Summer Reading Suggestions

A classic of Old English literature, written down between 600 and 900CE, but probably composed long before that and passed down orally for many generations. This is the only surviving complete epic poem of the Old English tradition, heavily influenced by Germanic and Scandinavian literatures (Old English, a language spoken in England before the Norman Conquest of 1066, is quite different from the Middle English of Chaucer and other later medieval poetry). The poem recounts two great deeds by the hero Beowulf: his vanquishing of the monstrous Grendel and his mother, and, many years later as an old man, his fight to the death with a dragon. Beautiful, strange, and poignant, this is a window into a different world.

Where to read it for free:

LION (translation by Seamus Heaney):
http://search.proquest.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/docview/2147693322?accountid=11311

If purchasing:

Seamus Heaney's translation is excellent and easily findable second hand. Both the Broadview and Norton anthologies also contain a full translation of the poem.

Go deeper:

The British Library web exhibition on the Beowulf manuscript:
https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/beowulf

The trailer for the 2007 movie adaptation with Angelina Jolie as Grendel's Mother (!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaShOr5AeKA

The Bible provided favourite material for medieval poets, and this Old English retelling of the story of Judith and Holofernes, in which a widow seduces and then murders the king oppressing her people, is justly popular.

Read online

https://web.archive.org/web/20020205222339/http:/www.dnaco.net/~sirbill/Judith.htm

If purchasing:

Judith is very short, and not usually published as a standalone poem in print; it's contained in most medieval literature anthologies.

Go deeper:

The extremely graphic painting of Judith and Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi, c. 1620: https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/judith-beheading-holofernes

(Read more about this fascinating woman painter of the Italian Renaissance and see more of her paintings of Biblical women here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_Gentileschi)

After entering into an ill-advised game of mutual decapitation with a mysterious green knight at a Christmas party, Sir Gawain leaves the court of King Arthur to plunge into the wilderness, to fulfill a promise that will mean his certain death. Finding his way to a castle in the woods, he falls into another ill-advised game, this time one of sexy one-upmanship with the gorgeous lord and lady of the castle. Caught in two impossible situations at once, Gawain must navigate the dual codes of the upstanding Christian knight and the romantic hero of chivalric literature. A poem of rich surfaces, lush description, wit, violence, and sexuality.

Read it online:

Simon Armitage translation via LION:
http://search.proquest.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/docview/2147647661?accountid=11311

Jessie Weston introduction and translation (prose, 1898):
https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/publication/weston-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight

A more recent translation by W.A. Neilson:
https://www.yorku.ca/inpar/sggk_neilson.pdf

JRR Tolkien translation (verse):
http://jessicasladechms.weebly.com/uploads/5/1/7/4/51740093/sir_gawain_complete_large_text.pdf

If purchasing:

I recommend the Simon Armitage translation, which can be bought individually or is included in the Norton textbook.

Go deeper:

An introduction to the poem by British poet Simon Armitage, who translated the poem, with images from the manuscript held by the British Library: https://www.bl.uk/medieval-literature/articles/sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight-an-introduction

The text in the original northern dialect of Middle English, alternating with modern English translation:
https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/sir-gawain-and-green-knight

The trailer of the new film adaptation, The Green Knight, starring Dev Patel, slated for release in 2020:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoJc2tH3WBw

The trailer of the extremely awful 1984 film adaptation starring Sean Connery:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9If7hE3evy0

A woman imprisoned in a tower falls in love with a hawk-man who flies to her window; a werewolf, trapped in wolf form after his wife betrays him, exacts vengeance; a neglected knight breaks a promise to his fairy mistress; two separated lovers communicate by means of a trained swan. Marie de France's short poem narratives tell stories of romance and loss where the animal and human, natural and supernatural worlds are blurred.

Read online:

The Internet Archive (you'll have to sign up for a free account):
https://archive.org/details/laisofmariedefra0000mari

Four of the Lais translated on Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46234

If purchasing:

https://broadviewpress.com/product/the-lais-of-marie-de-france/#tab-description

Go deeper:

The British Library digitized manuscript:
https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-lays-and-fables-of-marie-de-france

In order to get around a law that women cannot inherit, a noble couple raise their daughter as a boy; this romance follows the adventures of its protagonist, Silence, whose pronouns shift depending on their gender performance, and who is easily read from a modern perspective as a genderqueer or transgender protagonist. Silence, an excellent warrior and musician, attracts the favour of the king and the unwanted attentions of the queen, and faces increasing difficulty in keeping his secret.

Read online:

Available via Project Muse (with your Harvardkey):
https://muse-jhu-edu.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/book/30950

If purchasing:

I recommend the Sarah Roche-Mahdi side-by-side original French and modern English translation. Available second hand from Abebooks:
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30631741001&searchurl=kn%3Dsilence%2Bmahdi-roche%26sortby%3D17&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1

Further reading:

Were there transgender people in the middle ages? By Gabrielle Bychowski
https://www.publicmedievalist.com/transgender-middle-ages/

A classic for a reason. Inspired by Boccaccio's Decameron (see below), Chaucer's witty, lively unfinished work begins with character sketches of a group of pilgrims from different walks of life who gather in an inn in a suburb south of London to begin a pilgrimage to Canterbury, a journey of several days, and agree to take part in a storytelling competition to pass the time. The rest of the work alternates between the tales the pilgrims tell – most of which are translations or retellings of popular medieval stories – and the pilgrims' bickering. A dazzling miscellany of high romance, crude sexual humour, tragedy, and meditations on life. While it's available in modern English translations, for a really satisfying read, try the Middle English, especially read aloud – a modern English speaker can understand it without much trouble (see the resources below on reading Middle English). Like the Decameron, you can dip in and out of this one, but make sure to read each character's introduction (prologue) to their tale as well as the tale itself! For slapstick sexual comedy, try the Wife of Bath's Tale*, the Miller's Tale, or the Merchant's Tale; for tragedy, adventure, or dark humour, try the Clerk's Tale, the Man of Law's Tale, or the Pardoner's Tale.

Read online:

Original Middle English:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/22120/22120-h/22120-h.htm#prologue
(this is the complete works of Geoffrey Chaucer; the link goes directly to the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales)

Another Middle English version, broken up into sections for easier reading:
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/CT

Side-by-side original and modern English translations on the Harvard Chaucer webpage:
https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/text-and-translations

Modern English at the Internet Archive (sign up for a free account):
https://archive.org/details/canterburytales000chau

If purchasing:

In Middle English:
https://bookshop.org/books/the-canterbury-tales-second-edition-revised/9781554811069

A good modern edition of the Tales:
https://bookshop.org/books/the-canterbury-tales-second-edition-revised/9781554811069

Several of the most popular Tales are included in the Broadview and Norton textbooks.

In modern translation:
https://bookshop.org/books/the-canterbury-tales-9781854598837/9780140424386

Go deeper:

How to Read Chaucer, lessons in Middle English on the Harvard Chaucer website:
https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/lesson-index

The fully digitized 'Hengwrt' manuscript of The Canterbury Tales, at the National Library of Wales:
https://www.library.wales/discover/digital-gallery/manuscripts/the-middle-ages/the-hengwrt-chaucer/#?c=&m=&s=&cv=5&xywh=-811%2C-23%2C5009%2C6044

The fully digitized 'Hengwrt' manuscript of The Canterbury Tales, at the National Library of Wales:
https://www.library.wales/discover/digital-gallery/manuscripts/the-middle-ages/the-hengwrt-chaucer/#?c=&m=&s=&cv=5&xywh=-811%2C-23%2C5009%2C6044

The fully digitized 'Ellesmere' manuscript of The Canterbury Tales, at the Huntington library in San Marino, California. This manuscript contains miniature portraits of Chaucer and of the pilgrims, which often appear on the covers of modern editions.
https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p15150coll7/id/2838/

British poet Patience Agbabi performs her 'remix' of The Wife of Bath's Tale, "The Wife of Bafa":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LptEFGhR7A
(If you like this, consider buying her book of poems remixing the entire Canterbury Tales, called Telling Tales)

The Global Chaucers project:
https://globalchaucers.wordpress.com/

A group of young men and women go to self-isolate together in a country villa while the bubonic plague rages through Florence, and pass the time by taking turns to tell stories, ten per day for ten days, each day with its own theme. So racy and religiously irreverent that older translations often omit several of the stories, the darkness of the Decameron's setting is in tension with the lightness and humour of most of the stories, which are full of slapstick humour and sexual comedy. An inspiration of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales – indeed, the Clerk's Tale is a retelling of the very last story of the Decameron, 10.10 (day 10, story 10). Ideal for dipping in and out of, as most of the stories are quite short and do not need to be read in order.

Read online:

A slightly archaic translation is available on Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23700

On Hathitrust (log in using your Harvardkey):
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c004871002&view=1up&seq=1

The Internet Archive (create a free account):
https://archive.org/details/decameron00giov

To purchase:

You should be able to find a cheap second hand copy on any online bookstore; the Musa, McWilliam, Rebhorn, or Hainsworth translations are all good:
https://bookshop.org/books/the-decameron-revised/9780140449303

Go deeper:

Podcast episode of "The Spouter Inn" which discusses the Decameron and reading during pandemics, with a few particular stories recommended:
https://www.megaphonic.fm/spouter/27

"When Not to Translate" by Tim Parks, on the challenges of translating the Decameron:
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/11/07/decameron-when-not-to-translate/

A blogger who has collected images of paintings inspired by the Decameron:
https://eclecticlight.co/2019/01/14/the-decameron-index-to-stories-and-the-finest-paintings/

Politician Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (pronounced 'Bo-EE-thius') wrote The Consolation of Philosophy, one of the most influential works of medieval literature, over a year while imprisoned and anticipating his own execution. An imagined dialogue in prose and verse between himself and the allegorical personification of Philosophy, The Consolation of Philosophy tries to make sense of misfortune, death, and the possibility of happiness. Written in Italy after the fall of the western Roman empire to the Ostrogoths and Visigoths in the late fifth century, this text bridges the classical and medieval, brilliantly incorporating the influence of ancient Greek philosophers into a Christian worldview.

Read online:

Project Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14328/14328-h/14328-h.htm

Ebook of 2009 translation published by Harvard University Press translation:
https://doi-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/10.4159/9780674028456

If purchasing:

https://bookshop.org/books/the-consolation-of-philosophy-9780674048355/9780674048355

Go deeper:

Image of a 970 CE English manuscript of The Consolation of Philosophy:
https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/boethius-in-latin

Image of a 1390 CE French manuscript of The Consolation of Philosophy that shows how important this text still was, more than 700 years after its composition; only the four lines of the top right column in larger font are actually Boethius' text, and the rest of the page is commentary and analysis of those lines. This is a typical example of the way medieval scholars gathered knowledge on the page to pass down through generations, the equivalent of a modern critical edition.
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/illmanus/roymanucoll/i/011roy000015b03u00003000.html

Illustrations from a 15th century manuscript of The Consolation of Philosophy, now owned by the Getty museum, including the Wheel of Fortune, an important image for medieval literature.
http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/1519/coetivy-master-henri-de-vulcop-anicius-manlius-severinus-boethius-called-boethius-jean-de-meun-miniatures-from-boethius-consolation-de-philosophie-french-about-1460-1470/

An article about copies of Boethius' work owned by Harvard's Houghton library, with images:
https://www.ericamweaver.com/uploads/1/9/2/3/19237185/mcmullen_and_weaver_boethius_at_harvard.pdf

A great work of medieval Christian mystic theology, one of the few by a woman, The Revelations recounts a series of visions Julian had while critically ill, which she spent the rest of her life trying to understand. Like The Consolation of Philosophy, this is a meditation on consolation and faith in adversity, but is rooted not in Classical philosophy but in an intimate relationship between the soul and God. While Consolation was written by a classically educated statesman, Julian, who claims to be "unlettered"—illiterate (although she certainly had had a great many books read to her)—was an anchoress, a female religious recluse, and spent most of her life voluntarily locked in a single-roomed dwelling, with limited contact with the outside world. The Revelations attests to the creative freedom of the human mind, and has its own answers to the problems of living in a world where pain and fear exist.

Read online:

Project Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52958

Read in Middle English:
https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/publication/crampton-shewings-of-julian-norwich

Or on LION:
http://search.proquest.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/docview/2138594769?accountid=11311

If purchasing:

The Penguin edition:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/261039/revelations-of-divine-love-by-julian-of-norwich/

Go deeper:

Manuscript in the British Library:
https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-short-text-of-julian-of-norwichs-revelations-of-divine-love

Church and shrine of St Julian of Norwich (including images of her reconstructed cell):
https://www.britainexpress.com/counties/norfolk/norwich/st-julian.htm

This great Arthurian fantasy of the twentieth century, loosely based on Le Morte d'Arthur(composed in prison by career criminal Sir Thomas Malory in 1485, and available on Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1251/1251-h/1251-h.htm). TH White's masterpiece is sometimes faithful retelling, sometimes an entirely new take on hundreds of years of Arthurian legends. The first part, The Sword in the Stone, on which the Disney movie is based, is justly the most famous, on the young Arthur's upbringing and education by the wizard Merlin. Light and comedic, it is in contrast to the following three volumes on the peak, decline, and tragic collapse of Arthur's court and the failure of his vision for a just and better kingdom. A psychologically complex fantasy adventure, this is also, like the other great mid-twentieth-century medievalist fantasy The Lord of the Rings, a nostalgic paean to a middle ages that never was for an irrecoverably industrialized England in the aftermath of World War II.

Read online:

Project Gutenberg:
http://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/whiteth-onceandfutureking/whiteth-onceandfutureking-00-h.html

Boston Public Library ebook (all Harvard students are eligible for a library card):
https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1173416980

If purchasing:

Easily available second hand from most online bookstores (see the end of this document for non-Amazon suggestions!)

Go deeper:

Rent the Disney classic via Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LzO0cnMeVE

Television series available through Kanopy (with your Harvardkey) about the King Arthur legend through history:
https://harvard.kanopy.com/video/king-arthur-history-and-legend-origins-king-

A nonfiction book that defies genre, H is for Hawk is part the author's memoir of training a goshawk to hunt from her hand through traditional falconry methods, part a meditation on grief, loss, and the isolating effects of depression after the sudden death of her father, part a history of falconry from the middle ages to Nazi Germany, and part an exploration into the life of TH White, author of The Once and Future King (see above). White was fascinated by falconry, which he saw as symbolizing man's mastery of wild nature and also the nobility of days gone by. His account of Arthur's childhood contains an extended section in which Arthur is transformed into a falcon (in the book this is much darker and more frightening than in the Disney version), and White also wrote another book about his own disastrous attempt to tame a goshawk. The isolation and obsession of taming a baby hawk, the strange world of modern falconry, the darker side of medieval nostalgia, and the evolving relationship between humans and nature are all explored here.

Read online:

H is for Hawk is available as an ebook via the Boston Public Library:
https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/2155748980

The Internet Archive, via your Harvardkey (you'll also need to make a free account):
https://archive.org/details/hisforhawk0000macd_s8k4/mode/2up

If purchasing:

https://bookshop.org/books/h-is-for-hawk-9781594139314/9780802124739

The Middle English Texts Series (TEAMS): editions of a huge number of popular and less well known medieval English texts, all available in digital versions with introductions, notes, and glossaries of difficult words, and even some audio recordings:
https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams

The Middle English Dictionary: an online dictionary of middle English:
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary

Harvard's Chaucer website: includes information and resources for reading Chaucer and Middle English in general:
https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/

Hollis electronic resources and databases for Middle English literature:
https://databases.hollis.harvard.edu/primo-explore/search?query=any,contains,%22middle%20english%22%20OR%20medieval%20OR%20%22middle%20ages%22&tab=everything&search_scope=default_scope&vid=HVD_DB&lang=en_US&offset=0

If you want to read widely, and especially if you're planning to take Arrivals next year; Prof. Simpson's class uses Norton 10th edition, Prof. Wilson's class uses Broadview 3rd edition. Both textbooks are excellent and contain a great deal of supplementary material and historical information as well as translations of medieval texts.

The Broadview Anthology of British Literature Volume 1: The Medieval Period:
https://broadviewpress.com/product/the-broadview-anthology-of-british-literature-the-medieval-period-third-edition/#tab-description

Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages:
https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393603026

Old and Middle English c.890-c.1400:
An Anthology (Blackwell Anthologies), Treharne, Elaine, Published by Wiley-Blackwell (2004)—Many second hand versions are available at
abebooks.com

Most of the texts are available digitally in modern (but early 20th century) translations from Project Gutenberg, a huge repository of ebooks of texts that are out of copyright. You can download each text in several formats for ereaders, or read them from your browser:
https://www.gutenberg.org/

Literature Online (LION) will give you access, through your Harvardkey, to many up-to-date translations of medieval texts. This link will take you to a list of all of the primary texts for authors who lived up until 1500:
http://search.proquest.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/search/1753455?accountid=11311
Or you can find a specific text by doing an Advanced Search, making sure to select the "Primary Texts search" option. The individual book recommendations below contain links to the text on LION.

The modern texts are available in ebook format to download from the Boston Public Library system (and maybe your local library system too). All Harvard students are eligible for a BPL card:
An Anthology (Blackwell Anthologies), Treharne, Elaine, Published by Wiley-Blackwell (2004)—Many second hand versions are available at
https://www.bpl.org/ecard/

Want to avoid Amazon? Don't have a local independent bookstore who is selling online? Try:
https://www.abebooks.com/
(secondhand bookseller)

https://bookshop.org/
(secondhand bookseller)