Episode 14 Medieval Tales of Heroes and Lovers

The Middle Ages Around the World

Dr Joyce E Salisbury

Film Review

England

Committed to writing from oral tradition in the 7th century, Beowulf is the most famous poem in Middle English. Set in pagan Scandinavia* in the 5th and 6th century, its hero Beowulf kills a man-eating monster.

France

Song of Roland – 12th century epic poem concerning one of Charlemagne’s knights who was killed in 778 while withdrawing from Spain.

12th-13th century – Era of courtly love in southern France fostered by female patrons (Eleanor of Aquitaine, Marie of Champagne), who ruled while their husbands were away at war. Hiring wandering troubadours to entertain with songs and poems of romantic love, Marie of Champagne was the patron of Chretien de Troyes. The latter wrote the first Arthurian romances about the quest for the Holy Grain (the cup Jesus drank from at the last supper).

The best known example of this tradition is Roman de la Rose  (1225) by Guillaume de Lorris. It was based on the fervent conviction that romantic love made people stronger, more noble and more successful in battle.

Spain

Song of El Cid, 12th century poem about the legendary 11th centry knight Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar who spent his life fighting Muslims.

Africa

The Grots were traveling Africans who told heroic tales. One of the most famous concerned Sundida Keita, the legendary founder of the Mali empire. Born crippled in 1215, he possessed supernatural powers and his kingship was foretold at his birth.His exploits were passed on orally until they were committed to writing in the 19th century.

Tibet

Epic of Gesar – Kingdom of Tibet origin story (which also concerns Tibet’s conversion to Buddhism) dating from the 8th century and committed to writing in the 12th century. Most scholars believe Gesar was a real person

Tang Dynasty

Song of Everlasting Regret – literary masterpiece by  famous Chinese poet Bai Juyi (772–846) about an emperor’s love affair with his concubine that interferes with his duty.

Heian Court Japan

Best known for 11th century lady-in- waiting Murasak, whose writing would inspire the Geisha tradition. Her best known work is The Tale of Gengi, concerning an emperor looking for love. During the Middle Ages, husbands and wives from the Japanese elite lived separately and took lovers.

*Both the Angles and Saxons are believed to have originated in southern Scandinavia.

Film available free with a library card from Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/13172786/13172815