Change Of Midevil Philosophy Essay, Research Paper

The Celts religion was a form of animism, which is explained as seeing spirits in everything: rivers, threes, rocks, etc,. These spirits were like Gods which controlled whatever they were god of. The literature of this time was filled with magic and fantasy. They told stories of love, and awesome adventures. They were stories of enchanted lands where magic and imagination was the took over. But, unlike the later myths of the Anglo-Saxons, women were very powerful people in celtic myth. The ruler of all magic was Qween Mab. These myths were actually considered true at the time. Anglo-Saxon literature was very different from Celtic literature, yet we can still see the influence of the Celts. Times have changed, Christianity is starting to take over the old magic ways. We find people trying to teach Christianity, and teach that the old ways are bad. In the stories now we are finding that our Christian hero will go our and find the evil, or at least now portrayed as evil, magic or mythical character, and kill it. This is really just a way of Christianity taking over. It’s a way of getting the message that ” The old ways are bad and Christianity is good,” to all of the people. The people recieved this message very well, and it was applied even stornger in the Medieval time period. Medieval literature, basically, told people all of the laws by which they should live thier lives, and we still see some of the old message that the old ways are bad. Like in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, for instance, the Green knight was magical and evil. Yet it also carried a strong message about life, this message is that ” If one didn’t follow the code and do what is right, then the evil would get them.” Medieval literature explained how a person shoud act and conduct themselves. It usually provided a moral about life and the way that you should live it. In the Medieval period they were controlling the people by telling them how they should act and live in their literature.

Once Feudalism fell, and everyone realized that the “higher athorities”, the church, lords, kings, etc., had been contorolling their lives all of these years, the people rebeled and this began the Renaissance. The way of life was different in the Renaissance, people found out that everyone had been lying to them throughout the Medival period. Now that the people had the power back it was time for them to have some fun. There was a new theme ” Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may die.” Now the instead of the literature telling people what to do, it would give them some valuable insight about life. It usually told them to live it up because we never know when we are going to just kick the bucket. Plays were being written, and anyone could go see them. This is where people started to live it up, go out and see plays to relax and be entertained. Now everone could have a little taste of luxury, not just the rich. The message of the literature would come straight for the author, it was a message that told how life is or taught good morals or whatever the author believed.