Orality in Medieval Literature: The Arthurian Legend and Canterbury Tales

Introduction to Medieval Literature and Oral Tradition

Though all roads lead to Rome, there are some of them which are shorter than others. Some of them seem wide and straight, but later reveal as narrow and full of ambushes. As Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit would say: "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to" and that quote summarizes the journey of learning a language since it becomes a pilgrimage with a clear starting point but an unknown, uncertain end. However, the main goal is not only to master a language but also to discover the cultural elements surrounding it: gastronomy, customs, literature, etc.

In the next few pages, we will actually explore the relevance of orality in medieval literature so as to link this oral tradition with two of the most important literary productions in Middle English: The Arthurian Legend and Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. In order to analyse the se two literary works (among others), we shall present the social, historical, cultural, and linguistic background of the British Isles during the Middle English period (1066-1500). We will also review to which extent orality influenced the development of English literature during these years.

So, we shall start by approaching (1) earlier times regarding religious sources and oral tradition; and (2) main Old English works that took place in (a) Britain (under the influence of Celtic people), Britannia (under the rule of the Roman Empire) and England (Anglo-Saxon England); (b) Christian literature in Anglo-Saxon England and (c) Beowulf, elegies and battle poetry as works which represent the end of the Old English period. After presenting this background, we will analyse medieval literature from the Arthurian legend to The Canterbury Tales by considering the main events and literary works from these centuries so as to understand the different characteristics of English literature throughout its history.

Historical Background for the Middle English Period: Oral Tradition in Old English Literature

Earlier Times: Religious Sources and Oral Tradition

We may say that literature holds timeless universal human truths which can be read or listened to without regard to historical context of its production, and without regard to particular historical moment in which we read, listen, and make meaning of it. For Malinowski, a relevant anthropology figure, language had only two main purposes: pragmatic and ritual. The former refers to the practical use of language, either active (by means of speech) or narrative (by means of written texts) and the latter is concerned with the use of language associated to ceremonies, and also referred to as magic. As seen, we can already mark a distinction here between ordinary and literary language since both had different purposes.

As we may perceive, language pervades social life since it is the principal vehicle for the transmission of cultural knowledge, and the primary means by which we gain access to the contents of others' minds. Hence language is involved in most of the phenomena that lie at the core of social psychology (i.e., attitude change, social perception, personal identity, social interaction, stereotyping) as well as at the core of social life which constitute an intrinsic part, or the way language is used.

As Juan Goytisolo (2001) stated in his speech at the Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible heritage of Humanity, we must first examine our historical knowledge of both oral and written cultures so as to provide ourselves a cultural identity in society. Since ancient times, tribal chiefs, shamans, bards, and storytellers have been in charge of preserving and memorising for the future the narratives of the past and Goytisolo mentions a growing disequilibrium when observing that only seventy-eight of the three thousand languages now spoken in the world possess a living literature based on one of the hundred and six alphabets created throughout history. In other words, hundreds and hundreds of languages used today on our planet have no written form and their communication is exclusively oral.

Goytisolo further points out that acquiring knowledge of this primary orality is an anthropological task in the field of literature and oral narrative. If all cultures are based on language, that is, a combination of spoken and heard sounds, this oral communication which involves numerous kinetic and corporal elements, has undergone over the centuries a series of changes as the existence of writing and awareness of the latter have gradually changed the mentality of bards, shamans, tribal chiefs, and narrators. The usual forms of popular and traditional expression were oral literature, music, dance, games, mythology, rituals, marketplaces, festivals and even architecture.

Main Old English Works

Then when examining earlier works that took place in Britain (under the influence of Celtic people), Britannia (under the rule of the Roman Empire) and England (Anglo - Saxon England), we realise that most Old English works were epic and lyric that were transmitted from generation to generation through oral tradition. Thus, the earlier inhabitants of the island, the Celts (also known as Britons) passed on no written literacy to their conquerors since they had an oral literary tradition; later on, the Romans brought about to the island the art of writing through their historical literary accounts.

Later on, the Germanic tribes (the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes) were illiterate so their orally composed verses were not written unless they formed part of runic inscriptions. When the Roman empire faded, the Saxons did not have to exchange their Germanic tongue for Latin although Latin was the language of those who taught them to read and write. So, the English learned to write only after they had been converted to Christ (the process of Christianization) by missionaries sent from Rome in AD 597.

In fact, there is no evidence of Old English writing that is not Christian, since the only literates were clerics. Linguistically and historically, the English poems composed by Caedmon after 670 and Bede (AD 676-735) are the earliest we know of. Hence, oral poetry (epic) was an art which had evolved over generations and was considered to be an art of memorable speech. It dealt with a set of heroic and narrative themes in a common metrical form and had evolved to a point where its audience appreciated a richly varied style and storytelling technique. Christian literature in Anglo-Saxon England is represented by different types of literary productions, such as verse paraphrases of Old Testament stories (Caedmon's Genesis and Exodus, Daniel, and Judith, 657-80), lives of saints (Andrew or Helena), historical lives of contemporaries, sermons, wisdom literature, etc.

Yet, the figure of Alfred, the fourth son of the King of Wessex from 871, proves highly relevant in the development of literacy in Anglo-Saxon England, not only because he defended his reign against the Danes who had overrun all the English kingdoms except his own, but also because he translated wisdom books into English. Alfred may cast an interesting light on literacy as well as on literature since he reported that "when he came to the throne, he could not think of a single priest south of the Thames who could understand a letter in Latin or translate one into English.

The end of the Old English period has normally been represented by the Beowulf manuscript. It is an epic poem of historic scope telling of heroes and of the world (human and non-human), is considered to be the first great work of English literature and like other epics, it has a style made for oral composition, rich in formulas. It shows the English the world of their ancestors, the heroic world of the north, a world both glorious and heathen since the audience for this kind of poetry was the lord of the hall and the men of this retinue.

There were changes in the nature of the language, notably the use of articles, pronouns, and prepositions instead of final inflections, which made verse composition more difficult. The millennium was a period of cultural growth but of political decline. The reign of Ethelred II (978- 1016) saw an artistic revival, but there were disunity and Danish invasions (The Viking Age). The conquest of England by Vikings and then by Norman kings disrupted cultural activity and changed the language of the rulers. Yet, Latin remained the language of the church, but the hierarchy was largely replaced by Normans, and English uses were done away with. But how did the Norman Conquest affect medieval literature?

Medieval Literature: From the Arthurian Legend to The Canterbury Tales

As stated above, the Norman Conquest (1066) was a starting point for the island and its inhabitants since it had several consequences, among which we shall focus on political, social, economic, cultural, linguistic and, in particular, literary ones. Literature in England in this period was not written just in English and Latin but in French as well. Epic and elegy gave way to Romance and lyric and, in addition, English writing revived fully in English after 1360, and flowered in the reign of Richard II (1372-99). Moreover, it gained a literary standard in London English after 1425, and developed modern forms of verse, of prose and of drama.

after 1360 things changed and English won parity with French as a literary medium. The re-establishment of English meant that it was impinged with French in language and culture. So, in the Middle Ages, the English language evolved its modern nature and structure and its literature found modern forms, such as drama as early as the twelfth century (note that drama had been popular for ten generations before Shakespeare), verse (in Chaucer) in the fourteenth century, and prose (in Julian of Norwich and Malory) in the fifteenth century.

The Eleventh Century: Epic and Elegy

The linguistic situation during the eleventh century and early twelfth centuries is described as a relationship of 'vertical bilingualism' (or sometimes called trilingualism, if we consider the role of Latin). This situation describes the coexistence of two (or three) languages, which were not wholly mixed up. Possibly, this mix appeared in mercantile centres or perhaps as a desire to look socially sophisticated. This promotion of French was impinged by several historical factors, such as the existence of a close connection