Sentimental and Humorous Romances: Floris and Blancheflour and The Tournament of Tottenham
A recording of these two Middle English romances by Professor Linda Marie Zaerr in connection with the TEAMS volume of the same name, Sentimental and Humorous Romances.
Shrew Plays before Shakespeare: Noah, Joseph's Trouble about Mary, and The Killing of the Children
These three slightly abridged plays from the Towneley MS, the York Plays, and the Digby MS were performed by Joe Ricke and his group of players at the Kalamazoo ICMS Congress in May 2014. Each play illustrates strong women.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The perfect knight, Sir Gawain, certainly stands head and shoulders above the fallen round table of Camelot. But even he will have his comeuppance when he meets the beautiful unnamed wife of Lord Bertilak.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Linda Marie Zaerr's performance of selected passages of the romance in Middle English with Modern English transitions in a video performance. 13-ISBN 978-0-8425-2535-0
Sir Orfeo
In this Middle English performance with harp and singing by the Zaerr sisters, we have a happy ending to the Orpheus and Eurydice story. The full romance is performed here with Modern English subtitles as an added feature to this onstage performance.
Sir Orfeo
Sir Orfeo concerns the famous classical story of Orpheus and Eurydice, captured by Pluto and kept in his underworld. In the Middle English version, the three characters are respectively Sir Orfeo, Dame Heurodis, and the King of Fairy.
Sir Thopas: Two Readings
One of the two tales told by the pilgrim Chaucer. Unfortunately the Host, who judges the tales, finds this tale by Geoffrey not worth a fly, especially because of its rhyme doggerel. Chaucer's droll burlesque of the worst in popular romances in his day.
Specimens of Middle English Pronunciation
Here Alex Jones introduces various Middle English poetic tales and how to pronounce them in correct academic Middle English. Booklet only available with CD orders, not download orders.
Ted Irving Reads Old English
This CD combines former audiocassettes Selected Readings in Old English: The Dream of the Rood, The Wanderer, Deor, and The Seafarer and Favorite Passages from Beowulf.
The Book of the Duchess
Chaucer, as usual, is burning the midnight oil, reading until he grows sleepy. He dreams of a knight dressed in black who has recently lost his beloved. Chaucer's tribute to his friend John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, after the death of his wife Blanche.
The Clerk’s Tale
The story of patient Griselda and her seemingly inhuman husband Walter, this is a tale Chaucer borrowed from Petrarch by way of Boccaccio.
The Digby MS: The Conversion of St. Paul
The 2011 addition to the ongoing series of Middle English plays peformed live at the Kalamazoo International Congress on Medieval Studies, this play is performed in the language of the later fifteenth-century
The Fox and the Wolf
One of the fables from the Old French Reynardian tradition written in early Middle English.
The Franklin’s Tale
A Breton lay, this tale of fin amor in marriage puts knight, squire, lady, and clerk under some pressure to behave properly. Are vows between lovers/spouses broken, or does this marriage look even stronger by the end of the tale?
The General Prologue
In his General Prologue, Chaucer speaks to us in his voice as one of the 29 pilgrims on their way from Southwark to Canterbury Cathedral to see the relics of St. Thomas à Becket. He introduces his fellow pilgrims one by one or sometimes in groups.