This course will analyze Medieval British Literature from 650–1550, with a distinct focus on the role of the natural world. We will explore the ability of saints to create pockets of paradise where their words calm the stormy sea and eagles bring them fish; the heroic confrontation of aberrant nature in the form of dragons and the undead; the interaction of the sensorium and depictions of nature, especially in connection to the soundscape of the medieval world; and the function of the natural world in shaping the imaginative perspective of medieval peoples. We will consider texts written in Old English, Old Norse, Anglo-Latin, and Middle English (mostly in translation, though you will be required to learn basic translation skills), including the epic Beowulf, the Lives of saints Cuthbert and Guthlac, the Old English Riddles, the Poetic Edda, Gawain and the Green Knight, and Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowls. By analyzing these texts you will encounter the medieval world in all its wonder, particularly in the ways literary production reveals the complex relationship of medieval peoples with the natural world.
This course will include a fair amount of reading and writing, as well as class participation, a group presentation, a final examination, and a special project. There will be two short papers (1,000 words each) and one longer research paper (4,000–5,000 words). The special project will involve learning how to transcribe a medieval manuscript in one of the many scripts of the medieval world (quill pens, parchment, and ink will be supplied by me).