Balti state university a. Russo chair of english philology

 
 
 
7. The literature of the Norman period (11
th
 century) 
The year 1066 was marked in English history by a new conquest. The Norman duke William 
took profit of the struggle that took place among the Anglo-Saxon earls for supreme power and 
invaded the country, entering the history of English nation as William the Conqueror. Within five 
years the lands of most of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy were divided among the Norman barons 
after which followed Norman churchmen, scribes, minstrels and merchants. This great army of 
Normans brought into the country their own language feudal laws, and literature. In connection with 
all these events the communication in the country went on in three languages: 
1) 
Latin - the language of education in monasteries 
2) 
Norman–French - the language of the ruling class (Norman barons) 
3) English - the language of the most numerous part of the population – common 
people. Norman – French and Anglo- Saxon were moulded into one national language only towards 
the beginning of the 14 century, forming Middle English. 
All these three categories of people created their own literature which reflected their 
interests and ways of life. New literary forms sprang in the creation of these people. 
The monks wrote historical chronicles in Latin. The scholars of Oxford University described 
their experiments in Latin, even antireligious satire was composed in Latin.
The Aristocracy wrote poetry in Norman – French. They created romances. The townsfolk 
wrote fables and fabliaux, while the country-folk made up their ballads and folk songs in Anglo-
Saxon. 
A Romance is a medieval story, usually in verse, relating the adventures of some hero of 
chivalry. The romance was the literary form of the Norman aristocracy. They used to idealize the 
feudal system showing the bravery and gallantry of royal knights. Their exploits were described in 
great epics. The court had love-stories and lyrical poems praising the chivalrous attitude towards 
women. These stories, poems and songs were very much admired by the aristocratic readers. The 
definition of Romances makes us believe that the ideal of any romance was a knight. The courtly 

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ideal is primarily an aesthetic ideal made up of varied fantasies and softly emotions. It is also an 
ethical ideal insisting on such virtues as piety, modesty, temperance, and fidelity. The centre of the 
individual universe was the knight‟s pride. Pride usually gives birth to a shameless selfishness but it 
is not this branch of it that is discussed in romances. On the contrary the authors praised pride, 
which allowed them to discover the knight‟s sense of honour, the thirst for glory and fame. The 
knight as a constituent of fiction would not mean very much if his experience was not marked by 
love, the feeling that turned him from an abstract symbol into a human being. 
One of the poets who lived and created during the Norman period, depicting the deeds of the 
aristocracy in his romances was Wace.
Wace was born on the Island of Jersey at the beginning of the 12
th
century. He studied 
theology in Paris. Later on he was invited to the Court of Henry I and ordered to write the history of 
England. He wrote two rhyming Chronicles in the form of romances: 
1) 
Brute or the Acts of the Britts. 
2) 
Rollo or the Acts of the Normans. 
In the first romance the poet informs his readers of how Brutus, the legendary forefather of 
the Romans discovered the Islands and called it Brutannia. Wace imitated the Latin books of history 
and added to his composition the songs of the Welsh bards who never ceased singing the freedom. 
They used to enjoy it before the Anglo-Saxons had come to their island. In this work for the first 
time the name of King Arthur is mentioned in literature. This work comprises 15.000 lines and was 
written in 1155. 
Laymon In 1205 Laymon another poet of the age created a version of Wace‟s Brute. It was 
called “Brute or Chronicle of Britain”. This immense epic (32.000 lines) written in Old English 
consists in 3 books. 
Book I deals with ancient history from Brut to the birth of King Arthur. 
Book II retells various legends about King Arthur and the “Knights of the Round Table”. 
Book III continues the history of the British kings from the death of King Arthur to the 
victory of the Anglo-Saxon King Aethelstane. 
Laymon borrowed the material for his writings from Latin histories, romances, from the book 
of Bede and even from “Beowulf”. His intention was to show England as a glorious and powerful 
country.