(精品)中世纪英国文学主要作家和作品

(1) Father of Modern English Poetry --- Geoffrey Chaucer(c1340-1400)
first major work: the Book of the Duches great achievement: Troilus and Criseyde monumental success: The Canterbury Tales
(3)The Gawain-Poet
major work: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
It describes how Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table, accepts a challenge from a mysterious "Green Knight" who challenges any knight to strike him with his axe if he will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts and beheads him with his blow, at which the Green Knight stands up, picks up his head and reminds Gawain of the appointed time. In his struggles to keep his bargain Gawain demonstrates chivalry and loyalty until his honour is called into question by a test involving Lady Bertilak, the lady of the Green Knight's castle.
(2) William Langland (1332-1400) ---wrote for the common people
major work: Piers Plowman
The poem—part theological allegory, part social satire—concerns the narrator's intense quest for the true Christian life, from the perspective of medieval Catholicism. This quest entails a series of dream-visions and an examination into the lives of three allegorical characters, Dowel ("Do-Well"), Dobet ("Do-Better"), and Dobest ("Do-Best").
Chivalry, or the chivalric code, is a code of conduct associated with the medieval institution of knighthood. Historically, the late medieval code of chivalry had arisen from the idealisation of the early medieval synthesis of Germanic and Roman martial traditions — involving military bravery, individual training, and service to otherwenku.baidu.com — especially in Francia, among horse soldiers in Charlemagne's cavalry,[1][2] the term chivalry deriving from the Old French term chevalerie "horse soldiery"[3]