STUDYING ENGLISH LITERATURE - 3^C LINGUISTICO

THE BALLAD THROUGH TIME - 3^C LINGUISTICO

Once medieval ballads (=oral compositions passed on from generation to generation) became popular, they began to borrow freely from  the carols (=religious folk songs or popular hymns, especially associated with Christmas), riddle songs, popular stories and romances of the time. Ballads were popular throughout (=in every part of) Europe and the English-language ballad also borrowed from other countries and cultures.  Read here.

There are examples of the ballad form from the Middle Ages right up to the present day.  The 16^th century saw the gradual disappearance of the old-style romances, along with the minstrels who used to recite and sing them. 

The ballad form remained popular through the 17^th  and the 18^th  centuries, which saw a revival especially of magic and supernatural themes. 

In the 19^th century the poetry of the Romantics drew widely for inspiration on the materials of folk narrative ballads and lyrical folk songs: Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner  owes  its intense supernaturalism and its archaisms to traditional ballads; Keats's  La Belle Dame Sans Merci is a ballad about an encounter that involves both pleasure and pain. 

In the 20^th  century an oral ballad tradition still survived in England and the United States  and the term "ballad" was applied to a short song with a slow rhythm and romantic or sentimental content.

In the 1960s popular music in general became a space for cultural and political conflict and dialogue. Bob Dylan started to use the form of the ballad to protest against the Vietnam War  when, in 1962, he used the mixture of dialogue and narration of Lord Randal in his song A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall. Among his most famous anti-war songs are Blowin’ in the Wind and Masters of War.

The ballad is still used in modern pop and folk music. Read here. 

from Performer Heritage 1,  Zanichelli, p. 63

THE CANTERBURY TALES - 3^C LINGUISTICO

 

The Canterbury Tales is known as the foundational English literary book of tales written in verse style by Geoffrey Chaucer. The author is famous as one of the pioneers of English poetry. The book was likely published around 1387 to 1400 when Chaucer joined the royal court. The stories, in verses, though some are in prose, present the social norms, characters, situations, and religious devotion of the pilgrims presented in them. The stories became so much popular and are considered classics across the globe.  Read here.

https://www.iispandinipiazza.edu.it/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Chaucher-and-the-Canterbury-Tales.pdf

https://www.supersummary.com/the-canterbury-tales/summary/

THE CANTERBURY TALES - 3^C LINGUISTICO

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1345–1400) was enormously popular in medieval England, with over 90 copies in existence from the 1400s.

Its popularity may be due to the fact that the tales were written in Middle English, a language that developed after the Norman invasion, after which those in power would have spoken French. Continuous publication of The Canterbury Tales since Chaucer's death, and the inspiration it has provided for other writers and artists, are testimony to the enduring appeal of his characters and their stories: proof that people's hopes and fears – and the English sense of humour – are little changed by six centuries of history.  Read here. 

THE LEGEND OF ROBIN HOOD

 

The subject of ballads, books and films, Robin Hood has proven to be one of popular culture’s most enduring folk heroes. Over the course of 700 years, the outlaw from Nottinghamshire who robs from the rich to give to the poor has emerged as one of the most enduring folk heroes in popular culture. But how has the legend of Sherwood Forest’s merry outlaws evolved over time, and did a real Robin Hood inspire these classic tales?  Read here and here.

THE LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR

King Arthur, the mythological figure associated with Camelot, may have been based on a 5th to 6th century British warrior who staved off invading Saxons.  Read here.

Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer whose identity remains uncertain, but whose name is famous as that of the author of Le Morte Darthur, the first prose account in English of the rise and fall of the legendary king Arthur and the fellowship of the Round Table.

Arthur was the first born son of King Uther Pendragon and heir to the throne. However these were very troubled times and Merlin, a wise magician, advised that the baby Arthur should be raised in a secret place and that none should know his true identity. Continue reading here.

THE ORIGINS AND THE MIDDLE AGES

REVISING BALLADS

A ballad is a type of poem that tells a story and was traditionally set to music. English language ballads are typically composed of four-line stanzas that follow an ABCB rhyme scheme.  Read here.
Its distinctive style crystallized in Europe in the late Middle Ages and persists to the present day in communities where literacy, urban contacts, and mass media have little affected the habit of folk singing. Read here.

"Scarborough Fair," popularized in the United States by the 1960s singer-songwriting duo Simon & Garfunkel, is an English folk song about a market fair that took place in the town of Scarborough in Yorkshire during medieval times. Read here. 

https://ingleseperitaliani.jimdofree.com/letteratura-3-anno/the-ballad/the-medieval-ballad-commentary-to-lord-randal/

FROM THE ORIGINS TO THE MIDDLE AGES

ANCIENT  BRITAIN

THE MIDDLE AGES

BEOWULF

CHAUCER

FROM THE ORIGINS TO THE MIDDLE AGES - THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

MAGNA CARTA - 3^C LINGUISTICO

Signed in June 1215 between the barons and King John, "Magna Carta" is Latin and means “Great Charter”. It was one of the most important documents of Medieval England. Read here and here.
Here you can find a PDF presentation of Magna Carta.

BOCCACCIO AND CHAUCER - 3^C LINGUISTICO

Giovanni  Boccaccio

Decameron

Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales 

LitCharts study guide to Geoffrey The Canterbury Tales
Five Fascinating Facts about Geoffrey Chaucer

CELEBRATING THE 800TH ANNIVERSARY OF MAGNA CARTA

Read here and here about the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta which was signed at Runnymede by King John to resolve a political crisis he faced with his barons. 

GEOFFREY CHAUCER

Geoffrey Chaucer (1342/3–1400) was born into a well-to-do English family. Not much is known about his education but he was well read, spoke French and had some knowledge of Latin and Italian. He was the king’s personal attendant and married a servant of the queen’s. He fought in the Hundred Year’s War against France, was captured and the king had to pay a ransom for him. He was sent on diplomatic and trade missions to France and Italy. He was controller of the Customs on wool and wine. The Canterbury Tales, his major work, is considered one of the greatest works in English literature.

Here you can find an informative website which will help you learn about Geoffrey Chaucer's life  and  his masterpiece,  The Canterbury Tales.  Here   you can download a PDF presentation of the pilgrims on their journey. 
Click here  to revise  the poem. 

MEDIEVAL LITERATURE

Here you can download a mind map of  Medieval literature. 

You will certainly enjoy this video of Geoffrey Chaucer, "the Father of English literature", widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages.

ROBIN HOOD AND MAID MARIAN

Robin Hood is known by everyone as the English outlaw hero, dashing through the greenwood with his band of merry men to rob from the rich and give to the poor, before feasting on poached deer under the stars. Read here. 

Generations of wandering minstrels in the Middle Ages spread stories far and wide in England by singing ballads about the exploits of the violent but heroic yeoman Robin Hood who lived in Sherwood Forest with his merry band of men and clashed with the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Maid Marian is the heroine of the Robin Hood legend in English folklore, often taken to be his lover. She is not mentioned in the early, medieval versions of the legend. Her history and circumstances are obscure, but she commanded high respect in Robin’s circle for her courage and independence as well as her beauty and loyalty. For this reason, she is celebrated by feminist commentators as one of the early strong female characters in English literature.

https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch150.htm

ROBIN HOOD

Robin Hood  is a  heroic outlaw in English folklore, a highly skilled archer and swordsman. He has become known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor",  assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men".  The origin of the legend is claimed by some to have stemmed from actual outlaws, or from ballads or tales of outlaws. Robin Hood became a popular folk figure in the Middle Ages  continuing through to modern literature, films and television. In the earliest sources, Robin Hood was a yeoman,  possessing a small landed estate, but later he was portrayed as an aristocrat wrongfully dispossessed of his lands and made into an outlaw by the unscrupulous Sheriff of Nottingham.

MEDIEVAL BALLADS

Ballads are short, anonymous  narrative  poems or songs which have been preserved and elaborated by oral transmission  over the centuries;  many have been passed from one country to another  with suitable  modifications  to local needs. This happened to many Irish and  Scottish  ballads which sprang up  in modified  forms in America and Australia.

Because of their highly  mutable  oral form,  it is almost impossible  to date  most  ballads.  After Caxton  first set up the printing press in 1477, ballads spread rapidly.

They were an essentially popular tradition of the unschooled and illiterate, which recalled  the early oral verse  narratives of the Celts and the Anglo-Saxons.

Most ballads were set to music, as they were meant to be sung  rather than read.  Thus ballads  are usually in simple quatrains (four-line stanzas) with a repeated  refrain (the repetition of one or more lines).  They are simple in form, plot  and language,  so as to make them easier to remember. 

Ballads can be classified in many different categories, from border ballads  about the rivalry between the English and the Scottish people, to ballads of outlaws celebrating  the lives of outlaws or criminals such as  the cycle of  Robin Hood,  to  ballads of  magic  recounting  stories about fairies,  witches and  ghosts, to ballads  of love and domestic tragedy, to town  ballads which served as a polemical commentary  on difficult  urban conditions.
Here you can find useful material for revision.

Lord Randal  is a traditional  Scottish ballad which  tells "with a certain malicious  humour"  the sad tale of a noble called Lord Randal. It probably derives  from  the late  Middle Ages.

https://poemanalysis.com/anonymous/lord-randall/

Geordie is a famous English ballad  which presents a rather complex narrative: the story-teller,  or  narrator, meets a young  woman who is lamenting the fate of her lover. 

Its  date of composition is unknown, it may be dated to the late  Middle Ages; it is still widely known today and often sung in traditional as well as modernized versions.

Here  you can download a worksheet about the medieval ballad Geordie.