Europe

Events

• Emergence of the troubadour, trouvère and minnesänger traditions, in the Occitan, Langues d'oïl and Middle High German vernaculars respectively

Major works

• 1180 to 1210 - Nibelunglied
• The Tale of Igor's Campaign in Old East Slavic, dated near the end of the century
• Ormulum in Middle English
• Chanson d'Antioche and other crusader tales at the beginning of the century.

Poets

• Chrétien de Troyes flourishes in the 1170s and 1180s.
• Marie de France flourishes from approximately 1170 through 1205/1210.
• Jean Bodel
• Undated troubadors

• Bernart de Ventadorn (c. 1130s - c. 1190s)
• Cercamon (fl. 1130s and 1140s)
• Marcabru (fl. 1140s and 1150s)
• Arnaut de Mareuil (fl. late 12th c.)

• Goliard poets, writing in Latin, flourish in European universities
• Nigel de Longchamps, writing in Latin in England
• John of Hauville, writing in Latin, probably in France
• Walter of Châtillon, writing in Latin in France
• Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr, fl. in the last half of the century in Wales
• Joseph ben Isaac Bekhor Shor, writing in Hebrew in France in the last half of the century

Middle East

Events

• Emergence of Turkic poetry

Poets

• Michael Glycas, Byzantine

Persia

Poets

• Nizami Aruzi
• Mahsati, a woman poet from Azerbaijan
• Rashid al-Din Muhammad al-Umari Vatvat

South Asia

Poets

• Akka Mahadevi, in Kannada
• Allama Prabhu, in Kannada
• Nagavarma II, in Kannada
• Rudrabhatta, in Kannada
• Chand Bardai in Hindi
• Fariduddin Ganjshakar in Punjabi

Southeast Asia

• Kakawin Hariwangsa authored mid-century in Java

Decades and years