Research Guides: ENGL 213: Inventing [the] English (HC): Sample Topics and Resources

Source Texts with Scholarly Studies

Listed below you will find some suggested primary texts in translation along with recent scholarly studies that help to contextualize the original sources.

Arthurian Legend

A companion to Arthurian literature
Arthur of England: English attitudes to King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
Cannibalism
Cannibalism in high medieval English literature
Consuming passions: the uses of cannibalism in late medieval and early modern Europe
Celtic or Anglo-Norman England
Language and Culture in Medieval Britain: The French of England, c.1100-c.1500
Celtic Britain
Chaucer
A Companion to Chaucer
Chaucer's England: literature in historical context
Chivalry
Chivalry in medieval England
Medieval Britain: the age of chivalry
The Church
Church and society in late medieval England
This study by R. N. Swanson includes chapters on the clergy, Church reform, heresy, and other significant issues.
The late medieval English church: vitality and vulnerability before the break with Rome
The Crusades
The Crusades: A Reader
England and the Crusades, 1095-1588
Cuisine
Food and Feast in Medieval England
Food in Medieval England: Diet and Nutrition
Gender
'Of good and ill repute': gender and social control in medieval England
Gender in debate from the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance
History of the English Language
The Cambridge history of the English language
General history of the English language
The Handbook of the History of English
Handbook for the linguistic study of English-language history

Magic
Magic and religion in medieval England
Crafting the witch: gendering magic in medieval and early modern England
Magic and superstition in Europe: a concise history from antiquity to the present
In this recent study by Michael David Bailey, see Chapter 3 "Varieties of magic in the High and Late Middle Ages."

Marriage
Love and marriage in late medieval London
Translations of selected medieval texts and documents
Marriage, sex and civic culture in late medieval London
See this recent study by Shannon McSheffrey for more information on marriage.

Masculinity
How the wise man taught his sonne. Translated by Claire Sponsler. Published in Medieval conduct literature: an anthology of vernacular guides to behaviour for youths, with English translations
This and the companion piece, How the Goodwife Taught her Daughter,address the bourgeois concerns of merchant and craft families. The text is also available as an ebook.
The masculine self in late medieval England
See this recent study by Derek G. Neal for more information on masculinity.

Orality and Written Culture
Writing the oral tradition: oral poetics and literate culture in medieval England
Author, reader, book: medieval authorship in theory and practice
Queer Sexuality
The plaint of nature
This text written by Alan of Lille, a 12th century poet and theologian, in part rails against what he sees as sexual deviance.
Chaucer’s Queer Nation
See this study by Glenn Burger for more information.

Religion
Religion and the decline of magic: studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth and seventeenth century England
An older edition of this text is also available.
Rites and religions of the Anglo-Saxons
Richard I
Richard I
An older edition of this text is also available.
The legends of King Richard I, Coeur de Lion: a study of sources and variations to the year 1600
Robin Hood
Robin Hood: An Anthology of Scholarship and Criticism
Imagining Robin Hood: the late-medieval stories in historical context
Sexuality
Love, sex and marriage in the Middle Ages: a sourcebook
A collection of texts from the medieval period translated into English
Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing unto others
For more information on sexuality see this recent study by Ruth Mazo Karras.

Women and Anglo-Saxon England
Women in Anglo-Saxon England: and the impact of 1066
The discourse of enclosure: representing women in Old English literature
Women in the High- to Late-Middle Ages
Women in medieval England
Medieval maidens: young women and gender in England, 1270-1540