Middle Ages - Recommended Optional Reading

Beowulf - translation by Ruth Lehmann [here]

Notes on Reading Beowulf

 

The Lay of the Cid (Translation: R.Selden Rose& L. Bacon) [OMACL 30]

Notes on Reading El Cid

 

The Song of Roland,  c. 11th Century, full texts, trans. John O'Hagan.  In rhyming couplets!

A different translation: The Song of Roland, c. 11th Century, full texts, trans. Charles Moncrief. 

Notes on Reading The Song of Roland

 

Njal's Saga - The Icelandic story of Burnt Njal  [At OMACL]

 

Khazaria

• The Medieval Jewish Kingdom of the Khazars, 740-1259  [at Medieval Sourcebook]
  various contemporary accounts.
• 2ndary source Arthur Koestler: The Thirteenth Tribe: The Khazar Empire and its Heritage 1976, [At SMOM-ZA.ORG
  Interesting book by Koestler, largely based on earlier work by Dunlap and others. Highly Recommended

 

The Geste of Robin Hood, Verse Translation by Robert Landis Frank [here]

 

Chretien de Troyes:
Lancelot or, The Knight of the Cart, Translation: W.W. Comfort [HTML][At OMACL]

 

Geoffrey Chaucer (d. 1400): 
The Canterbury Tales [Modernized version] The entire Canterbury Tales is now available on line at Virginia Tech via HTML.

 

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375):
The Decameron,   Full text of English translation [at Medieval Sourcebook]

The Decameron, in Italian and English [At Brown]

 

Anselm (1033-1109): Monologium, On the Being of God [full text at Medieval Sourcebook]

Augustine of Hippo (354-430): The City of God, [complete in HTML from CCEL]