Pre-Renaissance

Pre-Renaissance

• Related closely to spread of Christianity
• Imitated Latin works
• Caedmon - 7th century
• Cynewulf - 8th century
• Venerable Bede - 673~735 AD

What Was The Poetry About?

• Highlight on feudal culture and medieval tales
• In verse and lyrical poem of brave knights and beautiful ladies
• Often sung and accompanied with musical instruments
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Similarities to European Counterparts

• The Nibelungenlied, an epic German poem is similar to Beowulf.
• Both feature historic events intertwined with fictional stories.
• The poems take place during the 5th and 6th century.

Dante's Divine Comedy

• An Italian epic poem; allegorical piece of medieval literature.
• It tells of Dante’s travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven and it represents the soul’s journey towards God.
• This is similar to Piers Plowman, which is an English poem and also allegorical.
• Piers Plowman is the story of Will, who falls asleep and has vision representative of the conflict between the Catholic Church and Theology.

Similarities to European Counterparts

• The Divine Comedy is also similar to another piece of English literature, The Canterbury Tales.
• They are both written in the vernacular instead of Latin.
• Dante and Chaucer insert themselves as characters in both their works.
• The framing of both works are similar, with both being about a guided pilgrimage or journey.

Work Cited

• http://classic-english-literature.blogspot.com/2008/02/anglo-saxon-literatu... http://www.webexhibits.org/poetry/explore_famous_ballad_examples.html
• "Popular and Secular Verse." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2015.