LEC 5104 Critical Transactions:Aristotle to Eliot: SAAD MOHAMMED, A2, DARK AGES AND THE MIDDLE AGES.

Dark Ages

A General Introduction

The Dark Ages is a term that is used interchangeably with the middle ages to refer to an era when Western Europe was supposedly going through a period of cultural and economic deterioration as a result of the collapse of the Roman Empire. The concept was originated in the fourteenth century when the Italian scholar Petrarch used it first to refer to the period of “intellectual darkness” that spread through the whole of Western Europe when Rome crumbled, and the term stuck. Earlier it was used to refer to the early middle ages (fifth – tenth century), but nowadays historians also refer to the later Middle Ages (eleventh – thirteenth) century as a period of Dark Age.

Petrarch’s view of the era as being one of cultural and economic decay is most probably biased. Being an Italian it was completely natural that he bemoaned the loss of Roman glory and might have wanted it to be restored. According to Petrarch, history was divided into two periods: the age of classical Greece and Rome followed by the age of darkness. Petrarch travelled throughout Europe in order to collect lost Greek and Latin texts and republish them in order to ensure the purity of the classical languages.

Modern historians and academics refrain from using the term dark ages refer to this era as the term is a misnomer. The modern conception that Western Europe was in a state of total moral, economic and cultural degradation is not entirely true and to a large extent is misguided. The era was characterized by relatively scarce historical and written records which make this period obscure to historians. Recent discoveries show that the era following the collapse of the Roman Empire was not devoid of any accomplishments in the field of literature particularly with figures such as Geoffrey Chaucer, Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, etc.

Early Middle Ages

The early middle ages refer to the period of European history lasting from the fifth to the tenth century. The period was characterized by a scarcity of cultural and literary output especially in North Western Europe. Another characteristic of this era was the decline in population and the subsequent decline in trade. Increased migration was also another characteristic as people began to leave their homeland in search of better prospects.

England emerged from the collapse of the Roman Empire with its economy in tatters and many towns abandoned. The era was followed by rapid waves of invasion and settlement by various Germanic tribes, which led to the formation of new culture and identities that were in constant warfare in pursuit for kingdoms. Under the Anglo – Saxons, a rich artistic culture was established with epic poems such as Beowulf, being written. Wessex was the most powerful and there was a growing sense of an English identity.

Beowulf

Beowulf the Anglo Saxon epic was composed sometime between the year 700 and the year 900. It tells the story of Beowulf, a warrior price from Geatland in Sweden who goes to Denmark and kills the monster Grendel that has been attacking the court of Hrothgar, the Danish king. As revenge Grendel’s mother, a water monster, takes revenge by carrying off one of the king’s noblemen, but Beowulf dives to her lair underwater and kills her too. On his return he is proclaimed as the king of Geats. The poem then moves forward to fifty years, Beowulf’s kingdom is being ravaged by a dragon. With the aid of Wiglaf, a young warrior, he manages to kill the dragon but is fatally wounded. He pronounces Wiglaf as his successor, and on returning home is buried. The poem ends with a premonition that the kingdom will be overthrown.

As in most cases a good deal of information can be known from the summary of a literary text. The plot of Beowulf literally revolves around three fights. Each fight involves a battle between the royal court and a monster. The monsters are dangerous, uncontrollable and unpredictable forces that threaten the security and well-being of the upper class and well to do. The threat the monsters pose is a threat to those in power and the life that they represent. This is a recurrent theme throughout ages. We get to see in Beowulf the indication of a well structured and organized society where religion play a big role in the day to day life of the people. The royal court is a place of refuge during difficult time but is also a place of celebration and feasting. There may be external threats such as monsters or foreign enemy or an enemy within the state that threaten the established order of a well structured society. The recurrent theme we see is that of a desire for order and organized life in a world of disorder, confusion and chaos.

Late Middle Ages

The late middle ages or the late medieval period is the period that precedes the Renaissance in Western Europe and generally comprises the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries The era was characterized by a number of famines, plagues and wars such as the Great Famine from 1315-1317, the Black Death and wars such as the Hundred Years War and the Crusades. The Black Death reduced the whole population of Europe to almost half of what it was before. To make matters worse nations such as England were experiencing protests from the peasant community and were also involved in constant warfare with France.

Despite all these crises, the fourteenth century was also a period of rapid progress in the fields of arts, literature and sciences. An interest was renewed in the ancient classical texts of Greece and Rome which acted as a precursor to the Italian Renaissance. It was further made easier when a number of Greek scholars fled to Italy on the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

The invention of printing was another major highlight of this era. It led to a larger circulation of scholarly texts than ever before which made it available to the large masses. These things would later lead to an event that forever changed the history of Europe, perhaps the world as well. Under the influence of the teachings of John Calvin, Martin Luther and other reformers of the Catholic Church a new branch of Christianity was formed which came to be known as the Protestant Church and the followers came to be known as Protestants.

The invasion of Constantinople and the subsequent collapse of the Byzantine Empire forced European sailors and navigators to look for alternative trade routes to the East. Christopher Columbus discovered a new continent when he set out in search of India. Vasco da Gama travelled through both India and Africa. Their discoveries once again strengthened the power and glory of the European nations.

Developments were made not only in the fields of science and navigation but also in the field of literature. The late middle ages saw the emergence of writers such as Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Petrarch and the English poet, Geoffrey Chaucer.

Dante

Dante degli Alighieri (1265-1321) or simply Dante was an Italian poet that belonged to the late middle ages. His Divine Comedy which was composed in Italian is now considered as the all time greatest literary work in Italian and is as a masterpiece of world literature. During Dante’s lifetime the vast majority of poetry was only written in Latin which made it accessible to only the elite. Therefore, Dante’s decision to write the Divine Comedy in vernacular Italian was highly unorthodox which would later set out a standard for later Italian writers such as Boccaccio and Petrarch to write in the vernacular tongue. From all these observations we could actually say that Dante had played a significant role in the development of Italian language. A similar case can be seen in that of Geoffrey Chaucer, the English poet, who preferred to write his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales in vernacular English rather than Latin or French which incidentally were the languages used in the royal court in those days.

The Divine Comedy is not a comedy but was rather called one because it was not written in Latin and was therefore deemed as inferior to the level of a comedy. But it is rather a grim account of the poet’s journey to hell, purgatory and the return back to life. The description of the sufferings and pain is realistic to the core. It has influenced the works of countless European writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Tennyson and Milton.

Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), known as the Father of English literature, is considered as the greatest English poet of the middle ages and was the first poet to be buried in Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey.

Besides having established himself as an author, philosopher, and alchemist and as an astronomer, Chaucer was also active in the civil service and was employed as a bureaucrat, courtier and as a diplomat. This might have given him an extensive knowledge on courtly life and proceedings. Chaucer is largely responsible for developing the English vernacular language at a time when the dominant languages of England were French and Latin. This rises him to the status of figures such as Dante, who also gave importance to the vernacular rather than the language of the elite and the ecclesial class such as Latin.

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, narrates the tale of a group of pilgrims who set out for a journey to the shrine of the martyr, Saint Thomas Beckett. To pass the time they decide to narrate stories on the go. While Chaucer actually planned to write about a hundred and twenty stories, which makes it four stories for one pilgrim, only twenty-four stories were written, only one-fifth of the actual target. But the detailed description of the stories and the subsequent unraveling of the character’s personalities make up for this failure. We come across different men and women of various stations while the poem unravels and we cannot help but be fascinated by their various idiosyncrasies. We come across men from the trading class, the clergy, farmers, knights, squires, and women such as the Prioress and Wife of Bath. Regardless of their class and position, they were united by their common goal of reaching the shrine of Saint Beckett, the martyr.

Chaucer was extremely bold in his decision to write in vernacular English at a time when the languages of the court and clergy were French and Latin respectively. Chaucer was certainly influenced by French, Latin and Italian works but in The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses his creativity to forge a distinct and independent English identity at a time when England was ruled by the Anglo Saxons.

Conclusion

Dark Ages is a term that was first used by the Italian scholar and poet Petrarch to describe the fall of Roman Empire, and the so called decline of morality, economy and culture. But the term cannot be entirely justified. Surely there were consequences but it was not permanent and far-reaching. The fall of Roman Empire actually paved way for nations such as Britain to assert their selves and form their own distinct cultural identity, one apart from the continental one, which remains to this day. In comparison to the output of literature and philosophy in the classical age of Greece and Rome, the output was considerably less in the so called dark ages, at least in the earlier days, but those produced deserve to be raised on a pedestal for their effort.