Many people exaggerate their experiences of travel and pilgrimage, but such fabrications date back to the Middle Ages.
Articles on Medieval literature
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If Chaucer makes a comeback in the proposed English curriculum rewrite, we shouldn’t dismiss what his work tells us about human nature – and contemporary New Zealand.
Humans have always been fascinated by the moon and before we could really get there we travelled to it in our stories.
A poem about birds meeting in February to pick their mates is the first known example of Valentine’s day being connected with love.
How Chaucer’s medieval Wife of Bath continues to make her voice heard
Tiny drawings, such as knights riding snails, and random lines and squiggles were common in medieval books.
The hero of The Green Knight, played brilliantly by Dev Patel, is flawed and less than honorable. The film is a deliberately unromantic exploration of the world of King Arthur and his court.
Chaucer’s career as a secret agent helped him assume different disguises in his writing. Some scholars interpret this role-playing as Chaucer being sexist and anti-Semitic.
The view of Valentine’s Day as a day for lovers can be traced back to two medieval poets who stood up for romance and the freedom to choose.
When we feel under siege, Chaucer’s doomed love story during the battle for Troy might be just the distraction we need.
Christine de Pizan’s 15th-century feminist narrative has particular resonance today.
Poets and the wealthy were angered by those who saw their opportunity to rise above their station after the plague.
During the Black Death of the 1300s, medieval writers struggled to make sense of the disease just as we are now during the COVID-19 pandemic
From speaking out over domestic abuse in medieval times to telling the realities of war, these female poets present a very different version of Welsh life.
Male monks were not the sole producers of books throughout the Middle Ages.
Science fiction has been around for centuries.
Is the Grail the chalice from the Last Supper – or the Crucifixion? Does it contain the elixir of life? Or is it Mary Magdalene’s womb?
Old habits die hard.
Top contributors
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Professor of English, Texas A&M University
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Wellcome Trust Research Fellow in Medical Humanities, University of York
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Lecturer in Early Medieval Literature, University of Manchester
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Professor in Medieval Literature and Publishing, University of Bristol
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Research fellow for Southern Pacific Archaeological Research, University of Otago
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Lecturer in English, University of Liverpool
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Associate Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University
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Lecturer in Medieval English, University of Oxford
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Associate Professor in Medieval History, The University of Queensland
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PhD Candidate, Medieval Literature, Bangor University
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Teaching Fellow in Department of English Studies, Durham University
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Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor of English Literature, The University of Melbourne
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Lecturer in French, St Hilda's College Oxford, University of Oxford
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Sessional Academic in English Literature, Macquarie University
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J.R.R Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language, University of Oxford