WI: No Chaucer

Apparently English poet and author Geoffrey Chacuer accompanied the King of England at that time, Edward III, to fight in the Hundred Years' War. He was present at the seige of Rheims in 1360, and was taken prisoner. Edward III eventually paid a huge ransom for the French to release Chaucer.

But suppose that instead of being captured by the French, Geoffrey Chaucer was instead killed. At the time, Chaucer was only 17 years old, and so wouldn't have written much of his literature at the time. What happens?
 
Somebody else becomes the pinnacle of Middle English literature?

Maybe not.

Chaucer had a unique position, being close to the Court and well connected, so his poetry got spread around. He was also a genius. The two things combined were what made it suddenly fashionable to consider English as a literary language.

Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Pearl both existed before Chaucer, and neither led to a major revival of literature in English - especially among the upper and upper middle classes.

You might have to wait another 50 years or so before successions of smaller works by less talented authors eroded the barrier, and literature in English became common.

Depending on HOW it happened, you could get something crazy like the northern alliterative movement (see Gawain, Pearl, above) moving south into southern dialect, for want of a better model.

THAT would change English poetry massively.
 
Top