Medievalism in Literature
Medievalism in Romantic and Victorian literature revived interest in the Middle Ages, influencing genres, themes, and styles. Authors used medieval elements to explore contemporary issues, critique society, and evoke a sense of mystery and beauty.
This literary movement reflected broader cultural trends, including nationalism, industrialization, and a reaction against Enlightenment ideals. It shaped the development of historical novels, narrative poetry, and children's literature, leaving a lasting impact on literary traditions.
Defining Medievalism
Medievalism refers to the study, interpretation, and reimagining of the Middle Ages in post-medieval cultures, particularly in literature, art, and architecture. Rather than aiming for historical accuracy, medievalist writers incorporated medieval themes, motifs, and styles into 19th-century works, often with a nostalgic or idealized view of the past.
This took several forms:
- Revival of medieval genres like ballads, romances, and epic poetry
- Use of medieval settings, characters, and chivalric ideals
- Exploration of courtly love, honor, and spiritual quests
Romantic and Victorian authors used medievalism to critique their own society. By contrasting the perceived simplicity and nobility of the Middle Ages with the complexities of industrial-era life, they could comment on contemporary problems without addressing them head-on.
Manifestations in Romantic and Victorian Literature
Medieval genres were revived and reshaped across the period. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" drew on the ballad tradition, John Keats' "The Eve of St. Agnes" reimagined the medieval romance, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" took on the scope of epic poetry.
Beyond genre, authors used medieval settings and characters to explore issues that mattered in their own time: the role of women, the nature of heroism, and the tension between individual desire and societal expectations. Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market" employed medieval-inspired imagery to evoke mystery and otherworldliness, while William Morris' "The Defence of Guenevere" adapted Arthurian material to suit his own artistic and political vision.
Medievalism's Resurgence
Reaction Against the Enlightenment
The resurgence of interest in medieval themes was partly a reaction against the Enlightenment's emphasis on reason and progress. Romantic and Victorian authors sought to reconnect with a more imaginative and emotionally resonant past. The Gothic novel of the late 18th century had already sparked fascination with the supernatural, mysterious, and macabre elements associated with the Middle Ages, and medievalism built on that foundation.
Nationalism and Cultural Roots
The rise of nationalism in the 19th century led writers and artists to celebrate their nation's medieval heritage. Medievalism provided a way of asserting national identity in a rapidly changing world.
- In Britain, the Arthurian legends became a vehicle for national pride. Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" reimagined Arthur as an emblem of British virtue and order.
- In Scandinavia, Norse sagas attracted renewed attention. William Morris translated several Icelandic sagas, bringing them to English-speaking audiences and weaving their themes into his own poetry.
These projects weren't just literary exercises. They were attempts to root modern national identity in a deep, shared past.
Industrialization and Nostalgia
Increasing industrialization and urbanization created a sense of disconnection from nature and from older ways of life. Many writers felt a nostalgic yearning for what they saw as the simplicity and authenticity of medieval existence, a sharp contrast to the noise and inequality of 19th-century cities.
John Ruskin championed medieval craftsmanship as morally superior to factory production. William Morris went further, founding the Arts and Crafts movement partly on the ideal of the medieval artisan who took pride in handmade work. In their view, medievalism offered not just an escape but a model for how society might be reformed.
Accessibility of Medieval Texts
None of this would have been possible without the growing availability of medieval texts. The publication of scholarly editions and translations throughout the 18th and 19th centuries gave Romantic and Victorian authors new material to draw on.
Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765) was an early and influential collection that introduced many readers to medieval ballads and songs. Later, the founding of the Early English Text Society in 1864 made a wide range of Middle English works available in reliable editions. These resources turned the Middle Ages from a vague cultural memory into a concrete literary tradition that writers could study, adapt, and reimagine.
Reinterpreting the Medieval
Adapting Medieval Genres
Romantic and Victorian authors didn't simply copy medieval forms. They adapted and transformed them to reflect contemporary concerns.
Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" uses the ballad form but pushes it toward themes of guilt, redemption, and the supernatural that go well beyond the scope of traditional ballads. Keats' "The Eve of St. Agnes" takes the framework of a medieval romance and fills it with sensuous detail and psychological depth, turning a tale of love into an exploration of desire and imagination.
The genre was always a starting point, not a destination.
Exploring Contemporary Issues
Medieval settings gave authors a useful distance from which to examine their own society. By placing characters in the Middle Ages, writers could raise sensitive questions about gender, power, and morality without seeming to attack Victorian institutions directly.
- Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott" uses the Arthurian legend to examine the isolation and constrained agency of women in Victorian society.
- Robert Browning's "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church" sets its dramatic monologue in a Renaissance church but uses the medieval-inflected setting to expose the corruption and materialism lurking within religious authority.
The medieval past became a mirror held up to the present.
Reinterpreting Medieval Texts
Some authors drew on specific medieval sources as the basis for their own work, reinterpreting and expanding the original material. Arthurian legends and Norse sagas were especially popular.
Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" retells the story of King Arthur and his knights, but reshapes it around Victorian anxieties about duty, moral failure, and the fragility of civilization. William Morris' "The Earthly Paradise" adapts Norse and Greek myths into a frame narrative that reflects his own socialist ideals and longing for a pre-industrial world. In each case, the reinterpretation reveals as much about the 19th century as it does about the Middle Ages.
Evoking Mystery and Beauty
Medieval themes and imagery gave writers access to a register of mystery, beauty, and otherworldliness that felt unavailable in realistic contemporary settings.
Keats' "La Belle Dame sans Merci" draws on the medieval motif of the enchantress to create an atmosphere of haunting beauty and danger. The poem's spare, ballad-like structure intensifies its dreamlike quality. Rossetti's "Goblin Market" uses medieval-inspired imagery and symbolism to explore temptation, sisterhood, and redemption in a narrative that feels both ancient and urgently personal. For these writers, medievalism was a way of reaching beyond everyday reality into a realm of imagination.
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Social Commentary and Critique
Victorian authors also used medievalism as a direct vehicle for social critique, contrasting the values they associated with the Middle Ages against the shortcomings of their own era.
- William Morris' "A Dream of John Ball" uses the 1381 Peasants' Revolt to criticize the injustices of Victorian capitalism. The medieval rebels become stand-ins for contemporary workers struggling against exploitation.
- Thomas Carlyle's Past and Present compares the medieval monastic community of Bury St Edmunds with the industrial present, arguing that Victorian society had lost its spiritual center in the pursuit of profit.
Medievalism gave these writers a framework for imagining alternatives to the status quo.
Medievalism's Literary Impact
Development of the Historical Novel
The medieval revival played a significant role in establishing the historical novel as a major genre. Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (1819) set the template: fictional characters and plots woven into detailed descriptions of medieval life, customs, and architecture. Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) did something similar for France, using medieval Paris as both setting and symbol.
The popularity of these novels reflected a growing desire to understand the roots of contemporary society through narrative. Scott in particular showed that the past could be made vivid and dramatic, not just antiquarian.
Rise of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement
Medievalism contributed directly to the Pre-Raphaelite movement in both art and literature. Founded in 1848, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood sought to recapture the spirituality, sincerity, and close attention to nature they associated with art before Raphael.
Painters like Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais frequently depicted medieval subjects. In literature, Pre-Raphaelite poets such as Christina Rossetti and William Morris drew on medieval forms and imagery to develop a style emphasizing sensuality, symbolism, and emotional intensity. The movement treated the medieval not as a dead past but as a living source of artistic renewal.
Influence on Romantic Poetry
The influence of medieval ballads and folk tales runs through the work of the major Romantic poets. Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads (1798) sought a more natural and spontaneous style of poetry, drawing on the simplicity and directness of the ballad tradition. Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Christabel" incorporate elements of medieval supernaturalism and mysticism to explore the darker aspects of the human psyche.
For the Romantics, medievalism was a way of rejecting the artificiality and rigid conventions of 18th-century poetry and embracing a more authentic, imaginative mode of expression.
Development of Victorian Narrative Poetry
Victorian poets such as Tennyson and Browning drew on medieval themes and forms to create a new kind of narrative poetry, marked by dramatic monologues, psychological depth, and moral complexity.
- Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" and "Maud" use Arthurian legend and medieval romance to explore love, duty, and identity.
- Browning's "The Ring and the Book" employs a Renaissance-era murder case to build a multi-perspectival narrative examining truth, justice, and human motivation.
Medieval material gave these poets a rich foundation for expanding the boundaries of what poetry could do, both formally and thematically.
Impact on Children's Literature
The medieval revival also shaped 19th-century children's literature. George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin (1872) used medieval-inspired settings and characters to create a fantastical narrative with clear moral and spiritual dimensions. Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), while less overtly medieval, drew on the tradition of allegorical quest narratives rooted in the Middle Ages.
These works reflected a growing Victorian recognition of childhood as a distinct stage of life deserving its own imaginative literature. The influence extends well beyond the 19th century: J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis both drew heavily on medieval sources, and their work continues to shape how children's and fantasy literature engages with the medieval past.