What type of literature was written in the Middle Ages?

Lyric poetry, ballads, and hymns were poetry, of course, but the great chivalric romances of courtly love and the high medieval dream vision genres were also written in verse as were epics, and the French and Breton lais (short-story poems).

What is the epic of the medieval French?

The oldest and most celebrated of the chansons de geste is The Song of Roland (earliest version composed c. 1098), seen by some as the national epic of France (comparable with Beowulf in England, the Song of the Nibelungs in Germany and the Lay of el Cid in Spain).

What are the four 4 significant literary works in the middle age?

10 Classic Works of Medieval Literature Everyone Should Read

  • Dante, The Divine Comedy.
  • Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales.
  • Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe.
  • Marco Polo, Travels.
  • Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain.
  • Anonymous, The Mabinogion.
  • Anonymous, Beowulf.

How is literature during Middle Ages?

Literature in the Medieval Period Much of the early literature of this period consists of sermons, prayers, lives of saints, and homilies. In secular medieval literature, the figure of King Arthur, an ancient British hero, attracted the attention and imagination of these early writers.

How were books written in the Middle Ages?

Parchment Making Most medieval manuscripts were written on specially treated animal skins, called parchment or vellum (paper did not become common in Europe until around 1450).

When was middle French spoken?

The Language The manuscript’s language is Middle French, the French of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. Middle French is a transitional phase between Old French, which evolved between the 9th and 13th centuries from Latin, and Modern French that is spoken today.

What themes were covered in medieval literature?

Some of the most commonly tackled medieval literature themes were courtly love and chivalry, which were depicted several times in various Arthurian works. It could also be observed that Medieval literature discussed culture a great deal. In fact, it was at the heart of almost every piece of literature.

What were books called in the Middle Ages?

codex
A medieval manuscript is a codex (pl. codices), meaning a book made of pages bound between two boards. Ancient scribes wrote on scrolls that were stored in boxes.