How Does War Influence Medieval Literature?
Medieval literature was influenced by many things and Literature was also influenced by many things. Religion, science, art, laws, food, and many other aspects of life have influenced the work of writers of the past. One cruel aspect of life that has always been in the lives of people since the beginning of time and has greatly influenced the history of the world, as well as the development of literature, is war. “War is the subject of literature because it has such a significant effect on humans” (Bergd 09). Throughout the medieval times, war was very common. The warlike Germanic tribes that dominated Europe before the Middle Ages heavily influenced the ideas of chivalry and glory from warfare. From their tales of battle and glory, much
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of the literature of the civilizations that emerged in the middle ages was heavily influenced by the warrior cultures of the Germanic tribes that came before them. “Military affairs had formed an important theme in Medieval literature for several centuries, at first in Germanic heroic poetry that was transmitted largely in oral form, then from the twelfth century onwards in increasingly complex strands of written literature that combined Germanic traditions with new concerns drawn to a large extent from French and Latin literature” (Jackson 52).
In the Middle Ages, war was a common occurrence. From the poorest peasant to the wealthiest warlord, war was a large part of life and their actions have influenced the literature that was written in the dark ages before the Renaissance. Because war was so common during this period, the stories and historical accounts of many works of literature contain many things related to war. “War produces Heroes” (Ailes 30), and good heroes make good characters for good stories, plays, songs, and poems. Plays by Shakespeare such as the King Henry plays, King Richard plays, and the King John play all had accounts of war in them. Great epics about heroes like Beowulf slaying dragons and El Cid fighting for the people, and tales such as The song of Roland and The Tale of Igor 's Campaign contain intense battles and are full of knights and chivalry. “As seen in Ambroise’s Chronicle, Richard the Lion-Heart and his noble opponent Saladin have been depicted as “knights as worthy of heroic status” (Ailes 45).
War not only influenced literature by tales of knights and damsels, war also caused the way we see the past from text to be altered or may have caused some stories to never have survived into our time. “History is written by the victors” (Churchill), and the victors of wars would occasionally burn libraries or certain books. For example, the destruction of Cathar texts in the Languedoc Region of France during the 13th century when the Catholic Church waged a brutal campaign against the Cathars of Languedoc, which started the Albigensian Crusade. Nearly every Cathar text there was destroyed, in an effort to completely extirpate their heretical beliefs. Due to this crusade an entire way of life was destroyed and the books of their religion and culture were burned, never to be read by anyone in the present. Also libraries were destroyed throughout wars, for instance, during the Fourth Crusade, the Imperial Library of Constantinople, containing many texts from the classical era empires, such as the Roman Empire and the Thracian Empire, was targeted by Crusaders and was burned to the ground. During the English Civil War, the Earl of Worcester’s archive, at the Raglan Library at Raglan Castle in Wales was razed by the Parliamentary Army under the command of Thomas Fairfax.
Not only did war affect literature, but literature also affected war. Many kings, lords, knights, and adventurers went into battle hoping for glory and renown so that they would be remembered as legends in bards’ songs and the books of scribes. During the Hundred Years’ War, the conflict over the French throne led many English and French nobles, as well as some mercenaries to seek fortune and glory in battle. Guillaume Cousinot wrote the Chronique de la Pucelle and was chancellor to the duc d’Orléans.His work is the major source of information of what happened during the Hundred Years’ War and the career of Joan of Arc. His work also describes great acts by the French noblemen seeking renown. One of his records famously describes Guiscard de Monfalcon’s raid on English soil. He swam with a group of 10 knights across the English Channel in full armor and plundered the village of Dorchestershirebourgh. After routing the local garrison they plundered the village and took a 500kg church bell and several golden chalices and swam back to France in the night (Wikipedia). In Froissart’s Chronicles, Jean Froissart was an eye witness to many of the events of the Siege of Paris and to the battle preparations in Sluys. He combined his own experiences with the experiences of interviewed witnesses and wrote over one hundred accounts into four different books on the important events of the Hundred Years’ War starting with the deposition of Edward II and the ascension of Edward III and ending with the Battle of Nicopol (Bachrach 127-131). Although many of his manuscripts are lost, his war literature is a prime example of how war directly affected the writings of scholars during the Middle Ages.
There is one piece of literature that has caused countless conflicts and wars since its creation. During the middle ages the bible, was the one book that all of Christendom lived by, and caused the Christian kings to go to the holy lands to fight in the name of God. The power of the bible was used by Pope Urban III to unite warring Christian factions by giving them the common goal of liberating the Holy Lands from the rule of the Muslims. Written accounts are told from all sides of the conflict. The Hebrew chronicle of Eliezer bar Nathan gives a stirring account of assaults made by some of the crusaders on Jewish communities in the Rhineland. The Princess Anna Comnena, in her biography of her father, the Byzantium Emperor Alexius I, shows the war from the perspective of the leaders of the Crusades. The taking of Jerusalem by the crusaders became the subject for many European writers of history and epic poetry. Their works made the Crusades seem as one of the greatest heroic achievements of all time in Europe (Norton).
Literature allowed for the people of the Medieval Times to learn from their ancestors and improve on what they did.
The manuals written on war and the recounts of battles would allow generals to see what the mistakes of the past were and so they could create new literature of new war strategies to use in battle. For example, at the battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror’s troops consisted of mostly cavalry and archers, instead of the mostly infantry troops, as was customary. Duke William’s cavalry were using stirrups, which up until the battle of Hastings were never used in large scale combat in the medieval ages. William also used the strategy of sending his soldiers in the center of his line to flee, but then turn around, and then completely surround the enemy by sending the cavalry to the flanks of the English. The Normans were able to defeat the Anglo-Saxon King Harold II. From that battle, the advantages of using stirrups was recorded and then the Normans were able to use the same tactic to conqueror all of England. The tactics that the duke of Normandy used were similar to the strategy of Roman Generals (Peddie 12). Publius Cornelius Tacitus, a historian of the Roman Empire, wrote of battle strategies and Roman Emperors. From his written works of war, the tactic used in battle helped determine the outcome of the battle of Hastings. Without the knowledge that was passed down through written works of literature, like that of Tacitus, medieval warfare would have been different. Literature also allowed inventions that would affect war to be recorded, such as the mills that used water power. With the power of rivers, blacksmiths, granaries, and many other parts of the economy that war depends on could be more efficient because more could be produced for less, which allowed for wars to be bigger and armies larger, all because the invention was recorded in writing so that it could be made
again.
War has affected literature in many ways. From battle tales and epic poems to Romantic tales and plays, war has been a big subject in literature. War has also affected literature by physically destroying books and libraries, causing some stories to be lost forever. People seeking renown, historians recording battle, and verbal tales all make up the medieval literature of war. “War produces Heroes” (Ailes 30), and the knights, champions, kings, and lords in war all become the subjects of great stories.
Works Cited
"Chronique De La Pucelle." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 08 July 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2013.
"Famous Quotations and Stories." Famous Quotations and Stories. The Churchill Centre and Museum, n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2013.
"Hundred Years ' War." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 09 July 2013. Web. 09 Sept. 2013.
"The Song of Roland." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Aug. 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2013.
"The Tale of Igor 's Campaign." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 08 July 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2013.
Ailes, Marianne J. "Heroes of War: Ambroise’s Heroes of the Third Crusade." Writing War: Medieval Literary Responses to Warfare. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004. 29-48. Print.
Bachrach, Bernard S. "Medieval Siege Warfare: A Reconnaissance." The Journal of Military History 58.1 (2007): 119-33. JSTOR. Web. 8 Sept. 2013.
Bergd. "Literature of War STC." Literature of War STC. Word Press, 14 Sept. 2008. Web. 08 Sept. 2013.
Jackson, W. H. "Warfare in the Works of Rudolf Von Ems." Writing War: Medieval Literary Responses to Warfare. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004. 49-76. Print.
Norton. "The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages: Introduction." The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages: Introduction. W.W. Norton and Company, 2010. Web. 09 Sept. 2013.
Peddie, John. The Roman War Machine. Stroud, Gloucestershire: A. Sutton, 1994. Print.
of the literature of the civilizations that emerged in the middle ages was heavily influenced by the warrior cultures of the Germanic tribes that came before them. “Military affairs had formed an important theme in Medieval literature for several centuries, at first in Germanic heroic poetry that was transmitted largely in oral form, then from the twelfth century onwards in increasingly complex strands of written literature that combined Germanic traditions with new concerns drawn to a large extent from French and Latin literature” (Jackson 52).
In the Middle Ages, war was a common occurrence. From the poorest peasant to the wealthiest warlord, war was a large part of life and their actions have influenced the literature that was written in the dark ages before the Renaissance. Because war was so common during this period, the stories and historical accounts of many works of literature contain many things related to war. “War produces Heroes” (Ailes 30), and good heroes make good characters for good stories, plays, songs, and poems. Plays by Shakespeare such as the King Henry plays, King Richard plays, and the King John play all had accounts of war in them. Great epics about heroes like Beowulf slaying dragons and El Cid fighting for the people, and tales such as The song of Roland and The Tale of Igor 's Campaign contain intense battles and are full of knights and chivalry. “As seen in Ambroise’s Chronicle, Richard the Lion-Heart and his noble opponent Saladin have been depicted as “knights as worthy of heroic status” (Ailes 45).
War not only influenced literature by tales of knights and damsels, war also caused the way we see the past from text to be altered or may have caused some stories to never have survived into our time. “History is written by the victors” (Churchill), and the victors of wars would occasionally burn libraries or certain books. For example, the destruction of Cathar texts in the Languedoc Region of France during the 13th century when the Catholic Church waged a brutal campaign against the Cathars of Languedoc, which started the Albigensian Crusade. Nearly every Cathar text there was destroyed, in an effort to completely extirpate their heretical beliefs. Due to this crusade an entire way of life was destroyed and the books of their religion and culture were burned, never to be read by anyone in the present. Also libraries were destroyed throughout wars, for instance, during the Fourth Crusade, the Imperial Library of Constantinople, containing many texts from the classical era empires, such as the Roman Empire and the Thracian Empire, was targeted by Crusaders and was burned to the ground. During the English Civil War, the Earl of Worcester’s archive, at the Raglan Library at Raglan Castle in Wales was razed by the Parliamentary Army under the command of Thomas Fairfax.
Not only did war affect literature, but literature also affected war. Many kings, lords, knights, and adventurers went into battle hoping for glory and renown so that they would be remembered as legends in bards’ songs and the books of scribes. During the Hundred Years’ War, the conflict over the French throne led many English and French nobles, as well as some mercenaries to seek fortune and glory in battle. Guillaume Cousinot wrote the Chronique de la Pucelle and was chancellor to the duc d’Orléans.His work is the major source of information of what happened during the Hundred Years’ War and the career of Joan of Arc. His work also describes great acts by the French noblemen seeking renown. One of his records famously describes Guiscard de Monfalcon’s raid on English soil. He swam with a group of 10 knights across the English Channel in full armor and plundered the village of Dorchestershirebourgh. After routing the local garrison they plundered the village and took a 500kg church bell and several golden chalices and swam back to France in the night (Wikipedia). In Froissart’s Chronicles, Jean Froissart was an eye witness to many of the events of the Siege of Paris and to the battle preparations in Sluys. He combined his own experiences with the experiences of interviewed witnesses and wrote over one hundred accounts into four different books on the important events of the Hundred Years’ War starting with the deposition of Edward II and the ascension of Edward III and ending with the Battle of Nicopol (Bachrach 127-131). Although many of his manuscripts are lost, his war literature is a prime example of how war directly affected the writings of scholars during the Middle Ages.
There is one piece of literature that has caused countless conflicts and wars since its creation. During the middle ages the bible, was the one book that all of Christendom lived by, and caused the Christian kings to go to the holy lands to fight in the name of God. The power of the bible was used by Pope Urban III to unite warring Christian factions by giving them the common goal of liberating the Holy Lands from the rule of the Muslims. Written accounts are told from all sides of the conflict. The Hebrew chronicle of Eliezer bar Nathan gives a stirring account of assaults made by some of the crusaders on Jewish communities in the Rhineland. The Princess Anna Comnena, in her biography of her father, the Byzantium Emperor Alexius I, shows the war from the perspective of the leaders of the Crusades. The taking of Jerusalem by the crusaders became the subject for many European writers of history and epic poetry. Their works made the Crusades seem as one of the greatest heroic achievements of all time in Europe (Norton).
Literature allowed for the people of the Medieval Times to learn from their ancestors and improve on what they did.
The manuals written on war and the recounts of battles would allow generals to see what the mistakes of the past were and so they could create new literature of new war strategies to use in battle. For example, at the battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror’s troops consisted of mostly cavalry and archers, instead of the mostly infantry troops, as was customary. Duke William’s cavalry were using stirrups, which up until the battle of Hastings were never used in large scale combat in the medieval ages. William also used the strategy of sending his soldiers in the center of his line to flee, but then turn around, and then completely surround the enemy by sending the cavalry to the flanks of the English. The Normans were able to defeat the Anglo-Saxon King Harold II. From that battle, the advantages of using stirrups was recorded and then the Normans were able to use the same tactic to conqueror all of England. The tactics that the duke of Normandy used were similar to the strategy of Roman Generals (Peddie 12). Publius Cornelius Tacitus, a historian of the Roman Empire, wrote of battle strategies and Roman Emperors. From his written works of war, the tactic used in battle helped determine the outcome of the battle of Hastings. Without the knowledge that was passed down through written works of literature, like that of Tacitus, medieval warfare would have been different. Literature also allowed inventions that would affect war to be recorded, such as the mills that used water power. With the power of rivers, blacksmiths, granaries, and many other parts of the economy that war depends on could be more efficient because more could be produced for less, which allowed for wars to be bigger and armies larger, all because the invention was recorded in writing so that it could be made
again.
War has affected literature in many ways. From battle tales and epic poems to Romantic tales and plays, war has been a big subject in literature. War has also affected literature by physically destroying books and libraries, causing some stories to be lost forever. People seeking renown, historians recording battle, and verbal tales all make up the medieval literature of war. “War produces Heroes” (Ailes 30), and the knights, champions, kings, and lords in war all become the subjects of great stories.
Works Cited
"Chronique De La Pucelle." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 08 July 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2013.
"Famous Quotations and Stories." Famous Quotations and Stories. The Churchill Centre and Museum, n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2013.
"Hundred Years ' War." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 09 July 2013. Web. 09 Sept. 2013.
"The Song of Roland." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Aug. 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2013.
"The Tale of Igor 's Campaign." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 08 July 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2013.
Ailes, Marianne J. "Heroes of War: Ambroise’s Heroes of the Third Crusade." Writing War: Medieval Literary Responses to Warfare. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004. 29-48. Print.
Bachrach, Bernard S. "Medieval Siege Warfare: A Reconnaissance." The Journal of Military History 58.1 (2007): 119-33. JSTOR. Web. 8 Sept. 2013.
Bergd. "Literature of War STC." Literature of War STC. Word Press, 14 Sept. 2008. Web. 08 Sept. 2013.
Jackson, W. H. "Warfare in the Works of Rudolf Von Ems." Writing War: Medieval Literary Responses to Warfare. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2004. 49-76. Print.
Norton. "The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages: Introduction." The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages: Introduction. W.W. Norton and Company, 2010. Web. 09 Sept. 2013.
Peddie, John. The Roman War Machine. Stroud, Gloucestershire: A. Sutton, 1994. Print.