The Medieval Legacy explores the thoughts, values, and beliefs of medieval societies and peoples as these have influenced the development of Western culture.  Many currents make up what we call medieval, a period that comprises the broad sweep of the history of Europe and its neighbors for a thousand years. Our inheritance from these cultures of the Middle Ages consists of works and ideas from the writers and thinkers of Carolingian France, Anglo-Saxon Britain, the Italian city-states, Moorish Spain, among many others.  When studying this legacy of these medieval peoples, we discover the richness and variety of cultures and concepts that have inspired some of our most contemporary ways of thinking.  Epics and erudition, songs and sonnets, courage and wisdom, love and logic, drama and death-- all are hallmarks of that glorious time we call the Middle Ages.

A legacy is that which is handed down from generation to generation, but many of us think "medieval" means something old and archaic that exists only on dusty library shelves and in courses that have nothing to do with"real life" of the late 20th-century.  However, current institutions such as law, the university, love in marriage, religious crusades, and even medicine have their roots in the Middle Ages.  The legacies bequeathed to us by the extraordinary men and women of these so-called "Dark Ages" include works of mystical literature, courtly romances, illuminated manuscripts, allegorical dramas, Gothic architecture, troubadour music and poetry, and objective history.

In contemporary culture, the word "medieval" has come to connote something backward, uncivilized, and ignorant.  The relevance the study of medieval texts to our lives today is often obscure or unrecognized.  However, to better understand the world in which we live today, reflection on modern ways of thinking can help us explore questions such as: What do the authors of the Middle Ages have to say to us personally?  What do they have to tell us about love and betrayal, honor and loyalty, personal and political perspectives, faith and reason?  What can we learn from such peoples about the ways human beings think and behave?  How is the medieval world different from our own?  In what ways does it seem extremely familiar and similar to our own world?  Compared to medieval societies, how well do we, as contemporary human beings, understand spirituality, passion, friendship, and others among most cherished ideals?  Maybe most importantly, we, with these medieval thinkers, continue the search for the answer to the first and last of all questions: "What does our life mean?"

These Medieval Legacy pages introduce a few of the major moments of the Middle Ages which continue to have significant influence on contemporary  cultures indebted to western development.  They are not intended to provide comprehensive information on western culture's medieval heritage, but to point toward directions for further intellectual growth, education, and expansion in the ever-changing world of ideas.

The pages of the Legacy Project are composed of short articles written by undergraduate students in the University Honors Program at the University of New Mexico as well as links to existing Internet and Web resources. Among a myriad of other topics, these Medieval Legacy pages will explore  Chretien de Troyes' courtly romances, allegorical dramas such as Everyman, heroic literature such as Beowulf, crusade epics such as The Song of   Roland, music, science, illuminated manuscripts, vision quests such as Dante's Divine Comedy, Aquinas' religious philosophy, Chaucer's and Boccaccio's fablieaux, and so on. We invite you to journey with us through these ages and pages of medieval  peoples, places, and ideas.