Literature of the norman period

Literature of The
Norman Period
NEGIN KAHRIZI 1

In the Advocates’Library at Edinburgh there is a
beautifully illuminated manuscript, written about 1330,
which gives us an excellent picture of the literature of the
Norman Period.
Literature was in the hands of the clergy and nobles; that
the common people could not read, and had only a few
songs and ballads for their literary portion. Parchments
were scarce and very expensive, and that
a single manuscript often contained all the reading matter
of a castle or a village. It contains over forty distinct
works, the great bulk of them being romances.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 2

There are metrical or verse romances of French and Celtic
and English heroes, like Roland, Arthur and Tristram, and
Bevis
of Hampton. There are stories of Alexander, the Greek
romance of “Flores and Blanchefleur,” and a collection of
Oriental tales called “The Seven Wise Masters.”
There are legends of the Virgin and the saints, a paraphrase
of Scripture, a treatise on the seven deadly sins, some Bible
history, a dispute among birds concerning women, a love song
or two, a vision of Purgatory, a vulgar story with a Gallic
flavor, a chronicle of English kings and Norman barons, and a
political satire. NEGIN KAHRIZI 3

We note simply that it is mediaeval in spirit, and French
in style and expression; and that sums up the age. All
the scholarly works of the period, like William of
Malmesbury’s History, and Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo,
and Roger Bacon’s Opus Majus, the beginning of
modern experimental science, were written in Latin;
while nearly all other works were written in French, or
else were English copies or translations of French
originals.
They hardly belong to the story of English literature.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 4

NEGIN KAHRIZI 5
William of Malmesbury
He was the famous English historian
of the 12th century. He has been
ranked among the most talented
English historians since Bede.
William was born about 1095 or
1096 in Wiltshire. His father was
Norman and his mother English. He
spent his life in England and his
adult life as monk at England.

Geoffrey of Monmouth
Geoffrey, a Welsh monk, collected some of
native celtic tribes legends and, aided chiefly by
his imagination, wrote a complete history of the
Britons.
Geoffrey’s Historia Regum Britanniae
{The history of the kings of Britain} is
noteworthy, as a source book of literary
material.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 6

He was a British
cleric and one of the
major figures in the
development of
British
historiography and
the popularity of tales
of King Arthur.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 7

Works
Geoffrey's structuring and shaping of the Merlin and
Arthur myths engendered their vast popularity which
continues today, and he is generally viewed by
scholars as the major establisher of the Arthurian
canon. The History's effect on the legend of King
Arthur was so vast that Arthurian works have been
categorized as "pre-Galfridian" and "post-Galfridian",
depending on whether or not they were influenced by
him.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 8

Shakespeare’s king Lear,
Malory’s Morte d’Arthur {the
death of king Arthur}, and
Tennyson’s Idylls of the king are
in his works. The history gave a
new direction to the literature of
England by showing the wealth
of poetry and romance that is in
tradition of Arthur and his
knights.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 9

It contains the lives and deeds of all their kings,
from Brutus, the founder of Britain, down to the
coming of Julius Caesar. From this Geoffrey
wrote his history, down to the death of
Cadwalader in 689.
The French literature of the Norman period is
interesting chiefly because of the avidity with
which foreign writers seized upon the native
legends and made them popular in England.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 10

Legends of Arthur and his court were probably
first taken to Brittany by Welsh emigrants in the
fifth and sixth centuries. and they were slowly
carried by minstrels and story-tellers all over
Europe.
With Geoffrey and his alleged manuscript to rest
on, the Norman-French writers were free to use
the fascinating stories which had been-for
centuries in the possession of their wandering
minstrels.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 11

Geoffrey’s Latin history was put into French
verse by Gaimar (c. 1150) and by Wace (c.
1155), and from these French versions the
work was first translated into English. From
about 1200 onward Arthur and Guinevere
and the matchless band of Celtic heroes
became the permanent possession of our
literature.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 12

LAYAMON’SBRUT(c.1200).
It also known as The Chronicle of Britain, is a
Middle English poem compiled and recast by the
English priest Layamon.
The Brut is 16,096 lines long and narrates the
history of Britain: it is the first historiography
written in English since the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle. Named for Britain's mythical founder,
Brutus of Troy.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 13

It is written in the
alliterative verse style
commonly used in Middle
English poetry by rhyming
chroniclers, the two halves of
the alliterative lines being
often linked by rhyme as well
as by alliteration. This is the
most important of the
English riming chronicles.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 14

In 1216, around the time Layamon wrote,
King Henry III of England came to the
throne. Henry regarded himself as an
Englishman above any other nationality,
unlike many of his recent predecessors, and
moved his kingdom away from the Old
French dialects that had ruled the country's
cultural endeavors.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 15

He took the English book of Saint
Bede , another in Latin by Saint
Albin made, and a third book in
French by clerk Wace. He took
pen , and wrote on book-skin,
and made the three books into
one.
The poem begins with the
destruction of Troy and the flight
of “AEneas the duke” into Italy.
Layamon son of
Leovenath
NEGIN KAHRIZI 16

Brutus, a great-grandson of
AEneas, gathers his people
and sets out to find a new
land in the West. Then
follows the founding of the
Briton kingdom, and the last
third of the poem, is taken up
with the history of Arthur
and his knights.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 17

The reader will notice here two
things:
Though the poem is almost pure
Anglo-Saxon, our first speech has
already dropped many inflections and
is more easily read than Beowulf.
French influence is already at work
in Layamon’s rimes and assonances,
that is, the harmony resulting from
using the same vowel sound in
several successive lines.NEGIN KAHRIZI 18

Metricalromances
Love, chivalry, and religion, all pervaded by the
spirit of romance, these are the three great literary
ideals which find expression in the metrical
romances. The Normans first brought this type of
romance into England, and made it popular, so
thoroughly did it express the romantic spirit of the
time, that it speedily overshadowed all other
forms of literary expression.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 19

Though the metrical
romances varied in
form and subject
matter, the general
type remains the
same, a long rambling
poem or series of
poems treating of love
or knightly adventure
or both.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 20

Its hero is a knight; its
characters are fair ladies in
distress, warriors in armor,
giants, dragons, enchanters,
and various enemies of
Church and State; and its
emphasis is almost
invariably on love, religion,
and duty as defined by
chivalry.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 21

There are four main divisions according
to subject into the romances of:
* The matter of France
* The matter of Rome
* The matter of Britain
* The matter of England
NEGIN KAHRIZI 22

France
The Matter of France, also known as the
Carolingian cycle, is a body of literature and
legendary material associated with the history of
France, in particular involving Charlemagne
and his peers. The cycle springs from the Old
French chansons de geste, and was later
adapted into a variety of art forms, including
Renaissance epics and operas.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 23

Originally these romances were
called Chansons de Geste; and the
name is significant as indicating that
the poems were originally short
songs. Later the various songs
concerning one hero were gathered
together and the Geste became an
epic, like the Chanson de Roland, or
a kind of continued ballad story,
hardly deserving the name of epic,
like the Geste of Robin Hood.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 24

Rome
It was the literary cycle made up of Greek and
Roman mythology, together with episodes from
the history of classical antiquity, focusing on
military heroes like Alexander the Great and
Julius Caesar, and the siege of Troy, which the
Britons thought they had some historic
connection.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 25

To these were added a
large number of tales from
Oriental sources; and in
the exuberant imagination
of the latter we see the
influence which the
Saracens had begun to
exercise on the literature of
Europe.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 26

Britain
The Matter of Britain is the body of Medieval
literature and legendary material associated with
Great Britain and Brittany, and the legendary
kings and heroes associated with it, particularly
King Arthur. To the English reader, the most
interesting of the romances are those which deal
with the exploits of Arthur and his Knights of the
Round Table.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 27

The Arthurian literary cycle
is the best known part of the
Matter of Britain. chief of
which are those of Gawain,
Launcelot, Merlin, the
Death of Arthurthe, and the
Quest of the Holy Grail;
some succeed (Galahad,
Percival), and others fail
(Lancelot).
NEGIN KAHRIZI 28

England
Matter of England, romances of English heroes and romances
derived from English legend are terms that 20th century
scholars have given to a loose corpus of Medieval literature
that in general deals with the locations, characters and themes
concerning England, English history, or English cultural
mores and shows some continuity between the poetry and
myths of the pre-Norman or "Anglo-Saxon" era of English
history as well as themes motifs and plots deriving from
English folklore.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 29

Listofworks
There is no one agreed upon list of romances that make up
the matter, but the following are usually included:
Pre-Norman: Robert Rouse considered the Matter of
England to include only those romances that were set
before the Norman conquest of England:
 Athelston
 Bevis of Hampton
 Guy of Warwick
 Horn Childe or King Horn
NEGIN KAHRIZI 30

NEGIN KAHRIZI 31
Other romances:
Gamelyn
Havelok the Dane
Richard coeur du
lion
Waldef
Fouke Fitzwarin

In preceding sections we have seen how these fascinating
romances were used by Geoffrey and the French writers, and
how, through the French, they found their way into English,
appearing first in our speech in Layamon’s Brut. The point to
remember is that, while the legends are Celtic in origin, their
literary form is due to French poets, who originated the
metrical romance. All our early English romances are either
copies or translations of the French; and this is true not only of
the matter of France and Rome, but of Celtic heroes like
Arthur, and English heroes like Guy of Warwick and Robin
Hood.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 32

The medieval tale of
Arthur and his knights
is full of Christian
themes; those themes
involve the
destruction of human
plans for virtue by the
moral failures of their
characters, and the
quest for an important
Christian relic.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 33

Finally, the relationships
between the characters invited
treatment in the tradition of
courtly love, such as Lancelot
and Guinevere, or Tristan and
Iseult. In more recent years, the
trend has been to attempt to link
the tales of King Arthur and his
knights with Celtic mythology,
usually in highly romanticized,
early 20th century reconstructed
versions.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 34

SirGawainandtheGreenKnight
though the material is taken from French sources, the
English workmanship is the finest of our early romances.
the unknown author of this story probably wrote also “The
Pearl,” and is the greatest English poet of the Norman period.
the poem itself with its dramatic interest, its vivid
descriptions, and its moral purity, is one of the most delightful
old romances in any language.
The most interesting of all Arthurian romances are those of
the Gawain cycle, It is best worth reading, for many reasons:
NEGIN KAHRIZI 35

It describes how Sir Gawain, a knight of
King Arthur's Round Table, accepts a
challenge from a mysterious "Green Knight"
who dares any knight to strike him with his
axe if he will take a return blow in a year
and a day.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 37

NEGIN KAHRIZI 38
Gawain accepts and beheads him with his blow,
at which the Green Knight stands up, picks up his
head and reminds Gawain of the appointed time.
In his struggles to keep his bargain, Gawain
demonstrates chivalry and loyalty until his honor
is called into question by a test involving Lady
Bertilak, the lady of the Green Knight's castle.

she comes alone to Gawain's chambers
on three mornings in a row, each time
in a more alluring form, with her last
appearance being in a simple gown,
her hair uncovered, and without
cosmetics. Each time, she comes to
Gawain's bed around dawn, when
Gawain is sleeping, and she plays
elaborately witty games of courtship
and seduction with him.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 39

Most interesting about these scenes is the dilemma Sir
Gawain faces, where he must be courteous to Lady
Bertilak (Knightly Code), and at the same time loyal to
his host. The twist occurs when Sir Gawain realizes
that Lady Bertilak has been used as a tool of seduction,
by her husband, in order to test Sir Gawain.
Her character proves to have an imperative role in the
poem, for "a full understanding of the temptation
scenes."
NEGIN KAHRIZI 40

It is also from Lady Bertilak that
Gawain receives the girdle with
the power to protect its wearer
"against anyone who seeks to
strike him." {death}In taking that
girdle, though, Gawain betrays
his deal with the lady's husband,
and Gawain vows to keep the
girdle forever to remind him of
his sin of cowardice.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 41

The next day, Gawain binds the belt twice
around his waist. He finds the Green Knight
sharpening an axe and, as promised, Gawain
bends his bared neck to receive his blow. At
the first swing Gawain flinches slightly and
the Green Knight belittles him for it.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 42

NEGIN KAHRIZI 43
Ashamed of himself, Gawain doesn't flinch
with the second swing; but again the Green
Knight withholds the full force of his blow.
The knight explains he was testing Gawain's
nerve. Angrily Gawain tells him to deliver
his blow and so the knight does, causing
only a slight wound on Gawain's neck.

The game is over. Gawain seizes his
sword, helmet and shield, but the Green
Knight, laughing, reveals himself to be
the lord of the castle, Bertilak de
Hautdesert, transformed by magic. He
explains that the entire adventure was a
trick of the "elderly lady" Gawain saw
at the castle, who is actually the
sorceress Morgan le Fay, Arthur's
sister, who intended to test Arthur's
knights and frighten Guinevere to
death.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 44

Gawain is ashamed to have behaved deceitfully but the
Green Knight laughs and professes him the most
blameless knight in all the land. The two part on cordial
terms. Gawain returns to Camelot wearing the girdle as
a token of his failure to keep his promise. The Knights of
the Round Table absolve him of blame and decide that
henceforth each will wear a green sash in recognition of
Gawain's adventure and as a reminder to be always
honest.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 45

Themes
 Temptation and testing
 Hunting and seduction
 Nature and chivalry
 Games
 Times and seasons
 Emotion and narrative
empathy
NEGIN KAHRIZI 46

In the same manuscript with
“Sir Gawain” are found three
other remarkable poems,
written about 1350, and known
to us, in order, as “The Pearl,”
“Cleanness,” and “Patience.”
The first is the most beautiful,
and received its name from the
translator and editor, Richard
Morris, in 1864.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 47

“Patience” is a paraphrase of the book of Jonah;
“Cleanness” moralizes on the basis of Bible stories;
but “The Pearl” is an intensely human and realistic
picture of a father’s grief for his little daughter
Margaret, “My precious perle wythouten spot.” It is the
saddest of all our early poems. It is a late 14th-century
Middle English poem that is considered one of the most
important surviving Middle English works. With
elements of medieval allegory and dream vision genre.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 48

A father, mourning the loss
of his "perle" (pearl), falls
asleep in a garden; in his
dream he encounters the
'Pearl-maiden‘ a beautiful
and heavenly woman
standing across a stream in
a strange landscape.
The pearl
NEGIN KAHRIZI 49

In response to his questioning and attempts to
obtain her, she answers with Christian
doctrine.
Eventually she shows him an image of the
Heavenly City, and herself as part of the
retinue of Christ the Lamb. When the Dreamer
attempts to cross the stream, he awakens
suddenly from his dream and reflects on its
significance.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 50

LeMorted'Arthur
It is today one of the best-known
works of Arthurian literature in
English. "The Death of Arthur“
is a reworking by Sir Thomas
Malory of existing tales about the
legendary King Arthur,
Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin, and
the Knights of the Round Table.
NEGIN KAHRIZI 51

NEGIN KAHRIZI 53
MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE OF THE
NORMAN PERIOD:
Great works
Fables
Satires
Ballads
Lyrics

NEGIN KAHRIZI 54
Those interested in the
development of
“transition” English will
find in the Ancren Riwle,
i.e. “Rule of the
Anchoresses” (c. 1225), the
most beautiful bit of old
English prose ever written.

NEGIN KAHRIZI 55
It is a book of excellent religious advice
and comfort, written for three ladies who
wished to live a religious life, without,
however, becoming nuns or entering any
religious orders. The author was Bishop
Poor of Salisbury, according to Morton,
who first edited this old classic in 1853.

NEGIN KAHRIZI 56
Orm’s Ormulum, written
after the Brut, is a
paraphrase of the gospel
lessons for the year.
somewhat after the manner
of Caedmon’s Paraphrase,
but without any of
Caedmon’s poetic
fire and originality.

NEGIN KAHRIZI 57
Cursor Mundi (c. 1320) is
a very long
poem which makes a kind
of metrical romance out of
Bible history and shows the
whole dealing of God with
man from Creation to
Domesday.

NEGIN KAHRIZI 58
Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional
story, in prose or verse, that features animals,
legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects,
or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized,
and that illustrates or leads to a particular
moral lesson. It is one of the most enduring
forms of folk literature, spread abroad. Made
popular in the 12th and 13th centuries.

NEGIN KAHRIZI 60
Fables and Satires
The most famous of these are:
 “The Owl and the Nightingale,” is
a 12th or 13th century Middle
English poem detailing a long
debate between the two birds, one
representing the gay side of life, the
other the sterner side of law and
morals. It is the earliest example
known as debate poetry (or verse
contest).

NEGIN KAHRIZI 62
satire is a genre of literature and performing
arts, satire is usually meant to be humorous, its
greater purpose is often constructive social
criticism, using wit to draw attention to both
particular and wider issues in society. A feature
of satire is strong irony or sarcasm. Satires are
cultural texts in which vices, follies, abuses, and
shortcomings are held up to ridicule.

NEGIN KAHRIZI 63
 “Land of Cockaygne,” i.e.
“Luxury Land,” a keen satire
on monks and monastic
religion. is a land of plenty in
medieval myth, an imaginary
place of extreme luxury and
ease where physical comforts
and pleasures are always
immediately at hand and where
the harshness of medieval
peasant life does not exist.

NEGIN KAHRIZI 64
Ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set
to music. Ballads derive from the medieval
French chanson ballade, which were
originally "dance songs". Ballads were
particularly characteristic of the popular
poetry and song of Britain and Ireland from
the later medieval period until the 19th
century.

NEGIN KAHRIZI 65
On account of its obscure origin and its
oral transmission, the ballad is always
the most difficult of literary subjects.
We make here only three suggestions,
which may well be borne in mind:

NEGIN KAHRIZI 66
Ballads were produced continually in England
from Anglo-Saxon times until the 17th century.
For centuries they were the only really popular
literature.
in the ballads alone one is able to understand
the common people. i.e.The ballads of the
“merrie greenwood men,” which gradually
collected into the Geste of Robin Hood, and you
will understand better than stories.

NEGIN KAHRIZI 67
Middle English was not a great period for lyric poetry.
There is no direct line of lyric writing that can be traced to
have descended form old English.
Lyric poetry offers no evidence of existence before the
twelfth century.
It would be relevant here to point out that lyric poetry
received in good measure motivation from the local
medieval tradition of Carole, a form of popular dance
accompanied by a song in which the leader sang various
stanzas and the dancers replied with the refrain.
Lyrical Poetry

NEGIN KAHRIZI 68
Lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which
expresses personal emotions or feelings,
typically spoken in the first person. i.e.“Luve
Ron” (love rune or letter) of Thomas de Hales
(c. 1250); “Springtime” (c. 1300), and the
melodious love song “Alysoun,” written at the
end of the 13th century by some unknown poet
who heralds the coming of Chaucer:

Literature of the norman period

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