Middle Ages Lit project notes from
5th/6th period
The Role of Women in Middle Age Iceland
How my research relates to the assigned work- Njal’s Saga is an epic that was written in Iceland
around the 13th century. The Saga features women that partook in an important role in Icelandic culture;
they even influenced men’s decisions. To develop a deep understanding of the story, it is critical to gain
insight on their society. For this reason, I investigated the significance of women in the Saga, because
they played a central role in their civilization.
 A woman was by law, under the authority of her father or husband. She could not be a judge or
witness, and could only speak in assemblies. ON THE OTHER HAND, a woman could dispose
of her own property, manage the family’s finances, and even run a farm if the man is absent
(Hurtswic).
 The woman’s primary job was to take care of things around the house and took care of the
children while the men did “important work”. The man work usually involved trading or raiding
parties (Hurtswic).
 “A woman was responsible for what was inside the house; a man was responsible for anything
that was outside the house” (BBC).
 Women were second class citizens to men, and they catered to their brothers, father’s or
husband’s wishes. They were characterized as domestic (BBC).
 However, the women take advantage of the power given to them, and didn’t completely submit to
men like in other cultures. Marriage was prioritized for men, and women are highly valued (BBC).
 Women could not get too out of line; the medieval Icelandic law book prohibits women from
wearing men's clothes, from cutting their hair short, or from carrying weapons (Hurtswic).
 Women often strongly encouraged her husband to take revenge, they were often more eager than
men to protect the family’s honor. If they spoke out too much, then that would be a stronger point
then her femininity and would be considered a threat to a man (Hurtswic).
 If a man did not listen to the woman, the woman could divorce; this was extremely easy to do
and could result in severe financial burden on the husband (BBC).
 Women were often thought to be able to use magic, and this was usually considered evil. Many
women were killed for their evil magic. But if a woman produced good magic, they were
celebrated (Hurtswic).
 Women were often depicted in Icelandic legends; they could range from whiny side characters to
strong, influential main characters (Hurtswic)
 It was considered shameful to harm a woman. I t was a grave dishonor to injure a woman,
even accidently in an attack on a household. If a house was going to be burned to kill the
occupants, the children and women were allowed to leave without injury (Hurtswic).
David Arnold, Isaac Beeman, Owen Cripe, Nicholas Mazzuca, Joe Addison
Pardoner’s Tale Notes
Plot Summary
 The “Host” asks the Pardoner to tell a happier, moral tale after the tragic tale of death that came before in
Canterbury Tales
 The Pardoner begins with a long tirade against sins like gluttony, drinking, and lying, all of which the
Pardoner confesses he himself is also guilty of
 The story begins with three travelers sitting in a pub, exemplifying all the previous sins, when they hear of
a local murderer named Death
 The three set off in a drunken rage to kill Death and, after ruthlessly interrogating an elderly man, they find
a large treasure of gold under an oak tree causing them to forget their quest
 One traveler goes to the village to get wine to celebrate and plots to poison his companions
 The remaining two travelers kill the third upon his return and drink the poisoned wine in celebration,
resulting in the deaths of all three because of their sin of greed
Literary Devices
 Constant biblical allusions to remind the reader of amoral actions of the character in the Pardoner’s Tale
and the Pardoner himself
 The oak tree the treasure rests under is a common symbol of life and strength in medieval times, yet the
characters ignore the upstanding, moral oak tree in favor of their desire for the gold under the tree
Cultural Significance and Reflection
 The role of the pardoner is to collect tributes to the church in exchange for selling holy artifacts and
absolution of sins
 Church hypocrisy – the Pardoner works for the church, preaching against greed while he himself is only in
the business for money and prestige
o The church would benefit from the Pardoner capitalizing on people’s fear of being punished for sins
like gluttony by raking in cash from the sale of forgiveness
 Pardoner’s Tale paints a picture of a time when no one could be trusted completely even if they
represented an upstanding organization like the church
 The church was responsible for nearly all the academic content of medieval Europe, and could not be
challenged on an intellectual or social level without threat of eternal punishment (Pardoner’s)
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Written in third person limited
Figurative language helps set the mood
o “…they rose in a coil of tumult, along with the noises like the slap of beating hands…” (Canto III, 24-25).
Language barrier of writing in Italian instead of Latin
Inferno is a poem
o Written in terza rima- three lines per stanza
o The title explicitly explains the poem: Dante’s Journey through hell
Every layer of hell throughout the entire poem is visited before entering Purgatory
Dante creates negative tone towards non-Christians. This directly connects with non-Christian serfs, who cannot
look forward to heaven
o “They have no hope of death, but a blind life so abject, they envy any other fate. To all memory of them the
world is death” (Canto III, 40-42).
Dante’s Biography
o Born in 1265 in Florence
o Beatrice, his crush, became inspiration for his poems
o He started studying theology after Beatrice’s Death
o Became a governor in 1300, but shortly overthrown
o Accused of fraud, so he was exiled and had to pay a fine
o He couldn’t pay the fine, so he was executed in 1321
Christianity teaches that all people are sinners, but they have a chance to make it to heaven if they devoutly follow
Christianity
Popes believed that they had the ultimate power (Petrine Supremacy)
People believed that all good things in life happened because of the bounty of God; all evils were due to sins
The main reason Dante wrote Divine Comedy (trilogy Inferno is part of) was because he wanted to reflect on the
social, political and church-related Corruption that was oing on at the time
Beatrice is a main character in Inferno because Dante uses her to represent love and guidance
Dante chose to start the poem in 1300 because he claimed that it marked the halfway point in his life
There is deep value to being a Christian
o All the people who never got to experience Christianity are put in Limbo, the First Circle of Hell
 Unbaptized Babies
 People born before Christ
Every Christian was terrified of Hell because stories about hell were told weekly at the church
Facts about the Peasant Revolt of 1381:
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Revolt happened in June 1381, peasants demanded grievances from the King. Their revolt
changed the order of feudal society in England. The army contained bakers, dyers, brewers,
weavers, sutters, butchers and many other craft employers.
Black Death: 1348-1350, left a lot of peasants dead.
Daily lifestyle of a peasanto Many worked as farmers in fields owned by the lords and their lives were controlled by the
farming year
There were few rebellions due to a harsh system of law and order.
Had to pay a tax to the church called a tithe
Peasants had to work for free on church land
People were covered in dirt, fleas, and lice because bathing was unheard of
o Beds were made of straw mattresses which attracted all types of bugs
o People dumped waste into the same water they used for cooking/ drinking
o Didn’t realize how germs could spread
o Most children would have died of disease before they were six months old
Festivals and Famine
o Famines were frequent and plagues depleted livestock
o Crops were destroyed by frosts, floods, and droughts
Literary Analysis
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Figurative language:
o Assonance: “They have woe in winter time, and wake at midnight,” (line 8)
o Consonance: “And cold flesh and cold fish for venison from the butcher,” (line 16)
o Alliteration:
 “With no claim but his craft to clothe and feed them,” (line 16)
 “When the mouths of many and the money scarce,” (line 21)
Mode:
o Piers Plowman is poetry, not prose. The poem is written in stanzas, with each line starting
with a capital letter. The form is free verse because there is no specific rhyme pattern or
form.
How the work was first shared:
o This work of literature was first shared in other famous texts by various authors. Later, it
was found that William Langland wrote Piers Plowman. Many church leaders also
introduced it to their followers.
Point of view:
o The poem is written by the owner of a manor house who goes into the peasant “section” of
a manor and sees the famine that happens outside of their walls. In his life, the author has
probably been both rich and poor and sees both sides.
Notes on the Decameron: Federigo’s falcon
 Federigo falls in love with Monna, a married woman
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He spends a lot of money to try to impress her, but fails, he is forced to move out of the city and into the country
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Monna’s husband falls ill and dies forcing her to move into the country with her son
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Federigo befriends Monna’s son, her son loves Federigo’s falcon
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Monna’s son becomes very ill, and says that if he were to eat the falcon then he will be healed
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Monna goes over to Federigo’s house for dinner and plans to ask him for his falcon after the meal
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Federigo has nothing to cook so he cooks his falcon
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After the meal Monna explains to federigo how the falcon could save her son
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Federigo is reduced to tears while he explains that he cooked the falcon for there meal
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Monna leaves Federigo’s house speechless, when she gets home she finds her son dead
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Then Monna and Federigo get married
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This story is about the sacrifices needed for love, for example federigo sacrificed his money to impress Monna
The Black Death
Four major types of disease transmission:
- Airborne
- Waterborne
- Direct contact
- Vectors (insects, animals)
Animals were instrumental in spreading the disease: It was an agricultural, farming society which spent almost all
of their time with dirty animals.
- Fleas often attached themselves to livestock and carried the plague.
The Black Death struck Europe in 1347 and hit Britain in 1348.
- Brought via trading ships into the port of Messina.
- Came from Ukraine.
- Came from Tatars (Turkish, Muslim).
Disease was in rats that had sneaked aboard their ships.
The Three Forms of the Death:
- Bubonic: Painful swelling of lymph nodes (hence the “bulb”)
- Pneumonic: Attacks on lungs, flu-like.
- Septicemia: Blood poisoning.
First Source: Altman, Linda Jacobs. Plague and Pestilence: A History of Infectious Disease. Springfield, NJ:
Enslow, 1998. Print.
“[The victims of the Black Death] ate lunch with their friends and dinner with their ancestors in paradise." - Giovanni
Boccaccio
ANALYSIS: The Plague killed its victims quickly, in some cases within a matter of several hours before they
succumbed to the illness and died.
Second Source: http://www.wideopendoors.net/middleages/life/plague.html
The Plague initially spread across England in 1348, transmitted through pus-bulbs, rodents and other vectors, but manifested
in a flu-like form during the winter months, where it spread like wildfire throughout the population of London.
- London cities were heavily populated and had very poor sanitation and plumbing, if at all. This facilitated the
spread.
- On many estates the death rate ranged from as low as 20% to up to even 80% of the population.
- The heavy trading hub of Bristol is where the first signs on the Black Death showed up.
Cemeteries and gravesites quickly became filled and there were more dying every day than could be buried properly. This
lead to the practice of digging massive graves and piling multiple bodies, as many as fifty or a hundred inside at a time.
Inmates and prisoners were hired to drive what were called death carts, which carried the bodies of the infected away from
the cities, in exchange for freedom in the event that they survived their job.
- Death carts were fitted with bells to warn the uninfected away and to call those who had dead to be disposed of.
- Prisoners, unless somehow immune to the disease, often died quickly.
Third Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/black_01.shtml
Primitive medical practitioners of this time period attempted tactics such as bloodletting or mysticism in order to
try and drive what were perceived to be evil spirits away from those who became sick
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medicine_in_the_middle_ages.htm
Dante’s Inferno Canto XXIX Notes-Summary
 When Dante and his crew get to the top of the bridge, they see the sinners and Dante is worried
about the sounds and what he sees so he covers his ears to prevent himself from hearing the
tortured screaming.
 Dante compares the horror to Val di Chiana’s Hospitals because of the smell from the festering
limbs.
 Dante climbs down and keeps left of the ridge.
 At the bottom he sees the sinners being punished and Dante is sickened by seeing all of
Aegina’s people sick.
 There is a myth that Aegina was a girl who Jupiter saw and liked. Jupiter raped her, and
Jupiter’s wife got jealous so she wiped out Aegina’s island. Jupiter then felt bad, so he turned
all the people who got wiped out into ants.
 Dante sees that everyone there is infected with a disease, he sees people upon their bellies,
some people carrying the infected and Dante just kept walking listening to the sick souls.
 Dante comes across two sinners propped against each other and compares them to two pans
stacked on each other and the two sinners are spotted with scabs.
 Then the two sinners attack each other with claws and scraping off the scabs, Dante describes
this as a knife scraping off scales of a carp (which is a fish)
 Dante’s guard asks if there are any Italians in hell.
 And the two sinners attacking each other say that they are both Italian and ask who he is.
 The guide says he is showing Dante hell.
 Dante then, asks the sinners to identify themselves and tells them to not be afraid to let him
know their names. For Dante is there so that those banished to hell are not forgotten on Earth.
 One of the sinners tells Dante that he told his buddy that he could teach him to fly, but the
sinner couldn’t fly, so his buddy got mad. So mad, in fact, that the buddy burned the sinner
alive; and because the sinner practiced alchemy, he was sent to the final ring by Minos. (All the
same buddy).
 Alchemists changed metal into various forms. The Church believed that doing that was heresy.
That’s why The Alchemists were sent to the 8th Circle of Hell.
 The other sinner that was messing beside the first leper spoke of the history of alchemy, and
told short tales of some of the greatest alchemists. But he told Dante to look deeply into his
eyes as to ensure he spoke of the right words, for he spoke of the one of the greatest alchemists
in history, whom of which could aid Dante in his quest.
Ninth Circle: Where the worst, most treacherous sinners/souls go
 Lucifer: AKA Dis, Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub
 Once the most beautiful of angels. Thought he should be equal to God, and was cast down
from heaven
 Took 1/3 of god’s angels with him. (They make up demons today).
 Lucifer: “Light Bearer” (ironic)
 He eats Brutus, Judas and Cassius eternally. The three greatest betrayers of all time.
Summary of Dante’s Inferno XXXIV
Canto 34 of Dante’s Inferno describes part of the ninth ring of hell, where all the traitors are banished to. Judas,
Cassius and Brutus are the three greatest betrayers and therefore, Lucifer who is the king of Hell, is eating them eternally as
punishment. Lucifer beats his wings to keep the realm frozen with all its worst souls. While Virgil and Dante enter this
realm, Dante talks about how the sight of Lucifer made him feel neither dead nor alive. Both Virgil and Dante approach
Lucifer and observe that Lucifer is crying out of his six eyes, and blood is foaming in his mouth. Vigil tells Dante about the
three sinners whom Lucifer is eating, and then says that it is time for them to depart from this realm. Dante climbs onto
Virgil’s back and Virgil climbs up over Lucifer to get back to earth.
Terza Rima
 Dante invented Terza Rima poetry in his epic poem the Divine comedy.
 Rhyme scheme is the end words of the first and third lines rhyme with the second line of the next stanza.
 Usually written in iambic pentameter in English, always an iambic line
o The lines are all suppose to be the same length
o No limit on stanzas, but only 3 lines per stanza
 Dante wrote in Italian, so when translated, the rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter don’t show up very well.
Rhyme scheme
 Terza Rima
o First and third lines: Last words have similar sounds at the end.
o Second line of the stanza has similar sounds at the end of the lines as they do in the first and third lines of
the preceding stanza.
Literary Devices
 Similes: “Shades were covered wholly by ice showing like straw in glass.” 14-15
 Allusions: Mentions of Lucifer, Cassius, Brutus and Judas
 Paradox: “I neither died nor kept alive…” 28
 Irony: Dis was once the most beautiful angel, but Hell took away his beauty and made him into a monster.
Biography of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
Born in Florence Italy, Dante met Beatrice Portinari at age nine when she was eight at a party. He fell deeply in love
with her. He wrote most of his literature about her, and was considered the greatest Italian poet of the Christian Middle Ages.
He attended Franciscan school of Stacroce & Dominican school of S. Maria Novella in Florence and learned Thomistic
Doctrice & the mysticism that founded his philosophy. He also studied Brunetto Latini. He married Gemma di Manetto
Donati, a woman he’s been engaged to since twelve years old. His greatest work, the Divine Comedy, was an autobiographic
journey through hell, purgatory, and to heaven guided by Virgil then Beatrice. He basically wrote his path to salvation,
offering philosophical advices. He ended up creating Terza Rima style poetry.
Relation to Contrapasso and Irony:
The 34th Canto of Dante’s Inferno is ironic in the sense that the last circle of hell is frozen over, due to the beating of
Lucifer’s wings. When people generally think of hell, they think of great amounts of fire and torture but in the 9th circle, it is
eerily quieter than other rings and also, it is frozen over. This may relate to the coldness of the souls of the worst sinners.
Contrapasso means the punishment that fits the crimes of the souls in hell, so this relates to the 9 th ring of hell
because the worst sinners are often traitors. Like the three greatest traitors, many of the sinners must have suicided or
repented for their betrayals, but cannot be pardoned. Lucifer himself, is also an example of contrapasso, as when he was in
heaven, he was a “perfect” angel that represented all the qualities of an ideal angel. Love, omnipotence, and wisdom are the
three virtues of heaven and after he fell, he obtained three heads. The red one symbolized hatred, the yellow meant
impotence, and the black one was ignorance. Contrapasso made Lucifer a mirror image of his previous, divine self.
Audrey, Lara, Claire, Eleny, Samantha
Dante’s Inferno: Canto XXIV (24) Notes
 Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet (1265-1321). He is widely regarded as the greatest Italian writer of all time and is
widely respected for his world-famous contributions to literature (Background).
 Dante (the protagonist) is lead through the gates of Hell by his childhood friend Virgil, marked by the haunting
inscription “abandon all hope, you who enter here”(III.7). We will be presenting to you Canto 24, when he is in the
8th level of Hell devoted to thieves (Background).
 Dante and Virgil arrived in the Seventh Pouch of the Eighth Circle of Hell, devoted to thieves (Circle 8).
 History of Time Period: Black and white guelphs were political parties that were at war in Italy during Dante’s time
(Dante Background).
 Within the text, Virgil tells of the Black Guelphs coming to power.
 The black guelphs supported the papacy (Pope) and the white guelphs were in favor of a government free of papal
influence. Dante was a member of the white guelphs (Dante Background).
 When the black guelphs came to power, they exiled Dante (Dante Background).
 Dante wrote The Divine Comedy during his exile, in a period between 1308 and 1321 (Background).
 One soul in the Seventh Pouch is bitten by a serpent, dissolves into ash, and then re-forms. It turns out to be a thief
named Vanni Fucci (Dante’s).
 He is so ashamed to have Dante see him suffer in Hell that he foretells the coming victory of the Black Guelphs in
Florence (Dante’s).
 Contrapasso
o Definition: A punishment that has the opposite consequence of what the crime was trying to achieve
o Examples:
o People who deceptively steal from others would be haunted by creeping serpents (XXIV,TBD).
o Since they could not call any of the stolen property as their own, they cannot call their bodies their own (The
Divine).
 Connections to Dante’s real life/Analysis:
o Dante seizes an opportunity to insult Florence, the city that he had been exiled from. Five of the thieves that
Dante meets are Florentines and he ironically remarks to Virgil about how “great” it was to see so many of
them.
o Dante predicts a war between Florence and its rival, Prato.
o Dante’s character sympathizes with the sinners less and less as the story progresses. This conveys the idea
that the sinners deserved the punishments they received based on the sins that they committed (Inferno
Canto).
o The progression of the severity of punishments from circle to circle within Dante’s Inferno clearly
demonstrates the concept of order and hierarchy within society in a religious context.
The Lay of the Were-wolf Summary of Project
Summary of Literature
 A popular baron from Brittany is a werewolf for three days a week. The only thing that turns him from a
werewolfhuman is his clothes, which are hidden in the woods whenever he turns
 The baron’s wife insists on knowing where his clothes are hidden. She, in turn, betrays her husband for her lover
(who is a knight), and the baron is stuck as a werewolf
 One year later, the king goes hunting and hunts down the werewolf, who surrenders itself
 The king and the werewolf bond, and the werewolf shows amiable traits
 When the werewolf sees his ex-wife and the knight that she married, he attacks them, making people question what
the couple did to the werewolf (who was always friendly)
 The wife is interrogated, and the king finds out that the werewolf is the missing baron
 The werewolf is given back his clothes, which turns him back into a human
 The baron is given back his stolen land, and the knight and unfaithful wife are banished
Literary Analysis:
 Themes of trust, loyalty, and courtly love
 Written in prose
 Third person POV
 The clothes symbolize the trust that the baron lost when his wife betrayed him, but regained when the king found
him
 Irony: In the beginning, the werewolf is described as a dangerous man-eater, but the werewolf is actually likeable
and calm
Historical Content:
 Courtly love: A socially acceptable custom during the Middle Ages, in which love was shared between a knight and
a noblewoman, who may or may not be married
 Chivalry: A code of conduct that every knight was supposed to follow; it includes religious, moral, and social
conduct. Chivalry stresses loyalty to God, one’s lord, and one’s chosen lady.
Author Biography
 First female French poet
 Most of her works contain Norman bias by putting the Normans in a very positive light
 Wrote 12 Lais (narrative poems written in octosyllabic couplets)
 Wrote mainly about courtly love and chivalry
Summa Theologica Notes
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Uses many biblical quotes
Christian Propaganda
Whether it is lawful for Clerics and Bishops to fight?
Is it sinful to wage war?
Whether it can be demonstrated that God exists?
Yes, they should. If it is in the name of God and they are doing what is called of them
When really: more men: higher chance of winning, and people might be more courageous if fighting for God
Song of Roland glorifies Christians and is propaganda towards their faith
Thomas Aquinas asks questions pertaining mainly to Christianity, morality and virtues
He states the objection for the negative side and then replies to the objections with the affirmative side’s reply
objections
Aquinas uses a factual tone and refrains from using strong/foul language
War is always sinful unless it is needed
He believed that any Crusade was sinful
Summa Theologica was studied at monasteries and universities
Example of Writing Style:
Question: Is it always sinful to wage war?
Objection 1: ideas, reason and supporting information
Objection 2: ideas, reason and supporting information
Objection 3: ideas, reason and supporting information
Reply Objection 1: ideas, reason and supporting information
Reply Objection 2: ideas, reason and supporting information
Reply Objection 3: ideas, reason and supporting information
Thomas Aquinas’ own opinion: ideas, reason and supporting information
Wife of Bath’s Tale
 HISTORY
Women
o Women were expected to support their husbands
o Women did same jobs as men (hard labor), but were paid less.
o Anything a woman owned before her marriage became her husband’s, and she could not own land
unless she was widowed
o Women spent most of their married lives pregnant, wanting to have as many boys as possible because
they were vital to every family
o 20% of women died in childbirth and if they lived past that, they typically only lived to the age of 40
o Wet nurse cares for the children in rich families
Courts
o The royal court was the center of the kingdom, with the monarch showing his power in the court with
many large ceremonies, banquets, and celebrations
o Kings thought they had absolute power because god had chosen them (idea like Bishop of Rome)
o Different courts that had responsibility for different types of trials
 Manor courts
 Church courts
 Village courts
o Minor Punishments: stocks and mask of shame
o Ordeal courts
 Determined if the accused was innocent, the outcome of the ordeal was decided by God
o Ordeals turned into Inquests where judges heard both sides of the story
o Juries made up of about 12 people who were expected to make their own decisions
o Most crimes had a specific punishment
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ANALYSIS/ STORY
o Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the story to express his feelings about things that were not supposed to be
talked about in public
 Intimate affairs
o He-she-he concept
 Chaucer is writing in the point of view of a woman who acts like a man
 Women had to act like men to gain power
o Christian push for people to have children
 The woman in the prologue disliked the idea of virginity and wanted to do her duty and have as
many kids as possible