Medieval Vs Troubadour

Medieval Literature vs Troubadour Medieval style literature is centered on specific ideas like heroes, epics, and stories about bravery. Troubadour style writing on the other hand is drastically different since its topics range of many categories. The troubadour’s dominant topics were love and chivalry (New World Encyclopedia). The language of these two forms of literature was also different. One was written in the vernacular or the common language and the other was written in what we know today as middle english. Although the first troubadours originally came from the upper class, later on most troubadours emerged from the lower classes. The troubadours where essentially singing musicians reciting works of poetry they wandered around or …show more content…
On the other hand medieval literature was written work of poetry since the beginning of its existence. However although differences are evident in both styles of literature there are also many similarities. First and foremost both of these literary styles were ways of expression of historical accounts or legends of the past. As an example Layamon’s Brut and in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight both spoke about King Arthur in their stories. The real dilemma is that these stories were written hundreds of years of apart and are vastly different in writing style. In Layamon’s Brut we see how a king ironically fights against his own people and vows to take revenge for a previous defeat (Layamon’s Brut). This literarily element is also widely used in troubadour style of literature. It can be seen in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight when Arthur knights did not stand up to prove their bravery to the green knight, but ironically the youngest knight did. These two styles of literature are also similar because they were written in the third person point of view with the narrator or poet constantly trying to depict the character with superior characteristics. Medieval literature was a form of expression the narrator or authors used for describing the ideal person at the time. The troubadours at the time also wrote there poems for the same reason. However the ideal people for each respective time period would have been different. Often times in medieval literature you would hear about physical conflict and gore, which was the case in Layamon’s Brut. However in the troubadour style poetry like seen in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; you can also see conflict but this time the conflict is different and is instead an inner conflict between Sir Gawain and