The Medieval Period: The Hero’s Discovery
Honors English 4/Peters
Unit learning goals:
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To understand the historical, cultural and linguistic changes that lead to the Medieval Period.
To delineate the feudal structure and apply its purpose, development and demise to medieval society.
To understand the power of the Catholic Church in medieval England.
To define the knightly code of chivalry and analyze its contribution to medieval society and folklore.
To analyze Chaucer’s satirical purpose for his work and establish the stylistic differences among his
tales.
Unit-based vocabulary:
1. Norman Conquest/
Battle at Hastings
2. Feudalism
3. Domesday Book
4. Middle English
5. Vernacular
6. Chivalry
7. Courtly Love
8. Martyrdom
9. Canonization/Sainthood
10. Ballad
11. Crusades
12. The Hundred Year’s
War
13. Pilgrimage
14. Fealty
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30.
Frame story
Heraldry
Tapestry
Illuminated manuscript
Humors
Madrigal
Penance
Physiognomy
Guild
Prologue
Purgatory
Seven Deadly Sins
Seven Holy Sacraments
Relic
Tithe
Bubonic Plague
31.
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33.
34.
35.
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39.
Satire
Exemplum
Medieval Romance
Fabliau/ Double Entendre
Beast fable
Iambic Pentameter
Elision
Father of English Poetry
Knights of the Round
Table
40. Pentangle
41. All Souls’ Day
Text-based vocabulary:
1.
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Gisarme
Revelry
Errant
Mane
Destrier
Tress
Burgeoning
Dais
Steed
Blanch
Chagrin
Folly
Beesech
Liege
Churl
Asunder
Shanks
Requited
Sash
Efficacious
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Staunch
Doughty
Feinted
Vex
Engender
Heath
Hallowed
The Tabard
Sundry
Shire
Hostelry
Palmer
Fustian
Yeoman
Sovereign
Heathen
Tunic
Dirk
St. Christopher/St. Loy
Counterfeit
41. Seemly
42. St. Benet/
St. Maur
43. Cloister
44. Prelate
45. Palfrey
46. Wanton
47. Shrift
48. Hurdy-Gurdy
49. Victuals
50. Motley
51. Psaltery
52. Conveyance
53. Justice of Assize
54. Gentry
55. Epicurius
56. Cologne/St. James of
Campostella/ Bologne
57. Taffeta
58. Aesculapius
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64.
Guile
Tempest
Bordeaux
Blancmange
Burgess
Haberdasher
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66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
Benign
Obstinate
Sixteen Stone
Reeve
Choleric
Cherubin
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75.
Carbuncles
Lecherous
Concubine
Prevarication
Offertory
Supplemental vocabulary:
College-Programmed Vocabulary, characterization words (see labeled list on course website)
Fictional reading selections:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Neville Coghill translation
The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer (Neville Coghill translation)
The Pardoner’s Prologue/Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer (Neville Coghill translation)
The Wife of Bath’s Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer (Neville Coghill translation)
Non-fictional reading selections:
Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way, Bill Bryson (selected excerpt)
Ebola Outbreak: Bubonic Plague 'Provides Clues to Stop Spread' of Virus,
Hannah Osborne, International Business Times
Why Women Still Can’t Have It All, Anne-Marie Slaughter, The Atlantic (selected excerpts)
Film selections:
First Knight (trailer)
Monty Python (short clip)
Have Feminists Sold Women A Fiction? (The Atlantic interview clip)
Art/music selections:
The Bayeaux Tapestry
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Juan Wijngaard
The Knight, Death and the Devil, Albrecht Dürer
The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things, Hieronymus Bosch
stained glass panels, La Sainte-Chapelle, IÎle de la Cité
Book of Hours, a page from St. Augustine, La Cité de Dieu
The Unicorn Defends Himself, The Cloisters Collection
Pavan XI, John Dowland
The Accolade, Edmund Blair Leighton
The Nativity/Virgin and Child in Glory/The Visitation/The Annunciation,
Illuminated Manuscripts from The Shaftesbury Psalter