By Karen Campbell

Any scholar of history or literature must appreciate the wealth of information now available to us through digital humanities and digital exhibits, particularly images and manuscript texts. When said resources are also freely available to scholars and the public without any travel expenses, membership or document fees, these same scholars and an interested public must pass from appreciation to actual delight. Delight is in fact what anyone will feel when they look through the wealth of Middle English texts available through the University of Rochester’s Robbins Library digital collection. Many of these same texts are available in very affordable paperback print format through the Medieval Institute’s TEAMS text series for those preferring a hard copy medium or looking for textbooks for classrooms.

These texts can be located at: https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text-online. There are over 600 separate pieces to be found here ranging from homilies, tales of Robin Hood, romances (including many of the court of King Arthur), philosophical texts, saint’s lives and legends, travel texts, wisdom/teaching literature, songs, lyric poetry, fables (including animal fables and versions of Aesop’s fables), fabliaux, miracle and mystery plays, hymns, carols, and crusade literature. While the majority of the texts are in Middle English (some with translations), a few are even in French with translations. Most include an introduction to the text and manuscript and notes. There are no facsimile images of the manuscripts though. These are edited texts only. The one critique I might offer is that the page itself has so many links on a single page that browsing can be difficult. However if you know what you are after there is a search bar in the top right to help you locate it.

In terms of equine history and literary studies, one text that may be particularly helpful in this collection is Bevis of Hampton, a chivalric romance where the relationship between Bevis and his horse Arondale makes for particularly fruitful discussion of treatment of and affection for equine partners and includes a medieval horse race. Other Arthurian romances include a number of battle, questing, and jousting scenes with horses like the Alliterative Morte Arture, Avowyng of Arthur, Awntyrs of Arthur, Lancelot of the Laik, Jeaste of Sir Gawain, and the Stanzaic Morte Arthur. Some other romances worth exploring include The Green Knight, Amis & Amiloun, Havelock the Dane, King Horn, Sir Cleges, Sir Degare, Sir Tristrem, Sir Isumbras, Lybeaus Desconus, and Sir Orfeo. The Tournament of Tottenham contains good information on jousting and tourneying and particularly interesting discussion of knights fighting on mares (similar to Arthur riding a mare in some Celtic literature). While John Lydgate’s “Debate of the Horse, Goose, and Sheep” is not found in this collection (you can find a copy here), there are other works of his, including some versions of Aesop’s fables, which are found in the METS collection. Like Lydgate’s debate poem, scholars may find The Talis of the Fyve Bestes, including a horse and a unicorn, in this collection worthy of consideration. The Testament of Squyer Meldman is also interesting for the way he describes willing his war horse to his family. William Dunbar’s poem where he compares himself as a poet to an old horse past service in the form of an extended metaphor can be found in “That I suld be ane Yowllis yald.” Travel literature like the Book of John Mandeville or even some dealing with the travels of Margery Kempe is available as well and these include discussions of other equids like asses and mules.

Overall, this is a rich compendium of medieval texts of varying lengths and genres worth investigating for any type of historical or literary study but also particularly for equine scholars.