What is the most vivid dream you have had? Describe what you remembered when you woke up.

Respond to the following question in your notes:

(you don’t have to share if you don’t want to. If you do, keep it appropriate.)

• What is the most vivid dream you have had? Describe what you remembered when you woke up.

“HOW DID WE GET HERE?”

• Now watch this clip from the movie Inception

• Consider: What makes dreams different from reality?

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

• WHAT ROLE DO DREAMS PLAY IN HUMAN EXPERIENCE?

In Art and Literature

MEDIEVAL DREAM VISIONS

DREAM VISION MOTIF

• MOTIF: a thematic element that recurs throughout a work or group of works

• can be an image, an idea, a situation, or even a structural pattern

Dream Vision Motif in Narrative• Character falls asleep and has a dream

that affects his/her course of action.

•VERY important in medieval literature, but can be traced back to even older texts: The Book of Matthew (Bible)

TYPICAL FEATURES

• Of supernatural origin • Gives otherwise inaccessible

information

• Prophecy

• good news or warning of DANGER

• Sets plot in motion

THE DREAM(S) OF THE MAGI (Matthew 2:12)

Dream of the Magi by Gislebertus (1120-30) Stonein Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, Autun (Romanesque style)

ACCORDING TO GISELBERTUS…• 2 Dream Visions (journey there & journey home)

• Angel points out star to Magi in a dream vision• “We saw his star and have come to worship him” (Matthew 2:2)

• DANGER!! Don’t pass by Herod• “And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they returned to

their country by another route” (Matthew 2:12)

DREAM VISION MOTIF = AS OLD AS ENGLISH

• 1st named poet in Old English = Caedmon• Oldest recorded poem in Old English=

Caedmon’s Hymn

• in Bede’s Ecclesiastical history of the English people (8th Century)

BEDE TELLS US…• Caedmon, an illiterate farmer, leaves a ‘singing’ party

because he doesn’t know how• Caedmon has dream• In his dream, “some man” tells him to “sing to me of

the first Creation”• Caedmon sings in his dream (12 line Hymn in West

Saxon)• Caedmon wakes up, shares the song with others, and

dedicates his life to serving God through his songs.

THE PEARL POET / THE GAWAIN POET14th Century Illuminated Manuscript with 4 Anonymous Poems

- The poet, mourning loss of his daughter (his “Pearl”), falls asleep in a garden

- Then, daughter appears in dream

- Dialogue: Father questions, daughter responds metaphorically

- Daughter describes Earthly and Heavenly Jerusalem

- Father tries to cross the stream and wakes up (daughter vanished)

Journey within Dream (internal, spiritual journey)

HOLY GRAIL?

- Cup that Jesus drank out of

- Sought by King Arthur and his Knights

- Symbol of perfect communion with God

• The Legend of King Arthur

- Great King

- Leader of the Knights of the Round Table (all equal)

KING ARTHUR AND THE GRAIL

Many of his knights search for the Holy Grail

LANCELOT’S VISION OF THE GRAIL

- Kills a dragon for a king, sees the grail, then is tricked into lying with the king’s daughter

- Son born: Sir Galahad

Oxford mural by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

SIR GALAHAD = PUREST KNIGHT- Only knight pure enough to reach the Grail- Chooses to die after seeing Grail (to remain pure)

The Attainment (1895-6) Tapestry by William Morris

On your 2nd post-it note…

• Summarize the most important features of the medieval dream vision motif (3-5 short bullet points)

What do you think this image represents?

WHEEL OF FORTUNE

• Wheel = symbol of Fortune

• Female figure = personification of Fortune

• Symbol: something (usually tangible) that represents something else (usually intangible)

• Personification: using human characteristics to describe something non-human

Fortune = force that humans can’t control

(A few) character relations in Morte d’Arthur

Half-siblings MarriedLovers

IN-CLASS ANALYSIS: ANALYZE ARTHUR’S DREAM

• What does his dream vision represent? What do the objects symbolize in the context of his current physical and mental state?

• Be sure to cite specific words/phrases from the text to support your claims.