Turville-Petre surveys the wide range of writings by the generation before Chaucer. He explores how English writers in the half-century leading up to the outbreak of the Hundred Years War expressed their concepts of England as a nation, and how they exploited the association between nation, people, and language. The study forms a significant contribution to current debates on nationalism.

This introduction provides the guidance that modern readers need to come to an informed appreciation of the writings of medieval England.

• An introduction to English literature written in the four centuries following the Norman Conquest.
  
• Written by the well-known medievalist, Thorlac Turville-Petre.
  
• Demonstrates that Middle English literature is more accessible than is often supposed.
  
• Provides readers with the guidance they need to come to an informed appreciation of the writings of medieval England.
  
• Designed to be...

This essential Middle English textbook, now in its third edition, introduces students to the wide range of literature written in England between 1150 and 1400.

• New, thoroughly revised edition of this essential Middle English textbook.
  
• Introduces the language of the time, giving guidance on pronunciation, spelling, grammar, metre, vocabulary and regional dialects.
  
• Now includes extracts from 'Pearl' and Chaucer's 'Troilus and Criseyde'.
  
• Bibliographic references have been updated throughout.
  
• Each text is...

This is the first critical edition of The Wars of Alexander, a Middle English poem dating from the late 14th or early 15th century and based on the popular Latin story of Alexander, Historia de Preliis. Taking account of the two different manuscripts in which parts of the poem appear, the relationship of the poem to its source, and the poet's metrical practice, the editors include an introduction, critical variants, and full explanatory notes and a glossary.

The revival of alliterative poetry in the fourteenth century, which culminated in the major masterpieces of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Piers Plowman, poses many problems for the historians of literature. As a result, the poems have tended to be studied in isolation, and their poetic context and use of an established tradition have been largely ignored. This book assesses the alliterative revival as a poetic movement, and restores the poems to their literary context. In particular, it offers an evaluation of the obscure origins of the revival, and on the type of audience for...

A survey of the history, holdings, decoration, and conservation of one of England's finest medieval libraries, with full catalogue.

British Library MS Harley 913 is known as the 'Kildare Manuscript' from the authorship of one of the poems by the Franciscan, Friar Michael of Kildare. The collection was written in the 1330s, in Ireland, perhaps in Waterford. It is chiefly known for two poems in particular, often anthologised, but now presented in their literary and cultural context: 'The Land of Cockaygne, ' a fantasy of a culinary and sexual earthly paradise, and 'Lollai, lollai, litel child', a lullaby warning the baby of what is to come in later life. The manuscript contains 17 English poems, 12 of which were probably...

A stylistic and historical study of one of the most celebrated features of Middle English alliterative poetry, the passages of vivid description. The study explores the narrative function of such descriptions, and the models for the poets' descriptive techniques.