History of Story Telling - 8. 1300-1500

History: 1300-15001

The Middle Ages, usually spanning from 500AD to 1500CE, was a time of poverty, disease, Christianity, the Crusades, chivalry, courtly love, and the first pieces of true English literature. Before Chaucer, literature was in French or Latin; anything written in English was not considered sophisticated enough to be called literature.2

The latter part of the Middle Ages, began to show cracks in the Catholic church. These cracks would not show all of the corruption until the reign of Charles II in the Stuart era, during the 1600s.3

Example One: The Canterbury Tales, Geoffery Chaucer4

Thought to have been first published around 1387, this is one of the first true pieces of English literature. This alone is remarkable, but also is the way it is written. Although unfinished due to his death, Chaucer used a style not seen before. The characters were pilgrims going to Canterbury together, and then back together. Without the luxeries of modern transport, the pilgrims walked. On the way to Canterbury and back again, they held a competition; everyone had to tell the others a story. This was unique at the time; never before had this form been used. The characters had stories, but they created stories, about imaginary characters; this was the start of metafiction.5

Example Two: Le Morte Darthur, Sir Thomas Malory6

Originally published in 1485, this is the first epic about King Arthur and his Knights. The twenty one books, each split into chapters, gave way to the modern way of splitting a novel into chapters. The story tells of love, treachery, infidelity, war, and religion; these timeless themes are just as timeless as the main characters, of which everybody has heard of. The story of Arthur, Uther Pendragon, Launcelot, Merlin, and Guenever is amazingly well written. Malory, a Knight with experience of war, wrote this as probable fiction, but recent archaeological evidence is starting to show that there may have been a King Arthur of England.7

Bibliography:8

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