Medieval Trojan Romance Activities

TROY
Activities for Medieval Trojan Romance

NOTE the chili peppers!!! One means a pretty easy Activity, two means a harder one, and three means a challenging Activity. It is up to you.

1. Read The Trojan War, Chapter 9: "Love Redeems Eneas; Love Destroys Achillès: Troy as Romance."

2. Explore the links on the Medieval Trojan Romance page.

3. Read through all the Activity questions before selecting Activities to work with. Notice that some of the Activities are quite easy and may only require reading one text, while others are far more difficult, and may require reading more than one text or doing online research plus reading texts.

Select Activities that interest you and are appropriate to the time you have to spend on them. You will not get a higher grade because you select more difficult Activities. Some Activities that are especially complex will offer double credit; if so, that will be stated in the Activity question. If you select the double credit option, you must write "double credit" on your Activity AND you must develop your Activity in more depth, in order to qualify for the double credit.

Select one or two of these Activities for this Area. Follow the directions in your Blackboard course site to complete the activities.

1. Review The Trojan War, Chapter 9: "Love Redeems Eneas; Love Destroys Achillès: Troy as Romance" (138-153), and read the list of rules of love from The Art of Courtly Love. Do you think people actually lived by these rules or do you think they were part of an elaborate court game? Can you find any similar rules nowadays? Write your own list of modern rules of love. How are your rules similar to those in The Art of Courtly Love? How are they different? What does that tell you about how people have or have not changed in the past 800 years?

2. Review The Trojan War, Chapter 9: "Love Redeems Eneas; Love Destroys Achillès: Troy as Romance" (138-153). What can you learn about the role(s) of love in the twelfth century from reading about these two very different characters and the effects of love on each of them?

3. Review The Trojan War, Chapter 9: "Love Redeems Eneas; Love Destroys Achillès: Troy as Romance" (138-153). Compare Love's destruction of Achillès to the way love destroys Dido in Book 4 of the Aeneid. Do you see any interesting similarities? Differences? And, so what? Support your ideas with examples from my synopsis and Book 4 of the Aeneid

4. Here is a link to information about a medieval film, The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey (1988). "Men seeking relief from the Black Death, guided by a boy's vision, dig a tunnel from 14th century England to 20th century New Zealand" (IMDb). If you can find a copy and want to watch it, write a review explaining what about the film seems genuinely medieval to you and what about it seems to be a modern way of interpreting the past. Also, be sure to explain why the word "Odyssey" is used in the title.

5. Look at Background to Romance: Courtly Love, and then compare my synopsis of the ending of the Eneas with Book 12 of the Aeneid. Why do you think the Eneas author made such substantial changes? Can any of the information in the Courtly Love site help you to explain these changes? Which ending do you prefer? Why? Be specific and use examples from your reading to support your ideas.

6. See if you can locate a film that deals with the matter of medieval romance (Courtly Love, Crusades, etc.). Check the title with me before going on, because if I don't think the film is relevant to the topic of medieval romance, you won't get credit for reviewing it. Once I have approved the film, watch it and write a critical review, indicating what you think was genuinely "medieval" about it and why. Then explain what about the film reflects a modern or "Hollywood" attempt to interpret the past in terms of current issues. Be specific and use examples--remember that your readers may not have seen the film. BTW, "medieval" refers to approximately the 10th -14th centuries. Please do not confuse the Renaissance (approximately 14th through 16th centuries, depending on the country) with the Middle Ages.

7. Go to Medieval and Renaissance Fact and Fiction. Write a developed report on some of the interesting things people are doing today to recreate the Middle Ages. Note again: "medieval" refers to approximately the 10th -14th centuries. Please do not confuse the Renaissance (approximately 14th through 16th centuries, depending on the country) with the Middle Ages.

8. Read my synopsis of how love improves Eneas and then read graphic of two chili pepper

Dares Phrygius: History of the Fall of Troy. Eneas had a pretty smudged reputation in the Middle Ages. Be sure to pay attention to the actual Fall of Troy section at the end of Dares' narrative. Can you see any information in Dares that would help you to understand why Eneas was a tarnished hero? Is there anything you recall from the Aeneid that would help to explain his reputation in the Middle Ages? What and why? Be specific in your responses and use examples from your reading to support your ideas. This can be worth double credit if very well done and fully developed.

9. (Double Credit if well done) Acquire a copy of The Story of Troilus, edited by R. K. Gordon (there are many inexpensive used paperback copies for sale online). This book contains the first medieval Troilus love story (the lady is called Briseida) by Benoît de Sainte-Maure. Read it and compare this Troilus to Achilles or any other hero from the Iliad. Now, come to some interesting conclusion(s) about how Benoit has changed an archaic warrior into a medieval knight, and answer the question, "so what?"

Last Updated: 8/1/2017