Be proud of your heritage, my fellow Britons, including you Christopher Marlowe the 2nd! A true Briton is one who knows well what are the 6 great long poems of “The Dark Ages” and “The Middle Ages” in England. All these long poems were published written in old English. These 6 long English poems served as inspiration and pride to Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene during “The Renaissance Period” in England and John Milton’s Paradise Lost during “The Victorian Period” in England.  I, as a guide to British literature, will start with number 6:

6. The Brut by Layamon

This long poem was published in 1190 in England by Layamon in early Middle English. It is 16,095 lines long. The long poem deals with the early history of the British people. A verse history masterpiece in the Anglo-Saxon dialect of early Middle English.

5. The Lover’s Confession by John Gower

Published in 1390, this long poem was John Gower’s masterpiece. It is a very long poem: 33,000 lines long! That makes it three times longer than Homer’s The Odyssey! The poem is also longer than Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales! The plot of the long poem revolves around the confession of an ageing lover to the chaplain of the goddess Venus as a framework for a collection of narrative poems. Gower dedicated the long poem to King Richard the 2nd of England.

4. Piers Plowman by William Langland

This long poem, about 6,000 lines long, was published in 1388.

The poem—part theological allegory, part social satire—concerns the narrator’s intense quest for the true Christian life, which is told from the point of view of the medieval Catholic mind. This quest entails a series of dream-visions and an examination into the lives of three allegorical characters, Dowel (“Do-Well”), Dobet (“Do-Better”), and Dobest (“Do-Best”). The poem begins in the Malvern Hills in Malvern, Worcestershire. A man named Will falls asleep and has a vision of a tower set upon a hill and a fortress (donjon) in a deep valley; between these symbols of heaven and hell is a “fair field full of folk”, representing the world of mankind. In the early part of the poem Piers, the humble plowman of the title, appears and offers himself as the narrator’s guide to Truth. The latter part of the work, however, is concerned with the narrator’s search for Dowel, Dobet and Dobest.

3. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Unknown Author

This long poem was published between 1340 and 1400. Middle English alliterative romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur’s Round Table. In the tale, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his beard and skin. The “Green Knight” offers to allow anyone to strike him with his axe if the challenger will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts, and beheads him in one blow, only to have the Green Knight stand up, pick up his head, and remind Gawain to meet him at the appointed time. The story of Gawain’s struggle to meet the appointment and his adventures along the way demonstrate the spirit of chivalryand loyalty. The poem is 2,531 lines long. The unknown author called herself/himself “The Pearl Poet” or “The Gawain Poet”.

2. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

And of course Chaucer’s masterpiece. I do not need to explain. Chaucer was the ultimate BRITON POET of the Middle Ages! The Canterbury Tales published around 1421, 21 years after Chaucer’s death in 1400. The long poem starts with Chaucer as the narrator on a journey with 29 other pilgrims, who were common British people of all walks of life. They embark on a journey from Southwerk, England to Canterbury, England at Canterbury Cathedral to worship the shrine of St. Thomas Becket. Along the way each pilgrim tells four tales on the roundtrip journey. That would equal to a total of 120 tales! But Chaucer only wrote 24 tales, leaving his magnum opus unfinished due to his untimely death in 1400.

1. Beowulf by Unknown Author

The long poem of English literature! Written between 800 and 1000 in England by a mysterious person. This was the only masterpiece long poem in England during The Dark Ages. During this time, England was begininng to take form as a British culture and people, due to invasion of the land by Germanic tribes from Germany, Denmark and Sweden, such as the Anglo Saxons and the Vikings. Also the Celts and the Welsh invaded England from France and parts of Germany. This long poem was written by an Anglo-Saxon person in England. Beowulf was the great hero and king of the Geats, a tribe from Denmark and Sweden. The Beowulf legend of the Dark Ages was the forefather of King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable legends of the Middle Ages in England. Beowulf fought 3 monsters in the long poem: 1) Grendel 2) Grendel’s mother and 3) a mysterious dragon.

My fellow readers, these 6 long poems serve as the pride of British literature! Characters like Bilbo Baggins and Harry Potter were inspired by these masterpieces!