Resources for Middle English Literature

General Resources

Broad-Focus Sites

• The Labyrinth: An indispensable source for medieval studies on the web. Certainly the most extensive collection of resources currently available.
• ORB: Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies: A valuable and well-organized reference site, with a growing array of resources.
• Internet Medieval Sourcebook: A useful and wide-ranging collection of resources. Not especially strong on Middle English.
• Netserf: Very useful and extensive collection of links to resources for medieval studies.
• Middle English Compendium:  An excellent collection of scholarly resources.  Includes an online version of the Middle English Dictionary, a growing Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, and a Hyperbibliography of Middle English works.  (U. of Michigan)
• Argos: A limited-area search engine for the study of the ancient and medieval worlds. Selective (sites are peer-reviewed) and very useful.

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Online Books

• Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse:  A very important online collection of Middle English texts.  Currently includes forty-two works, some of which are impossible to obtain elsewhere on the web.  Part of the Middle English Compendium.  (U. of Michigan)
• TEAMS Middle English Texts:  A very extensive collection of Middle English works; focusses on works which are difficult to obtain elsewhere.  Includes some bibliographies for individual works.  (U. of Rochester)
• Luminarium: Middle English Literature: Valuable and elegantly designed site. Excellent collection of links to major Middle English texts, as well as to online articles, graphics, audio clips, etc. Take a look at the main Luminarium site as well, for Renaissance and 17th Century resources.
• Online Medieval and Classical Library: Useful online collection of ancient and medieval texts.  Much of the collection is in literatures other than English.  (UC/Berkeley)

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Bibliography

• University of Kansas Index of Medieval Studies Bibliographies:  Includes dozens of specialized bibliographies.  A gopher index (with filenames but no descriptive titles), and so a bit cumbersome to use.  Worth exploring for the useful material it contains.
• Women Writers of the Middle Ages:  Extensive bibliography from the Robbins Library at the University of Rochester.  Includes well-known writers like St. Catherine of Siena, Christine de Pisan and Hildegard of Bingen, as well as a host of less well-known figures.  (U. of Rochester)
• Medieval Feminist Index:  Includes "journal articles, book reviews, and essays in books about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages."  Searchable database.  (Haverford C.)
• Medieval English Drama:  A somewhat less extensive bibliography from the Robbins Library; still very useful.  (U. of Rochester)
• Medieval Studies / Cultural Studies: Basic Reading List:  Short bibliography from the Georgetown U./Labyrinth online conference on Cultural Frictions: Medieval Cultural Studies in Post-Modern Contexts.  Useful reading for anyone interested in cultural studies/postmodern approaches to medieval studies.  (Georgetown U.)
• ORB Bibliographies:  Later Medieval England:  A "suggested reading list" for medieval historical studies.  Not literary in its focus, but useful for background.

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History/Chronology

• The End of Europe's Middle Ages: A series of online tutorials. Broad historical and cultural background for the late Middle Ages. (U. of Calgary)
• History: Medieval Britain: A rich collection of narrative histories, including general coverage of Britain as well as more focused treatments of individual towns (such as London and Canterbury). Also includes timelines, biographies, graphics, etc. (Britannia)
• Outline of Medieval Europe: Condensed treatment of European history and culture from the eleventh century through the beginning of the fourteenth. (UCLA)
• The Pestilence Tyme: A narrative account of the Black Death, which decimated Europe in the middle of the fourteenth century.
• Medieval English Towns: Historical material, maps, and primary documents concerning selected English towns during the Middle Ages. Also includes an extensive collection of links to other materials on medieval urban history.
• Notes on Fourteenth-Century History: Very short and clearly organized outline of some major 14th century background (Hundred Years' War, Black Death, Papal Schism, English monarchy), as well as Chaucer's political career. (Washington State U.)

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People, Culture and Customs

• Dominion and Domination of the Gentle Sex: The Lives of Medieval Women: Subtitled "The City of Women," after a work by Christine de Pisan. Collects material from the growing body of research on the often poorly documented roles of women in medieval society.
• The Costume Page: A page of links to a diverse collection of sites on costumes from all eras. Not a conventional scholarly resource, but fun to explore.
• The History of Fashion and Dress:  Late Medieval Europe & The Early Italian Renaissance:  Traces the development of upper-class dress; theater course web page.  (U. of Alaska/Fairbanks)
• A Chaucerian Cookery: A fascinating site on food in Chaucer, including even recipes and instructions for preparing your own Chaucerian feast.
• Medieval and Anglo-Saxon Recipes:  Recipes from The British Museum Cookbook.  Recipes include "Crustade of Chicken and Pigeon," "Fenkel in Soppes," and other delicacies.  (Carnegie-Mellon U.)
• Engelond: From Gatehouse to Cathedral: "A Photographic Pilgrimage to Chaucerian Landmarks." Not a guided tour of the pilgrimage route to Becket's shrine, but provides some interesting photographs and commentary.

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Arts and Music

• NetSerf:  Medieval Art:  Links to a nice variety of sites for various categories and periods of the medieval arts.
• English Medieval:  A useful collection of architectural images from Period and Style for Designers.  (Lester, Tulane U.)
• Medieval Art and Architecture:  A growing site for images of medieval architecture.  Currently includes images from Britain and France, as well as a useful glossary of terms.  (U. of Pittsburgh)
• Les très riches heures du Duc de Berry:  The most famous late medieval "book of hours" (a devotional book giving litrugical texts for each hour of the day); produced by the Limbourg brothers for Jean de Berry.  One of the most beautiful illuminated manuscripts ever produced.  (Nicolas Pioch, WebMuseum)
• Book of Hours--Illustration of Death:  Illumination from an unnamed book of hours; early fifteenth century.  (Boise State U.)
• SCA Music and Dance Homepage:  Links to resources on medieval and Renaissance music and dance.  (Society for Creative Anachronism)
• Music of the Fourteenth Century: Includes MIDI files of music from fourteenth century composers. (VMI)
• Ars subtilior: More MIDI files of medieval music, not all from the fourteenth century.
• Camerata Mediterranea: Lo Gai Saber:  Web page for a recording of music from Occitanian and Catalan "troubadours and minstrels. 1100-1300."  Includes some interesting cover notes and some samples of songs in RealAudio format.  (Boston Camerata)
• Listening to Medieval Music:  An outline of the development of music from ancient to medieval times.  Built around a guide to available CDs, but with useful background material as well.  (P. Halsall, Medieval Sourcebook/ U. of Northern Florida)
• Gregorian Chant
  • Gregorian Chant:  Index page for the Gregorian Association in England.  Includes historical background, an overview of Gregorian modes, etc.
  • Gregorian Schola:  Web page for a Gregorian chant organization in Arkansas.  Includes some basic background, as well as a very valuable page of links to other resources.  Check out their Chant sounds on the web if you want to sample the sound of Gregorian chant.  (St. Joseph Catholic Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas)
  • Chant:  Part of a monastery web page.  Offers 21 sound files from Gregorian chant, including part of a version of the Alma Redemptoris [cf. Chaucer's "Prioress' Tale"].  (Monastery of Christ in the Desert)
• More Early Music Resources:  Additional links on this course's "Arts" page.

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Language/Terminology

• Language and Linguistics (Harvard Chaucer Page): The best online guide to the pronunciation and grammar of Chaucerian Middle English. Includes audio examples, historical background, etc.
• Middle English Dictionary:  Searchable online version of the MED.  Part of the Middle English Compendium.  (U. of Michigan)
• Basic Chaucer Glossary: Edwin Duncan's concise lexicon for Chaucer's language. Useful for quickly finding particular words, both in Chaucer and in other Middle English texts. (Towson U.)
• Luminarium: Audio excerpts from the Canterbury Tales: Links to audio clips of readings from the General Prologue, the Wife of Bath's Prologue, etc. Audio files are in a number of different formats.
• NetSERF's Hypertext Medieval Glossary:  Presented as "the largest general medieval glossary on the Internet," with "over 1,400 terms defined, covering all aspects of medieval life and spanning the medieval world."  (Catholic U.)
• ORB Guide to Medieval Terms: A useful glossary of terms covering a number of aspects of the Middle Ages in Europe and in England.  Part of the Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies.
• Matrix: Vocabularium:  A glossary of terms useful for understanding monastic and other medieval religious institutions.

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Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer has his own page.

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Middle English Pearl

The anonymous poet of the Middle English Pearl is generally thought to have written three other poems--Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Patience, and Purity--and perhaps to have written the anonymous St. Erkenwald.  At present, only Pearl, Sir Gawain, and St Erkenwald are available online.  I am still searching for additional online resources on these poems.

Texts

• Pearl:  Online version of the poem.  May be searched from the Middle English Collection main page.  (U. of Virginia)
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:  Online version of the poem.  May be searched from the Middle English Collection main page.  (U. of Virginia)
• St Erkenwald is available through the Oxford Text Archive.  Click on "Search," then type "Erkenwald" in the box labeled "Search for titles containing."  To go directly to the Search page, click here.

Other Resources

• The Pearl Poet:  Good resources on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; some resources on Pearl. (Part of Forgotten Ground Regained:  A Treasury of Alliterative and Accentual Poetry, Paul Deane)  
• Lawrence Warner, "Decay, Dismemberment, and Bodily Continuity in Saint Erkenwald, Pearl, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight":  Focuses on the importance of the corporeal body as "the locus of the individual."  Argues for a common authorship of the three poems; strongest on St. Erkenwald, but with some attention to Pearl.  (U. of Pennsylvania)  
• A Pearl of Christian Counsel for the Brokenhearted  Modernized text of Pearl, with extensive homiletic commentary.  Treats the poem as a modern lesson in Christian grief and loss.  (House Church Central)  
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (ca. 1375-1400):  Includes useful resources for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and a little material on Pearl.  (Luminarium)