Teaching Medieval French Language and Culture through Digital Gameplay

This book explores digital gameplay’s potential for transforming the way medievalists teach spoken and written language. The authors reflect on lessons learned from the implementation of the video game Brendan’s Voyage, which remediates key episodes from the twelfth-century poem, The Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot, a popular text translated from Latin into the Anglo-Norman dialect of medieval French. As the player participates in Brendan’s maritime quest (and the creation of the Brendan manuscript), the game conveys basic skills in spoken and written Anglo-Norman as well as cultural lessons about Francophone England, from the role of women in artistic patronage to the role of fantastic beasts in monastic imagination. This book positions Brendan’s Voyage as a case study whose production and use can offer insights that impact medieval studies, language pedagogy, the digital humanities, and educational video game design. 

Jacob Abell is Assistant Professor of French at Baylor University and author of Spiritual and Material Boundaries in Old French Verse (2023). His research focuses on medieval literature and the environmental humanities.  

Lynn Ramey is Professor of French and of Cinema and Media Arts at Vanderbilt University. Her most recent book is Engagements with Literary Gaming (2026), co-authored with Tison Pugh. Her teaching and research centre on medieval culture, game studies, and digital humanities.