History Main / MedievalUniversalLiteracy

* Generally averted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Disenchantment}}''. Being a pastiche of TheDungAges, Dreamland's commoners are depicted as illiterate and uneducated, often {{Played for|Laughs}} BlackComedy. [[RuleOfFunny Unless it's funnier to play it straight]].

There is much debate among historians as to the literacy rate before the invention of the printing press (8th century CE in China, 1450 in Europe). In the Roman Empire alone, estimates range from 10% to almost everyone in Rome, but one thing that's almost universally acknowledged is that the literacy rate in Western Europe for centuries after the fall of Rome was in the single digits. Generally, only priests and some noblemen could read.

* In general most characters in the world of ''TabletopGame/RuneQuest'' are illiterate given its setting is a bronze-age world. Usually only priests of deities of knowledge and sorcerers are the only ones capable of reading and writing. There are at times however where a few merchants, nobles, and heroes however can read and write and the PC literacy rate could be assumed to be literate given their heroic/adventurer status, but that is not always the case and it varies greatly.

* Downplayed in ''LightNovel/EndoAndKobayashiLiveTheLatestOnTsundereVillainessLieselotte''. Fiene, the only commoner in the WizardingSchool, is shown to have basic literacy. However, she is shown to struggle with the knowledge that the rest of the student body--[[SupernaturalElite all nobles]]--have no problem with, up to and including the kingdom's CreationMyth. [[spoiler:This is eventually {{Subverted|Trope}}, as Fiene is later found to be the illegitimate child of two ''very'' {{blue blood}}ed nobles, but the illegitimacy itself forced her mother to hide her identity, take her out to live among the commoners, and teaching her in subtle ways. The story gives no clue as to whether ''actual'' commoners can read.]]

* Averted in ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm''. The story has a realistic level of literacy and Myne is reincarnated as one of the large majority of poor and illiterate people in the population. Add in that books are created one at a time by trained craftsmen plus both paper and ink being expensive, makes books rare and expensive. One book costs roughly what Myne's father would earn in 40 to 50 years. Myne does however retain her memories of reading and writing in Japanese.

* The early ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' books are something of an example; the Thieves' Guild pass written messages, the Watch take notes and write reports (even if some of them do so with more finesse than others), and farmer's son Mort spends more time reading than his father likes. Granny Weatherwax disapproves of reading, but is capable of doing so, and other witches are notably literate. (Later books aren't as much of an example because the Disc quickly moves to a Renaissance-Georgian-Victorian period where universal literacy is more common.) Vimes is specifically mentioned as going to a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dame_school dame school]] that charged a penny a day.

* Averted in ''LightNovel/WelcomeToJapanMsElf''. Despite the other world being an RPGMechanicsVerse where everyone has their own status screens, only mages and nobles tend to be able to read. This means that the other 70% of the population has to rely on someone who is literate to read their stats and skills for them.

* Zig-zagged in ''Literature/TheSharingKnife''. Lakewalkers seem universally literate, but Farmers are hit and miss. In the first book Fawn sees a sign using both words and pictograms for the illiterate. Later she's seen to know how to read and write, but lacks practice in both since she doesn't access to many books and doesn't have anyone to write letters to.

* In the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'', the civilized countries appear to be literate. In the fifth book, Richard visits a country where an oppressed majority isn't allowed to learn to read, and tries to explain to them the advantages of literacy, which presumably they'll have after siding with him.

* Averted in ''Franchise/TheWitcher''. A line in ''Literature/TheTimeOfContempt'' states that most commoners can't read. In one of the short stories, the wise woman of a village keeps a book that describes witchers, and recites passages from the book when negotiating monster slaying. Geralt is surprised that a common woman can read, and even more confused when the old woman cheerfully informs him that no, she had not mastered the art of reading. It turns out she learnt it by rote memorization from the previous wise woman, who was able to recite the book in its entirety. As she's already passing the contents to a young girl (who presumably can't read, either), it's implied that generations of wise women have all been unable to read, and all learnt the book from their respective mentors, for who knows how long.

* In early editions of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', if the optional nonweapon proficiency system is used, few player characters will bother picking the proficiency to read and write. Later editions generally play this straight, but [[BarbarianHero barbarians]] are still almost universally illiterate until omitted out from 5th Edition. Literacy within the world itself tends to depend on the setting.

** Casteless Dwarves (the lowest rung of the Dwarven social structure) never receive a formal education. If you play as one in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', your older sister is a HighClassCallGirl and she was taught how to read as part of her courtesan training. It's implied that she passed these lessons on to her sibling, since a Dwarf Commoner Warden is as literate as any other player character. Origins' expansion, ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOriginsAwakening'', features a casteless party member, Sigrun, who is also illiterate, and learning how to read is a minor running plot with her.

* Discussed in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-abyQLl8mPI this video]] by ''WebVideo/{{Shadiversity}}'' where literacy in the Middle Ages is arbitrary depending on occupation and social status, meaning that one can be illiterate but can be knowledgeable in their craft, and that one can be literate but also uneducated. He then dives deeper [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kISM2od3BJ0 in another video]] that some peasants are literate in the case of vernacular language.

* The commonly stated medieval literacy rates can actually be misleading depending on time, place and how you define literacy, making this trope a surprising bit of TruthInTelevision.
** In order to boost literacy, Korean Emperor Sejong the Great actually sat down and devised a new writing system specifically designed to be easy to learn rather than the at times deliberately difficult classical Chinese system, which requires years to learn thanks to containing thousands upon thousands of different characters. A typical commoner could not afford to spend the time to learn a language this complex and would thus be illiterate. As a purpose driven writing system, however, Hangul is remarkably easy to learn. Not only does it use phonetic characters rather than ideograms, the characters are even designed such that each character will have common features to indicate how they're pronounced. However, this led to backlash by Korean nobility and the system was suppressed for quite some time after his death.
** In Europe, literacy was not defined by how well you could read your own language but rather the official language of the educated, which was Latin. This is because while languages like English could be written down, they lacked standardized spelling and grammar and were thus difficult to use for anything important. Latin, meanwhile, had been the language of the Roman empire, had well established rules for usage and was the language used for the bible. Thus, a peasant was actually fairly likely to be literate in their own language, especially if they lived in an urban area. After all, with no standardized spelling and grammar, all you need to know is how a letter is pronounced if you want to 'read.' If literacy is instead defined at this level and for these languages, literacy rates were actually surprisingly high.

* In general most characters in the world of ''TabletopGame/RuneQuest'' are illiterate given its setting is a bronze-age world. Usually only priests of deities of knowledge and sorcerers are the only ones capable of reading and writing. There are at times however where a few merchants, nobles, and heroes however can read and write and the PC literacy rate can be assumed to be literate given their heroic/adventurer status, but that is not always the case.

* In general most characters in the world of ''TabletopGame/Glorantha'' are illiterate given its setting is a bronze-age world. Usually only priests of deities of knowledge and sorcerers are the only ones capable of reading and writing. There are at times however where a few merchants, nobles, and heroes however can read and write and the PC literacy rate can be assumed to be literate given their heroic/adventurer status, but that is not always the case.

* Averted in ''TabletopGame/ArsMagica'', set in a fantasy version of medieval Europe. Literacy requires some training in the ''artes liberales'' [[SkillScoresAndPerks ability]], which, as an academic skill, most people aren't eligible for. Magi and many of their Companions have a significant advantage in their access to this training.

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* ''Literature/AConnecticutYankeeInKingArthursCourt'': Not only is the peasantry illiterate, many nobles are as well, and are shocked that Hank considers literacy more important than, say, knowing one's pedigree fifteen generations back.

* Debatable in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', even Orcs appear to be literate, if only in some indecipherable Mordorian glyphs. Most Dwarves, Elves and Dunedain, and Hobbits, seem to be literate, though there is a remark when Sam cooks for the camp saying Hobbits learn to cook very early, earlier than "their letters, which some never learn".

* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', literacy is very high, because (per WordOfGod) the printing press managed to survive the cataclysm that bumped the world down into MedievalStasis, so practically everyone is well-read. However, literacy is still low enough that shopkeepers take care to put a picture of what they sell on their signs (as was common practice in the real Medieval centuries).
* Averted in ''Franchise/TheWitcher''. A line in ''Literature/TheTimeOfContempt'' states that most commoners can't read. In one of the short stories, the wise woman of a village keeps a book that describes witchers, and recites passages from the book when negotiating monster slaying. Geralt is surprised that a common woman can read, and even more confused when the old woman cheerfully informs him that no, she had not mastered the art of reading. It turns out she learnt it by rote memorization from the previous wise woman, who was able to recite the book in its entirety. As she's already passing the contents to a young girl (who presumably can't read, either), it's implied that generations of wise women have all been unable to read, and all learnt the book from their respective mentors, for who knows how long.
* Averted in ''Literature/ThePillarsOfTheEarth''; fully literate people are fairly few and far between outside of the clergy, but skilled tradesmen like Tom Builder and his son Alfred can read a few words like their own names and can also read numbers.

* ''Literature/BrotherCadfael'': Set in 12th century England, the level of literacy varies: all the monks and nobility can read, as can most of the richer merchants, and there is repeated mention of church priests teaching young children to read. On the other hand, women are rarely able to read; even the sheriff's wife is illiterate.
* In the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'', the civilized countries appear to be literate. In the fifth book, Richard visits a country where an oppressed majority isn't allowed to learn to read, and tries to explain to them the advantages of literacy, which presumably they'll have after siding with him.

* Downplayed in ''Literature/TheArtsOfDarkAndLight'', with literacy in the world of Selenoth fairly widespread, although still more limited than in the real-life present day. Books are also still somewhat rare and expensive, at least as far as the lower classes are concerned; FarmBoy Speer's peasant family is noted as unusual for owning seven volumes.

* Justified in ''Literature/TheElenium'' by The Church pushing for universal literacy (and actually providing the education) so people can read the Church's message. This doesn't actually take that long to do, so there's a demand for other things to read; paper and the labor costs of scriveners are cheap, so books that even the urban poor can afford are available (mystery novels are said to be very popular with the girls in the brothels).

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* Averted in ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay''. Being able to read and write is a skill independent of learning spoken languages, and only a relative handful of career paths (usually related to academia or nobility) allow new characters to be literate right out the starting gate.

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* The commonly stated medieval literacy rates can actually be misleading depending on time, place and how you define literacy, making this trope a surprising bit of TruthInTelevision.
** In order to boost literacy, Korean Emperor Sejong the Great actually sat down and devised a new writing system specifically designed to be easy to learn rather than the at times deliberately difficult classical Chinese system, which requires years to learn thanks to containing thousands upon thousands of different characters. A typical commoner could not afford to spend the time to learn a language this complex and would thus be illiterate. As a purpose driven writing system, however, Hangul is remarkably easy to learn. Not only does it use phonetic characters rather than ideograms, the characters are even designed such that each character will have common features to indicate how they're pronounced. However, this led to backlash by Korean nobility and the system was suppressed for quite some time after his death.
** In Europe, literacy was not defined by how well you could read your own language but rather the official language of the educated, which was Latin. This is because while languages like English could be written down, they lacked standardized spelling and grammar and were thus difficult to use for anything important. Latin, meanwhile, had been the language of the Roman empire, had well established rules for usage and was the language used for the bible. Thus, a peasant was actually fairly likely to be literate in their own language, especially if they lived in an urban area. After all, with no standardized spelling and grammar, all you need to know is how a letter is pronounced if you want to 'read.' If literacy is instead defined at this level and for these languages, literacy rates were actually surprisingly high.

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* Averted in ''VideoGame/KingdomComeDeliverance'' as the protagonist Henry starts off illiterate and must learn to read first.

** Sir Hanush of Leipa is also illiterate, in spite of being a noble. Hanush is a BoisterousBruiser who prefers a more hands-on mode of governance, but when his illiteracy is pointed out he becomes a bit defensive.
* In the ''Franchise/DragonAge'' games, even though far more people know how to read than you'd expect given the setting, there are some exceptions.
** Casteless Dwarves (the lowest rung of the Dwarven social structure) never receive a formal education. If you play as one in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', your older sister is a HighClassCallGirl and she was taught how to read as part of her courtesan training. It's implied that she passed these lessons on to her sibling, since a Dwarf Commoner Warden is as literate as any other player character. Origins' expansion, ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOriginsAwakening'', features a casteless party member, Sigrun, who is also illiterate, and learning how to read is a minor running plot with her.
** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', it's revealed that Tevinter slaves are illiterate. Fugitive slave Fenris is a party member, and if you give him a book as a gift, he'll reveal that he NeverLearnedToRead. You can offer to teach him, and he'll accept.

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* ''Literature/BrotherCadfael'': Set in 12th century England, the level of literacy varies: all the monks and nobility can read, as can most of the richer merchants, and there is repeated mention of church priests teaching young children to read.

** In order to boost literacy, Korean Emperor Sejong the Great actually sat down and devised a new writing system specifically designed to be easy to learn rather than the at times deliberately difficult classical Chinese system, which requires years to learn thanks to containing thousands upon thousands of different characters. A typical commoner could not afford to spend the time to learn a language this complex and would thus be illiterate. As a purpose driven writing system, however, Hangul is remarkably easy to learn. Not only does it use phonetic characters rather than ideograms, the characters are even designed such that each character will have common features to isnicatd how they're pronounced. However, this led to backlash by Korean nobility and the system was suppressed for quite some time after his death.

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': Averted. The story has a realistic level of literacy and Myne is reincarnated as one of the large majority of poor and illiterate people in the population. Add in that books are created one at a time by trained craftsmen plus both paper and ink being expensive, makes books rare and expensive. One book costs roughly what Myne's father would earn in 40 to 50 years. Myne does however retain her memories of reading and writing in Japanese.

* ''VideoGame/YesYourGrace'': In the two first acts, the Lords whose standing army Eryk is borrowing can be summoned by messenger pigeon. The third act shows that the game averts the trope, as the army is made of peasants and representatives of villages need to be contacted in person by Eryk's agents because they can't read.

* Discussed in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-abyQLl8mPI this video]] by ''WebVideo/{{Shadiversity}} where literacy in the Middle Ages is arbitrary depending on occupation and social status, meaning that one can be illiterate but can be knowledgeable in their craft, and that one can be literate but also uneducated. He then dives deeper [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kISM2od3BJ0 in another video]] that some peasants are literate in the case of vernacular language.

* Zigzagged in ''Literature/TheInheritanceCycle''. Eragon is initially illiterate because, although Uncle Garrow ''was'' literate, as a farmer in a small village in the middle of nowhere he never really had any use for the skill and so didn't bother to teach it to his son and nephew. Eragon spends part of one chapter about halfway through the first book learning to read.

* Debatable in ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'', even Orcs appear to be literate, if only in some indecipherable Mordorian glyphs. Most Dwarves, Elves and Dunedain, and Hobbits, seem to be literate, though there is a remark when Sam cooks for the camp saying Hobbits learn to cook very early, earlier than "their letters, which some never learn".

* Averted in ''LightNovel/WelcomeToJapanMsElf''. Despite the other world being an RPGMechanincsVerse where everyone has their own status screens, only mages and nobles tend to be able to read. This means that the other 70% of the population has to rely on someone who is literate to read their stats and skills for them.

* Averted in the ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' novels as well, where reading and writing is beyond most except for the nobility and Maesters, and books are still a highly-treasured commodity that's costly to produce. Nonetheless, the only illiterate point of view character is the humbly-born Davos Seaworth, who quickly learns how once it becomes necessary. Even Daenerys, whose only education comes from her brother-who himself had no formal education past the age of seven-is able to read and write in multiple languages.