Middle English

hi,
does anybody know of any writers (with exception of Chaucer and William Langland) that was active during the middle english period.

Olivia

Thomas Malory (Morte d'Arthur), Wulfstan, Aelfric, Cynewulf, John Gower (Confessio Amantis - Chaucer's contemporary)... can't remember more right now.

A few others worth mentioning: Paul Deane, Margery Kempe, and Julian of Norwich. I feel unsure whether one could consider Wulfstan and Ælfric as Middle English (to its definition between the years 1066 and mid-to-late 15th century); Cynewulf seems to have lived far too early to fit the category.

Yep, Cynewulf is a 'bit' too early. Aelfric is not that far off (only about a century by definition ;)), Wulfstan a decade or two.

Cynewulf is definately OE and it seems to me that Aelfric and Wulfstan pretty much are too (though they may straddle the transition a bit more, I've only looked at them briefly and that was a few years ago--at any rate tougher to deal with without some OE background)

If you're intersted in ME texts there are a couple good sites out there. The Luminarium collection of ME texts is a pretty manageable and user friendly assortment for anyone who's curious (the same site also has a collection of Renaissance and Baroque texts if you feel like poking around). You can find "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" on there (click on the second version of the text from UVA if you don't have access to a university proxy), which is worth reading if you haven't already (though the ME is harder than Chaucer so you may want to read it with the modern translation handy). Margery Kempe's also available, and she's a real kick. The Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse has a quite thorough collection. One of the more famous ME poems which you'll find on there in the anonymous section is "Pearl," which might be worth having a look at. There's also thisTeams site coming out of Rochester and Kalamazoo that a medievalist friend of mine recommended to me recently, which looks like it's got a lot of good stuff. If you're interested at all in the history of the language and its literature you might want to have a look at The Cambridge History of English and American Literature on Bartleby, which may also give you some ideas for writers you'd like to look at. Have fun delving into the world of Middle English. :)

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Originally Posted by Jay

Yep, Cynewulf is a 'bit' too early. Aelfric is not that far off (only about a century by definition ;)), Wulfstan a decade or two.

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The years seem rather odd and random in definition to Middle English, I have always thought. Just for reference, I had to look up the declared years, too.
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what defined these years, separating Old English and Early Modern English?