Do you like Medieval Literature?

[Lady Of Rohan]

Have you ever read a book that was written more than a century ago? Did you find it interesting? Or even useful?

As for me, I like Old Norse Literature. The best thing, to my mind, is the Elder Edda.

[Jamie (K)]

I like the Icelandic sagas, because they show such interesting details about how people lived in Norse times. Two Vikings are having a death duel with swords. One of them gets thirsty, so the other one stops fighting and lets him get a drink of water. They rest up a bit and talk, and after that they start trying to kill each other again.

I also like medieval stories for the same reason. A knight somehow gets into a predicament where he has to sleep in the same bed with a beautiful (married) queen. The author demonstrates the knight's superior masculinity by the fact that he resisted his masculine urges all night and never touched the queen. This is just the opposite of what a modern author would consider proof of masculinity.

[Happytofita]

Lietarture was tied down by the Church in Medieval Times. It was based solely on religion. It was until the Renaissance that literature dispensed with the religious control. That's why I think Modern Lietarture is much better. At the same time, I do not beleive that Middle Ages should be called Dark Ages as far as literature is concerned. For the simple reason that some great literary works were written in that period.

[Lady Of Rohan]

Well, first of all, thank you for replies.

[Happytofita]

I cannot disagree with you Helga. Actually, I like your sentence

[Lady Of Rohan]

[Jamie (K)]

Considering the great flowering of literature that occurred in the medieval period -- all the more amazing, considering that they had no printing presses -- I think it would be hard to say that the literary world was oppressed by the Church at that time. And religious influence in literature is not necessarily bad. Remember that the literature of chivalry existed mainly for the purpose of encouraging civilized behavior among the warring classes.

The Church apparently even allowed vulgar, blasphemous literature to be published, as can be seen by the existence of Rablais's "Gargantua and Pantagruel", Bocaccio's "Decameron" and other sometimes nasty books.

My favorite aspects of Rablais's book are (1) that he calls the reader blasphemous and lacking in faith in God if he doesn't believe various preposterous aspects of his story, such as that an enormous baby could be born from his mother's ear, and (2) that his characters justify various ridiculous opinions by bogusly claiming that they're shared by specific scholars of the Church, which is very much like people today backing up a stupid opinion by simply saying, "They've done studies!" It's very funny!

[Jamie (K)]

The Church has a history of trying to preserve what is useful and important from pre-Christian times and giving it a Christian orientation. We all know that various pagan holidays were give Christian significance, and you can see this even in places like South America, where in the old days they might have paraded the mummy of their historical patriarch around the village square, they now use a representation of the Virgin Mary.

I find it a much better practice than that of later religions that burned down libraries, for example.

[Prezbucky]

I'm not sure who wrote this or how long ago it was written, but in 6th grade our English teacher read "The Hound of Ulster" to us, and I loved it. The book told some tall tales about a hero named Cuchulain (sp?).

He was really a tough dude.
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Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Skrej]

Cuchulain (there are several spelling variants) is THE most famous hero/mythical figure from Irish folklore, with numerous exploits and deeds. Think 'Irish Achilles', with just a touch of Hercules thrown in.

He's one of the central figures in the epic Táin Bó Cúalnge, which is a legendary story telling of a cattle raid. Cuchulain at 17 basically defends Ulster single handed against invading armies.

His name is taken from a fierce guard dog he slew as young child.
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[NinaZara]

The only literature I've ever read was an ancient Malay literature, Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa, also known as The Annals of Kedah. I read it when I was in the 2nd form. It was a book studied by the 6th form students. There were many incredible things told about this fellow (Merong Mahawangsa) but since I couldn't understand half of the words used in the book, I didn't get what it was all about.

Interesting experiment, I should say, and I applaud the Malaysian government for reintroducing Malay and English literature, not only to the art students but also to the students in the science stream. During my time, only art students get to study them. But while the British influence was still strong in my country during my parents' time, they got to study literature even though they were in the science stream.

Now it's back again. Nowadays they even have an extra subject on technical English.

[Lady Of Rohan]

[Happytofita]