A masterpiece of medieval literature. Medieval European Literature. The ideological basis of medieval literature

31.12.2020

Medieval literature is a period in the history of European literature that begins in late antiquity and ends in the 15th century. The earliest works that had the greatest influence on subsequent medieval literature were the Christian Gospels, the religious hymns of Ambrose of Milan, the works of Augustine the Blessed ("Confession", 400; "On the City of God", 410-428), the translation of the Bible into Latin, carried out Jerome and other works of the Latin Church Fathers and early scholastic philosophers.

The origin and development of the literature of the Middle Ages is determined by three main factors: the traditions of folk art, the cultural influence of the ancient world and Christianity.

Medieval art reached its culmination in the 12th-13th centuries. At this time, his most important achievements were Gothic architecture (Notre Dame Cathedral), chivalric literature, heroic epic. The extinction of medieval culture and its transition to a qualitatively new stage - the Renaissance (Renaissance) - takes place in Italy in the XIV century, in other countries of Western Europe - in the XV century. This transition was carried out through the so-called literature of the medieval city, which in aesthetic terms has a completely medieval character and flourishes in the 14th-15th and 16th centuries.

The formation of medieval literature was influenced by ancient literature. In the episcopal schools of the early Middle Ages, students, in particular, read the "exemplary" works of ancient authors (Aesop's fables, the works of Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Juvenal, etc.), assimilated ancient literature and used it in their own writings.

The dual attitude of the Middle Ages to ancient culture, as primarily pagan, led to the selective assimilation of ancient cultural traditions and their adaptation to express Christian spiritual values and ideals. Pronounced moral and didactic character. Medieval man expected morality from literature; outside of morality, the whole meaning of the work was lost for him. The literature of the Middle Ages is based on Christian ideals and values and strives for aesthetic perfection.

1. Theocentrism - aspiration to God. At the heart of the whole system of values lies the religious idea. The entire era of the Middle Ages was shaped by Christianity. Christianity arises in the 1st century and soon supplants paganism. Total influence on the whole spiritual life of people. Christianity occupies a monopoly position, the entire value scale of a person is determined by religion - all aspects of life. Christianity brings new ideas about time - linear time, the movement from the creation of the world to its death, the Last Judgment. In antiquity there was a cyclic idea of time, the world seemed to be eternal. Eschatological motives appear. Eschatology is the doctrine of the end of the world.

2. Medieval man was characterized by the idea of the dualism of the world: the earthly (immanent) and spiritual (transcendental) parts. The earthly world is visible. Spiritual - heavenly, heavenly. Any religious system is built on a certain philosophical basis. Christianity is based on idealism, which states that the spirit is primary. The heavenly world is the main, eternal, unchanging world. Plato. 3. Changing moral priorities. In antiquity, the main thing is civic prowess. Example: the epitaph of Aeschylus. In the Middle Ages - faith and fidelity (class fidelity). loyalty to the feudal lord. Vassal loyalty to one's overlord. 4. Symbolism and allegorism. It comes from dualism. In the real manifestations of the earthly world one sees revelation, divine signs. Art is also symbolic and allegorical. 5. Art almost did not express the joy of being, not the beauty of the form, but the beauty of the idea. There is no portrait genre in art. Medieval art is mostly anonymous. The division of European medieval literature into periods is determined by the stages of the social development of peoples at the present time. There are two major periods:

the early Middle Ages - the period of literature of the decomposition of the tribal system (from the 5th century to the 9th-10th centuries);

mature Middle Ages - the period of literature of developed feudalism (from the 9th-10th century to the 15th century).

Latin and folk literature

Medievalists of the 19th century distinguished between two types of medieval literature, "learned" and "folk". Such a classification seemed plausible, for it contained social connotations; the first class included Latin texts and court poetry, the second - all other works, considered, in the spirit of the romantics, to be the original art.

At present, medieval literature is usually divided into Latin literature and literature in the vernacular languages (Romance and Germanic). The differences between them are fundamental. For a long time, neither Latin literary forms had correspondences in vernacular languages, nor, conversely, Romano-Germanic forms in Latin. Only in the 12th century did the Latin tradition lose its isolation and “modernize”, while the vernacular languages acquire the ability to develop some of its aspects. But this phenomenon remains marginal for a long time. The concept of "literature" in the sense in which we understand it now, that is, assuming the written and at the same time the individual character of the text, is truly applicable only to the Latin texts of the era. In those cases where there is a coincidence of some fact of Latin literature with the fact of Romano-Germanic literature, they are almost always separated from each other by a significant time interval: the Romano-Germanic phenomenon appears much later than its supposed model.

Folk languages borrowed a certain number of techniques from the school tradition - but from time to time, due to secondary needs and opportunities. The only example of the Latin genre, assimilated in its original form by the popular language, is the animal fable, which goes back to Aesop. Modern philology has resolutely abandoned the theories of the 1920s and 1930s, according to which the fablio or pasturel goes back to Latin models.

It is difficult to say how the "Carolingian revival" is connected with the appearance of the first texts in the vernacular, but there is certainly a connection between these two phenomena. The decline of the 10th century seems to have something to do with the prehistory of Romanesque poetry. The "Renaissance of the XII century" coincides with the emergence of new poetic forms, which are destined to soon supplant all the others: courtly lyrics, the novel, the short story.

At the beginning of the 12th century, at the Anglo-Norman court, the process of translating Latin texts into the Romance language began (the development of the vernacular language in this environment was apparently favored by those Anglo-Saxon customs that existed before the conquest - and which still had no analogues on the continent). For about half a century the Anglo-Norman translators labored alone, and only from the middle of the century Picardy translators joined them. The number of translators has increased sharply since the beginning of the 13th century, the century of morality and pedagogy, when the share of cities and schools in the cultural balance increased.

The word "translation" here must be understood in a broad sense. Most often we are talking about adaptations - approximate, simplified or commented equivalents of the original, which were intended for any court that showed an interest in "learned" issues. These works pursued mainly a practical goal: the translator, trying to please the tastes of the client, created something like a literary analogue of the original, usually with the help of verse - almost always an eight-syllable, fixed by that time in the narrative tradition.

Literature of the early Middle Ages Anglo-Saxon literature of the 5th-11th centuries

The oldest period of English literature dates back to the 5th-11th centuries. ad. Its beginning is connected with the invasion of the territory of Britain in the middle of the 5th century. Anglo-Saxons and Jutes - tribes of Germanic origin; the end of the period is dated 1066, when the Battle of Hastings took place, culminating in the conquest of the British Isles by the Normans.

During these six centuries, the earliest literary monuments that have come down to us were created. They are written in the Anglo-Saxon language from which the English language developed.

Before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, the British Isles were repeatedly invaded by tribes from the European continent. In the VI century. BC e. The Celts invaded Britain. In the 1st century n. e. Britain was conquered by the Romans. The dominion of the Roman Empire continued until the 5th century. Then the Anglo-Saxons invaded. They drove the Celts to the western and northwestern parts of the island and settled in the southern, central and eastern regions of Britain.

The Anglo-Saxon tribes brought their language, their way of life and their culture to the British Isles, the further development of which proceeded under the conditions of the disintegration of the tribal system and the formation of feudal relations.

The Angles, Saxons and Jutes formed seven kingdoms (Sussex, Essex, Wessex, East Anglia, Northumbria and Mercia), each of which sought to dominate the others. The process of centralization of power and the adoption of Christianity (VI century) contributed to the strengthening of the state system of the country.

The collapse of the tribal system and the formation of feudalism were accompanied by class differentiation of society. The relations of the Anglo-Saxons with the Celts were in the nature of deep national enmity. The subsequent history of England, as the Anglo-Saxons called the country they conquered, determined new and more complex forms of interaction between these peoples and their cultures. Celtic legends formed the basis of medieval chivalric romances about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, they were the source from which poets of subsequent centuries drew inspiration and plots for their works.

Monuments of Anglo-Saxon runic writing have survived (inscriptions on swords and household items, an inscription on a stone-carved cross near the village of Ruthwell in Scotland). It is known about the existence of songs performed during wedding and funeral rites, in the process of labor, during military campaigns. Tales, legends and songs were passed down from generation to generation. They were performed by singers available in each tribe.

There were singer-poets (ospreys), who were the creators of the songs they performed, and singer-performers (glimens), who sang songs created by others.

Pagan priests forbade writing poetry; their recording began to be carried out by learned monks after the adoption of Christianity. But not everything was written down; many records have not been preserved, and many have been repeatedly changed in the future and were subjected to Christianization.

The dating of the surviving monuments presents considerable difficulties. The exact dates of the creation of many works have not been established. The time of the appearance of the monument, its initial recording and the appearance of the edition that has survived to this day do not always coincide.

Thus, the most significant of the surviving works of medieval poetry - the poem Beowulf - has come down to us in the lists of the tenth century, and the appearance of this monument dates back to about the eighth century. The first English edition of the poem was published in 1833.

Beowulf is one of the examples of the medieval heroic epic. The poem arose on the basis of ancient Germanic traditions dating back to pagan times. These legends appeared among the Germanic tribes long before they moved to the territory of Britain. The action of the poem takes place on the shores of the Baltic Sea, and there is no mention of Britain in the poem.

Beowulf tells about the adventures of the brave Geat knight Beowulf, who saved Denmark from the terrible sea monster Grendel.

In its composition, the poem about Beowulf is a complex phenomenon. The edition that has come down to us indicates that the fairy tale motifs underlying the narrative were subsequently reworked in accordance with the principles of the heroic epic. The motifs of the tales of the early Middle Ages (descriptions of battles with sea monsters and dragons, which have parallels with folk tales and Icelandic sagas) are combined in the poem with elements that testify to their later processing in the spirit of the Christian religion. The names of pagan gods have disappeared from the text of the poem, but biblical names (Abel, Noah) and biblical traditions (about the flood) are mentioned; Grendel is called a descendant of Cain, and sea monsters are called a fiend; instructions of a Christian nature are put into the mouth of Beowulf. The poem repeatedly mentions the intervention of God in ongoing events (Beowulf defeats the monster, because this is what God wants); the first part of the poem includes lines about the creation of the world and about the divine principle.

And yet the spirit of the poem is in clear contradiction with later layers and inserts. The pagan-mythological basis of the work is obvious. The fantasy that saturates the poem reflects the mythological understanding of the history and relationships of tribes in the early Middle Ages. People are shown in their clash with the formidable forces of nature, represented in the images of the sea, the dragon and other monsters. Beowulf embodies features that give an idea of the ideal of a medieval warrior, of a hero in whom the ideal is not separated from the earthly. In the guise of Beowulf, folk ideas about a hero taming the forces of nature affected.

Some parts of the poem are not related to Beowulf, but contain information about the life of the Germanic tribes and include details from the history of the royal families of the Geats, which makes the poem attractive from the point of view of history.

The rhythmic structure and poetic speech of the poem are also peculiar. The technique of parallelism, which is characteristic of most epic monuments, is widely used. Multiple repetitions of the same motive accentuate certain episodes of the plot and deepen their inner meaning. The technique of repetition is also used in the selection of epithets.

The language of the poem strikes with the richness of metaphorical names-characteristics. The sea is called the "whale-road" (whale-road), the sword is designated as the "light of battle" (light of battle); the woman is called the “spinner of the world” (peace-weaver), “decoration of the dwelling” (dwelling-ornament).

Retreats play an important role. They perform different functions; acquaint with the background of the characters, predict their future, complement the plot, clarifying individual episodes. The poem conveys the local flavor: the features of the nature of Scandinavia and England are reproduced.

Like other monuments of Anglo-Saxon literature, the song about Beowulf is written in alliterative verse. Its peculiarity is the presence of four stresses in a verse (two in each half-line) and the repetition of identical sounds at the beginning of a series of words that make up a verse (line); in this case, the stress falls on syllables that begin with the same sounds.

Such repetitions play an organizing role in the verse, being one of the types of initial rhyme. The verse with the final rhyme replaced the alliterative verse much later.

In addition to Beowulf, samples of lyrical Anglo-Saxon poetry have been preserved. These are small poems “The Wife's Lament” (The Wife's Lament, approximately the 8th century), “The Husband's Message”, “The Wanderer” (The Wanderer), etc. These verses were included in the handwritten Exeter Codex (Exeter Book), relating to the middle of the XI century; exact dating of the poem is difficult. The poems are interesting and significant by the strength of the feelings conveyed in them, by the richness of emotions and experiences. These works created vivid pictures of nature, a raging sea, a dark forest.

From the end of the VI century. in connection with the spread of Catholicism in England, Christian-ecclesiastical literature in Latin developed. Its centers are monasteries in Kent, Wessex, Northumbria, which in the Middle Ages were centers of science and culture. The activities of such representatives of Christian religious poetry in the Anglo-Saxon language as Caedmon (Caedmon, 7th century) and Künewulf (Cynewulf, 8th-early 9th century) were associated with monasteries. Of great importance was the work of the prose writer, scientist and historian Bede, nicknamed the Venerable (Bede Venerabilis, 673-735). He owns the creation of the “Ecclesiastical History of the English People” (Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, 731), which includes valuable information from the history of England, legends and traditions of the Anglo-Saxons. He is the author of the first works of a philological nature: “On Spelling” (De Orphographia) and “On the Art of Versification” (De Arte Metrica).

King Alfred of Wessex is considered the founder of literary prose in the Anglo-Saxon language (Alfred, c. 849 - c. 900). He is known as a translator of Latin works into Anglo-Saxon and as the creator of a number of original works. Works on history and legislation, which are not works of art in the truest sense of the word, influenced the subsequent development of Anglo-Saxon prose.

The development of literature in the Norman period.

Features of the development of English literature in the period of the XI-XIII centuries. associated with the conquest of the country by the Normans.

Coming from Scandinavia, the Normans settled in northwestern France long before the invasion of England, adopting the language and culture of this country. In 1066, under the leadership of Duke William, they invaded Britain and defeated the Anglo-Saxon troops at the Battle of Hastings.

The Norman Conquest marked the beginning of a new period in the history of England.

French became the official language of the country. It was spoken by the ruling class; it was used in parliament, court, schools, it was spoken by those segments of the population who moved from France. The indigenous population spoke the Anglo-Saxon language, which underwent significant changes after the Norman Conquest. Latin was used in church circles.

Trilingualism affected the development of literature. There were literary works in Latin, French and Anglo-Saxon. Scientific works, historical chronicles, anti-church satires were written in Latin. Literature in French was represented by chivalrous poetry. In the Anglo-Saxon language, works of folk poetry have been preserved from this period, as well as a number of poems, poems and chivalric novels dating back to the 13th-14th centuries. Only in the -XIV century. in connection with the formation of the English nation, English became the main literary language.

Among the monuments of literature (XI-XII centuries) in Latin, an important place belongs to works on the history of Britain. These are the “Recent History” (Historia Novorum) of the Anglo-Saxon monk Eadmer of Canterbury, the “History of the English Kings” (Historia Regum Anglorum), written by the librarian of the monastery in Malmesbury, William of Malmesbury, the “History of England” (Historia Anglorum) by Henry of Huntingdon.

Of particular importance for the further development of medieval literature was the “History of the Britons” (Historia Britonum, 1132-1137) by Geoffrey of Monmaug, which contains the earliest processing of the Celtic legends about King Arthur, which later become the property of other European literatures. In the multi-volume History of the Britons, for the first time, the images of King Arthur, the wizard Merlin, the fairy Morgana, Queen Ginevra and brave knights appear, which will occupy such an important place in chivalric poetry in French and English. From here originate the novels of the Arthurian cycle. Here, for the first time, the court of the king of the Britons is depicted as the center of valiant chivalry, embodying the ideals of nobility, and the semi-legendary Arthur is shown as a wise and powerful ruler. Geoffrey of Monmouth made the first literary treatment of the legend of King Lear and his daughters. At the end of the XII century. the work of Geoffrey the Englishman on the rules of versification (Nova Poetria) appeared, which is of interest as an early example of a treatise on the foundations of poetic art.

In Latin in the XII-XIII centuries. works of a satirical nature are also created. These include the five-volume works of Walter Map "On the amusing conversations of the courtiers" (De Nugis Curialium). Map also used retellings of folklore works (legends, sagas, songs) in his book.

Popular satirical creativity was represented by the environment of the lower clergy. Wandering clerics and scholars - vagantes - composed free-thinking verses in Latin, ridiculing the Catholic Church, the morals of its ministers, and sang the joys of life. Among the Vagantes, an image was formed of a certain Bishop Goliy, a lover of food and drink, who presented himself as the author of these hedonistic and daring songs. Separate works of goliard poetry were a frank parody of cult church songs. In works of this kind, Latin was gradually replaced by English.

An important place in the literature of England in the period of the XI-XIII centuries. occupy works in French, which was represented by the Norman dialect of Old French. Some of them were imported from France, others were created in England. The largest work of the French folk heroic epic “The Song of Roland” enjoyed fame. Chronicles of poetry containing descriptions of the genealogies of the Norman dukes were circulated.

In the XII century. French literature in England experienced a flourishing period. It was represented by such writers as you, Benoit de Sainte-Maur, Robert de Borron, Marie of France.

In the poetic novels "Brut" (Brut) and "Roman de Rou" (Roman de Rou) Vas tells the story of the Normans. In the Romance of Roux, in four parts, he tells of the conquest of Normandy by the Viking Rollo. His narrative is replete with historical detail and detail. He also refers to the Anglo-Saxon epic of King Arthur, retelling it in his own way.

The work of the poetess Marie of France is connected with chivalric poetry. She drew the plots of her works from Celtic folklore, developing them in the form of poetic short stories. About love experiences, Maria French writes sincerely and simply, the depth and naturalness of feelings mean much more to her than the conventionality of the courtly form of their expression.

Knightly poetry arose in European countries among the feudal nobility, at the courts of feudal lords. Her homeland was Provence (south of France), which reached already in the XI century. great success in political and cultural development. It was an expression of a new, secular morality, which opposed itself to ascetic religious morality. In the knightly environment, certain norms of courtly (refined) behavior developed, according to which a knight had to be disinterested and honest, noble in relation to the weak and defenseless, bow before a beautiful lady and serve her as faithfully as a vassal serves his liege.

Provencal poets - troubadours sang the lofty feelings of the knights; their poetry is associated with the cult of serving the lady. The ideal image of a knight created by the poets did not correspond to reality: there was a lot of conventional and far-fetched in it. However, the desire to convey the world of love experiences and feelings, manifested in the lyrics of the troubadours, was fruitful for the subsequent development of poetry.

The ideals of feudal society were also reflected in the chivalric romance. In English, the first romances of chivalry appeared in the 13th century. At the end of the XIV century. Sir Gawain and the Tree Knight, the most famous English chivalric novel, was created. The heroes of this poetic work are knights who put their honor and knightly dignity above all else. Such is King Arthur and his entourage, such is the mysterious Green Knight who once appears at Arthur's court. Violation of the word is interpreted as an unlawful and unworthy deviation from the accepted rules of conduct for a knight. The main conflict of the narrative is with Sir Gawain's breach of word and his subsequent remorse.

The source of the stories about King Arthur were Celtic legends. The semi-legendary character became the hero of many medieval legends. The image of King Arthur united a large cycle of chivalric novels, transforming and changing in different historical eras.

On the basis of the legends about King Arthur, the novels "Arthur" (Arthur), "Arthur and Merlin" (Arthur and Merlin), "Lancelot of the Lake" and others were created. The legends about his exploits were popular not only in knightly, but also among the people. It was believed that King Arthur would rise from the tomb and return to earth.

The stories of many French and English novels are connected with the legends of King Arthur and his knights. Along with the knights are the wizard Merlin and the fairy Morgana. The fairy-tale element gives a special entertainment to the story.

Having something in common with the French chivalric novels in terms of plot, the English novels of the Arthurian cycle have their own characteristics. French novels are characterized by great sophistication; the theme of courtly love occupies the main place in them and is developed with special care. In the English versions, when developing similar plots, the epic and heroic beginnings, characteristic of the legends that served as the sources of their creation, are preserved; the feeling of real life with its cruelty, rough morals, with its drama is conveyed to a much greater extent.

In the 60s of the XV century. Thomas Malory (c. 1417-1471) collected, systematized and processed the novels of the Arthurian cycle. He recounted their content in the book "The Death of Arthur" (Morte d'Arthur, 1469), which in 1485 was printed by the publisher Caxton and immediately became popular. Malory's book is the most significant work of 15th-century English fiction. Freely handling sources, shortening lengths, skillfully combining entertaining adventures, bringing a lot of herself, Malory perfectly captures the spirit of courtly chivalric romances. He tells the fascinating story of the life and exploits of King Arthur and his knights, bringing together in his book the best of both French and English chivalric romances.

Legends and novels of the Arthurian cycle attracted the attention of writers of subsequent eras. E. Spencer, J. Milton, R. Southey, W. Scott, A. Tennyson, W. Morris and others, interpreting the plots and images of the works of the Middle Ages in accordance with their views and requirements.

14th century literature

The XIV century is a period of great changes and shifts in the life of England. At this time, the process of formation of the English nation and its language takes place. In the history of literature, this is the century of Langland and Chaucer, whose work reflected the most characteristic features of the life and culture of that time. Langland is entirely associated with the culture of the Middle Ages; Chaucer is the last poet of the Middle Ages and a forerunner of the Renaissance in England.

Both poets were contemporaries and witnesses of great social upheavals and disasters in the life of their homeland; especially significant of these were the Hundred Years' War with France (1337-1453), plague epidemics that swept through the country and devastated many of its regions, and the peasant uprising of 1381.

Religious reform ideas are put forward in the treatises of John Wyclif (John Wyclif, 1324-1384). The activities of Wycliffe and his followers - the Lollards - were associated with the denunciation of the Roman Catholic Church. Wycliffe opposed a number of religious dogmas, condemned the depravity of the Catholic clergy. He asserted the right of everyone to interpret the Bible for themselves. His translation of the Bible from Latin into English (1382-1384) was widely circulated and was essential to the development of the English literary language.

The 14th century is an era of intense struggle between various trends in the emerging national literature of England.

Turning to the genre of medieval didactic allegory, William in his “Vision of Peter the Plowman” expressed the mood of the masses in the years preceding the peasant uprising of 1381.

English literature was enriched both in ideological and genre terms. Major writers of the 14th century - Langland, Gower, Chaucer - develop traditional medieval plots and saturate them with modern content. The genre diversity of English literature included allegorical didactic and chivalric poems, ballads and madrigals, epistles and odes, treatises and sermons, visionary poems and Chaucer's crowning work, the Canterbury Tales, which absorbed all the variety of genres of that time.

To a greater extent than in previous centuries, the connections of English literature with the phenomena of the cultural life of European countries, especially France and Italy, are revealed.

Of fundamental importance was the process of establishing the national English language. If Chaucer's contemporary John Gower was a trilingual poet and wrote in French, Latin and English, then the greatest significance of Chaucer's activity was the establishment of a single English literary language, which was based on the London dialect.

The artistic richness of the best works of English writers of the XIV century. determined their importance for the subsequent development of the national literature of England. Langland's poem "The Vision of Peter Plowman" inspired writers and public figures during the Reformation and during the English bourgeois revolution of the 17th century. Traces of her influence are found in Milton's Paradise Lost; John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress echoes Langland's poem. Great popularity in the XV and XVI centuries. used the work of John Gower. His poem "Confessions of a Lover" (Confessio Amantis, 1390) became a source to which many writers turned in search of plots (Shakespeare when creating Pericles, Ben Jonson when creating the comedy Volpone). As for Chaucer's work, his role in the development of subsequent English literature is especially great. Shakespeare and his contemporaries borrowed stories from Chaucer's works; under the influence of Chaucer, Spenser created the stanza of "The Fairy Queen"; Chaucer was fascinated by the greatest poet of the English Revolution of the 17th century. Milton, romantic poets Byron and Keats, socialist writer W. Morris.

Folk poetry. Ballads of the XIV-XV centuries

Folk poetry is one of the most important sources for the development of literature. Motifs, plots and images of folk art entered the literature already in the early period of its existence. English literature also developed on the basis of folk art. It was enriched by the traditions of the heroic epic and folk songs, it sounded the legends and legends that existed among the people. With the advent of book literature, folk poetry did not cease to exist and did not lose its significance.

Samples of folk art created on the territory of England in the early Middle Ages have been preserved in a far from complete form, but the monuments of folk poetry of the XIV-XV centuries. presented widely. XIV-XV centuries - This is the heyday of English and Scottish folk poetry. Its most common genres are song and ballad.

A ballad is a story song of dramatic content with a choral refrain. Ballads were intended for choral performance, accompanied by playing musical instruments and dancing. The ballad arose as a result of collective folk art, it does not reflect the personality of the singer. In this regard, the question of individual authorship is not raised.

The methods of constructing a ballad, its rhythmic features and stylistic features are very stable. The ballad is written in rhymed verse, divided into stanzas, accompanied by a chorus (refrain). Each stanza usually consists of four lines; the first and third lines do not rhyme and contain four stresses; the second and fourth rhyme and have three accents each. The number of unstressed syllables in a line can be arbitrary.

Like songs, ballads use constant epithets, similes, and repetitions. Characteristic, for example, are such constant images as a brave knight, a fair-haired girl, a young page, moving from one ballad to another. Many ballads begin with traditional beginnings, containing an appeal to the listeners.

Unlike the song, the lyrical “I” of the narrator is not revealed in the ballad. The ballad has a narrative character and does not contain comments given on behalf of the narrator. A certain mood is created in the listener by the drama of the narration, the richness and tension of the action, the significance of the repetitions. The very manner of conveying events has its own characteristics: in the absence of a descriptive element, attention is focused on the climax of the action.

According to their plots, ballads are divided into historical, legendary and everyday. Historical ballads are of an epic nature, dedicated to such events as military clashes between the British and Scots on the border strip, feudal strife, Anglo-French wars.

Ballads about the legendary Robin Hood were especially popular.

Ballads about the exploits of Robin Hood were cycles: "The Little Geste of Robin Hood" (The Little Geste of Robin Hood) and the later cycle "Acts of Robin Hood" (A Geste of Robin Hood). These vaults were printed during the XV-XVI centuries. They showed a tendency to merge individual ballads into an epic whole work. However, in addition to the "vaults" there were many independent ballads and songs about Robin Hood.

Most of them are ballads of a lyric-dramatic nature. They tell about love and hate, about family feud and jealousy. The elements of feelings, the depth of experiences create an atmosphere of dramatic tension. The strength of passions and the immediacy of their manifestation gives rise to the sharpness of situations.

These are the ballads The Two Sisters, Child Waters, Lady Isabel, The Douglas Tragedy, The Cruel Brother and others

Medieval ballads attracted the attention of many writers of subsequent eras and had a great influence on the development of English literature. The motives and texts of folk ballads were used by Shakespeare (forest robbers in "Two Veronians", Desdemona's song - "Song of the Willow" - in "Othello").

Particular interest arose in ballads in the era of pre-romanticism. In the XVIII century. recording and systematization of monuments of English and Scottish folklore began. Its samples are especially fully presented in collections compiled by V. Scott (“Songs of the Scottish Border” - Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1802-1803) and F. Child (“English and Scottish ballads” - The English and Scottish popular ballads, 1882- 1898). In 1765, T. Percy's collection Reliques of Ancient English Poetry was published.

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It is determined by three main factors: the traditions of folk art, the cultural influence of the ancient world and Christianity.

Latin and folk literature

The mythology of early national literatures (Irish, Icelandic) is expressed in fabulousness- beautiful and adventurous elements of courtly literature. In parallel, there is a change in the affective motivation of the characters' actions to a more complex one - moral and psychological.

Until the end of the 12th century, only legal documents were written in prose in vernacular languages. All "fiction" literature is poetic, which is associated with performance to music. Starting from the middle of the 12th century, the eight-syllable, assigned to narrative genres, gradually became autonomous from the melody and began to be perceived as a poetic convention. Baudouin VIII orders the chronicle of pseudo-Turpin to be transcribed for him in prose, and the first works written or dictated in prose are the chronicles and Memoirs by Villardouin and Robert de Clary. The novel took over from prose.

However, the verse has by no means faded into the background in all genres. Throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, prose remained a comparatively marginal phenomenon. In the XIV-XV centuries, a mixture of poetry and prose is often found - from the "True Story" by Machaux to the "Textbook of Princesses and Noble Ladies" by Jean Maro.

medieval poetry

The epic was sung or chanted; lyrical inserts found in a number of novels were intended for singing; music played a role in the theatre.

The separation of poetry from music was completed by the end of the 14th century, and in the city Eustache Deschamps fixes this gap in his Art de dictier("Poetic art" - dictier here refers to a rhetorical operation, from Lat. dictari): he distinguishes between the "natural" music of poetic language and the "artificial" music of instruments and singing.

The ideological basis of medieval literature

Christianity

Middle Ages in the East

In the literatures of the East, the period of the Middle Ages is also distinguished, but its time frame is somewhat different, as a rule, its completion is attributed only to the XVIII century.

Links

References

History of Foreign Literature: Early Middle Ages and Renaissance / Edited by V. M. Zhirunsky. - M., 1987. - 462 p. - S.: 10-19.
Literature of the Western European Middle Ages / Edited by N. O. Visotskoy. - Vinnitsa: New book, 2003. - 464 p. - S.: 6-20.
Shalaginov B.B.. Foreign literature from antiquity to the beginning of the XIX century. - K .: Academy, 2004. - 360 p. - S.: 120-149.

History of world literature in 9 volumes: Volume 2. - M .: Nauka, 1984.

Sites

Irish Corpus of Electronic Texts "C.E.L.T." (English);
Corpus of Middle English Prose and Poetry (English);
Site "Norrœn Dyrð" - contains a voluminous selection of Scandinavian sagas, poetry and critical literature about them (Russian).

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The roots of the literature of the Middle Ages go back to the 4th-5th centuries, a period when new state associations formed by barbarian peoples are being created on the ruins of the Roman Empire. During the Middle Ages, a new, in comparison with antiquity, system of aesthetic thinking was born, the creation of which was facilitated by Christianity, the folk art of "barbarian" peoples and the influence of antiquity. Medieval thinking is distinguished by the ability to combine a subtle susceptibility to various exotic influences and the systematic development of the legacy of the past, as well as a unique ability to rediscover and apply the ancient achievements of a peasant, autochthonous culture, preserved "under the wing" of Roman civilization.

It is worth emphasizing that in the Middle Ages, religious thinking left a very deep imprint on literature, it also introduced allegory and elements of a symbolic perception of reality into literary circulation. The range of literature of the Middle Ages included a huge number of genres with ecclesiastical origins, for example, cult drama, hymn, lives of saints, and so on. In addition, the beginnings of historiography and the processing of biblical legends and motifs are associated with clerical literature.

In the period from the 11th to the 14th century, medieval literature can be associated with folklore. But not too literally. A folk song or a fairy tale is impersonal, while the main feature of a literary text is intentional individuality, uniqueness and clear concreteness. Medieval works of that time have a certain duality, that is, some texts are close to literary work in the modern sense, while others, such as songs about deeds, are closer to folklore. However, the very term "folklore" has the ability to refer to two different realities, depending on what social function they perform.

Classification of literature of the Middle Ages

The literary art of the Middle Ages is divided into two stages, which are associated with the nature of social relations, namely: the literature of the period of the decline of the tribal system and the birth of feudalism, which fall on the 5th-10th centuries, as well as the literature of the stage of developed feudalism in the 11th-15th centuries . The first period is typical for monuments of folk poetry, and the second is classified as feudal-knightly, folk and urban literature, which appeared in the twelfth century. All of the above elements exist both in parallel and intricately intertwined, but still the works of folk poetry remain the basis for all literature of the Middle Ages. Urban literature, starting from the 12th-13th centuries, develops very quickly and rapidly, and in many respects absorbs clerical literature. In this period, the division of medieval literature becomes more "blurred" and conditional. The ascetic attitude is muted, and the warm tones of the attitude towards the world become the leading one.