Anglo-Norman literature - Epic and romance. The French epic came over to England at an early date. It is believed that the Chanson de Roland was sung at the battle of Hastings, and we possess Anglo-Norman MSS. of a few chansons de geste. The Pélerinage de Charlemagne (Eduard Koschwitz, Altfranzösische Bibliothek, 1883) was, for instance, only preserved in an Anglo-Norman manuscript of the British Museum (now lost), although the author was certainly a Parisian. The oldest manuscript o ...

See also:

Anglo-Norman literature, Anglo-Norman literature - Introduction, Anglo-Norman literature - Narrative literature, Anglo-Norman literature - Epic and romance, Anglo-Norman literature - Fableaux fables and religious tales, Anglo-Norman literature - History, Anglo-Norman literature - Didactic literature, Anglo-Norman literature - Hagiography, Anglo-Norman literature - Lyric poetry, Anglo-Norman literature - Satire, Anglo-Norman literature - Drama

Read more here: » Anglo-Norman literature: Encyclopedia II - Anglo-Norman literature - Narrative literature

Including:

Wace - Bibliography

Read more here: » Wace: Encyclopedia - Wace

The Anglo-Normans were the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the conquest by William of Normandy in 1066. They spoke the Anglo-Norman language. Following the Battle of Hastings, the invading Normans and their descendants formed a distinct population in England. To all outward appearance the Norman Conquest of England was an event of an altogether different character from the Danish conquest. The former was a conquest by a people whose tongue and institutions were still palpably akin to those of the English. ...

Including:

Anglo-Norman - Ireland

Read more here: » Anglo-Norman: Encyclopedia - Anglo-Norman

The chansons de geste, Old French for "songs of heroic deeds", are the epic poetry that appears at the dawn of French literature. Chanson de geste - Subjects. Written in Old French by the earliest poets, the trouvères, they typically deal with the martial valour of paladins, heroes from the age of Charles Martel and Charlemagne, and their combats against the Moors and Saracens. To these historical legends, a stiff dose of fantasy is added; giants, magic, and monsters appear among the foes along with Muslim ...

Including:

Chanson de geste - Subjects Chanson de geste - Origins Chanson de geste - Performance Chanson de geste - The poems themselves Chanson de geste - Legacy

Read more here: » Chanson de geste: Encyclopedia - Chanson de geste

Anglo-Norman barons also settled in Ireland from the 12th century, initially to support Irish regional kings such as Diarmuid MacMorrough, then to support Henry II of England and his son John as Lord of Ireland. Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, known as "Strongbow", was a significant example. Most of these Normans came from Wales, not England, and thus the epithet 'Cambro-Normans' is used to describe them by leading late medievalists such as Seán Duffy. They increasingly integrated with the local Celtic nobility through interm ...

See also:

Anglo-Norman, Anglo-Norman - Ireland

Read more here: » Anglo-Norman: Encyclopedia II - Anglo-Norman - Ireland

Among representative writers of the early Anglo-Norman literary tradition, the Jersey-born poet and chronicler Wace is considered as the founding figure of literature in Jèrriais. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the workers and merchants of Rouen established a tradition of polemical and satirical literature in a form of language called the parler purin. La Fricassée crotestyllonnée of 1552 and La Farc ...

See also:

Norman language, Norman language - Geographical range, Norman language - Literature, Norman language - Writers, Norman language - History

Read more here: » Norman language: Encyclopedia II - Norman language - Literature

Written in Old French by the earliest poets, the trouvères, they typically deal with the martial valour of paladins, heroes from the age of Charles Martel and Charlemagne, and their combats against the Moors and Saracens. To these historical legends, a stiff dose of fantasy is added; giants, magic, and monsters appear among the foes along with Muslims. As the genre aged, the historical and military aspects waned ...

See also:

Chanson de geste, Chanson de geste - Subjects, Chanson de geste - Origins, Chanson de geste - Performance, Chanson de geste - The poems themselves, Chanson de geste - Legacy

Read more here: » Chanson de geste: Encyclopedia II - Chanson de geste - Subjects

In "L'enfant de neige" ("The snow baby"), we hear a tale of black comedy. A merchant returns home after an absence of two years to find his wife with a newborn son. She explains one snowy day she swallowed a snowflake while thinking about her husband which caused her to conceive. Pretending to believe the "miracle", they raise the boy until the age of 15 when the merchant takes him on a business trip to Genoa. There, he sells the boy into slavery. On his return, he explains to his wife that the sun burns bright and hot in Italy. Since he was begott ...

See also:

Fabliau, Fabliau - Example tales

Read more here: » Fabliau: Encyclopedia II - Fabliau - Example tales

Norman is spoken in mainland Normandy in France where it has no official status, but is classed as a regional language. In the Channel Islands, the Norman language has developed separately, but not in isolation, to form what are recognised as Jèrriais (in Jersey), Dgèrnésiais or Guernsey French (in Guernsey) and Sercquiais (or Sarkese, in Sark). Jèrriais and Dgèrnésiais are recognised as regional languages by the British and Irish governments within the framework of the British-Irish Council. Sercquiais is in fact a descendant of the 16th century Jèrriais used by the original colonist ...

See also:

Norman language, Norman language - Geographical range, Norman language - Literature, Norman language - Writers, Norman language - History

Read more here: » Norman language: Encyclopedia II - Norman language - Geographical range

The culture of the United Kingdom is rich and varied, and has been influential on culture on a worldwide scale. It is a European country, and has many cultural links with its former colonies, particularly those that use the English language (the Anglosphere). Considerable contributions to British culture have been made over the last half-century by immigrants from the Indian Subcontinent and the West Indies. While it can be argued that a common British identity still permeates society (though this is a contested and contentious assert ...

Including:

Culture of the United Kingdom - Language Culture of the United Kingdom - The Arts
Culture of the United Kingdom - Literature Culture of the United Kingdom - Theatre Culture of the United Kingdom - Music Culture of the United Kingdom - Broadcasting Culture of the United Kingdom - Visual Art Culture of the United Kingdom - Architecture
Culture of the United Kingdom - Science and technology Culture of the United Kingdom - Religion Culture of the United Kingdom - Food Culture of the United Kingdom - Education
Culture of the United Kingdom - England Culture of the United Kingdom - Northern Ireland Culture of the United Kingdom - Scotland Culture of the United Kingdom - Wales Culture of the United Kingdom - Higher education
Culture of the United Kingdom - Sociological issues
Culture of the United Kingdom - Housing Culture of the United Kingdom - Living arrangements
Culture of the United Kingdom - Sport Culture of the United Kingdom - National costume Culture of the United Kingdom - Naming convention

Read more here: » Culture of the United Kingdom: Encyclopedia - Culture of the United Kingdom

British literature is literature from the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The largest part of this literature is written in the English language, but there are also separate literatures in the Welsh language, Scottish Gaelic, Scots and other languages. Northern Ireland is the only part of Ireland still part of the United Kingdom and it possesses literature in English, Ulster Scots and Irish. Irish writers have also played an important part in the development of English-language literature. Britis ...

Including:

British literature - Old Celtic literature British literature - Old English literature British literature - Late medieval literature in England British literature - Other medieval literatures British literature - Early modern English literature to 1660 British literature - English language literature from 1660 to the late 18th century British literature - Non English language literatures from the 16th century to the 19th century British literature - 19th century English language literature
British literature - The Romantics British literature - The 19th century novel British literature - Victorian poets British literature - Ireland British literature - Wales British literature - Scotland
British literature - English language literature since 1900 British literature - Non English language literatures since 1900 British literature - Literary prizes

Read more here: » British literature: Encyclopedia - British literature

Approximately one hundred of the poems themselves survive, in manuscripts that date from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. Early on, the performers grouped the chansons de geste into three cycles, which revolved around three main characters. Each cycle is named after its chief character, and moreover each cycle has a central theme, such as loyalty to a feudal chief, or the defence of Christianity. The cycles were: The Geste du roi, whose chief character was Charlemagne himself, and whose theme was his ro ...

See also:

Chanson de geste, Chanson de geste - Subjects, Chanson de geste - Origins, Chanson de geste - Performance, Chanson de geste - The poems themselves, Chanson de geste - Legacy

Read more here: » Chanson de geste: Encyclopedia II - Chanson de geste - The poems themselves

The origin of the chanson de geste as a form is much debated. The nineteenth century mediævalist Gaston Paris believed that they originated in oral epics called cantilènes, which were more or less contemporary with the military events described; and that they were originally composed by bards who followed the courts of kings and military leaders after the custom of Scandinavia and the Celtic world. Another school of thought, championed by Joseph Bédier, holds that the poems were the invention of the trouvères themsel ...

See also:

Chanson de geste, Chanson de geste - Subjects, Chanson de geste - Origins, Chanson de geste - Performance, Chanson de geste - The poems themselves, Chanson de geste - Legacy

Read more here: » Chanson de geste: Encyclopedia II - Chanson de geste - Origins

When Norse invaders arrived in the then province of Neustria and settled the land which became known as Normandy, they adopted the Gallo-Romance speech of the existing populations — much as Norman rulers later adopted in England the speech of the administered people. However in both cases the elites contributed elements of their own language to the newly-enriched languages that developed in the territories. In Normandy, the new Norman language inherited vocabulary from Norse. The influence on phonology is more disputed, although it is argued that the retention of aspirated /h/ in Norman is due to Norse influence. < ...

See also:

Norman language, Norman language - Geographical range, Norman language - Literature, Norman language - Writers, Norman language - History

Read more here: » Norman language: Encyclopedia II - Norman language - History

The chansons de geste created a body of mythology that lived on well after the creative force of the genre itself was spent. The Italian epics of Torquato Tasso and Ludovico Ariosto are all founded on the legends of the paladins of Charlemagne that first appeared in the chansons de geste. As such, their incidents and plot devices later became central to works of English literature such as Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene; Spenser attempted to adapt the form devised to tell the tale of the triumph of Christianity over Islam to tell instead of the trium ...

See also:

Chanson de geste, Chanson de geste - Subjects, Chanson de geste - Origins, Chanson de geste - Performance, Chanson de geste - The poems themselves, Chanson de geste - Legacy

Read more here: » Chanson de geste: Encyclopedia II - Chanson de geste - Legacy

The chansons de geste were composed in monorhyme stanzas. These stanzas are of irregular length, and the rhymes they contain are interspersed irregularly through the ends of each line. While not every line must rhyme, each of the rhymes in any one stanza must be the same. An example from the Chanson de Roland illustrates the technique: Desuz un pin, delez un eglanter Un faldestoed i unt, fait tout d'or mer: La siet li reis ki dulce France tient. Blanche ad la barbe ...

See also:

Chanson de geste, Chanson de geste - Subjects, Chanson de geste - Origins, Chanson de geste - Performance, Chanson de geste - The poems themselves, Chanson de geste - Legacy

Read more here: » Chanson de geste: Encyclopedia II - Chanson de geste - Performance

Up to roughly 1340, the Romance languages spoken in the Middle Ages in the Northern half of what is today's France are collectively known as "ancien français" ("Old French") or "langues d'oïl" (languages where one says "oïl" to mean "yes"): following the Germanic invasions of France in the fifth century, these Northern dialects had developed distinctly different phonetic and syntactical structures from the languages spoken in Southern France (collectively known as "langues d'oc" or the Occitan language family, of which the largest group i ...

See also:

Medieval French literature, Medieval French literature - Language, Medieval French literature - Orality and Transmission, Medieval French literature - Early Texts, Medieval French literature - Chanson de geste, Medieval French literature - Roman, Medieval French literature - Lyric Poetry, Medieval French literature - Theater, Medieval French literature - Other Forms

Read more here: » Medieval French literature: Encyclopedia II - Medieval French literature - Language

Old French - Historical influences. The Gaulish language, a Celtic language, slowly became extinct during the long centuries of Roman domination. A handful of Gaulish words survive in contemporary French: words like chêne, "oak tree", and charrue, "plough", mon, "my", are Gaulish survivals, but fewer than two hundred words of modern French have a Gaulish etymology; Delamarre (2003 pp.389-90) lists 167. Latin was the common language of the western Roman world, and opened up a wider world to its speakers than Gaulis ...

See also:

Old French, Old French - Grammar and phonology, Old French - Historical influences, Old French - Earliest written Old French, Old French - From Vulgar Latin to Old French, Old French - Noun case survivals in Old French, Old French - Verbs in Old French, Old French - Varieties of language, Old French - Languages derived from Old French, Old French - Old French literature

Read more here: » Old French: Encyclopedia II - Old French - Grammar and phonology

Normandy - Languages. The Norman language, a regional language, is spoken by a minority of the population, especially in the Cotentin peninsula in the far West and in the Pays de Caux in the East. Many place names show the influence of this Norse-influenced oïl language; for example -bec (stream), -fleur (river), -hou (island), -tot (homestead). Normandy - Arts. Main article is ...

See also:

Normandy, Normandy - Population, Normandy - Geography, Normandy - Regions, Normandy - Rivers, Normandy - History, Normandy - Channel Islands, Normandy - Culture, Normandy - Languages, Normandy - Arts, Normandy - Religion, Normandy - Food and drink, Normandy - Symbols

Read more here: » Normandy: Encyclopedia II - Normandy - Culture

Medieval literature - Religious. As shown in the chart to the right, theological works were the dominant form of literature typically found in libraries during the Middle Ages. Catholic clerics were the intellectual center of society in the Middle Ages, and it is their literature that was produced in the greatest quantity. Countless hymns survive from this time period (both liturgical and paraliturgical). The liturgy itself was not in fixed form, and numerous competing missals set out individual conception ...

See also:

Medieval literature, Medieval literature - Languages, Medieval literature - Anonymity, Medieval literature - Types of writing, Medieval literature - Religious, Medieval literature - Secular, Medieval literature - Women's literature, Medieval literature - Allegory, Medieval literature - Notable literature of the period, Medieval literature - Medieval literature by region and genre

Read more here: » Medieval literature: Encyclopedia II - Medieval literature - Types of writing