In Medieval literature there are a number of recognised popular genres, and the problems we encountered in ancient Greek literature (little study of popular aspects, and inferiority equalling popularity) do not seem to occur as frequently here. Possibly this is because the study of the Middle Ages (ca. 500-1500) has always been an underdog investigation; since the time of the Renaissance 'medieval' has meant the dark, uninteresting time in between classical antiquity and its rebirth in the Renaissance. While the initial reluctance associated with popular culture studies may not be as prevalent for this era, work here has also barely begun. In terms of literature, like antiquity, the sources for popular material are few. The Middle Ages did not have a much greater rate of general literacy than ancient Greece and Rome, and the oral tradition was only slowly shifting into a tradition of literacy. What came to be written down had to be of some contemporary importance, for religious, political, bureaucratic, or didactic purposes, if for no other reason than that writing was a long and labour intensive process. Discovering who the audiences for various types of literature were is problematic. Most of the information about medieval life centres on the upper half of society: the nobility, the state, and the Church, and we can only assume what the exposure of other groups was. But due to the nature of oral cultures, and the known existence of travelling minstrels, travelling actors and other entertainers, we do know that the chances that people in the towns and villages took part in popular literature are good. The most feasible situation to imagine is that the minstrels performed for anyone, noble, merchant or village peasant who would give them something for it, be it shelter, food, or money. They may have centred their efforts around castles, knowing where the riches lay, but likely their poetry was more greatly disseminated than known sources will allow for.

Popular literature in the Middle Ages directly carries on traditions learned from antiquity in epic poetry, lyric poetry, fables and romances, though they were updated to suit medieval tastes, values and issues. Although writing had graduated from the slave class into the hands of the most powerful group in Europe: the Church of Rome, medieval society maintained a primarily oral culture. The literacy rate is presumed to have been slightly higher, but it was contained primarily among the clergy, notaries, and some noblemen. Most of what was written was done in Latin, unintelligible for the great majority of the population - even access to the one book that most people at the time would have been most interested in reading, the Bible, was strictly limited to the clergy. However, some material was written in the vernacular, intended for an aural audience that could not understand Latin, and which consequently forms the bulk of what is believed to be medieval popular literature. The genres include the Chansons de Geste, the lyric, the medieval romance, fabliaux, and fables.

Hero epics outside of ancient Greece and Rome likely had a long history before they ever came to be written down. The earliest known hero epic written down in English (Old English) was Beowulf, which dates from the eighth century, but the majority of the hand-written manuscripts date from the 12th century and after. It is believed that, much like ancient Greek epics, the poems were composed of a familiar formula with set phrases and phrase constructions around which the meat of the story was added. They were memorised, with a certain amount of improvisation, and performed orally for several generations before finally being written down. This is supported by the fact that the epics commonly begin with phrases like: "Listen, and you will hear", "Be quiet, and you will hear, and "As you will hear before nightfall", clearly indicating an aural audience. They were a popular form of storytelling all over Europe, with epics appearing in Celtic, Old Norse, Dutch, German, French, Spanish and Italian. Many of the heroes from the epics would later appear in other literature, such as in the writings of Dante, Cervantes' Don Quixote, Ariosto's Orlando furioso, the Spanish romances, as well as Sicilian puppet plays which continue to this day.

Some of the best known epics are those from the area of Northern France, known as the chansons de geste, or songs of great deeds, which flourished from the 11th century to the early 12th century. They delighted noblemen with their stories of pious, sword-wielding, dagger-thrusting Christian knights in the thick of fantastic battles against fiery dragons, or heathenous mobs of Saracens , and always against incredible odds. Most often the knights in the story were based on real individuals, particularly on Charlemagne, (768-814), the much celebrated conqueror and ruler, and his son and heir, Louis the Pious (814-840). The plot lines were also usually based on real events that had taken place although the events were some four hundred years removed from the story's inception. Of course, this implies a considerable amount of creative license. While many view the chansons as inferior writing, they are invaluable for the reflections of medieval knightly culture that they provide. As is the case with much of popular culture, the chansons were loved because they reaffirmed existing world views. The knights in the chansons were brave, pious Christians, who were always fiercely loyal to their lords - characteristics which medieval knights aimed to possess. Also, that the chansons were based on historical figures (the two greatest figures in medieval French history) spoke to the medieval glorification of the ancestor. The stories affirmed how things had once been, and how greatness who follow anyone who strove to uphold those ideals. The best known of the chansons, as well as being considered a masterpiece of the genre, is the Chanson de Roland (as early as the mid 11th century up to the very beginning of the 12th). It tells of the betrayal and destruction of Roland and his companion Oliver, knights in Charlemagne's rear guard, who were attacked by, and fell to, a horde of Saracens in the Pyrenees. Despite their eventual defeat, Roland and Oliver were great heroes, fighting valiantly to their deaths, bravely trying to stop the advance of the Muslims, and remaining loyal to their lord to the very end. This epic was so well-loved that we see a surge in the names Roland and Oliver in the twelfth century.

The Earliest French Texts

Lyric poems were those songs sung by the travelling troubadours of Southern France. They were also the poetry out of which chivalry was born. Around Provence, Toulouse, and Aquitaine, in the mid 11th and 12th centuries the minstrel went travelling from place to place composing and singing love songs that praised the virtues of the ladies whose homes they were invited to play at. The popularity of these poems spread from the troubadours up to the nobility and then from the south of France to the north and beyond. William IX, Count of Poitou, Duke of Aquitaine, and Eleanor of Aquitaine's grandfather, wrote much lyric poetry, often to boast of his female victories rather than praise his one great love. But his embrace of the love poems helped to enforce the growing fad, so that nobles felt that their position demanded that they sing praises of noble women, or hire the minstrels to do it for them. Courtly love revolved around the adoration of a woman. "The great beauty, the good manners, the shining worth, the high reputation, the courteous speech, and the fresh complexion which you possess, good lady of worth, inspire me with the desire and the ability to sing." Men would go to great lengths to find the superlative words to convince their adored ones in song of what their beauty and the love for them was doing to them. "My heart is so full of joy that everything in nature seems changed. I see in the winter only white, red and yellow flowers; the wind and rain do nothing but add to my happiness; my skill waxes and my song grows better. I have in my heart so much love, joy, and pleasure that ice seems to me flowers and snow green grass. I can go out without clothes, naked in my shirt: my passion protects me from the iciest wind." Even though the poems never addressed men and never idealised men in the same way, it was believed that the adoration of a lady made one a better knight. The southern troubadours and their lyrics of adoring love made up a major component of the idea of chivalry (the others being the brave warrior and the religious soldier adopted from the Chansons de Geste).

Romances flourished in France and among the French speaking nobility in England in the 12th and 13th centuries. Only remotely connected to the ancient Greek romances, this genre seems to have combined elements from both troubadour lyric and the chansons de geste. Like the chansons, the adventures revolved around a single knight, who was often a real historical figure. Like both the chansons and the lyric the knight had to be chivalrous. The crux of the romance consisted of a series of tests to that knight's chivalry. If he passed these tests (which he most usually did) to his loyalties, strength and endurance, piety and goodness, then he was often rewarded at the end with a bride, who mirrored the great women sung about in the lyrics, as well as riches in the way of a large fiefdom or even kingdom - in short, security. Not surprisingly, important themes in the chansons, such as loyalty to one's lord, and the lyrics, fidelous passion to one's lover, also appear in the romances and are on occasion pitted against one another. In Tristan and Iseult, a vassal is torn between his passion for the wife of his lord and his duty to that same lord. In the end passion wins, but it destroys them both. The same is true of the love affair between Guinevere, the wife of King Arthur, and Sir Lancelot in the legend based on a distant reality that inspired a number of medieval romances. Lancelot eventually chooses love, and his decision brings about the end of the Round Table.

Short satirical poems that criticised the morals of the day, the fabliaux were a favourite of the bourgeois class. They were bawdy, crude, and comic, focussing mostly on sex or excrement, or both. The characters in them were gross stereotypes including lustful priests and monks, lascivious merchants' wives, and young men adept at fooling or cuckolding stuffy merchants. These poems indicate a great deal about the relationships between men, women and marriage in the Middle Ages. The typical plot involved an attractive and lustful wife who plotted with her lover, often a clever cleric, to cuckold and make a fool of her husband, who was usually dull-witted and old. While these plots are not accurate descriptions of the true state of affairs, pardon the pun, in that adultery was not as rampant as the poems would have one believe, we can certainly detect the fears of both young and old men. There were periods of time, among craftsmen and members of the bourgeois class, when most young women were married to older men. These men were already established in their careers and could afford to be married, while the younger men, on the other hand, had to complete their years of professional training before they could consider marriage. The fabliaux reflect both the resentment of younger men towards older men because they were able to marry young and attractive women, as well as the fears of the older men married to younger women who would surely be more attracted to a clever, young, more virile youth. It is also clear that neither young nor old trusted women, either to wait until they could afford to marry or to be faithful once they were married.

In addition to the tradition in ancient Greece known by Aesop's Fables, fables also stemmed from ancient Arabic and Indian cultures. Aesop's Fables were well known in Medieval Europe and were commonly used in schools for teaching morals, grammar, and composition. They also made fine examples for the Church to use in illustrating Christian teachings to lay people. Fables are short, allegorical stories with talking animals used to represent stereotypical members of medieval society, which invariably end in a stated moral. Aesop's Fables and a well-known collection about Renard the fox, called the Romance of Renard were among the most common fables used for educational purposes. A Scottish poet in the late 1400s, Robert Henryson, wrote a number of fables, which he asserted could be entertaining as well as instructive and were effective for commenting on social ills. An oft-repeated moral theme in his fables concerned the neglect of the spiritual and intellectual needs in favour of those of the body. For example in The Two Mice, or as many of us are familiar with today, The Country Mouse and the City Mouse, he speaks against the evils of materialism, and the blessings of simplicity. This particular fable came to sell many copies after the advent of printing, and as we are well familiar with it today, its continued popularity is confirmed.

There were many other types of written material that were popular in the Middle Ages whose main aim was not entertainment. Hagiographies, or biographies of saints, were immensely popular and maintained many of the qualities of fictional prose. It has even been argued that medieval hagiographies developed out of the ancient Greek romances. The Greek romances demonstrated loyalty to love and fidelity to one's lover at enormous costs and risks, and the medieval hagiographies demonstrate loyalty to divine love and fidelity to God, also at enormous worldly cost and risk. In order to relay the message of the benefits of following saintly example, the hagiographies often told stories that were as exciting as the Greek romances.

Another type of religious literature that was well-enjoyed was vision literature. They tell of individuals who undergo illuminating experiences which bring them to understand ideas such as the nature of free will, the fate of the soul, and other concepts in Christian theology. They frequently had allegorical characters like Philosophy, and Nature, who were personifications of abstract ideas. An example of this type of literature is the 6th century De Consolatione philosophiae by Boethius in which we find a man languishing in prison with a death sentence and lamenting what he sees as the failure of God in his life. Philosophy comes in the body of a woman and helps him to let go of his resentment and anger by bringing him to understand that his mortal death is only the beginning of his immortal and eternal life. Other popular materials that were not primarily for entertainment (though they may well have been entertaining) were didactic manuals for women and children, sermon collections, marriage manuals, and penitentials.

It has often been said that the literature which is closer to the people, i.e. popular literature, reveals more about the sentiments, values, ideals, and beliefs of a society than high literature does. This has been evident in some of the selection above. The remainder of this case study is devoted to an examination of the representation of women in popular medieval literature which offers an impression of how medieval women were viewed and idealised, by themselves and others, what they valued, what was valued about them, and what was expected of them.

Much of the way in which women were viewed was based on the Christian theology of the time. Although Christianity in its essence is not sexist, it was born into a highly patriarchal society and naturally the Christian theoreticians formed religious doctrines to fit their own world views. For instance, the Fall of Humankind is blamed equally on Adam and Eve in Genesis, but the Church Fathers (St. Jerome (c. 340-420), St. Ambrose (c. 340-397), Tertullian) tended to emphasise the fault of Eve more. They asserted that Adam was reason led astray by the temptress Eve. Because all women were the daughters of Eve, and inherited her sin, women were presumed to be inherently disobedient, vain, lascivious and prone to sin. At the opposite extreme stood the Virgin Mary, a woman who demonstrated the highest good of women: the ability to bear children, while she was spared the foulest task: sexual intercourse (which had been made necessary because of Eve's disobedience). She was the ideal for all women to strive for, despite its practical impossibility. By the medieval period, this dual concept of women as both immaculate caregivers and seductive temptresses was fully entrenched.

In the stereotyped fabliaux, for example, we encountered the fears of men full force in all of the female characters. Married women were wanton with their sexuality, virgins were quick to be deflowered, and they were all vain and conniving (this is not to say that the male characters were necessarily portrayed positively). The fabliaux women were the directest descendants of Eve, demonstrating what medieval people thought women were capable of if allowed to their devices. Guinevere in Le Morte D'Arthure, on the other hand, takes on qualities of both Eve and Mary. She is beautiful and inspires goodness in the men around her, but she also seduces Lancelot from his vow to undertake the Quest for the Holy Grail, extinguishing his spiritual pursuit and bringing about the end of the Round Table. Dante's Beatrice, although beautiful, is unable to be a temptress of the flesh because she is not alive, and is therefore free to be chaste and make men good by her example. Women in the hagiographies, opposite to the women of the fabliaux, were like Mary: perfect. They were chaste, obedient and willing to endure any means of hardship, including martyrdom, to speak and live the word of God. They were also often surprisingly active characters, choosing to act rather react to the situations they encountered. The women of the hagiographies were based on historical saints, so the representation was intended to demonstrate the other extreme of possibility, that women were also capable of profound holiness and a proximity to perfection.

Women in the romances were often painted in a similar manner. While they mainly told stories of men, there were a few with female protagonists. The women were always charming, virtuous, faithful, and beautiful, who, like their male counterparts, were tested throughout the unfolding of the story. Unlike the men, however, it was primarily a woman's ability to endure hardships that was tested, but like the good knights, she was always rewarded in the end, usually with a happy marriage.

Two examples of medieval romances with female protagonists are Emaré and Lai le Freine. Emaré was a young woman who refused to marry her father, and was set adrift in a boat for insubordination. She comes ashore in a foreign land where she is rescued by a local nobleman and introduced to the king. Through her "courtesy and graciousness, as well as her beauty, she is married to the king." The king is away when she gives birth to their first son, and the messenger sent to inform him of the birth is detained by his wicked mother, who switches letters so that the king is informed instead that his wife has given birth to a monster. The king, being a decent fellow, sends back a message saying that regardless of the monster the queen should be well cared for. Alas, Mother switches that message with one that demands the queen and her monster be put back to sea. When the king returns, and uncovers his mother's plot, he has her executed. But several years go by before Emaré and her son are reunited with the king and all is forgiven. Emaré is also eventually reunited with her father who has come around to his senses. Despite the appalling manner in which she is handled, Emaré faces all her difficulties uncomplainingly, obedient to the will of God, and is awarded her marriage and her father in the end. The only time that Emaré is disobedient is when she refuses to marry her father, where she recognises the authority of God over that of her father. And despite her father's incestuous invitation, she later brings about their reunion in an act of selfless forgiveness

The virtues women were expected to live up to is more practically apparent in Lai le Freine. It begins with one noblewoman accusing another of having a lover in addition to her husband because she had given birth to twins. When the accuser has twins herself and recognises her folly, she secretly smuggles one of her twin daughters out of the house to hide her embarrassment and to avoid being accused of the same. The abandoned girl, Freine, grows up in a nunnery and becomes a beautiful woman. A local knight, Sir Guroun, falls madly in love with her and has her move into his castle with him. But, because she is an orphan, the two cannot be married, even though everyone in the house loves her dearly. A marriage is arranged for Sir Guroun with a neighbouring knight's daughter, a proposal which Freine accepts without protest. So selfless is she that she covers the otherwise dull wedding bed with her mantle to make it more ceremonious looking. Low and behold, the bride's mother recognises the mantle as the one belonging to her abandoned daughter, and the truth of Freine's background is revealed. With her bastardy erased and a decent lineage behind her, she is free to marry Sir Guroun. Once again the unquestioning acceptance of God's will, her compliance with medieval rules of marriage and status, and the ability to endure her certain heartbreak reward Freine with all her worldly desires. Even the sin of living unwed with her lover is forgiven by her later selfless act.

The women in these two romances represent the standards that medieval society expected and hoped women would meet: piety, submissiveness, forgiveness, patience, loyalty, and endurance. A woman with these attributes in turn expected to be the reward for a chivalrous man, or to be awarded with a stable prosperous marriage. It should be kept in mind that the romances idealised both sexes, and that the representation of women was not misogynistic, but rather an image to be admired by both men and women. These idealised images are easily compared to modern-day movie stars or pop music stars, who with money to spend on personal trainers, dieticians, and beauticians, never seem to have a moment when they look less than photo-perfect. Many of us recognise the impossibility of meeting the standards these "role models" set before us, but nonetheless we continue to see their films, and listen to their music, thereby sanctioning their image. While very few of us actually expect to become superstars, they represent the possibility of someday becoming what we idealise: success, beauty, talent, wealth, and fulfilment through work we love. The case was much the same with medieval audiences for the romance - the brave and adventurous knight, the silently, stoically enduring lady represented what medieval men and women hoped was possible, but did not necessarily expect to become.