Scottish literature in the Middle Ages Scottish literature in the Middle Ages Scottish literature in the Middle Ages is literature written in Scotland, or by Scottish writers, between the departure of the Romans from Britain in the fifth century, until the establishment of the Renaissance in the late fifteenth century and early sixteenth century. It includes literature written in Brythonic, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, French and Latin. Much of the earliest Welsh literature was actually composed in or near the country now called Scotland, in the Brythonic speech, from which Welsh would be derived. This includes the epic poem "The Gododdin", considered the earliest surviving verse from
Crisis of the Late Middle Ages Crisis of the Late Middle Ages The crisis of the Late Middle Ages was a series of events in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that brought centuries of European prosperity and growth to a halt. Three major crises led to radical changes in all areas of society: demographic collapse, political instabilities and religious upheavals. A series of famines and plagues, beginning with the Great Famine of 1315–17 and especially the Black Death of 1347-1351, reduced the population perhaps by half or more as the Medieval Warm Period came to a close and the first century of the Little Ice Age