Religious literature refers to the literary works of the European Christian church during the period of controlling culture in the Middle Ages. The purpose is to promote and popularize religious teachings. The authors are mainly priests and a few folk poets. There are a large number of religious literature works in medieval Europe, among which the Bible is the representative, and the Confessions of St. Augustine is also very important. Among the few oldest documents in French literature, two are religious literature. One is a 29-line poem "Ode to Saint Eulali" written in armand Abbey in picardie around 880, and the other is a 240-line poem "Biography of Saint Eulali" written around 1040 to commemorate the martyrdom of Bishop Lery.
There are many representative heroic epics reflecting clan life. Beowulf in Britain and Sakya and Eda in Iceland praise tribal heroes, and the latter two are based on Nordic mythology. Although the other kind of epic mainly praises heroes, the original gods gradually disappear, and the traces of feudal monarch, servant and knight system appear. Heroes often fight pagans to defend Christianity. Their masterpieces include French Song of Roland, Spanish poema de mio cid, German Song of Nibelungen and Gullas's Igor Expedition, among which Song of Roland.
Knight literature is the product of European knight system, which has two genres: knight lyric poetry and knight legend. The origin and center of knight lyric poetry is Provence in southern France, so it is also commonly known as "Provence lyric poetry". Eulogizing the knight's love is the most common theme and the most prominent feature. Knight lyric poetry describes the knight's love for a lady. The most famous is Song of Dawn written by a bard in Provence, southern France, and Under the Bodhi Tree written by Walter in Germany and Hartman in Switzerland. The center of knight legend is in northern France. It is a long narrative poem, which is usually around several thousand lines, and there are also more than ten thousand lines. The most common one is an eight-syllable poem, which rhymes with one sentence every two lines. Themes are taken from stories of ancient Greece and Rome, stories of King Arthur, or historical legends of Byzantium, which can be divided into three categories: ancient school, English school and Byzantine school. Ancient works are generally adapted from Latin stories of ancient Greece and Rome. Famous works include The Legend of Alexandria by Lamber and Alexander, The Legend of Troy by Bona de Saint-Moore, The Legend of Taber and The Story of Aeneas. These works often rewrite the heroes in ancient legends into feudal knights in the middle ages, and the characters are naturally branded with the love and honor views of medieval knights. The most typical work of English Department is King Arthur, and French poet Kreddine de Troya is the representative writer of English Department. As the legend of the Holy Grail, Lancelot or knight of Troy was in the prison car, and Ivan or knight took the lion and Tristram and Ithaca with him. How many stories related to Byzantine history and legends are used in Byzantine story poems? Most of his main works are variations of elegant love story poems, which have the nature of tragicomedy. They often describe that two young people fell in love and were opposed by their relatives, and finally reached a "happy ending". Representative works include Okasson, Nicolette, Floa and Blank Sivle.
Urban literature is also called civic literature, and its main work is the story of Lena Fox.
For medieval European literature, please refer to Liu Jianjun's Essays on Medieval European Literature.