Older Than Print



From the fall of Rome (c. 476 CE) to the invention of printing. The precise dates vary from region to region, but this was a time when literacy was low and books rare. Most western folklore originated here, often echoing earlier tropes. Chivalric Romance developed in this era.

Note: this is older than Johannes Gutenberg's printing press (1439 CE), not metal movable-type characters (ca. 1230 CE, Korea), movable-type printing (1040 CE, China), and certainly not wood-block printing (220 CE or earlier, China again). In short, the Middle Ages—assuming you don't take Petrarch's definition for it, as he lived in the 1300s.

Specific works from this time period include:


 * The Arabian Nights, mostly (though Aladdin and Ali Baba have no known source before Galland's Older Than Radio French translation.)
 * Beowulf
 * The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
 * Giovanni Boccacio's Decameron
 * The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
 * Almost everything we know of Celtic Mythology and Norse Mythology was first written down during this period.
 * The Icelandic Sagas
 * Most sources of Arthurian legend, from Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
 * Nibelungenlied
 * The Tale of Genji
 * Romance of the Three Kingdoms (though set in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE)
 * The Song of Roland
 * The Shahnameh by Ferdowsi
 * The Hindu Puranas were composed in more-or-less their present form during the centuries before about 1000 CE, although their origins and some portions of the texts go back to at least 300 BCE.

Tropes from this time period

 * Abhorrent Admirer: Seen in the Wife of Bath's Tale in The Canterbury Tales.
 * Above the Influence: Kamar and Budur in The Arabian Nights.
 * Adjective Animal Alehouse: European High Middle Ages practice.
 * The Ageless: The Norse gods are unaging, so long as they continue to eat the Apples of Idun.
 * Alas, Poor Yorick: St. Catherine of Siena did this, supposedly.
 * All Witches Have Cats: 'A woman with black cat is a witch' dates to this time period.
 * Anatomically-Impossible Sex: Works by Duke William IX of Aquitaine.
 * Arrow Catch: Odin in Norse Mythology and Jiang Wei in Romance of the Three Kingdoms can both do this.
 * Artificial Limbs: The Irish god Nuada got a silver arm after losing his real one.
 * Ascended Fanboy: Back in 12th century Europe, a lot of knights Jumped At the Call of the Second Crusade. Why? They were raised on stories of the First Crusade.
 * Attractive Bent Gender: "Prince Camaralzaman and Princess Badoura" in The Arabian Nights.
 * Berserk Button: Liu Bei in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
 * Beware of Hitch-Hiking Ghosts: Mi Zhu picks up a hitchhiking in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
 * Bishonen: Prince Genji.
 * Black Knight: The two black knights from Arthurian legend.
 * Bolivian Army Ending: The game of Chess ends when the king is surrounded with no chance of escape.
 * The Call Left a Message: The Sword in the Stone and the Siege Perilous from the King Arthur legends.
 * Catch and Return: Catching a spear from mid-flight and throwing it back is a feat mastered by various heroes of The Icelandic Sagas.
 * Chain of Deals: The Japanese legend of the straw millionaire, a poor man who prayed to the goddess of mercy. She granted him a piece of straw, which he traded through his travels until he managed to win the heart of an heiress.
 * Changeling Tale: Supernatural beings enticing humans away into the Otherworld is a trope of Irish Mythology, though this is not done from malice. The folk belief (common to most of Western Europe) that malicious supernatural beings outright kidnap people (especially babies) and substitute them with changelings is documented from the The Late Middle Ages onwards.
 * Character Name and the Noun Phrase: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 14th century.
 * Chess Motifs: Chaturanga existed by the 7th century CE.
 * Chivalric Romance: Hallmark of High Middle Ages literature.
 * Cold Iron: The traditional bane of The Fair Folk.
 * Corrupt Church: Medieval Western Europe allegedly got it bad enough to be commented on in several contemporary sources. The most notable of these is Dante, who puts several popes in Hell for corruption in the Inferno, and the one pope we meet in the Purgatorio is also there for being too greedy before he repented.
 * The Corpse Stops Here: "The Story of the Hunchback" from the Arabian Nights.
 * Courtroom Episode: Elaborate law court scenes are found in many of the Sagas of Icelanders.
 * Courtly Love: A staple of Chivalric Romance.
 * Damsel Errant: In Arthurian myths, such as in the Forest of Arroy.
 * The Dead Can Dance: The danse macabre motif in art (first in 1425), and various morality plays.
 * Direct Line to the Author: Tale of Genji and The Canterbury Tales both have this.
 * Disposable Woman: Vitae Sanctorum Britanniae, before the 9th century. Also Shui Hu Zhuan, aka Outlaws of the Marsh or The Water Margin (mid-14th century).
 * The Dulcinea Effect: Chivalric stories, such as the 12th-century tale of the Troubadour Joufre.
 * The Everyman: These were often the protagonists of medieval everyman plays.
 * Everything's Better with Rainbows (Rainbows as solid objects): In Norse Mythology the rainbow is Bifrost, the bridge between Asgard and Midgard, a solid road on which the gods travel.
 * Evil Tower of Ominousness: Kajebi fortress in The Knight in the Tiger's Skin (12th century).
 * Eye Beams: The Fomor Balor from Irish Mythology had a magic eye that could burn men "like leaves cast into a forge." In the Matsya Purana, Shiva used his third eye to burn the love-god Kama to ash in wrath over being forced to fall in love with Parvati.
 * Eyepatch of Power: The god Odin in Norse Mythology.
 * The Fair Folk: Ancient Irish Mythology, bleeding through into British folk tales.
 * Fanfare: European practice heralding the arrival of a King.
 * Family Eye Resemblance: In Volsunga Saga, all the Volsungs have unusually bright, piercing eyes.
 * Fantastic Foxes: Oral traditions in Europe and Asia.
 * Faux Death: The Celtic precursor of "Sleeping Beauty".
 * Fence Painting: The modus operandi of the West African trickster Anansi the Spider. It eventually backfires on him.
 * Feuding Families: Many Sagas of Icelanders, such as Njáls saga, Laxdæla saga, and Eyrbyggja saga.
 * Fleur-de-Lis: European heraldry.
 * For Want of a Nail: The proverb first appeared during this period, though the concept may be older. There's also the Arabian Nights tale "What a drop of honey caused" (it caused a war.)
 * Generational Saga: Various Icelandic sagas, such as Laxdæla saga, Eyrbyggja saga, or Volsunga Saga (all 13th century).
 * Genie in a Bottle: Arabian myth and legend.
 * Gentle Giant: Saint Christopher, post Character Development, in the Golden Legend c. 1260 CE.
 * Greedy Jew: Medieval European prejudice.
 * The Grim Reaper: The personification of Death as a skeletal figure with a scythe was common in the middle ages in Europe, starting in the 14th century.
 * The Guards Must Be Crazy: The mobility limitations of the Advisors/Guards in Xiangqi means they're often getting in each other's way.
 * Hammerspace: Thunder-god Thor of Norse Mythology could make his hammer shrink to an incredibly tiny size, and be pulled out of seemingly nowhere, and is both the first user and namer of this trope.
 * Heroic Albino: Prince Zal in The Shāhnāmeh by the great Persian poet Ferdowsi.
 * Holding the Floor: Scheherezade in Arabian Nights dragged this on a long time.
 * I Call Him "Mister Happy": "The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad" in Arabian Nights.
 * IKEA Erotica: The gods Izanagi and Izanami, in the Japanese creation myth.
 * Insubstantial Ingredients: The sound of a cat's footfall is one of several impossible ingredients in the unbreakable ribbon Gleipnir in Norse Mythology.
 * Is That What They're Calling It Now?: Decameron, 14th century CE. Day 3, Story 10
 * King in the Mountain: King Arthur in Cadbury Hill, Frederick Barbarossa in Kyffhäuser, King Wenceslas in Blaník, to only name a few.
 * Knighting: Medieval European practice.
 * Knight Errant: Chivalric Romance
 * Knight in Shining Armor: Chivalric Romance
 * The Lady's Favour: Chivalric Romance
 * Lampshade Hanging: Dante's reaction to seeing so many Florentines he recognizes in Hell in The Divine Comedy. The narrator of The Tale of Genji concludes her glamorous description of Genji's awesomeness with the note that if she mentioned all the ways he was amazing, it would only look absurd.
 * Land of Faerie: The Otherworld, inhabited by the Sidhe of Irish Mythology.
 * Line-of-Sight Name: The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, 1300s
 * Literal Ass Kissing: "The Miller's Tale" in The Canterbury Tales, late 14th century
 * Mad Eye: Cuchulain, Irish folk hero, sucks one eye all the way into his skull while the other pops right out when he gets into a rage.
 * Magic Knight: The Norse god Odin.
 * Merlin: The "modern" incarnation of him began in this time period, along with the modern Arthurian mythos.
 * Merlin and Nimue (a relationship between two magic-users): The pair from Arthurian legend are the Trope Namers and makers.
 * Mineral MacGuffin: In Chivalric Romance, the magical jewel that shone of its own light is a stock magical item.
 * The Mourning After: The Chivalric Romance Floris and Blanchefleur.
 * Murder, Inc.: The Hashshashin, the original assassins, come from this period.
 * Name and Name: Troilus and Criseyde, Geoffrey Chaucer.
 * Nerf: Generals in Xiangqi.
 * Once Upon a Time: Per Webster's, started around 1380.
 * One-Hit-Point Wonder: Pieces in Chaturanga.
 * Our Genies Are Different: The varying portrayal of genies in the Arabian Nights are often quite different from what the Western world expects of genies.
 * Pop Goes the Human: There's a Celtic yarn about a boy who is mad at his brother for being a glutton, and makes a Chain of Deals so he can hang him. When he finally gets the materials to build a gibbet, he returns home to discover that his brother burst.
 * Privately-Owned Society: Real Life Gaelic Ireland, between 650 and 1650, and the Icelandic Commonwealth, between 930 and 1262.
 * The Promise: In the Chivalric Romance Sir Orfeo.
 * Random Events Plot: Apollonius of Tyre, a Chivalric Romance.
 * Rage Against the Reflection: In Romance of the Three Kingdoms Xiahou Dun, after getting his Eyepatch of Power, is said to have a "wanting to break things" expression on his face whenever he got near a mirror.
 * Reforged Blade: The Trope Maker is the Icelandic Saga of the Volsungs: When no other blade meets his requirements, the hero Sigurd makes the dwarf Regin forge the pieces of his father's sword into a new weapon of superior quality.
 * Religion of Evil: Pre-Christian pagan religions thought Judaism was this. Later on medieval Christians accused pagans of Satan-worship. Nowadays atheists accuse Christians of this. Tomorrow....?
 * Robe and Wizard Hat: The Norse god Odin invented it.
 * Sassy Black Woman: Brunhild the Moor in Die Mörin, Hermann von Sachsenheim, 1453
 * Self-Insert Fic: Dante's Divine Comedy
 * Shapeshifting Lover: Japanese kitsune and tanuki, Irish selkies, European swan maidens, and others.
 * Shapeshifter Showdown: The Welsh myth of Cerridwen and Taliesin. The Tale of the Kalandar Prince in The Arabian Nights.
 * Shapeshifting Squick: Foxes in Japanese folklore who seduced men, then turned back into foxes after a one night stand.
 * Short-Lived, Big Impact: The Canterbury Tales were never finished yet have influenced all of Western literature.
 * Shut Up, Kirk: In the Chanson De Roland, Charlemagne calls on the Pagan leader Baligant to repent and be baptized, and then the Emperor his "first friend will be." Baligant tells him, "Your sermon's but ill preached." Of course, the medieval belief that being non-Christian necessarily makes Baligant the villian of the piece hits modern Values Dissonance.
 * Simple Staff: Little John, Robin Hood, 14th century
 * Slasher Smile: Skarp-Héðinn Njálsson in the Icelandic Brennu-Njáls Saga. Loki in Norse Mythology.
 * Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Beowulf, in the order in which he fights the three monsters.
 * Strange Salute: In The Divine Comedy, some demons salute each other by farting.
 * Stylistic Suck: The tale of Sir Thopas in The Canterbury Tales.
 * Suicide Attack: The Hashshashin, the original assassins.
 * Third Eye: The Hindu Matsya Purana tells of the fear of the gods when Shiva mourned unceasingly for his dead wife Sati, because a prophecy stated that a new son of Shiva was needed to save the gods from a coming catastrophe. Kama, god of love, shot Shiva to make him fall in love with Parvati, so Shiva grew a third eye and burnt him to a crisp with Eye Beams.
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works: From Norse heroic legend: When the hero Sigurd is stabbed in his sleep, he throws his sword after the fleeing murderer that cuts him clean in two. The incident is related identically in Prose Edda, Poetic Edda and Volsunga Saga.
 * Thud and Blunder: Beowulf
 * Turn Out Like His Father: Some variants of Percival, from King Arthur myths.
 * Uptown Girl: Prince Justinian I married Theodora, a low-class actress/prostitute. He actually abolished the laws prohibiting their marriage.
 * Valkyries: May have dated from earlier, but the age of Vikings was in full-swing during this period, and most Norse Mythology was codified and recorded during this period.
 * Villainous Breakdown: In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhou Yu is completely unhinged by the failure of his last plan against Zhuge Liang. Zhou Yu's rage causes a wound to reopen and he sickens and dies shortly thereafter.
 * Where Da White Women At?: In the framing story of the Arabian Nights, as well as within more than one tale. The women in question are Persian, but the dynamic with black male slaves is the same.
 * Who Needs Their Whole Body?: In the Arthurian story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Green Knight gets beheaded and then calmly talks and walks while carrying his head.
 * Wife Husbandry: Hikaru Genji does this with/to Murasaki in Tale of Genji. Lugh tries to do this with Deirdre in Deirdre of the Sorrows, but it doesn't work.
 * The Wild Hunt: Unequivocal instances of this trope date to this era, the oldest probably found in the Bhagavata Purana of Hindu literature (9th or 10th century), where mention is made of a travelling army of ghosts, headed by Shiva. For Europe, this supernatural phenomenon is probably first described by the chronicler Ordericus Vitalis in the 1130s.
 * William Telling: The earliest instance is that of Palnatoki or Toko, recorded in the 12th century in Saxo Grammaticus' Danish History. William Tell, in contrast, is first described performing the feat in the 15th century in the White Book of Sarnen.
 * Wishplosion: In the original Arabian Nights a man's wife gets rid of an evil genie by wishing he would straighten out a single hair. (In today's age of salons, this wouldn't work.)
 * You All Meet in An Inn: The pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales, and Liu Bei and his (future) sworn brothers in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
 * Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb: In Beowulf, the eponymous hero describes his and his cousin's swimming across the sea as something they did when they were young and prideful.