Paper Summary:

A discussion of the parallel between the strength of the Christian influence and the treatment of animals in Old English literature, including examples from Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" and Marie de France?s "Lanval and Fables".

From the Paper:

"Though the selection of Old English material that has been covered in this course is but a small sample of what is available, the works we have covered are some of the most famous and influential from history, and one can make inferences about all Old English works from this sample. Therefore, judging by these works, taken from the Seventh Edition of the Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume One, it appears that the more Christianized a work of Old English literature it is, the less reverence or respect is given to animals, when animals are mentioned at all. In fact, the works can be divided into three categories, each of which treats animals in a different manner. The first category is the oldest of this literature, the truly Germanic tales where the Christian God is rarely mentioned and may have actually been added in by the translator. Unfortunately we have only one representative of this group, Beowulf. The second category is made up of works that were not written for a distinctly religious purpose but certainly have Christian undertones. These include Marie de France's Lanval and Fables, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. The third category consists of works that were written specifically for religious purposes or by religious people, such as monks or priests. Those referred to here are An Ecclesiastical History of the English People by the Venerable Bede, The Dream of the Rood, and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle."

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