The Significance of Vernacular Literature. The early medieval epics and sagas and the chansons de geste of the eleventh and twelfth centuries are some of the earliest manifestations of a form of literature that grew increasingly prominent and popular throughout the Middle Ages: vernacular literature. The word vernacular means "in the vulgar tongue," and when applied to literature it is used to describe literature that is composed or written in the language that the author and his audience speak daily. Although Latin was an international language in medieval Europe and those who knew Latin wrote, read, and spoke it, the majority of Europeans spoke local dialects that eventually evolved into the modern languages now known as French, English, German, Italian, and so on. A medieval author who was interested in gaining an international audience had to write in Latin, but authors who were...