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Dignified Powerful Respected Elders in Medieval Literature
Playlist
  • old age in medieval heroic literature
  • Beowulf
  • “Hildebrandslied”
  • Kudrun
  • Heinrich Kaufringer
  • Boccaccio
  • Njál’s Saga
Video Introduction

This video is adapted from 10.3390/encyclopedia5010027

To understand the topic of old age in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, we can draw much information from relevant literary texts among other sources because the poets operated with general notions commonly subscribed to by their audiences. Old people appear in many different roles already in the pre-modern world, but here the focus will rest mostly on worthy, dignified, mighty, and even ferocious old warriors in heroic poetry. Those stand out because of their strength, their knowledge, their resolve, their wisdom, and their extensive and varied abilities, but this does not automatically mean that they were flawless. To round off this entry, the attention will finally turn to remarkable examples of old but highly respected people in the verse narratives by the German poet Heinrich Kaufringer, in Boccaccio’s Decameron, a harbinger of the Italian Renaissance, in Christine de Pizan’s didactic writings, and in the Old Norse Njál’s Saga.

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If you have any further questions, please contact Encyclopedia Editorial Office.
Classen, A. Dignified Powerful Respected Elders in Medieval Literature. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/video/1828 (accessed on 19 June 2026).
Classen A. Dignified Powerful Respected Elders in Medieval Literature. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/video/1828. Accessed June 19, 2026.
Classen, Albrecht. "Dignified Powerful Respected Elders in Medieval Literature" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/video/1828 (accessed June 19, 2026).
Classen, A. (2026, June 16). Dignified Powerful Respected Elders in Medieval Literature. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/video/1828
Classen, Albrecht. "Dignified Powerful Respected Elders in Medieval Literature." Encyclopedia. Web. 16 June, 2026.
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