num_pages: 160
description: This Very Short Introduction provides a compelling account of the emergence of the earliest literature in Britain and Ireland including English Welsh Scottish Irish Anglo-Latin and Anglo-Norman. Introducing the reader to some of the greatest poetry prose and drama ever written Elaine Treharne discusses the historical and intellectual background to these works and considers the physical production of the manuscripts and the earliest beginnings of print culture. Covering both well-known texts such as Beowulf The Canterbury Tales and the Mabinogion as well as texts that are much less familiar such as sermons saints' lives lyrics and histories Treharne discusses major themes such as sin and salvation kingship and authority myth and the monstrous and provides a full but brief account of one of the major periods in literary history.
language: English
title: Medieval Literature: A Very Short Introduction
publisher: Oxford University Press