#Weird art in medieval manuscripts how to#
And among those who could both read and write, as in the case of merchants, many knew only how to write numbers and not letters. And those who could read did not necessarily know how to write. Later on, literacy spread among the social classes with the expansion of education and increased social mobility.
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Priests, monks and nuns were more likely to be able to read and write than a king or a queen. For example, during the early Middle Ages, those who were literate were mainly men and women belonging to the Church or a monastic order. There are several answers to this question.Ī population where almost 100% of adults are literate is a late phenomenon in human history. Why did people listen to literature, rather than read it themselves? Throughout history, literature was meant to be heard, not read. What the authors seem to have overlooked is the historical perspective of the audiobook. It would appear then, that the human mind is not wired to absorb information by way of listening. According to the authors of the study this would have consequences for people living in the twenty-first century now that technological advances have changed the way we consume literature, from reading silently to listening to audiobooks. In a recent psychological study, published in Frontiers of Psychology and discussed by Rachel Smalter Hall on Book Riot, it is stated that listening to literature is the least efficient way of learning, compared to reading silently to yourself or reading out loud.
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Hwaet is there because Beowulf was meant to be heard. The actual meaning of the word is up for debate, but regardless of which side you choose, the word is some kind of exclamation to indicate the initiation of the telling of a story. Arguably the most famous word in English literature, hwaet is the first word in the eight-century poem Beowulf.