Medieval poetry Medieval poetry Poetry took numerous forms in medieval Europe, for example, lyric and epic poetry. The troubadours and the minnesänger are known for their lyric poetry about courtly love. Among the most famous of secular poetry is "Carmina Burana", a manuscript collection of 254 poems. Twenty-four poems of "Carmina Burana" were later set to music by German composer Carl Orff in 1936. Old English religious poetry includes the poem "Christ" by Cynewulf and the poem "The Dream of the Rood", preserved in both manuscript form and on the Ruthwell Cross. We do have some secular poetry; in fact a great
Carl Orff as "O Fortuna", from "Carmina Burana", is often used to denote primal forces, for example in the Oliver Stone film "The Doors". The work's association with fascism also led Pier Paolo Pasolini to use the movement "Veris leta facies" to accompany the concluding scenes of torture and murder in his final film "Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom". With the success of "Carmina Burana", Orff disowned all of his previous works except for "Catulli Carmina" and the "Entrata" (an orchestration of "The Bells" by William Byrd (1539–1623)), which were rewritten until acceptable by Orff. Later on, however, many of