The Re-Emergence of English Literature
Lesson 5: The Vernacular Revival (c. 1150–1300)
1. Introduction: The Vernacular Revival
The gradual but powerful re-assertion of English as a literary medium.
This period marks a critical turning point in English literary history. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, literary production in English was almost completely eclipsed by the prestige languages of Latin (the language of the Church and scholarship) and Anglo-Norman French (the language of the court and aristocracy).
The 12th and 13th centuries, however, witnessed the gradual but powerful re-assertion of English as a sophisticated literary medium. This “new” English—now known as Middle English—did not re-emerge in the royal court but in regional monastic centers and parishes. It was driven not by aristocratic entertainment but by the urgent need for pastoral care, regional devotion, and the desire to create new forms of narrative. This period laid the essential groundwork for the great literary flowering of the 14th century.
2. Historical and Linguistic Context
The political and religious drivers behind the revival of English.
Political and Social Change
The single most important political event was King John’s Loss of Normandy in 1204. This forced the Anglo-Norman nobility, who had held lands in both England and France, to choose their allegiance. Those who remained in England began to see themselves as “English.” Intermarriage, a shared legal system, and growing political distance from the Continent fostered a new national consciousness. By 1258, this shift was formalized when the Provisions of Oxford, a major document of baronial reform, was issued in English alongside French and Latin—the first major state document to do so since the Conquest.
Religious and Pastoral Drivers
An even more significant catalyst was the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. This church council, convened by Pope Innocent III, mandated that all laity must make confession and receive instruction from their priests in their own vernacular (common language). This created an immediate and massive demand for religious materials in English. Priests, monks, and friars needed texts to teach the populace the basics of the faith, resulting in a surge of sermons, saints’ lives, confessional guides, and didactic poems.
The Nature of Middle English
The language that re-emerged was profoundly different from the Old English of *Beowulf*.
- Grammar: Old English’s complex inflections (case endings and grammatical gender) had largely disappeared, leading to a simpler, more modern grammatical structure.
- Syntax: The language became more reliant on prepositions (of, in, to, by) and a fixed word order (Subject-Verb-Object), much like Modern English.
- Lexicon: The vocabulary was massively enriched by thousands of French loanwords (estimates exceed 10,000) related to law (jury, felony, attorney), government (parliament, noble, realm), art (poetry, romance, music), and high culture.
3. Major Literary Schools: The “West Midlands Group”
A sophisticated, regional prose tradition established long before the 14th century.
In the absence of a single “King’s English” or London standard, literary production flourished in regional centers. The most important and artistically sophisticated of these was the West Midlands School, centered in Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
This school is defined by a cluster of texts often written in a remarkably consistent and conservative dialect known as “AB Language” (named after the two primary manuscripts, Corpus Christi MS 402 (A) and Bodleian MS 34 (B)).
This group includes:
- Ancrene Wisse: The group’s prose masterpiece (see below).
- The “Katherine Group”: A collection of prose saints’ lives (Seinte Katerine, Seinte Margarete, and Seinte Iuliene). These are not dry histories but dynamic, rhetorical works featuring strong, articulate female saints who vigorously debate and intellectually defeat their male pagan tormentors.
- The “Wooing Group”: A set of passionate devotional texts, such as the Wohunge of ure Lauerd (“The Wooing of Our Lord”). These works are prime examples of affective piety, using the emotional and romantic language of courtly love to describe a mystical, intimate devotion to Christ.
4. Landmark Works: Detailed Analysis
The foundational, (and almost entirely anonymous) texts of the English revival.
The Ormulum
Author / Date: Orm (or Ormin), an Augustinian canon / c. 1175–1200
Dialect / Genre: East Midlands / Verse Homilies (Sermons)
Form: A rigid, unrhymed 15-syllable iambic line (septenary).
Content & Significance: The Ormulum is a massive (though unfinished) collection of sermons paraphrasing the Gospels, designed for use by parish priests. Its primary importance is linguistic. Orm was obsessed with correct pronunciation, fearing that if the priest mispronounced the words, the laity’s souls would be in peril.
To solve this, he invented his own phonetic spelling system. His most famous innovation was doubling consonants after short vowels (e.g., writing Godd instead of God). This text is a perfect artifact of the pastoral mission, showing a profound, self-conscious effort to standardize English for the purpose of salvation.
Ancrene Wisse (The Anchoresses’ Guide)
Author / Date: Anonymous / c. 1200–1230
Dialect / Genre: West Midlands (AB Language) / Religious Prose (Anchoritic Rule)
Content & Significance: This is a prose masterpiece of the era, written as a guide for three young noblewomen who had chosen to become anchoresses (religious recluses walled into cells attached to a church).
It is far from a dry rulebook. It is divided into an “Outer Rule” (daily life) and an “Inner Rule” (the soul). The prose is elegant, witty, and psychologically acute. The author uses extended allegories, most famously, Christ as a chivalric knight-lover who jousts in a tournament (the Crucifixion) to win the love of his lady (the human soul). It proves that English prose was already a mature, high-art medium.
The Owl and the Nightingale
Author / Date: Anonymous (possibly Nicholas of Guildford) / c. 1180–1220
Dialect / Genre: Southern / Debate Poem
Form: Crisp, energetic octosyllabic rhyming couplets.
Content & Significance: This is one of the earliest great “literary” poems in Middle English. It presents a long, witty argument between two birds:
- The somber, serious Owl represents the old, stern, monastic, and didactic tradition.
- The cheerful, joyous Nightingale represents the new, aesthetic, and courtly tradition of love and song.
The poem is a masterpiece of the French débat (debate) genre. It satirizes legal proceedings and clerical arguments. At its core, it is a metapoetic work—a poem about the very function and purpose of poetry itself. Its French-inspired form shows a complete mastery of new continental poetics.
Layamon’s Brut
Author / Date: Layamon (a priest) / c. 1200–1225
Dialect / Genre: West Midlands / Chronicle / National Epic
Form: A powerful, driving alliterative verse line that consciously revives the sound of Old English epic poetry, though it also incorporates occasional rhyme.
Content & Significance: This is the first major history of Britain and the first Arthurian epic in the English language. It is a massive (16,000+ line) translation and expansion of Wace’s Anglo-Norman Roman de Brut.
Layamon’s Brut is a monumental work of cultural synthesis:
- Content: The story (King Arthur, Brutus of Troy) is taken directly from the French (Wace) and Latin (Geoffrey) traditions.
- Form & Tone: The poetics and heroic ethos are drawn from the Old English tradition. Layamon’s Arthur is not Wace’s polished, courtly king; he is a grim, ferocious, dream-haunted, and epic-scale warrior, much closer in spirit to *Beowulf*. The poem is a fiercely nationalistic reclamation of Britain’s great hero for an English-speaking audience.
5. Key Analytical Concepts for Exam Review
The core themes and critical terms for analyzing this period.
Pastoral Accessibility
The drive to make complex theology simple, clear, and memorable for a non-Latinate audience. This is the central impulse of the Ormulum.
Affective Piety
An emotional, sensory, and personal form of devotion. It uses the language of human love and intimacy to describe a mystical relationship with God. This is the hallmark of the Ancrene Wisse and the “Wooing Group.”
Cultural Synthesis
The blending of old and new forms. The most common pattern is French content (like the Arthurian legend) being expressed in a native English form (like alliterative verse). This is central to Layamon’s Brut.
Vernacular Poetics
The growing self-consciousness of English as a “literary” language, capable of sophisticated satire, rhetoric, and self-reflection, as seen in The Owl and the Nightingale.
Regionalism
In the absence of a “London Standard,” literature flourished in powerful regional centers (like the West Midlands), each with its own distinct stylistic and linguistic “school.”
6. Concluding Significance: The Bridge to the 14th Century
Why this “foundational” period was essential for Chaucer and his contemporaries.
The 12th and 13th centuries were not a “literary gap” between Old English and Chaucer; they were the essential foundation. This period proved that the “new” Middle English was a flexible and powerful vehicle for all forms of expression:
- Systematic theology and pedagogy (Ormulum)
- Sophisticated prose artistry (Ancrene Wisse)
- Witty satire and metapoetics (The Owl and the Nightingale)
- National epic (Layamon’s Brut)
This era established the very literary dialects (especially East and West Midlands) and domesticated the key genres (romance, debate, devotional prose) that the great 14th-century writers—Chaucer, Langland, and the Gawain-poet—would inherit and build upon.
Revision Hub
Consolidate your learning with these interactive tools.
Survey of Early Middle English Genres
| Genre | Purpose & Features | Key Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Homiletic & Pastoral | Instruction. Driven by Fourth Lateran Council. Aimed for clarity and doctrinal correctness. | The Ormulum, Poema Morale |
| Devotional & Anchoritic Prose | Devotion. Highly rhetorical, stylistically sophisticated, and affective (emotional). | Ancrene Wisse, The “Katherine Group,” The “Wooing Group” |
| Debate / Didactic Verse | Argument & Wisdom. Used formal debate to explore moral or philosophical questions. | The Owl and the Nightingale, The Proverbs of Alfred |
| Biblical & Historical Narrative | Storytelling & Identity. Rendered salvation or national history accessible in English. | Genesis and Exodus, Layamon’s Brut |
| Early English Romance | Entertainment. “Plain style,” fast-paced plots, themes of exile-and-return, social justice. | King Horn (c. 1225), Havelok the Dane (c. 1280) |
