar terminal sounds in two or more different words (i. ...

Romance languages

Old French

• trouvère
• Anglo-Norman literature
• Roman de la Rose

Trouvère is the Northern French (langue doïl) version of troubador (langue doc), and refers to poet-composers who were roughly contemporary with and influenced by the troubadors but who composed their works in the northern dialects of France. ... Anglo-Norman literature is literature composed in the Anglo-Norman language developed during the period 1066-1204 when the Duchy of Normandy and England were united in the Anglo-Norman realm. ... Mirth and Gladness lead a Dance in this miniature from a manuscript of the Roman de la Rose in the Bodleian Library (MS Douce 364, folio 8r). ...

The Matter of France

• chanson de geste
• paladin
• Charlemagne
• Charles Martel
• Saracen
• Chanson de Roland
• Garin de Monglane
• Doon de Mayence
• Huon de Bordeaux
• Renaud de Montauban

The chansons de geste, Old French for songs of heroic deeds, are the epic poetry that appears at the dawn of French literature. ... A paladin or paladine (derivative terms from palatine, and Latin palatinus, plural palatini) is a certain high-level official found in numerous countries of medieval and early modern Europe. ... A portrait of Charlemagne by Albrecht Dürer that was painted several centuries after Charlemagnes death. ... Charles Martel (or, in modern English, Charles the Hammer) (23 August 686 – 22 October 741) was proclaimed Mayor of the Palace, ruling the Franks in the name of a titular King, and proclaimed himself Duke of the Franks (the last four years of his reign he did not even bother... In older Western historical literature, the Saracens were the people of the Saracen Empire, another name for the Arab Caliphate under the rule of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. ... The Song of Roland (La Chanson de Roland) is an 11th century Old French epic poem about the Battle of Roncevaux Pass (or Roncesvalles) fought by Roland of the Brittany Marches and his fellow paladins. ... Garin de Monglane, or Montglane, is a fictional aristocrat who gives his name to the second cycle of Old French chansons de geste. ... Doon de Mayence was a fictional hero of the Old French chansons de geste, who gives his name to the third cycle of the Charlemagne romances, those dealing with the feudal revolts. ... Huon of Bordeaux is the title character of a 13th century French romance (chanson de geste). ... Renaud de Montauban, also known as Rinaldo di Montalbano, was a fictional hero who was introduced to literature in a twelfth century Old French chanson de geste. ...

The Matter of Britain

• King Arthur
• Camelot
• chivalry

A bronze Arthur in plate armour with visor raised and with jousting shield wearing Kastenbrust armour (early 15th century) by Peter Vischer, typical of later anachronistic depictions of Arthur. ... Gustave Doré’s illustration of Camelot from “Idylls of the King”, 1868 Camelot is the most famous fictional castle associated with the legendary King Arthur. ... Bors Dilemma - he chooses to save a maiden rather than his brother Lionel Chivalry[1] is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood. ...

The Matter of Rome

• Roman d'Alixandre (Alexander Romance)
• Roman de Troie
• Roman de Thèbes
• Eneas
• Troilus and Criseyde

The Alexander Romance is any of several collections of legends concerning the mythical exploits of Alexander the Great. ... Benoît de Sainte-Maure (1154 – 1173) was a 12th century French poet, from Saint-Maure, Indre-et-Loire. ... Romance of Thebes is a literary subject that has been treated in several languages. ... The Aeneid (IPA English pronunciation: ; in Latin Aeneis, pronounced — the title is Greek in form: genitive case Aeneidos): is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BC (between 29 and 19 BC) that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he... Troilus and Criseyde is Geoffrey Chaucers poem in rhyme royal re-telling the tragic love story of Troilus, a Trojan prince, and Criseyde. ...

Provençal

• troubadour
• courtly love
• Provençal literature

A troubadour composing lyrics, Germany c. ... Court of Love in Provence in the 14th Century (after a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris). ... Provençal literature is much more easily defined than the Provençal language in which it is expressed. ...

Italian

• Dante Alighieri
  • The Divine Comedy
• Petrarch

Dante in a fresco series of famous men by Andrea del Castagno, ca. ... The Divine Comedy (Italian: Commedia, later christened Divina by Giovanni Boccaccio), written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. ... From the c. ...

Spanish

• Juan Ruiz
• El Cid

Juan Ruiz (ca. ... Statue of El Cid in Burgos. ...

Galacian-Portuguese

Authors

• Wace
• Chrétien de Troyes
• Marie de France
• Guillaume de Machaut
• Jean de Meung
• Christine de Pizan

Wace (c. ... Chrétien de Troyes wrote in Champagne, France, during the last half of the twelfth century. ... Marie de France (Mary of France) was a poet evidently born in France and living in England during the late 12th century. ... Guillaume de Machaut (around 1300 – 1377), was a French composer and poet of the late Medieval era. ... Jean de Meun or Jean de Meung (c. ... Christine de Pizan instructing her son. ...

Germanic languages

Alliterative verse

• Beowulf
• Elder Edda
• Younger Edda
• skald
• scop

The first page of Beowulf Beowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem composed in the later Early Middle Ages (in the 8th, 9th or 10th century). ... The Poetic Edda or Elder Edda is a term applied to two things. ... This colourful front page of the Prose Edda in an 18th century Icelandic manuscript shows Odin, Heimdallr, Sleipnir and other figures from Norse mythology. ... The skald was a member of a group of courtly poets, whose poetry is associated with the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking age, who composed and performed renditions of aspects of what we now characterise as Old Norse poetry. ... SCOP can refer to Structural Classification of Proteins A scop was an Old English poet, the Anglo-Saxon counterpart of the Old Norse skald. ...

Medieval English poetry

• Middle English
• Geoffrey Chaucer
  • The Canterbury Tales
• William Langland
  • Piers Plowman
• Everyman
• Sir Orfeo
• Book of the Civilized Man
• The Pearl Poet
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Canterbury Tales Woodcut 1484 The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century (two of them in prose, the rest in verse). ... Langlands Dreamer: from an illuminated initial in a Piers Plowman manuscript held at Corpus Christi College, Oxford William Langland is the conjectured author of the 14th-century English dream-vision Piers Plowman. ... Page from a 14th century Psalter, showing drolleries on the right margin and a plowman at the bottom. ... In literature and drama, the term everyman has come to mean an ordinary individual, with whom the audience or reader is supposed to be able to identify, and who is often placed in extraordinary circumstances. ... Sir Orfeo is an anonymous Middle English narrative poem. ... Book of the Civilized Man by Daniel of Beccles (Latin: Urbanus Magnus Danielis Becclesiensis). ... The Pearl Poet is the name given to the author of Pearl, an alliterative poem written in Middle English. ... The original Gawain Manuscript, Cotton Nero A.x. ...

Medieval German poetry

• minnesang
• Walther von der Vogelweide
• The Nibelungenlied

Walther von der Vogelweide (Codex Manesse, ca. ... Portrait of Walther von der Vogelweide. ... The Nibelungenlied, translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem in Middle High German. ...

Medieval Greek poetry

• Acritic songs
  • Digenis Acritas
  • Song of Armoures

The acritic songs (Greek: ακριτικά τραγούδια — frontiersmen songs) are the heroic or epic poetry that emerged from 10th century Byzantium, inspired by the almost continuous state of warfare with the Arabs in eastern Asia Minor. ... Digenis Acritas (Greek: Διγενής Ακρίτας) is the most famous epic poem that emerged out of the 12th century Byzantine Empire, following the Acritic songs tradition. ...

Medieval Celtic poetry

Welsh

• Aneirin Y Gododdin
• Taliesin
• Llywarch Hen
• Dafydd ap Gwilym

Gododdin (pronounced god-o-th-in), or Guotodin (Votadini in Latin), refers to both the people and to the region of a Dark Ages Brythonic kingdom south of the Firth of Forth, extending from the Stirling area to the Northumberland kingdom of Brynaich, and including what are now the Lothian... Taliesin or Taliessin (c. ... Llywarch Hen or Llywarch the Old was a 6th century prince of the Cumbric House of Rheged, a ruling family in Y Gogledd Hen or The Old North (modern Northern England). ... Dafydd ap Gwilym (ca. ...

Irish

• Metrical Dindshenchas
• Lebor Gabála Érenn
• Táin Bó Cúailnge
• Contention of the bards
• see also: Irish poetry

The Metrical Dindshenchas, or Lore of Places, is probably the major surviving monument of Irish bardic verse. ... Lebor Gabála Érenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland) is the Middle Irish title of a loose collection of poems and prose narratives recounting the mythical origins and history of the Irish race from the creation of the world down to the Middle Ages. ... Táin Bó Cúailnge (the driving-off of cows of Cooley, more usually rendered The Cattle Raid of Cooley or The Táin) is the central tale in the Ulster Cycle, one of the four great cycles that make up the surviving corpus of Irish mythology. ... The Contention of the Bards (in Irish, Iomarbhágh na bhFileadh) was a literary controversy of early 17th century Gaelic Ireland, lasting from 1616 to 1624 (probably peaking in 1617), in which the principal bardic poets of the country engaged in a bout of polemical versifying against each other and... A 1907 engraving of William Butler Yeats, one of Irelands best-known poets. ...