Anglo-Norman literature

Anglo-Norman literature body of literature written in England, in the French dialect known as Anglo-Norman, from c.1100 to c.1250. Initiated at the court of Henry I, it was supported by the wealthy, French-speaking aristocracy who controlled England after the Norman conquest. The dominant literary forms were histories, sacred and secular biographies, and homilies; romance and fiction were relatively scarce. Perhaps the most important historian was Geoffrey Gaimer, whose two-part history of England, Histoire des Bretons and Estorie des Engles, was written in verse. Philippe of Thaün, the earliest known Anglo-Norman poet, was noted for the moral allegory the Bestiaire. Of secular works, Thomas's Tristan (c.1170) is notable both artistically and as an early source for the Tristram and Isolde legend.

Bibliography: See M. D. Legge, Anglo-Norman Literature and Its Background (1963).

Norman a member of a people of mixed Frankish and Scandinavian origin who settled in Normandy from about ad 912 and became a dominant military power in western Europe and the Mediterranean in the 11th century, in particular, any of the Normans who conquered England in 1066 or their descendants.
Norman Conquest the conquest of England by William of Normandy (William the Conqueror) after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Most of the Saxon nobles had been dispossessed or killed and the population was heavily taxed (the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086). Norman institutions and customs (such as feudalism) were introduced, and Anglo-Norman French and Latin adopted as the languages of literature, law, and government.
Norman French the northern form of Old French spoken by the Normans; the variety of this used in English law courts from the 11th to 13th centuries; Anglo-Norman French.

Anglo- comb. form of L. Anglus ENGLISH, as in modL. Anglo-Americanus XVIII, Anglopuritanus XVI;.
so Anglomania mania for what is English XVIII, after F. anglomanie; Anglophobia XVIII; Anglo-American, -Catholic, -Irish; Anglo-Norman or -French, variety of French current in England in the Middle Ages. See next.