ASSIGNMENT ON
DARK AGES AND MIDDLE AGES
Submitted to;
Submitted by;
Dr. Shalini Sujitha
M
Department of English and
1 M A English and
Comparative Literature
Comparative Literature
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Dark ages
3. Middle ages
4. Conclusion
5. Bibliography
INTRODUCTION
“Dark
age” and “Middle age” denotes the period in European history extending from the
end of classical antiquity to the renaissance in Europe. It was approximately A
D 500 to 1450. Actually it refers to the period of time between the fall of
Roman Empire and the beginning of renaissance. The term “Dark age” was first
used by Italian renaissance (humanist) scholar Petrarch in order to show the lack
of development in Latin literature.
The
“dark age” is generally considers as the early part of the middle ages in
European history and it was about 450 AD to until around 1000 AD. This period
marked the collapse of Roman Empire by mainly the Germanic tribes. After the
collapse of Roman Empire, Europe faced many social, economic and political
problems. Due to the huge political collapse, the European society was forced
to fall in the clutches of feudalism and there were not much development
literature, science or any other field.
The second half of the Middle
Ages, (from 1000 to 1450) is originally known as “middle ages”. During the
middle ages the institution of the modern world begins to shape. Development
started in all fields such as literature, painting, architecture, science,
medicine, communication, politics etc. Mainly literature reached its highest
glory. So it is an age of development and it followed the renaissance and the
enlightenment. Renaissance period denotes the rebirth of classical age.
So, here is an
assignment on the topic “dark ages and middle ages” in the European history. The
following pages contain a detailed study of these ages in order to find out how
they differentiate each other. This assignment mainly focuses on literature
during the time of Dark Age and middle age.
DARK AGES
“Dark ages” is a term
sometimes used to designate the first half of the medieval period and it was
approximately 500AD to1000 AD. The idea of Dark Age denotes the fall of Roman
Empire in the European history. The term coined by the humanist scholar
Petrarch. Actually the term express the period between collapse of Carolingian
empire in 888 and the initiation of first Gregorian Empire during the reign of
Pope Clement II in 1406. Exactly the dark period started when the Roman emperor
Romulus Augustulus defeated by the barbarians in 476 AD.
The early period of the middle age is an age
of darkness, ignorance and superstition. The historians consider the early part
of the middle age as dark because they got little information about the period.
Historical records of the periods were not available. Now a day the word “dark
age” has negative connotation and nobody use this term.
Due to
the collapse of Roman Empire the centralized system of Roman Empire also
collapsed. This marked the beginning of Dark Age and there is no considerable
progress found in any field. During the classical age ancient Greek and
Roman civilization made numerous contributions in the field of science,
government, philosophy, and architecture. But in the Dark Age the condition
changed. Feudalism was the dominant political system of the period. The poor
people in the European society forced to fall in the clutches of feudalism.
There also continues struggle existed between Barbarians, Vikings and the feudal
nobles, that compelled the poor to lead their life as serfs. In the Dark Age
there exist political integration and various new and small kingdom tried to
capture power over common people and capital.
During these political struggles,
Christianity emerged as a strong religious movement that tried to unite the
people of Europe. It was a period of political struggles. There are two
churches, Orthodox or Eastern Church at Constantinople and Catholic Roman
church based in Rome. Their opposite views about situations created problems in
the society. Orthodox considered the period as Catholic corruption and stressed
on church reform that is known as Protestant reform. Actually Catholics never
considered this age as dark. Instead they considered it as a period of
harmonious, peaceful and productive era. In order to defend Lutheran scholars
they published Annales Ecclesiastical
written by Cardinal Caesar Baronius. Catholic Church opposed the scientific and
cultural advancements of the Greek and Romance. The dark medieval period was
also the period of Muslim conquest and it paved the way for Crusade. In the same Age the commerce and industry
declined, Famine and disease widespread. Due to the Black Death (1340) 200
millions of people died in all over the Europe. War fare was also a part of
everyday life.
During
the first half of the middle ages relatively little literature was produced.
The above mentioned problems are the main cause it. Due to the economic and
political problems of the age they gave less consideration for cultural
development. The language of the whole period (500-1100) is known as old
English language. At the end of sixth century, the Anglo-Saxons accepted
Christianity after pope Gregory sent Saint Augustine to Britain in 597 AD. He
was sent from Rome to preach to the pagans of southern England. The priest were
the only literate people and they brought with them Latin language. They
created new vocabulary in English and founded monasteries which became the
centers of education. They wrote and copied book for all. They also introduced
agricultural, engineering and medical skills as well as philosophical learning
of the now vanished civilization of Greece and Rome. In short we can say that
monks introduced writing in dark ages.
Old English literature consists of
poetry, prose, charms, riddles, maxims and proverbs. Among these poetry is
first originated and it includes long heroic poems. Poetry is based on bible as
well as pagan source and historical events. The earlier poems such as Battle of Maldon and the Battle of Brunanburh describe various
battles in the age. Many 5th century works depict Anglo- Saxon
resistance against Vikings. The old poems like The Wanderer, the Seafarer and the
Ruin expresses hope in God’s compassion and mercy. The poems like The Wife’s Lament, the Husband’s Message depicts
the separation of man and a woman and accompanying sadness. Much Dark Age
English poetry is difficult to date and even harder to recognize its authors,
because most of the work’s author is unknown.
The only epic poem written during
this period is Beowulf, its author is
unknown. It is an epic poem written in 3000 verses. The work glorifies a hero
and the values of bravery and generosity. The poem is about the heroic deeds of
Germanic warriors in the 5th and 6th century. And also
the poem reflects the acceptance of Christianity.
Caedmon is one of the famous religious
writers in the 7th century. His works were based on the Old
Testament. Exodus and Daniel are the famous works of Caedmon.
Cynewulf is another poet who lived in the 9th century and he connected
historical events with Christianity. His works are clear and technically
elegant. The Fates of the Apostles, the
Ascension (Christ II) and Juliana is
his famous works. His theme is the continuing evangelical of the church from
the time of Christ to that of Constantine.
Old English prose developed in 9th
century later than the poetry. Prose was influenced by Latin language. It is
the language of church and educated. Venerable Bede wrote Ecclesiastical History of English Race and later king Alfred the
Great; one of the most ruler making peaces with Vikings translated it into
English. He translated many of the
religious, historic and philosophic text from Latin to English. But his works
lacked originality. After the prose annals and religious writing came in to
prominent. Anglo –Saxon Chronicle is
the best known work of historical records.
In the Dark Age drama is controlled by church and monks acted biblical
stories for the public. However compared to later middle ages this period produced
relatively less literary works.
MIDDLE AGES
“ The term medieval or
middle ages was first used by the sixteenth century renaissance scholar who saw
the period as rather dismal one compared with the progress made in classical
antiquity and the advance of knowledge in their own time. The period 450-1000
has been called the “Dark Ages”, the term “middle ages” then being reserved for
the period 1000- 1500” ( Fleischmann,6)
Middle
age is a period extending from the end of classical antiquity to the
renaissance. We already discussed that the first half of the middle age (500 AD
to 1100 AD) is known as Dark Age. Now in this section we are going to discuss the
later part of the middle ages. It extends from 1066 AD to 1450 AD. 1066, it is
an important age in the history of English Literature. In this year Norman
Conquest took place. In 1066 King Edward the Confessor died and William of
Normandy claimed the throne. He invaded England.
Dark Age is the triumph of religion over
reason. The people were trapped in a false reality dominated by emotions and
customs of church. Gradually, people started to shift away from religion
towards the age reason. Later middle ages witnessed considerable development in
all field. The growth of new intellectual movements, humanism and scholasticism
developed during this period. Humanism is a movement deriving from the
classical grammatical tradition and the idea put forward by Petrarch, who
greatly influenced by the classical age. Social and economic progress also
happened. It was during this period feudalism achieved a relatively stable
form.
Educational developments are one of the
notable things. There raised many cathedral school and universities. There are
also institutions or corporations for training teachers, faculties of liberal
arts, Law, theology and medicine. Seneca, the Roman thinker called arts are
“liberal” because ‘they are worthy of a freeman’. According to him the purpose
of art is not being to make money. By the end of the age number of fixed at
seven. They are again divided in to two categories. The category is known as
“trivium” (three roads) which includes grammar, rhetoric and dialect. Remaining mathematical arts, arithmetic,
geometry, music and astronomy fall in to the next group designated by Boethius
as “quadrivium” (four roads).It was in the middle ages that our notion of
universities formed with high facilities. The oldest universities were in
Italy, France and England and included Bologna, oxford, Paris and Naples.
For
200 years of Norman Conquest of England, French became the language of rulers,
it is the powerful language. Clergy and the scholars used the language Latin.
English is the language of servants and the serfs. English language gradually
become simplified and lost most of its inflections. This phase is known as Middle
English literature. The literary arts of Norman period were preserved in French;
it was courtly in its nature. It was not heroic. A medieval French poet
comments that there are three subjects of romance: the matter of France (Charlemagne and his
peers), the matter of Britain (Arthur and his Round Table), and the matter of
Rome (all classical antiquity, from historical figures like Alexander the Great
to the Troy Tale). The romance spread all over the Europe and the best example
is Sir Gawain and the Green knight
(Hornstein, 466). In this aristocratic society women played important role.
There were love songs and fantastic tales of adventures of chivalrous knights.
In the 12th century, Welshman Geoffrey of Monmouth recording the
Celtic legends of King Arthur and written history of Britain in Latin and that
became the source of many of the courtly romantic literature.
During the age there was much religious
poetry. The anonymous Cloud of Unknowing
in England, the works of Eckhardt, Tauler and Seuse in Germany are mystical
writings of the 14th century. Medieval literature also appeared in
the form of drama. Mysteries and morality play were very popular in 10th
to 16th century. Morality play was sermons in dramatic form about
the life of good Christian. Everyman is
the best known morality play. Purposes of these dramas were to teach the
illiterate.
In 1395 John Wycliffe, the morning star of
reformation translated all bible in to English. He and his followers Lollards
criticized the church corruptions. William Langland’s the Vision of Piers Plowman is an allegorical poem written in the
middle age and it is a radical criticism of society. Here he used alliterative
verse form of old English literature and completely neglected the use of French
courtly genre. The poem was written at the time of Black Death when serfs
demanding better life. Corruption, exploitation, cheating and cruelty such
themes are visible in this work. The famous Italian writer Dante’s Divine Comedy is another great product
of the age. It deals with the standard, ethical, moral and theological ideas of
that particular society.
Geoffrey Chaucer is one of
the greatest writer and monumental figure in the middle ages. There are three
stages in his literary career: French, Italian and English stage. The Canterbury Tales is his famous work
and it is considered as the greatest work ever produced in the English
literature.
During the last few centuries of
the medieval period the growth of the cities and the rise of middle class
proceeded rapidly and left their mark on literature. The newly emerged literate
middle class paved the way for art of printing and then it lead to the dawn of
Renaissance.
CONCLUSION
From this assignment on
the topic “dark ages and middle ages” we can understands that Dark Age is the
early medieval period of the European history. The whole middle age denotes the
period from end of classical antiquity to the beginning of renaissance, it was
from 500 AD to approximately 1450(fifteenth century). The problem that arises
due to the fall of great Roman Empire led the people in to Dark. The idea of
Dark Age originated with the humanist scholar Petrarch, he used the term in
order to show the scarcity in especially literary production, cultural and
scientific innovations and also the famine. Due to the political and religious
conflicts this period witnessed a drastic reduction in literature and other
arts.
The second half of the middle ages the
modern world begins to shape with development in all field such as literature,
learning, science, medicine and law etc.
We can see that great development happened in the field of literature
and it is visible. The Dark Age
emphasis on the cultural and economic deterioration occurred in the Europe due
to the fall of Roman Empire whereas middle age shows the regenerated
development that already occurred in the classic age. Dawn of renaissance
denotes the entire development of European world. The last few centuries of the
medieval period witnessed the growth of cities and the rise of middle class.
During the first half of the middle ages relatively little literature was
produced, but in the second half the great national literature begins to
emerge. The development that happened in the field of literature is highly
remarkable.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Abrams,
M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms.
Wadsworth: Cengage, 2012. Print.
2. Fleischmann,
Ruth. A Survey of English Literature in
its Historical Contexts. Landau: Universitat Koblenz, 2013. Web.
3. Gastle,
Brain. Historical Contexts for Middle
English Literature. Western Carolina University, Web.
4. Habib,
M. A.R, Modern Literary Criticism and
Theory, A History. USA: Blackwell, 2005. Web.
5. Hornstein,
Percy, Brown. The Readers Companion to World
Literature. Newyork: signet classics, 2002. Print.
6. Poplovski, Paul. English Literature in Context. Delhi: Cambridge University Press,
2008. Print.
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