EWL 212 Medieval Literature
The Middle Ages in Europe marked an extraordinary flourishing of diverse cultures within the unity of Christendom. This course will explore the literary expressions of that diversity and that unity by studying a group of major heroic and romantic narratives, such as The Gododdin, The Cattle Raid of Cooley, The Mabinogion, Njal’s Saga, The Niebelungenlied, The Song of Roland, Gottfried von Strasburg’s Tristan, Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, Arthurian romances and Dante’s Divine Comedy. The course will also treat a selection of lyric poems from Ireland, Wales, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and England. This course will study the literature in translation.