Anglo-Norman literature

Written by: Dominica Legge
Alternate titles: Anglo-French literature; Norman-French literature

Anglo-Norman literature, also called Norman-french Literature, orAnglo-french Literature,  body of writings in the Old French language as used in medieval England. Though this dialect had been introduced to English court circles in Edward the Confessor’s time, its history really began with the Norman Conquest in 1066, when it became the vernacular of the court, the law, the church, schools, universities, parliament, and later of municipalities and of trade. For the English aristocracy, Anglo-Norman became an acquired tongue and its use a test of gentility. It was introduced into Wales and Ireland and used to a limited extent in Scotland. The earliest extant literary texts in the Anglo-Norman dialect belonged to the reign of Henry I in the early 12th century, the latest to that of Henry IV in the early 15th century. The alienation toward France during the Hundred Years’ War started an increasing use of English, the last strongholds of a French dialect being Parliament and the law, in both of which it still survives in a few formulas.

From the 12th through the 14th century, Anglo-Norman was second only to Latin in its use as a literary language in England. Most types of literary works were represented in Anglo-Norman as in French, with a slight difference of emphasis. The chanson de geste was an exception; this type of French epic poem was not unknown in England, but there seem to have been no original works of the kind written there. Conversely, Anglo-Norman works were known, copied, or imitated on the Continent. One important difference between continental and Anglo-Norman literature is that the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 led to an outpouring of doctrinal and devotional works for the laity in England not paralleled in France, which perhaps explains the fact that in the early periods England was often in advance of the Continent in the development of new literary forms. Historical writing was popular both in Normandy and in the rest of the Continent; and although, after the Norman Conquest, Latin replaced English for use in documents and chronicles, examples of both are found in Anglo-Norman. Religious houses caused lives of native saints to be written, and the nobility had a taste for romances about imaginary English ancestors. Thus social and political differences between the two countries prevented Anglo-Norman literature from being a mere provincial imitation of French.

Religious and didactic writings.

In the 12th century the oldest substantial Anglo-Norman prose work, “The Book of Kings,” was written in England, as were many versions of the Psalter. Sanson de Nanteuil translated into verse the proverbs of Solomon, with commentary; and in the 13th century Robert of Greatham wrote the “Sunday Gospels” for a noble lady. The same century saw the beginning of the magnificent series of Anglo-Norman apocalypses, best known for their superb illustrations, which served as a model for a series of tapestries at Angers, France. Anglo-Norman was rich in literature of legends of saints, of which Benedeit’s “Voyage of St. Brendan” was perhaps the oldest purely narrative French poem in the octosyllabic couplet. Wace led the way in writing a saint’s life in standard form but was followed by Anglo-Norman writers in the 12th century who wrote numerous biographies, many connecting religious houses with their patron saints.

The earliest play entirely in French, the Mystère d’Adam, is Anglo-Norman. The resurrection play La Seinte Resureccion was probably 12th century but was rewritten more than once in the 13th century. There were a few religious allegories, the most important, the “Castle of Love,” being the oldest in French.

The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 led to the compilation of instructive works, the oldest and most attractive being the Merure de seinte église (“Mirror of Holy Church”) by St. Edmund of Abingdon. In the 13th–14th century countless treatises appeared on technical subjects—manuals for confession, agriculture, law, medicine, grammar, and science, together with works dealing with manners, hunting, hawking, and chess. Spelling treatises produced in the late 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries are valuable for the light they shed on continental French as well as Anglo-Norman.


Anglo-Norman literature was well provided with romances. In the 12th century one Thomas wrote a courtly version of the Tristan story, which survived in scattered fragments and was used by Gottfried von Strassburg in Tristan und Isolde as well as being the source of the Old Norse, Italian, and Middle English versions of the story. Béroul’s Tristan, also 12th century, was probably written in England, but by a Norman; Waldef, a long, confused story of an imaginary king of East Anglia and his sons, has passages of remarkable originality. In the 12th century some romances were composed in the form of the chanson de geste; for example, Horn, by Master Thomas, which is connected with the Middle English Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild. Yet another Thomas wrote the Roman de toute chevalerie (“Romance of All Chivalry”), an independent version of the Alexander romance and the source of the Middle English romance King Alisaunder. In the 13th century the more courtly type of romance reappeared in Amadas et Idoine and in Amis et Amiloun.

Lais and fabliaux.

Marie de France, the earliest named French woman poet, wrote fables based on an English source and 12 narrative lays (dedicated, probably, to Henry II of England) in octosyllabic rhymed couplets. She claimed that they had Breton lays as their originals. The lais combined realistic and fairy-tale elements, and their author was skillful in the analysis of love problems and often showed a keen interest in contemporary life. A few other fabliaux have been found copied in manuscripts from religious houses, probably for exemplary purposes.

Political and historical writings.

Fragments of political songs are found in Peter Langtoft’s Chronicle, which begins as a Brut—a complete chronicle of British history—but became a source for the times of Edward I. The Dominican Nicholas Trevet wrote a prose chronicle of European history from which Chaucer derived his “Man of Law’s Tale.” Earlier than these was an Anglo-Norman verse, Estoire des Engleis, by Geffrei Gaimar (c. 1140), which is the earliest chronicle in French. Two magnificent biographies of the 1st Earl of Pembroke (William Marshal) and of Edward, the Black Prince, were written for English patrons by foreigners. Official documents were often in Anglo-Norman, and the Yearbooks, unofficial reports of cases in the common pleas, ran from the reign of Edward I to that of Henry VIII. English began to be used in Parliament alongside French in the late 14th century.


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