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Feudalism: A System of Allegiance |
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Feudal Life
Life under the feudal system was highly regimented and sometimes brutal; serfs exchanged their labor, their harvests, and even their freedom for the protection of a lord. Maybe that’s why art, music, and drama were important aspects of medieval life. Visit the Annenberg/CPB Exhibits for a look at medieval entertainment. Then, try out musical instruments such as the recorder, the cittern, or the shawm.
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Epic Deeds of Heroes and Heroines |
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“How a Man Shall Be Armyd”
You would have to be crazy to expect mail to protect you in battle—unless you lived in the Middle Ages. Picture yourself on a medieval battlefield after you step into this virtual dressing room filled with armor. Cover your body with interwoven iron links called mail, or try on a cuirass of steel plates. You might even learn when to use a poleaxe and when to use a claymore.
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From Heretic to Saint
Women had little standing in medieval society, but that didn’t stop them from contributing. Take Joan of Arc, for instance. Driven by what she called her “voices,” Joan saved her country from military defeat. Her reward? She was branded a heretic and burned at the stake. Stop by the Gale Group, and learn more about Joan’s transformation from peasant girl to hero to heretic to saint.
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The Romance and Courtly Love |
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The Rules
Would life be easier if someone wrote down all the rules for dating and behavior? Andreas Capellanus thought so. Pay a visit to Harvard University, and check out excerpts from A Treatise on Courtly Love, which includes The Rules for Love. Do you think you could live by these rules?
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from the Song of Roland |
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Music for All Ages
The Song of Roland is almost a thousand years old, but it still has something in common with today’s music videos. Find out what that is when you pick up a copy of the Roland Study Guide at Northern Virginia Community College. Learn how the Song of Roland and other chansons de geste may have endured because of their usefulness as propaganda, and figure out what the poetic chansons substitute for rhyme.
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“Thor and Loki in Giantland” from the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson |
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Thor and the Poison-belching Serpent
If you are on the edge of your seat anticipating the next adventure of Thor, head over to the University of Pittsburgh. Find out what happens when Thor hitches a ride out to sea in search of a poison-belching serpent. Then, stop by Thor’s Home Page to learn which day of the week belongs to Thor and how Thor’s hammer has influenced jewelry throughout the ages.
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“Chevrefoil” by Marie de France |
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The Rest of the Lais
In the Lais, Marie de France writes about lovers caught in the sometimes dangerous throes of passion. Visit Exemplaria at the University of Florida and open up the rest of Marie’s Lais. Discover how King Equitan’s passion lands him in a tub of scalding water, and find out how Bisclavret is trapped in the body of a beast.
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“How Siegfried Was Slain” from the Nibelungenlied |
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“How Kriemhild Mourned Her Husband”
What happened to Siegfried’s beloved wife, Kriemhild? How did she learn of Siegfried’s death? Did Hagen get away with murder? Stop by the Online Medieval and Classical Library to check out the rest of the Nibelungenlied, or head straight to Adventure XVII to find out how Lady Kriemhild unburies the truth about Hagen’s evil deed.
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Wagner’s Version of the Siegfried Story
Centuries after The Nibelungenlied was written down, Richard Wagner tried his hand at the story of Seigfried. Learn more about Wagner’s opera, Seigfried, which was a part of his The Ring of the Nibelungs cycle and which focuses on Seigfried’s first adventures. Visit this whimsical site created by the Dallas Opera to see a summary of Seigfried in which the main character is imagined as a cool surfer dude.
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from the Inferno from the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri |
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Dante Goes Digital
Dante Alighieri tried to overthrow the government, spent years on the run from a death sentence, and, in his free time, also managed to become the father of Italian literature. Let the scholars at Digital Dante tell you more about the life and turbulent times of this political poet. You can even take a peek at some of the beautiful—and sometimes bizarre—artwork Dante’s writings have inspired.
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“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer |
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A Legend in His Own Time
Some great writers never hear a kind word from their fellow authors. That wasn’t the case with Chaucer—his peers admired him so much they wrote poems about him. Visit Harvard University’s Geoffrey Chaucer Page to read the fan mail of the father of English poetry. Find out why one poet called Chaucer the “god of earthly love.”
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Places of Pilgrimage
We’ll never know if Chaucer’s pilgrims ever arrived at Canterbury—Chaucer died before he could finish their story. You can finish their pilgrimage for them, though, with this virtual tour of Canterbury Cathedral. See for yourself the very spot where the martyr Thomas à Becket took his last breath, and see if you can spot the ghost that supposedly haunts his resting place.
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