Medieval Literature for Children

This volume will be a critical anthology of primary texts whose main audience was children and/or adolescents in the medieval period. Texts will include theoretical and interpretative introductions and commentary.

An anthology of medieval children's literature, arranged in various categories and interspersed with scholarly commentary.

Scholars once believed that childhood was alien to the Middle Ages. Too many children died. Life was too hard and too short to cherish youth. Only in recent years have historians looked beyond this general assumption to discover the significance children and childhood had for medieval culture. Based on material, cultural, and historical evidence, many now agree that medieval parents valued their children as children, not as "miniature adults." If so, what were medieval children reading? How does it function as children's literature? What does it tell us about childhood in the Middle Ages?
Medieval Literature for Children is the first critical anthology of texts written for children during the Middle Ages. The volume includes selections from nearly 20 medieval text, accompanied by incisive critical introductions by an outstanding group of interdisciplinary scholars that illuminate the diversity, sophistication, and complexity of literature for medieval children and youth. The selection of original texts includes material written in Middle English, as well as translations from Latin, Old English, and medieval Welsh. The selections span a broad range of genres, from didactic literature to popular romance and drama, and include the "ABC of Aristotle", Aelfric's Colloquy, The Fables of Avianus, Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe, The Ecloque of Theodulus, Sir Gowther, Occupation and Idleness, along with many others.

Daniel T. Kline is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Alaska, Anchorage