Events and classes > Read the Classics > Middle Ages
Read the Classics: Middle Ages
Join "the Great Conversation" of the literary imagination by participating in a reading, lecture and discussion series focused on four great works of the Middle Ages. Michael Faletra, from Reed College, will give short lectures providing background and then will lead the discussions. 2010–2011 season.
Gresham Library
Second Sundays; November, 1:30–3:30 p.m.; January, March and May, 2–4 p.m.
The Discussions
- Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney · November 14, 2010, 1:30–3:30 · Also, an optional film showing of a performance of Beowulf in Old English by Benjamin Bagby with modern English subtitles.
- The Inferno by Dante · January 9, 2011
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight · March 13, 2011, 2:00
- Le Morte D'Arthur · May 8, 2011, 2:00
Registration is required for each session. Register online, in the library or call 503.988.5387.
A limited supply of these books will be available two months ahead of time for the first book discussion and at the preceding book discussions for the rest. Pick up a "bring-'em-back" copy of the book, that you do not have to check out, at Gresham Library after registering. Return the book at the discussion.
Meet your professor
Michael A. Faletra specializes in the literatures of medieval Britain. He is an Associate Professor of English and Humanities at Reed College and has also taught classical literature, medieval literature and Shakespeare at the University of Vermont, Portland State University, Clark College (Vancouver), Boston University, and Boston College. He has written on Geoffrey of Monmouth, John of Cornwall, Gerald of Wales, Marie de France and the Middle English romances, and has edited and translated Geoffrey of Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain.
The Books
Beowulf
The oldest and arguably the greatest English epic, Beowulf stands at the dawn of the British literary tradition. With a unique presentation of the world of pagan heroism, this gripping tale of monsters and warriors, of peace and war, of loyalty and vengeance, has inspired countless writers, especially J. R. R. Tolkien, William Morris, John Gardner, Neil Gaiman and W. H. Auden, and it has in recent years even spawned several feature-length films. There has never been a better time to dig in and study this moving and powerful poem.
Composed sometime between the 7th and 11th centuries, the story showcases the beautiful and energetic Old English alliterative style, with its repetition of initial sounds of stressed syllables, which translator Seamus Heaney captures marvelously. As all great epics do, Beowulf stands at a crucial historical threshold, straddling both the pagan world of the Germanic Anglo-Saxons and the Christian world of medieval Europe. The poem focuses on the exploits of the warrior Beowulf, who embodies all the positive traits of Anglo-Saxon culture: courage, steadfastness, loyalty, and a stoic acceptance of one's own death. Beowulf also presents to us three very problematic monsters: Grendel, who both hates and longs for the society of humans; Grendel's fearsome Mother, whose desire for vengeance throws light upon some of the weaknesses of Anglo-Saxon culture; and the ominous dragon, whose inhuman lust for gold mirrors a very human desire for treasure and honor. In this discussion we will examine many of the story's puzzles, contradictions and preoccupations, especially its profoundly mixed feelings about the virtues of the old heroic warrior code.
Beowulf has survived to the present day in only a single, handwritten medieval manuscript, which dates from around 1015. (There is a digital image of one of the pages of the actual Beowulf manuscript in the British Library.) In other words, the poem comes down to us from the distant past hanging on a thread. The authorship and dating of Beowulf have never been definitively determined. Some believe that the poem was written by a cleric, while others consider it the work of a professional Anglo-Saxon bard, or scop. Likewise, the poem's date has been placed anytime between the 7th century (because of its archaic language and glorification of the pagan past) and the 11th century (the date of the actual manuscript). Scholars who argue for the earlier dating often associate the poem and its author with a specific archeological site, the magnificent pagan ship burial at Sutton Hoo in central England. Scholars who see the poem as a later work emphasize the Christian inflection of its author and its distance from the bygone Anglo-Saxon heroic age. (See a discussion of the dating controversy.) Read the poem, come to the library to discuss it, and decide for yourself. We look forward to two great hours discussing a work that, in Prof. Tolkien's words, "glimpses the cosmic and moves with the thought of all men concerning the fate of human life and efforts." Prepare to be changed.
Following the discussion join us for an optional special screening of the film of Benjamin Bagby's legendary performance of Beowulf recorded live in Helsingborg, Sweden. Bagby has recreated the Anglo-Saxon harp from archeological artifacts and gives a powerful performance of how an Anglo–Saxon bard, or scop may have half sung/half spoken the poem of Beowulf. It is about 2/3rds of the story and is performed in Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) with modern English subtitles. Enthusiasts of Early Music and virtuoso storytelling will love it! Run time: 98 minutes.
The Inferno by Dante
Where do we go when we die? What is our place in the universe? Is there any final reckoning for all the good and bad deeds we do in life? Come to Gresham Library for a tour through the afterlife as we read Dante's Inferno this coming winter.
T. S. Eliot once said that "Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them — there is no third." Many readers even claim that the medieval Florentine poet Dante Alighieri is the greatest writer ever and that his The Divine Comedy, poised on the cusp between the monumental learning of the Middle Ages and the innovative spirit of the Italian Renaissance, is the greatest poem ever written. Born in Florence to a family of minor nobility in 1265, Dante came of age in an Italy that was rife with bloody political struggle as the factions of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines vied for power. At the same time, medieval Italy was also the forefront of learning in western Europe, and Dante's work is informed both by the philosophy of the fledgling Italian universities and by the flourishing tradition of courtly love poetry. For his part, Dante claims to have fallen fatefully in love at the age of 9 with a Florentine girl named Beatrice Portinari, who would prove to be his ultimate muse. When Beatrice died in 1290, Dante was devastated, and her death galvanized him, as he writes in his early work, La Vita Nuova, "to write what has never before been written of any woman." It seems that, in part, the poem that resulted was The Divine Comedy.
Composed between about 1307 and 1320, The Divine Comedy narrates Dante's fictional journey through the afterlife, where he witnesses the eternal torments of the damned souls in Hell, the patient endurance of the restless Christian spirits in Purgatory, and the ineffable delights of the blessed in Paradise.
Dante's adventures in the afterlife begin in The Inferno. Guided by the Roman poet Virgil (author of The Aeneid), Dante passes through the various circles of Hell, coming to grips with the justice of the punishments of the damned and learning to orient himself properly in terms of God, sin and the universe. In one sense, the poem provides a penetrating examination of medieval Catholic thought about notions of justice and of the relationship between God and man. At another level, the poem provides great insight into Dante’s political and philosophical ambitions as he assigns his political enemies — including even a few popes! — to the circles of the damned. Many of the other souls with which Dante populates Hell seem designed to evoke intense emotional responses from the reader. We meet, for example, the lovers Paolo and Francesca, whose adulterous passion has led to their eternal damnation; Dante's gentle old schoolmaster Brunetto Latini, who now suffers endless torment; and even the Greek hero Ulysses, whose final journey incurs the wrath of God. Dante's tour of Hell ends with a chilling vision of Satan, the greatest of sinners and the one whose sin most isolates him from God and from the rest of creation.
Dante wrote his epic while in political exile, banished for life from his beloved Florence. The pain of this exile fuels much of the sense of suffering in this poem, but it also supplies Dante with an epic that is a marked change from the writing of his youth, which included philosophical treatises, political tracts, and, above all, love poetry. For The Comedy, Dante was able to combine all of his talents, and the poetic voice that emerges in his encyclopedic vision encompasses both the delicate lyrics of his fellow Italian love poets, the unswerving high moral theology of Catholic scholars like Thomas Aquinas, the authoritative weight of Virgil’s Aeneid, and the daring and sometimes even macabre imagery of Ovid. Most of all, Dante invents for The Comedy a powerful new rhyme scheme, terza rima, that constantly impels the story forward while still maintaining a sense of order and lyric grace. The result is a work that has proven uniquely gripping, that has inspired countless other writers — Chaucer, Petrarch, Milton, Blake, Mary Shelley, George Eliot, Tennyson, Rossetti, Pound, Joyce, Kafka and Borges to name a few — and that has maintained an immediacy and relevance into the 21st century.
Websites for The Inferno: The best website by far is the Princeton Dante Project, where one can access maps, commentaries and crucial background information on all of Dante's works. The site even allows you to hear the poem in the original Italian! For a sense of how Dante's earliest readers experienced his poem, check out the Bodleian Library, where one can view high-resolution images of a sumptuously illustrated early manuscript of the poem.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
For hundreds of years throughout Western Europe, the chivalric romance was the queen of literary genres. Medieval audiences would listen to or read about the deeds of knights in shining armor, of lofty quests, of daring rescues, and of the ennobling powers of courtly love. Of all these stories, the ones centering around the court of King Arthur and his noble knights were among the most beloved. In fact, many real medieval kings and nobles held "King Arthur" tournaments, emulating their favorite romance heroes.
The anonymous 14th century English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (circa 1360–1380) is almost universally considered the finest and most complex of all the Arthurian romances. Its hero, Gawain, was the most beloved of all of Arthur's knights among medieval English audiences (to get a taste for these literary backgrounds, see Gawain). Yet, like the enigmatic five–pointed star on Gawain's shield, this story is riddled with paradoxes as both Gawain and the audience struggle to discern truth from reality: Who are the heroes and who are the villains? When is a game merely a game and when is it a matter of life and death? What makes King Arthur such a great king? What are the bounds of hospitality? Do knightly reputations always live up to reality? And what does it even mean to be a knight of the Round Table anyway? From its very first scene, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight unsettles all of our common and comfortable notions about the too-often idealized world of the Arthurian romance.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight we see the lofty ideals of the Arthurian court clash with the mystery of the Celtic Otherworld as Gawain struggles to maintain his honor — and his very identity — in the illusory Castle Hautdesert and the uncanny Green Chapel. As we read and investigate this compelling text, we will consider to what extent Sir Gawain sacrifices his own values and the honor of Arthur's court in pursuit of a seemingly unwinnable quest.
Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur
If you've watched Camelot or Monty Python and the Holy Grail or The Sword in the Stone, if you've enjoyed The Mists of Avalon or The Once and Future King, then you owe a debt to Sir Thomas Malory, a 15th-century knight and veteran of the Wars of the Roses who codified and popularized the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table for countless future generations
Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur (an English book despite its French title) authoritatively narrates the entire story of King Arthur, including his rise to power, the deeds of his noble knights, the quest for the Holy Grail, and the eventual downfall of his kingdom. The book presents throughout an idealized version of "the knight in shining armor," portraying Arthur’s knights adhering to (though also sometimes violating) a strict code of chivalric values. Part of the appeal of Malory's work lies in its celebration of knightly adventures: there are damsels to be rescued, dragons to be slain, and villainous knights to vanquish. Balanced against this is a powerful sense of the unavoidable downfall of the Arthurian world, brought about by a complex interplay of forces, especially the justly famous love affair between Sir Launcelot and Queen Guenevere, and the treachery engendered by King Arthur's illegitimate son, Mordred.
Le Morte D’Arthur, written in what is now for us an elegant and charming archaic prose style, is a book rife with unspoken passion, intriguing adventures, glorious wars, and mystical quests. Malory himself wrote the book, which he based mostly on medieval French and Middle English Arthurian romances, while spending years in prison during the 1460s. First published by the early English printer William Caxton in 1485, Le Morte D’Arthur has remained constantly in print since the late 15th-century, one of only a very few books to do so and a testament to its power to captivate audiences. If you've ever wanted to read the definitive version of the stories of King Arthur, Queen Guenevere, the enchanter Merlin, Morgan LeFay, Sir Launcelot, Sir Gawain, Sir Galahad, Sir Kay, and the other knights of the Round Table, this is the book for you.
Le Morte D'Arthur is quite long. Although you will have two months to read it, you could skip Book X, pp. 433–607 (or Books VIII–X, pp. 278–607) in the Modern Library edition if you find that you do not have time to finish the whole book.
Join us for the Read the Classics program at Gresham Library for a stimulating discussion of Le Morte D'Arthur, the book that has kept the world of King Arthur alive and well for over 500 years.
Websites: For an excellent overview of Malory's life, along with links to texts of his work and other related materials, try Luminarium's Malory page. The Camelot Project run by the University of Rochester hosts a website full of intriguing links to a host of Arthurian texts, including many modern works influenced by Malory. It also provides a wonderful library of online Arthurian images, as well as individual pages for many Arthurian characters. Finally, for a detailed overview of Arthurian literature as a whole, with a special emphasis on the origins of the Arthurian legends, see Siân Echard’s excellent website.
Original annotations of the discussion titles by Michael Faletra, Reed College.
More classics of the Middle Ages — Suggested Readings
Further reading about the literature of the Middle Ages
About Beowulf
- Benjamin Bagby
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(2007)Benjamin Bagby performs/sings Beowulf in Old English with modern English subtitles while playing the Anglo-Saxon harp. This stunning performance of the first 1062 lines of Beowulf shows how powerful and vastly entertaining the poem is. There is no better way to "get" Beowulf as the early Anglo-Saxons experienced it, sung and enacted by a "scop" or bard.
- Stenton, Frank
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(2001)"Discussing the development of English society, from the growth of royal power to the establishment of feudalism after the Norman Conquest, this book focuses on the emergence of the earliest English kingdoms and the Anglo-Norman monarchy in 1087. It also describes the chief phases in the history of the Anglo-Saxon church, drawing on many diverse examples; the result is a fascinating insight into this period of English history."
- Baker, Peter
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(2000)"Gathering some of the most important studies from the past 25 years of Beowulf scholarship, The Beowulf Reader offers essential insights both to scholars in the field and to readers coming to this Old English literary masterpiece for the first time. The carefully selected essays in this volume represent the various approaches that have dominated recent Beowulf studies and illustrate the evolution of Old English literary criticism, from New Critical formalism to recent trends in critical theory and a resurgent historicism."
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(2003)Beowulf and the history of the early Anglo-Saxons is examined using 3-D animation, archival materials, location footage, and interviews with experts. It includes segments about Sutton Hoo and West Stow — two important Anglo-Saxon archeological sites, as well as insights into the religion and daily life of the Anglo-Saxons at the time of Beowulf.
Primary Texts Relevant to Dante and The Inferno
- Thomas, Aquinas, Saint
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(1265–1274)"Thomas Aquinas's "summary of theology," perhaps his most significant work, attempts to present all of Christian theology in a brief and clear fashion that will facilitate the instruction of beginners."
- Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo
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(Augustine, 354–430)"Saint Augustine of Hippo created what is at once the first true autobiography in Western literature and among the most sophisticated yet accessible theological arguments in the history of Christianity. With extraordinary candor and psychological acumen, Augustine recounts his passage from a life of sensuality, Manichaean superstition, and empty careerism to a genuine spiritual awakening, and he articulates views on marriage, morality, and faith that have shaped our discourse ever since. The Confessions allows us to appreciate both the startling modernity of Augustine's insights and the imperishable poetry of his voice."
- Boethius
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(524?)"It was written under a death sentence. Boethius, an Imperial official under Theodoric, Ostrogoth ruler of Rome, found himself, in a time of political paranoia, denounced, arrested, and then executed two years later without a trial. Composed while its author was imprisoned, cut off from family and friends, it remains one of Western literature's most eloquent meditations on the transitory nature of earthly belongings, and the superiority of things of the mind."
- Cavalcanti, Guido
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(Cavalcanti c. 1250–August 1300)"Guido Cavalcanti of Florence was one of the first to create a new style of poetry, the dolce stil nuovo, that was to inspire Dante. Cavalcanti's poetry sings of relationship — the metaphors of love that transcend the sexual and the romantic."
- Dante Alighieri
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(1292)"Vita Nuova is a supreme work of love; thirty-one poems are linked by a lyrical prose narrative poem celebrating and debating the subject of love. In the opening chapter Dante sets himself the task of giving meaning to the poetry which he composed and the events which took place after his meeting with Beatrice and the 'Lord of Love'. The 'new life' which this meeting inspired is the subject of Dante's most profound creation, which has been read variously as biography, religious allegory, and a meditation on poetry itself."
- Ovid
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(8 A.D.)"Ovid, writing at Rome only a generation after Virgil, creates an epic world entirely different from his predecessors. The Metamorphoses or "Transformations" is an epic that is truly "epic" in scope, beginning with the creation of the universe and ending with the world of contemporary Rome. It is composed of a series of stories, Greek and Roman myths that Ovid shapes and weaves together into a continuous history of gods and humans. As the title announces, the central theme is one of constant change, and we see gods and humans amazingly transformed from one shape to another. The poem recasts and preserves most of the major Greek and Roman myths that are familiar to us, often in surprising ways. Ovid was known for his wit and cleverness, and in the poem he explores the nature of love, power, change, deception, the nature of art, and personal identity. He, like Virgil, also explores what it means to be Roman, but in a much more subversive way. Ovid's poetry was seen as so subversive, in fact, that the emperor Augustus exiled him to the town of Tomis on the Black Sea, where he continued to write, never to return to his beloved Rome." By Walter Englert.
- Virgil
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(29?–19 B.C.)"The Aeneid tells the story of the Trojan hero Aeneas, who escaped from Troy as it fell to the Greeks, led a group of Trojans to the Italian peninsula, and with them founded a city that would, centuries later, lead to the founding of Rome. Virgil, writing in Latin, adapted Homeric Greek epic to explore crucial issues facing Romans of his time. He uses the figure of Aeneas to explore a conception of heroism different than Homer's, and to explore the themes of civilization, violence, and humanitas, a word coined by the Romans of Virgil's time to capture the qualities most essential to being deeply human and humane. He also uses the epic to help his readers reflect on what it means to be Roman." By Walter Englert.
About Dante and The Inferno
- Auerbach, Erich
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(1981)"Considers the physical, ethical, and historico-political aspects of The Divine Comedy and the elements which give the poetry its unique quality."
- Doré, Gustave
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(1861?)"135 fantastic and grotesque scenes depict the passion and grandeur of one of Dante's most highly regarded works — from the depths of hell onto the mountain of purgatory and up to the empyrean realms of paradise. Includes plates produced for The Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise. Illustrations accompanied by appropriate lines from the Longfellow translation."
- Rubin, Harriet
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(2004)"Dante in love is the story of the most famous journey in literature. Dante Alighieri, exiled from his home in Florence, a fugitive from justice, followed a road in 1302 that took him first to the labyrinths of hell then up the healing mountain of purgatory, and finally to paradise. He found a vision and a language that made him immortal." "Author Harriet Rubin follows Dante's path along the old Jubilee routes that linked monasteries and all roads to Rome. It is a path followed by generations of seekers — from T. S. Eliot, Sigmund Freud, Primo Levi, to Bruce Springsteen. After the poet fled Rome for Siena he walked along the upper Arno, past La Verna, to Bibiena, to Cesena, and to the Po plain."
- Barolini, Teodolinda
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(1992)"Teodolinda Barolini proposes a 'detheologized' reading as a global new approach to The Divine Comedy. By detheologizing, the reader can emerge from this poet's hall of mirrors and discover the narrative techniques that enabled Dante to forge a true fiction."
- Freccero, John
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(1988)”This collection of Freccero's articles, in an arrangement based on the structure of the Commedia, enable the contemporary reader to approach the astonishing poetic coherence of Dante's poems without sacrifice of the poem's rich historicity and detail." Library Journal
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(2007)"This second edition of The Cambridge Companion to Dante is designed to provide an accessible introduction to Dante. The suggestions for further reading now include the most recent secondary works and translations as well as online resources. The essays cover Dante's early works and their relation to the Commedia, his literary antecedents, both vernacular and classical, biblical and theological influences, the historical and political dimensions of Dante's works, and their reception. In addition there are introductory essays to each of the three canticles of the Commedia that analyse their themes and style."
About Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Le Morte D’Arthur
- Ashe, Geoffrey
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(2005)"Scholars, students, and general readers of all ages have wondered for centuries about whether Britain was ever really ruled by an Arthur who held court at a place called Camelot. In The Discovery of King Arthur the distinguished scholar Geoffrey Ashe offers convincing proof that King Arthur not only existed, but was more like the Arthur of legend than historians have previously suspected. Throughout the book, the sweep and grandeur of a tumultuous era in British and European history is vividly recounted as Ashe describes the origins and development of the Arthurian legend that seems to grow ever more enchanting and spellbinding."
- Warren, Michelle
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(2000)"The Arthurian legends are history written on the edge; stories whose changing shape reflects the contested borders of medieval Britain. Medieval history through the lens of postcolonial theory."
- Ingledew, Francis
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(2006)"Many critics situate the medieval poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in the alliterative revival of the late 14th century, during the reign of Richard II. Ingledew associates the poem with the military events, chivalric aspirations, and sexual rumors of the reign of Edward III (1327–77). The author cites historical and cultural contexts in support of his view, among them Edward's intent to institute his own Round Table, the supposed rape of the Countess of Salisbury, and Edward's founding of the Order of the Garter. All these Ingledew presents as parallel to the adventures of Gawain in the poem."
- Loomis, Roger Sherman
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(2000)"This masterly study examines the evolution of fiction surrounding the Arthurian legend, from Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Le Morte d'Arthur."
- Archibald, Elizabeth
- Batt, Catherine
- Field, P. J. C.
- McCarthy, Terence
Primary Texts Relevant to Le Morte D'Arthur
- Chrétien, de Troyes
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(1170–1190)Chrétien de Troyes was a French poet who wrote the earliest literary version of the Grail in the Arthurian cycle of stories. He also invented the character of Lancelot in the story Knight of the Cart. -
(ca. 1360–1380)"The anonymous 14th century English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is almost universally considered the finest and most complex of all the Arthurian romances. Its hero, Gawain, was the most beloved of all of Arthur's knights among medieval English audiences. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight we see the lofty ideals of the Arthurian court clash with the mystery of the Celtic Otherworld as Gawain struggles to maintain his honor — and his very identity — in the illusory Castle Hautdesert and the uncanny Green Chapel." By Michael Faletra.
- Geoffrey, of Monmouth
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(ca. 1136)"Geoffrey's History, which was one of the most popular and widely–read books throughout Europe during the High Middle Ages, covers the nearly 2000 year–long history of the ancient Britons, the Celtic people who had populated the island before the Anglo–Saxon invasions of the fifth and sixth centuries; these Britons were the ancestors of the modern Welsh and Cornish. As Geoffrey narrates their legendary history, from the founding of Britain by exiles from Troy through the glorious reign of King Arthur and up to the fall of native rule in the face of encroaching Saxon forces, we are introduced to many familiar characters, some of them for the first time: King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, the prophet and magician Merlin, the bold Sir Gawain, the tragic King Lear, and even the original Old King Cole! Over a fifth of Geoffrey's book is occupied with the life and career of Britain's most famous king, Arthur." By Michael Faletra.
- Potvin, M.
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Translated by Sebastian Evans.
Modern Arthurian Literature Influenced by Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur
- Tennyson, Alfred
- Housman, Clemence
- White, T. H.
- Sutcliff, Rosemary
- Stewart, Mary
- Bradley, Marion Zimmer
Original annotations by Tom French, librarian, Multnomah County Library, unless otherwise noted. Quoted annotations are from book jackets, summaries from the library catalog and Books in Print unless otherwise stated.
Read the Classics is cosponsored by Reed College and Multnomah County Library.
