From the time of the first Crusade, A.D. 1093, to the end of the
twelfth century, was the golden age of chivalry in Europe. Hence the
poetry of this period partook of the spirit that was abroad in the
world. Of this chivalrous poetry of the Middle Ages there are three
classifications: The first, taken from old legends, shows a style of
verse peopled with the Gothic, Frankish and Burgundian heroes who
flourished in the time of the great Northern emigrations; and for these
there is usually some historical foundation, while they are also
closely knit to the traditions of the old heathenish mythology of the
Gothic Nations. The second subject of chivalrous verse was Charlemagne,
the Saracens and Roncesvalle. These were chiefly composed by the
Normans, who, after the Crusades, gave a new direction to literature.
Marked changes were introduced by them, not only into France, but
throughout Europe. They were filled with the spirit of adventure and
enthusiasm, and in their onward march conquered England and Sicily, and
took the lead in the next Crusade. Essentially a poetic people, the
wonderful was the object of all their admiration and desire. Hence they
sang old war songs, especially of the battle of Roncesvalles in which
Roland dies when the Franks are conquered by the Spaniards and Turks.
In the tale of a fabulous Crusade, invented in the ninth century, and
which was embodied in poetry by the Normans, the true history of the
Empire became so bewilderingly mixed up with magicians, genii, sultans,
Oriental fables, and comical characters, who met with astonishing
adventures, that it was difficult to distinguish the true from the
false. There was nothing of the romantic and wonderful in the history
of the East, which did not find its way into the poetry that treated of
Charlemagne and Roland, until it lost all traces of the real wars and
achievements of Charlemagne. The third subject of chivalric verse was
Arthur of the Round Table; but this, at the time, was also invested
with Oriental wonders and attachments. Other chivalric poetry of this
epoch had to do with Godfrey of Bouillon, the Crusades, and old French
tales and fabliaux which were brought into Europe by the oral
narratives of the Crusaders.
The Northern mythology always abounded with mountain spirits, mermaids,
giants, dwarfs, dragons, elves and mandrakes. These reappear in the
songs of the Crusades, and are elements of the old Northern and Persian
superstitions. All that the East contributed to the song of the
chivalric period was a Southern magic, and a brilliance of Oriental
fancy with which some of the poems were clothed.
A Persian poem that became very popular in Europe in the Middle Ages
was Ferdusi's Book of Heroes. It has had a marked influence on the
Arabian "Thousand and One Nights." In this poem of Ferdusi's we note
the contest between light and darkness (an idea nowhere found in Greek
poetry). It seemed to touch the poetical thought of the age of
chivalry; for we find it reproduced in their songs, mingled with
Scriptural and love scenes.
Next to Chivalric poetry, the age of the Crusaders was essentially a
period of love songs. They attained their greatest perfection in
Provence, whence they spread over the whole of France, and from there
into Germany in the twelfth century.
Love poetry in Italy failed to attain any degree of perfection until
the time of Petrarch in the fourteenth century; and its real era in
Spain was not until a century later. Love poetry developed in different
ways in Europe, and, as we have seen, at different times. Except among
the Italians it was not so much borrowed from one nation to another as
had been the case with other branches of literature.
It is different with Chivalric poetry, which was considered the common
property of all. The form of poetical composition also varied in each
country, and the only thing common to all the nations was rhyme. Almost
all the love poems seem to have been written to be sung, and this was
carried to such lengths that in the reign of Lewis the Pious of
Germany, an edict had to be sent to the nuns of the German Cloisters by
their Bishops, forbidding them to sing their love songs, or Mynelieder.