Medieval English and French Legends: An Anthology of Religious and Secular Narrative

by R. Barton Palmer

A hitherto largely unappreciated literary genre of the Middle Ages is the legend, the work adapted and translated into vernacular language from Latin. The immense prestige and cultural importance of Classical literature did not end with the political decline of Rome at the end of the fifth century. Latin works, secular and religious, were preserved by the Christian church, with the result that medieval authors had available to them a vast corpus on which they drew deeply and often. Medieval English and French An Anthology of Religious and Secular Narrative is the first anthology to make available the masterpieces of this tradition in a reader-friendly form suited for classroom use. The book inlcudes not only works of a specifically religious nature, such as saints' lives, but those with more secular themes, such as vernacular adaptations of that most renowned of Latin poems, Virgil's Aeneid. Presented in fresh and lively colloquial translations that preserve the wit and elegance of the originals, the works collected here provide a useful introduction to this illuminating area of medieval literary production.

377 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2006

About the author

R. Barton Palmer is the Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature at Clemson University.