'Recuyell of the Historyes of Troy'

via Wikimedia Commons

I've been reading In Search of the Trojan War by Michael Wood (full review coming soon). Wood has a detailed discussion of the the Troy myth's on medieval literature, noting that most medieval works about are based on something called The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troy. The Iliad and Odyssey were virtually unknown; The Recuyell was the 'Homer' of this period. (It was also the first book printed in English, in 1475.)

I liked the sound of this work; as a dead languages nerd I was especially pleased that its very archaic English has not been updated. I did a little digging on it today (in between trying to get undergraduates interested in Latin personal pronouns -- ugh!). Here is a sample, from the reign of Saturn:

By the moyen of these thynges the renomee of kyng Saturn grewe. And the worlde was that tyme of gold, that is for to saye hyt was moche better and more haboundant in the dayes of mannes lyf and in plente of frutes of the erthe than in ony other tyme after. (Recuyell pp. 16-17)

How sweet would it be to offer an English class on the postclassical reception of the Trojan war? A girl can dream...

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