Middle english written records

The language of a past time is known by the quality of its literature. Charters and records yield their secrets to the philologist and contribute their quota of words and inflections to our dictionaries and grammars. But it is in literature that a language displays its full power, its ability to convey in vivid and memorable form the thoughts and emotions of a people. The Middle English literature is fortunately one of the richest and most significant of any preserved. Because it is the language mobilized, the language in action, we must say a word about it.

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………...3

PART 1. ANTOLOGY OF OLD AND MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE…………………………………………………………………….5

Old English literature in the period of Anglo-Saxon ethnic extension……………………………………………………………..5

The Middle English corpus………………………………..................9

1.2.1. Jeffrey Chaucer..........................................................................11

Principal Middle English written records…………..................13

PART 2. CONCEPTUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE ………...........................................................................................16

2.1. Knighthood and Chivalry as a cultural dominant in the Middle English literature…………………………………………………………………………..16

2.2. The ideal of chivalry in “Sir Gawain and Green Knight”……………..17

2.3. The concept of Courtly love in the English Medieval epoch………….20

2.4. Christian religious dominant…………………………………………..21

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………...24

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………..26