ENG 201: Monsters and Marvels in the Middle Ages
Spring 2021, Online

In this course we will explore the contours of the medieval imagination as it made sense of the world in a variety of literary and historical texts from the sixth through the fourteenth centuries.  We will focus on the function of marvels and monsters as plot devices, as ways of representing cultural anxieties, and as modes of construing the relationship between self and “Other” and between the natural world and the social world.   This course counts toward the English Department's pre-1700 requirement.
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A priest offers the Eucharist to the famous werewolves of Ossory. We do not recommend trying this at home.
Required Texts
  • Beowulf, trans. Seamus Heaney (Norton)
  • The Táin: Translated from the Irish Epic Táin Bó Cuailnge, trans. Thomas Kinsella (Oxford)
  • The Book of Beasts, trans. T. H. White (Dover)
  • Marie de France, Lais, trans. Claire M. Waters (Broadview)
  • Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, trans. William T. Kibler (Penguin)
  • Gerald of Wales, The History and Topography of Ireland, trans. John J. O'Meara (Penguin)
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, trans. James Winny (Broadview)
  • The Travels of Sir John Mandeville​, trans. C. W. R. D. Mosely (Penguin)
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The Gryphon hails all its Reed College friends.
Learning Outcomes
  • To become familiar with medieval texts drawn from a variety of genres, from a number of national cultures and spanning a number of centuries
  • To think through the guiding concepts of “monsters” and “marvels” and to think about what they can tell us about the pre-modern imagination
  • To practice the art of literary analysis; to practice thinking intelligently, writing intelligently, and speaking intelligently about literary texts
  • To deepen one’s knowledge of the Middle Ages in general through close consideration of texts that highlight some of the social, historical, religious, and cultural issues that exercised the medieval mind
  • To enrich one’s own inner life through generous and open-hearted critical engagement with humanistic texts from the pre-modern world
Course Policies
  • ​Active Online Participation: A Reed conference should foster discussions that are both civil and critical.  The responsibility for making this happen is incumbent upon each one of us, and for that reason I want to hear from everyone on a regular basis.  If there are impediments to your regular participation, please see me so that we can make other arrangements.  We will endeavor together to find ways to make online participation both palatable and effective.  Participation will count as 20% of the final grade.
  • Attendance: Regular attendance, both mental and physical, is required.  More than two absences will affect your grade.  More than four absences constitutes grounds for failing the course.  If, however, you have a Covid-19-related issue that requires your absence, please let me know and arrangements will be made.
  • Papers: There will be three papers (4-5 pages), due on Feb. 16, March 30, and Apr. 30.   Further information about topics and parameters will be provided.  Please note that I do not provide written comments on papers that are passed in late without permission.  Late papers will additionally be subject to the standard deduction of half a grade per day late.  Each paper counts for 26.67% of the final grade.
  • Office Hours: Due to Covid-19, I will not be holding traditional office hours.  I will endeavor to hold "office" hours to meet with local students outside, rain or shine, in Eliot Circle once a week.  I will also be holding Zoom office hours for anyone, local or remote, for whom that is feasible or preferable.
Resources
  • Please do take advantage of the materials linked to this website here, that provide useful background information on medieval Christian theology, religious practice, and other useful aspects of the medieval European worldview.
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The Grail procession (from a 13th-cent. French manuscript)
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The Green Knight, atop green horse, using his head
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Neither werewolves nor talking dogs, the canine-headed Cynocephali are humans who live ... elsewhere
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King Arthur (the one on the left, with the sword) encounters the infamous giant of Mont-St-Michel (the one with his tongue out on the right), with rabbits in the foreground, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible.
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Lancelot gingerly crosses the aptly named Sword Bridge.
Schedule of Readings

Week One
M Jan 25: Ideas of order and disorder in the Middle Ages; Isidore of Seville (PDF)
W Jan. 27: Augustine of Hippo, excerpts from The City of God (16.4-9, 21.4-8)(PDF); Valerie I. J. Flint, “Monsters and the Antipodes in the Early Middle Ages” (PDF); Jacques LeGoff, “The Marvelous in the Medieval West” (PDF)
  • To read more about Augustine of Hippo, see the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's excellent overview of his life and work here.

F Jan. 29:  The Letter of Alexander to Aristotle (PDF); Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, “Monster Culture (Seven Theses)” (PDF)

Week Two
M Feb 1:  Beowulf (read at least to line 1000)
  • FOR A GUIDE TO THE BACKGROUND LORE OF BEOWULF,  CLICK HERE.
  • FOR SOME QUICK THOUGHTS ABOUT THE BEOWULF POET, CLICK HERE.

​W Feb. 3:  Beowulf (read at least to line 2000); and read “Grettir the Strong and the Trollwoman” (in the Norton edition, pp. 86-89)

F Feb. 5: Beowulf (finish it); J. R. R. Tolkien, “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” (in the Norton edition, pp. 103-130)

Week Three
M Feb. 8: Beowulf; Jane Chance, “The Structural Unity of Beowulf: Grendel’s Mother” (in the Norton edition, pp. 152-167)

W Feb. 10:   The Táin, introduction and pp. 1-50

F Feb. 12: The Táin, pp. 51-167

Week Four
M Feb. 15: The Táin, pp. 168-253; and “Fergus and the Cosmogonic Sword” (JSTOR)

W Feb. 17: The Táin (reprise); and Joan Radner, “Fury Destroys the World” (PDF handout)

F Feb. 19: Class canceled today, but do start reading The Book of Beasts, pp. 7-229.   And feel free to skip any or all of the footnotes.
​
Week Five
M Feb. 22:  The Book of Beasts, pp. 7-229

W Feb. 24: Gerald of Wales, The History and Topography of Ireland (all)

F Feb. 26: Gerald of Wales, The History and Topography of Ireland; and Rhonda Knight, "Werewolves, Monsters, and Miracles: Representing Colonial Fantasies in Gerald of Wales's Topographia Hibernica" (JSTOR)

​Week Six
M Mar 1: Marie de France, Prologue and Guigemar (in The Lais of Marie de France, pp. 48-99)
  • FOR SOME QUICK THOUGHTS ABOUT MARIE DE FRANCE, CLICK HERE.

W Mar. 3: Marie de France, Bisclavret (pp. 144-161)

F March 5: Marie de France, Yonec and Milun (pp. 210-239 and 250-277)

Week Seven
M March 8: Marie de France, Lanval (pp. 163-195); Aisling Byrne, "Otherworld Excess and the Perils of Desire" (PDF)

W March 10: Class canceled.  No reading, nothing due.

F March 12: Marie de France, Guildelüec and Guilliadun (pp. 111-126)

Week Eight
M March 15: Chrétien de Troyes, Yvain, pp. 295-328
  • FOR SOME QUICK THOUGHTS ABOUT CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES, CLICK HERE.

W March 17: Chrétien de Troyes, Yvain, pp. 329-358

F March 19: Chrétien de Troyes, Yvain, pp. 359-380; Jacques LeGoff, “Levi-Strauss in Broceliande” (PDF)

Week Nine
M March 22:  Chrétien de Troyes, Lancelot, pp. 207-225

W March 24: Chrétien de Troyes, Lancelot, pp. 226-265

F March 26: Respite and Recharge

Week Ten
M March 29: Chrétien de Troyes, Lancelot, pp. 266-294

W March 31: Chrétien de Troyes, The Story of the Grail, pp. 381-425

F Apr. 2: Chrétien de Troyes, The Story of the Grail, pp. 425-460

Week Eleven
M Apr. 5: Chrétien de Troyes, The Story of the Grail​, pp. 460-494

W Apr. 7: Sir Orfeo [please access text in translation here: http://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/special/litsubs/breton/orfeo.html]

F Apr. 9: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Fitt One
  • FOR SOME OPENING THOUGHTS ON THE GAWAIN-​POET, CLICK HERE.

SPRING BREAK: APRIL 10-18

Week Twelve
M Apr. 19: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Fitt Two

W Apr. 21: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Fitt Three

F Apr. 23: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Fitt Four; Geraldine Heng, "Feminine Knots and the Other Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (JSTOR)

Week Thirteen
M Apr. 26:  The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, pp. 43-99

W Apr. 28:  The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, pp. 99-149; Martin Camargo, "The Book of John Mandeville and the Geography of Identity" (PDF)

F Apr. 30:  The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, pp. 150-190
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That snail's got a mean streak a mile wide!