Old and Middle English Literature Exam

Middle English Chivalric Ideal

- Bravery, loyalty, generosity

- Protect those who cannot protect themselves

- Speak elegantly

- Act mannerly

(Ex. King Arthur and the Knight from The Canterbury Tales)

folk epic

a long poem based on pre-existing mythology/history/heroes; often passed down orally (ex. Iliad)

miracle play

plays about the lives of Catholic saints and martyrs

morality play

Medieval dramas that teach a lesson

(ex: "Manciple" from The Canterbury Tales)

beast fable

short tale, usually including a moral, in which animals assume human characteristics

(ex. "The Nun's Priest's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales)

lament

An Old English poem, usually a monologue, expressing a grief more intense and personal than a complaint (ex. The Wanderer)

fabliau

A short, funny, often bawdy narrative in low style imitated and developed from French models

(ex. "The Miller's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales)

hagiography

writing of the lives of saints

(ex. "Second Nun's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales)

bestiary

encyclopedia of real and mythical animals that describes the animals' characteristics, but in terms of a moralizing Christian story

(ex. Aberdeen Bestiary)

exemplum

A story that conveys a moral principle through an example

(ex. "The Pardoner's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales)

Germanic tribes that settled in Britain

- Angles

- Saxons

- Jutes

All three eventually became the Celts.

Define and exemplify the quest motif in three different works.

1. Journey: Beowulf

2. Pilgrimage: The Canterbury Tales

3. Internal quest: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Defined as a hero’s journey to fulfill a mission

Caedmon

- the earliest named English poet and a cowherd

- lived at the Abbey Whitby

Venerable Bede

- a great scholar in the Anglo-Saxon period

- wrote The Ecclesiastical History of English People.

Three reasons for studying poetry cited in "The Virtues of Verse."

1. Best preparation for the study of law

2. Poetry teaches us how to perceive (improves expression, taste, and perception)

3. Conditions the mind for scientific discovery

Wyrd

Anglo-Saxon word for fate or destiny

kenning

metaphor in Anglo-Saxon poetry (ex. whale-road = sea)

flyting

verbal battle

Image

The core, the unit, the gene, the element, the quark, the atom of literary language. It is a vivid language used to convey a picture.

(ex. pentangle on Gawain’s shield)

Imagery

A family, a set of related images.

(ex. Rural imagery of wheat swaying in the wind, a babbling brook, a winding road.)

Theme

The author's implicit opinion in a work.

(ex. Love should be courtly.)

Subject

The topic that is being discussed.

(ex. Love)

Motif

Recurring element in a story that represents a concept.

(ex. The quest, challenge, forest, marvel, temptation, winter in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)

Genre

The style, structure, and often, length, of a work, when coupled with a certain subject matter, raise certain expectations that a literary work conforms to a certain category

(ex. folk epic)

Great Chain of Being

A hierarchical list of beings from most important to least important. Each chain has authority over the ones below it

God > 9 Orders of Angels > Humanity > Animals > Plants > Minerals

Four elements— Earth, fire, water air

Exemplified in The Canterbury Tales

Importance: Used in similes and metaphors to show the social standing of the people

"The Nun's Priest's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales Summary

A rooster named Chaunticleer is the best singer in his barn. He has a revelatory dream one night that he will be attacked by a beast. One of his seven wives, Pertelote, ridicules his cowardice, stating that he’s just sick. Chaunticleer cites examples from history that dreams can predict the future. They then mate.

Then, in may, Chaunticleer’s dream is realized. A fox named Reynard preys on him and gets his guard down through flattery. He compared Chaunticleer to his father, who was also a fantastic singer. He gets Chaunticleer to sing so high that he is forced to close his eyes. Reynard goes in for the kill. The whole barn chases Reynard into the woods, which Chaunticleer escapes Reynard by persuading him to boast at the animals following him. Reynard opens his mouth and Chaunticleer flies into a tree. Reynard attempts to flatter Chaunticleer again, but Chaunticleer has learned his lesson: do not trust those who flatter you.

Pauline Precept

The Christian ideology that literature must teach Christian doctrine. Levels of allegory were an important part of the texture of literature.

(ex. Mordred representing Judas in Morte D'arthur; Slaying of dragon in Beowulf represents St. George; Beowulf followed by 13 men (disciples) in which all but one run away from battle)

Christian Coloring

Christian wrote down spoken tales to reflect Christian beliefs and teachings.

(ex. Beowulf: God as the divine power; mentions Heaven and Hell)

Great Britain's Patron Saints

- Scottish: St. Andrew flag

- English: St. George flag

- Irish: St. Patrick flag

• Wales: St. David

Five traits of Old English prosody

1. Metaphors (kennings)

2. Alliterations

3. Gloomy (elegiac) tone

4. Caesura

5. Satire

6. eponyms

7. litotes

8. unrhymed

Five Traits of Middle English Prosody

1. Verse paragraphs

2. Rhyme

3. Humorous

4. Iambic pentameter

5. Drama

43 BC

Romans drive the Celts out of Britain

410 AD

Romans leave Britain

597 AD

England is Christianized by St. Augustine of Canterbury

1066 AD

French invasion of the United Germanic Tribes of Britain

1215

Magna Carta is issued

1348-9

Bubonic Plague

1485

- King Richard III is defeated in battle by Henry Tudor, who becomes King Henry VII of England (War of the Roses).

- End of the middle ages

Ranks of the British aristocracy in descending order

- Duke

- Marquis

- Earl

- Viscount

- Baron

Subject vs Theme

Subject is a topic that acts as a foundation for a literary work, while a theme is an opinion expressed on the subject. Theme can be debated.

Traits of Chaucer's self-characterization in The Canterbury Tales

- Sociable

- Inquisitive

- Mannerly (in the way that he narrates in order of rank)

- Observant

- Interested

- "Busybody"

Does Chaucer satirize the Church in The Canterbury Tales?

No. He only criticizes the corrupt church staff (ie The Pardoner)

Moral characters in The Canterbury Tales

Honest, dutiful, religious

- The Knight

- The Parson

- The Plowman

- The Clerk

Immoral characters in The Canterbury Tales

Dishonest, greedy, corrupt

- The Pardoner

- The Summoner

English as a Germanic Language

- Indo-European Languages > Germanic > West Germanic > Anglo-Frisian > Old English > Middle English > English

- Consonants

St. Augustine of England

Mission to Kent starts the Anglo-Saxon conversion to Christianity

William Caxton

Published Morte D'arthur, one of the first books to be printed in English

Courtly Love

A medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry

(ex. Lancelot and Guinevere's romance from Morte D'arthur)

Loyalty motif in Old and Middle English literature examples

1. Loyalty to the family name/honor (Beowulf)

2. Loyalty to king (Gawain)

3. Loyalty to wife/huband (Morte D'Arthur)

"Ubi sunt?"

- 'Where are those who were before us?"

- A meditation on mortality and life's transience

- (ex. Beowulf)

Dream vision motif

- A literary device in which a dream or vision is recounted as having revealed knowledge or a truth that is not available to the dreamer or visionary in a normal waking state.

- (ex. "The Nun's Priest's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales or King Arthur in Morte D’Arthur)

Structure of Beowulf

"The Nun's Priest's Tale" Structure

Five Epic Conventions

1. Invocation of the muse

2. The journey

3. In medias res beginning

4. Supernatural involvement

5. The battle (with a hero)

Fallacy of Presentism

Interpreting/judging literary texts or historical events based on current (present-day) ideas/morals.

(ex. "Tennyson is sexist for not using gender-specific pronouns and for extolling a husband's command for a wife.")

Intentional Fallacy

Assuming the author's intentions when interpreting literature or document of history

(ex. If a painter were to paint what they intended to be a scene from the countryside with no hidden meaning, the people who are viewing the painting cannot make assumptions about what the painting means based on the painter's original intent.)

Estates Satire

Mockery of a class or group

(ex. The Canterbury Tales satirized corrupt church workers - the Pardoner drunkenly admits he is a fraud and as he sobers up he returns to pretending he will use people's money for the church.)

Heraldry

Definition: Patterns and symbols designed by noble and knightly families to help their knights identify one another.

Example: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Importance: Without heraldry, knights and foot soldiers would not be able to tell who was on their side during battle; thus, they would end up fighting against one another.

Geoffrey Chaucer: "The Father of English Literature"

- One of the first to write in the English language commonly spoken at the time

- The first realism humorist and satirist

- Wrote a vast range of subjects/literary types

Conflicts in Morte D'Arthur

- Arthur struggling with the knowledge that Guinevere and Lancelot are having an affair

- Mordred's jealousy of Lancelot

- Civil war after the affair becomes public

- Loyalty is broken

- Lancelot kills Sir Gaheris and Gareth; Gawain swears vengeance

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Structure

Morte D’Arthur Structure

The Canterbury Tales Structure

Prologue—Narrative Tale—Narrative Tale—Narrative Tale—Etc.—Reached the Shrine

(—= Dramatic links in-between)

Old English heroic ideal

• Does not go back on promises/boasts

• Strong, intelligent, courageous (ex. Beowulf)

Primogeniture

The state of being the firstborn child. The eldest son usually inherits the estate when the father dies; he must take care of the entire family’s affairs.

• ex) Beowulf inherits his father’s name and must protect and honor his family’s legacy.