What would be a good generalization of the medieval literary time period?

Answer 1

The Middle Ages lasted a thousand years, and there was a lot of change in that time. Much of the medieval literature is religious, but it may be dangerous to characterize the literature as generally religious, because much of it was not, including some very important material.

The literature surviving from the beginning of the Middle Ages was mostly in Latin. Much of it was histories, chronologies, or religious writings. Some of the important literature of the time is legal writings, as it is historically important for understanding the period, in which the output of writers was much reduced.

As the post Roman part of the Early Middle Ages passed, the literature became more and more regional, with different dialects and languages represented. English literature is a good example, with writings of the 9th and 10th centuries in Old English, including the Anglo-Saxon chronicles, Beowulf, and Caedmon's Hymn. But there are other examples in other languages. Greek displaced Latin in the Byzantine Empire, Romance languages evolved from Latin in southern Europe, Germanic languages became important, and a host of other languages, such as Welsh, came to be represented. The literature of this time came to be more and more oriented toward religious subjects, though other subject continued to be important.

The High Middle Ages and Late Middle Ages continued these trends, with new subject matters being introduced, including material relating to romantic love and the code of chivalry. The stories of the court of King Arthur, and the Song of Roland, which arose in the late part of the Early Middle Ages, became standard subjects.

Later medieval literature became even more highly polished and influenced the development of the languages in which it was written. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Dante's Divine Comedy are good examples. You might note that the former, though it has religious context, is mostly secular in nature, and the later, though it is primarily religious, has strong political overtones.