Tribes Into Nations.

Medieval literature must be understood in relation to its Roman heritage. When the Germanic peoples (Goths and Vandals, among others) coming from eastern Europe overthrew the Roman Empire in the fifth century C.E., they also destroyed the idea of political identity, because during the period of the empire all persons had been citizens of Rome. With the breakdown of Roman rule and order came a new system of tribal alliances in which small bands were commanded by warrior leaders. These warrior groups did not imagine themselves as members of a single large geographic entity, and their history was that of a tribe, not a nation. Accordingly, the concept of French or English or Italian states, each with a national literature, does not really appear until about 1100. From the establishment of the Frankish Empire under Charlemagne in the ninth century through...