The Dedalus Book of Medieval Literature

Brian Murdoch provides an alternative view of the Middle Ages, showing the anarchy and decadence which lurked below the surface of a devout and conformist society. The grinning gargoyle, which mocked the solemnity of Gothic cathedrals, symbolises the violence, depravity and irreverence inherent in man which could not be suppressed by the church.¨Texts translated from the prose, chronicles and verse of the period, such as the Trial of Gilles de Rais, Boccaccio's Decameron, I Have a Gentil Cok,A Black Mass and Metrical Verses on the Subject of his Prick, reveal the wilder aspects of medieval man.
 Brian Murdoch has assembled and translated texts from Medieval Latin, Old French, Italian, Scots Gaelic, Cornish, Old and Middle English, Old Irish and Welsh which will redefine the Middle Ages for the modern reader. '...excellent and exciting selection of texts dealing with the world, the flesh, and occasionally the Devil. Here is the hideously cautionary tale of Helmbrecht, and scenes of pagan devil-worship from a Cornish miracle play. Human fallibility is celebrated or condemned accurately and with refreshing vigour.' The Good Book Guide