Prophecy

This entry traces the development of prophecy as a literary and political genre in Britain and Europe throughout the Middle Ages, from its origins in the writings of the Church Fathers and pagan shamanistic oral poetry of the early British Isles through the scholastic Latin tradition of prophecy made popular in the twelfth century by Geoffrey of Monmouth to the widespread vernacular prophetic writings of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It argues that prophecy is a genre with applications to both religious and political circles and the study of prophecy continued as a serious scholarly pursuit well past the Middle Ages. This entry describes the general trends of the prophetic genre and notes exceptions to these trends with evidence from specific examples. It concludes by describing both the practical utilization of prophecy in the Middle Ages and the practical uses of the genre for medievalists today.