Matter of England

Matter of England, romances of English heroes and romances derived from English legend are terms that 20th century scholars have given to a loose corpus of Medieval literature that in general deals with the locations, characters and themes concerning England, English history, or English cultural mores and shows some continuity between the poetry and myths of the pre-Norman or "Anglo-Saxon" era of English history as well as themes motifs and plots deriving from English folklore. The term Matter of England was coined in reference to the earlier Three Matters as termed by the French author Jean Bodel; the Matter of Britain (concerning King Arthur and his knights), of France (concerning Charlemagne and his paladins) and of Rome (retelling of tales from Greco-Roman antiquity).

They are thought by scholars to derive features from the language and culture of the "low-born" parts of society and the emerging middle-class[1]. However such stories should not be seen as purely the domain of the English peasant and yeoman as most of these tales survive in Anglo-Norman literary forms. The oldest surviving versions are in many cases written in Anglo-Norman or Medieval Latin—though in most cases, scholars accepted them as originally from the English tradition.

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