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Courses / Modules / ENGL3112 Songs of the Earth: Landscapes and Environments of Early Medieval England

Songs of the Earth: Landscapes and Environments of Early Medieval England

When you'll study it
Semester 1
CATS points
15
ECTS points
7.5
Level
Level 6
Module lead
Michael Bintley
Academic year
2025-26
Module overview Aims and Objectives Syllabus Learning and Teaching Assessment
Module overview Aims and Objectives Syllabus Learning and Teaching Assessment

Module overview

How did people in early medieval England think, feel, and write about the world they inhabited? In what sorts of ways did literature and other forms of texts shape their engagements with landscapes, environments, and the beings – real and imagined – with whom they shared this world? This module will introduce you to the places and spaces of the early Middle Ages from demon-haunted fenlands to crumbling urban wastelands, from dense woodlands to bright open country, and from the plains of paradise to the horrors of the inferno. We will focus on a range of Old English literature in translation, read in the wider context of contemporary textual and material cultures, and consider the ways in which texts from a range of genres constructed ideas about the environments and landscapes of early medieval England, and how these in turn shaped the lives of their inhabitants.