What is Middle English and Why are its Literary Works so Important?
Even though it might sound like it, Middle English isn’t a language of Middle Earth. It’s actually an extinct language of our own world, that unsurprisingly was the language spoken in most of the Island of Britain between the 12th and 15th centuries (AD). As you may have guessed, Middle English was the successor to Old English (5th century to 11th century), which then evolved into Modern English (that’s the English your reading now). But how did Middle English develop from Old English, and why did the language of Britannia change?
From the 5th century to the 11th Old English, or Anglo-Saxon dominated the Island. Though, of course, like all languages (at least those that aren’t isolated) they change and morph due to outside powers’ influence and the conquering of new lands. Around the 7th century, Old English took its wildest turn as the Latin alphabet replaced the traditional runic alphabet. Throughout the next few centuries, the language altered, but not enough to be a completely new tongue.
The biggest development and change came with the biggest upset in Britain after the Roman Empire took over the nation. In 1066 William the Conquerer, an ‘Old Norman’ speaker, took England and proclaimed himself king. As a result, the language of the ruling class eventually became what was known as ‘Anglo-Norman’. It was this language that replaced Old English in the education of the wealthy, so literature, letters and laws were for a time replaced with Norman and Anglo-Norman.
Though this wasn’t Middle English at all, being closely related to modern French. It was a sub-dialect of North East England’s Anglican Old English that had the greatest impact on the development of Middle English, under the name of Mercian. As of its border with the North Sea, directly facing Norse raiders in Southern Norway, the dialect was heavily influenced by Old Norse. With many borrowings of words, as well as wearing away and simplifying the complicated Anglo-Saxon grammatical forms, soon enough Old Norse and Old English speakers could just about converse with each other.
It was this dialect that became dominate throughout most of Britain. As the writing of Old English slowly died out as it was replaced by Anglo-Norman, between 1070 and 1150 the language of the invader was largely prevalent. Though eventually, the wealthy and the government Anglicised again. By 1150 Middle English had split from what was known as Old English as of influence from the French and Latin languages, as well as Old Norse influence too. Much of what was Old English disappeared; for example, the twelve forms of the definitive article (today we have one — ‘the’). Despite the progression of Middle English, Anglo-Norman remained the language of law and literature until the 14th century. Though Old and Middle English remained the vernacular despite the Norman ruling classes, which never successfully became the Lingua Franca.
The most important shift in Middle English came in the 14th century as of an increase in migration to London (particularly from the East Midlands, which contained the most dominance in terms of Middle English speakers). As a result, a London dialect began to develop based mainly on the East Midlands, but in being the center of activity on the Island, other regions also influenced its development. From about 1430, alongside the emergence of the Chancery Standard of written English, this popular dialect, spoken by much of the upper and ruling classes, slowly replaced the Norman dialect, for bureaucrats and most official purposes. Though, as of the previous domination of Anglo-Norman, this now official form of Middle English was still heavily influenced by Latin and French (which the Church continued to use anyway).
The literature of this period also had an impact on Middle English and its development. The language’s best-known writer, Geoffrey Chaucer, wrote in the second half of the 14th century in the London dialect, though interestingly some of the characters of his works speak in Northern dialects, as in the ‘Reeve’s Tale’ (the third story in the Canterbury Tales). But it was literary works like these that caused Middle English to take hold in England, alongside Chancery Standard of written English, from the 14th and 15th centuries onwards, thus forming the core of Modern English.
In terms of the characteristics of Middle English Literature, a lot of its works still renamed without a known author. Of course, with a recent invasion from Normandy, a lot of the literature in England was influenced and written by Normans and the newly instated ruling class, where the English tried to imitate the themes used in French and Latin literature. the idea of romance in poetry was likely brought over as well, as there were very few Old English works that revolved around relationships. Old English tended to just center around heroic acts, war, and bravery, whereas the new continental invaders added the aspect of love into these traditional ideals.
Although religion was already a force to be reckoned with before the Normans had reached England, it became more centralized. As it was such an important role in Medieval life, as of the fear of hell and the concern of the salvation of the soul, religious writings form a much greater part of Middle English Literature than that of Old English or even Early Modern English.
These characteristics developed into there own categories; Religious, Courty Love, and Arthurian. Though, some writers, like Geoffrey Chaucer, were ahead of their times. Chaucer would adapt older works into his own. Often these wouldn’t work within these three categories, acting as comedies with elements of tragedy, likely inspiring some of Shakespeare’s plays.
In terms of Literary features, Middle English changed a great deal from Old English. Old English tended to use alliteration to convey a sense of rhythm in its poetry. The development of rhymed meters displaced this alliterative line and was one of the main features of this period. There was also the development of lyric poetry, of which there is no evidence of from the Old English period.
This form of English lasted until the 16th century when it grew into Early Modern English. This came about as of the development of the printing press in the 1470s, stabilizing the English language pushing it into standardization. Middle English effectively ended with Early Modern English ‘officially’ making it into the public with the English Bible and Prayer Book.
Despite the decline of Middle English, of course, it had a tremendous impact on developing the English language and its literature. Works like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the later Canterbury Tales, alongside the Chancery Standard of written English, pushed English ahead of French and Latin, replacing it as the dominant language of the Island which would eventually develop into the English that we speak today. As well as altering English poetry with the new techniques developed across the Middle Ages, Middle English is the reason you can read this today.
