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The Modern Scholar

Masterpieces of Medieval Literature

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About this listen

It is during the Middle Ages that modern Europe, indeed, modern Western culture as we know it, comes to be. Classical Mediterranean culture drew from the ancient Middle East, and more directly, from the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans. The Middle Ages add the Northlands, Celts, and Germans, and ultimately, Slavs as well, to the mix. And the Middle Ages saw the birth of the immediate predecessors of our own ideas about love and marriage as important concerns in their own right, utterly central to a happy and fulfilling personal life.

Beyond that, the Middle Ages saw the composition of some of the greatest and most rewarding literary works ever written, the works of Chaucer and Dante no doubt preeminent among them, but by no means are they alone in their surpassing merits.

In this course, we will look at some of those other splendid works - Beowulf, the little-known, but utterly splendid Njal's Saga, and Sir Gawain the Green Knight among them.

©2005 Timothy Shutt (P)2005 Recorded Books
Classics Middle Ages
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Loved it, looking forward to reading a few of the author's mentioned in it, one or two chapters I have listened to again, and no doubt will do over and over.

Learn the past to know the future

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