https://www.medievalists.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/penguin-books-medieval-300x225.jpg 300w, If you love the Middle Ages, you are very likely to have in your library some of the many books from Penguin. For nearly 75 years their series of books have allowed millions of readers to learn about the history and literature of the world, including the medieval world.
The first book in the Penguin Classics series was Homer’s The Odyssey, translated by E.V. Rieu, which was published in 1946. Priced at only 1 shilling, the book was an immediate hit, as the general public wanted to access inexpensive editions of important literary works. While the series started with classics from the ancient world, it soon was publishing books from the Middle Ages (and more modern periods).
It seems that every used book stores has dozens of these titles, familiar by their black spines. One can now find over 140 books in the Penguin Classics series that are from the Middle Ages. In this piece, we introduce you to ten of most the famous of these books.
Beowulf
Translated by David Wright in 1957
Several of the books on this list have had new versions come out since they were first published – there are three translations of Beowulf from Penguin Classics (the others coming in 1973 and 1995). It covers the most famous Old English poem in history, where the hero Beowulf must face the monster Grendel and Grendel’s mother.
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The History of the Franks, by Gregory of Tours
Translated by Lewis Thorpe in 1974
This chronicle from the sixth century tells the stories of the Merovingian kings. Written by the Bishop of Tours, “as he unravels the bewildering events of these decades, what emerges is no dry historical document but a colourful, detailed and moving pageant.”
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Two Lives of Charlemagne, by Einhard and Notker the Stammerer
Translated by Lewis Thorpe in 1969
This brings together two biographies of the Carolingian emperor Charlemagne, one written by his advisor and personal friend, the other by a monk who collected interesting anecdotes of his life and times.
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Chronicles of the Crusades, by Jean de Joinville and Geoffroy de Villehardouin
Translated by Margaret Shaw in 1963
This book also brings two texts from the thirteenth century together – the first an account of the Fourth Crusade which ended with the Western European capture of Constantinople, and the other an account of the Seventh Crusade, where King Louis IX of France invaded Egypt.
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Ecclesiastical History of the English People, by Bede
Translated by Leo Stanley-Price in 1955
Written in the year 731, this work gives an account of Britain from its earliest times to the author’s own times. Bede has been given the title ‘Father of English History’, and this work is one of our best sources about England in the early Middle Ages.
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Chronicles, by Jean Froissart
Translated by Geoffrey Brereton in 1968
A selection of some of the most important parts of Froissart’s Chronicles, this book is one of the best sources about the Hundred Years War, covering up to the end of fourteenth century and including accounts of major battles such as Crecy and Poitiers.
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The Alexiad of Anna Comnena
Translated by E.R.A. Sewter in 1969
Written in the early twelfth century by the daughter of Byzantine Emperor Alexius I, this history of his reign includes many details about the politics of the period, including her view of the First Crusade.
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The Travels, by Marco Polo
Translated by R.E. Latham in 1958
The story of a thirteenth century Italian merchant who spent over 20 years in Asia, Marco Polo’s work offers a fascinating account, not only of his own life, but of what he saw and learned about from this other part of the medieval world.
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The Song of Roland
Translated by Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Sayers called this “the earliest, the most famous, and the greatest of those Old French epics which are called Songs of Deeds.” It was written at the end of the eleventh century, but tells a tale about Charlemagne’s era involving battles, betrayals, and chivalry.
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Egil’s Saga
Translated by Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards in 1974
One of the most famous of the Icelandic sagas, it tells the Egil Skallagrimsson, who commits his first murder at the age of six. A unique character in medieval literature, it takes you from the farms of Iceland to the battlefields of England.
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Look for our next post in this series, which will be about 10 more books from this collection that reach out to the wider medieval world. To learn more about this series, check out The Penguin Classics Book, by Henry Eliot, which details the history of this collection and lists the hundreds of books that have been published as part of it.
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