The great Scottish scholar W. P. Ker guides the general reader through English writing from the Anglo-Saxon period to 1500: the romances such as Guy of Warwick, songs and ballads, comic poetry, allegory, sermons and verse histories, and finally Chaucer. He explains why each kind of writing mattered to its audience and what it handed on to later literature.
A short, learned and readable introduction that remains a fine first map of the period. Download the free EPUB.