This needs to be turned into a category.

From the fall of Rome (c. 476 CE) to the invention of printing. The precise dates vary from region to region, but this was a time when literacy was low and books rare. Most western folklore originated here, often echoing earlier tropes.Chivalric Romance developed in this era.

Note: this is older thanJohannes Gutenberg's printing press (1439 CE), not metal movable-type characters (ca. 1230 CE, Korea), movable-type printing (1040 CE, China), and certainly not wood-block printing (220 CE or earlier, China again). In short, the Middle Ages—assuming you don't take Petrarch's definition for it, as he lived in the 1300s.

Specific works from this time period include:

• TheArabian Nights, mostly (though Aladdin and Ali Baba have no known source before Galland'sOlder Than Radio French translation.)
• Beowulf
• The Canterbury Tales byGeoffrey Chaucer
• Giovanni Boccacio'sDecameron
• The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
• Almost everything we know ofCeltic Mythology andNorse Mythology was first written down during this period.
• The Icelandic Sagas
• Most sources ofArthurian legend, from Geoffrey of Monmouth'sHistory of the Kings of Britain toSir Gawain and the Green Knight.
• Nibelungenlied
• TheTale of Genji
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms (though set in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE)
• The Song of Roland
• The Shahnameh by Ferdowsi
• TheHinduPuranas were composed in more-or-less their present form during the centuries before about 1000 CE, although their origins and some portions of the texts go back to at least 300 BCE.

• Abhorrent Admirer: Seen in the Wife of Bath's Tale inThe Canterbury Tales.
• Above the Influence: Kamar and Budur inTheArabian Nights.
• Adjective Animal Alehouse: EuropeanHigh Middle Ages practice.
• The Ageless: TheNorse gods are unaging, so long as they continue to eat the Apples of Idun.
• Alas, Poor Yorick: St. Catherine of Siena did this, supposedly.
• All Witches Have Cats: 'A woman with black cat is a witch' dates to this time period.
• Anatomically-Impossible Sex: Works by Duke William IX of Aquitaine.
• Arrow Catch: Odin inNorse Mythology and Jiang Wei inRomance of the Three Kingdoms can both do this.
• Artificial Limbs: TheIrish god Nuada got a silver arm after losing his real one.
• Ascended Fanboy: Back in 12th century Europe, a lot of knightsJumped At the Call of the Second Crusade. Why? They were raised on stories of the First Crusade.
• Attractive Bent Gender: "Prince Camaralzaman and Princess Badoura" inTheArabian Nights.
• Berserk Button: Liu Bei inRomance of the Three Kingdoms.
• Beware of Hitch-Hiking Ghosts: Mi Zhu picks up a hitchhikingfire spirit inRomance of the Three Kingdoms.
• Bishonen:Prince Genji.
• Black Knight: The two black knights fromArthurian legend.
• Bolivian Army Ending: The game ofChess ends when the king is surrounded with no chance of escape.
• The Call Left a Message: The Sword in the Stone and the Siege Perilous from theKing Arthur legends.
• Catch and Return: Catching a spear from mid-flight and throwing it back is a feat mastered by various heroes ofThe Icelandic Sagas.
• Chain of Deals: The Japanese legend of the straw millionaire, a poor man who prayed to the goddess of mercy. She granted him a piece of straw, which he traded through his travels until he managed to win the heart of an heiress.
• Changeling Tale: Supernatural beings enticing humans away into the Otherworld is a trope ofIrish Mythology, though this is not done from malice. The folk belief (common to most of Western Europe) that malicious supernatural beings outright kidnap people (especially babies) and substitute them with changelings is documented from theThe Late Middle Ages onwards.
• Character Name and the Noun Phrase:Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, 14th century.
• Chess Motifs: Chaturanga existed by the 7th century CE.
• Chivalric Romance: Hallmark ofHigh Middle Ages literature.
• Cold Iron: The traditional bane ofThe Fair Folk.
• Corrupt Church: Medieval Western Europe allegedly got it bad enough to be commented on in several contemporary sources. The most notable of these is Dante, who puts several popes in Hell for corruption in theInferno, and the one pope we meet in thePurgatorio is also there for being too greedy before he repented.
• The Corpse Stops Here: "The Story of the Hunchback" from theArabian Nights.
• Courtroom Episode: Elaborate law court scenes are found in many of theSagas of Icelanders.
• Courtly Love: A staple ofChivalric Romance.
• Damsel Errant: InArthurian myths, such as in the Forest of Arroy.
• The Dead Can Dance: Thedanse macabre motif in art (first in 1425), and various morality plays.
• Direct Line to the Author:Tale of Genji andThe Canterbury Tales both have this.
• Disposable Woman:Vitae Sanctorum Britanniae, before the 9th century. AlsoShui Hu Zhuan, akaOutlaws of the Marsh orThe Water Margin (mid-14th century).
• The Dulcinea Effect: Chivalric stories, such as the 12th-century tale of the Troubadour Joufre.
• The Everyman: These were often the protagonists of medieval everyman plays.
• Everything's Better with Rainbows (Rainbows as solid objects): InNorse Mythology the rainbow is Bifrost, the bridge between Asgard and Midgard, a solid road on which the gods travel.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: Kajebi fortress inThe Knight in the Tiger's Skin (12th century).
• Eye Beams: The Fomor Balor fromIrish Mythology had a magic eye that could burn men "like leaves cast into a forge." In theMatsya Purana, Shiva used his third eye to burn the love-god Kama to ash in wrath over being forced to fall in love with Parvati.
• Eyepatch of Power: The god Odin inNorse Mythology.
• The Fair Folk: AncientIrish Mythology, bleeding through into British folk tales.
• Fanfare: European practice heralding the arrival of a King.
• Family Eye Resemblance: InVolsunga Saga, all the Volsungs have unusually bright, piercing eyes.
• Fantastic Foxes: Oral traditions in Europe and Asia.
• Faux Death: TheCeltic precursor of "Sleeping Beauty".
• Fence Painting: The modus operandi of the West African trickster Anansi the Spider. It eventually backfires on him.
• Feuding Families: ManySagas of Icelanders, such asNjáls saga,Laxdæla saga, andEyrbyggja saga.
• Fleur-de-Lis: European heraldry.
• For Want of a Nail: The proverb first appeared during this period, though the concept may be older. There's also theArabian Nights tale "What a drop of honey caused" (it caused a war.)
• Generational Saga: VariousIcelandic sagas, such asLaxdæla saga,Eyrbyggja saga, orVolsunga Saga (all 13th century).
• Genie in a Bottle: Arabian myth and legend.
• Gentle Giant: Saint Christopher, postCharacter Development, in theGolden Legend c. 1260 CE.
• Greedy Jew: Medieval European prejudice.
• The Grim Reaper: The personification of Death as a skeletal figure with a scythe was common in the middle ages in Europe, starting in the 14th century.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: The mobility limitations of the Advisors/Guards inXiangqi means they're often getting in each other's way.
• Hammerspace: Thunder-god Thor ofNorse Mythology could make his hammer shrink to an incredibly tiny size, and be pulled out of seemingly nowhere, and is both the first user andnamer of this trope.
• Heroic Albino: Prince Zal inThe Shāhnāmeh by the great Persian poet Ferdowsi.
• Holding the Floor: Scheherezade inArabian Nights dragged this on along time.
• I Call Him "Mister Happy": "The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad" inArabian Nights.
• IKEA Erotica: The gods Izanagi and Izanami, in the Japanese creation myth.
• Insubstantial Ingredients: The sound of a cat's footfall is one of several impossible ingredients in the unbreakable ribbonGleipnir inNorse Mythology.
• Is That What They're Calling It Now?:Decameron, 14th century CE.Day 3, Story 10
• King in the Mountain:King Arthur in Cadbury Hill, Frederick Barbarossa in Kyffhäuser, King Wenceslas in Blaník, to only name a few.
• Knighting: Medieval European practice.
• Knight Errant:Chivalric Romance
• Knight in Shining Armor:Chivalric Romance
• The Lady's Favour:Chivalric Romance
• Lampshade Hanging: Dante's reaction to seeing so many Florentines he recognizes in Hell inThe Divine Comedy. The narrator ofThe Tale of Genji concludes her glamorous description of Genji's awesomeness with the note that if she mentionedall the ways he was amazing, it would only look absurd.
• Land of Faerie: The Otherworld, inhabited by the Sidhe ofIrish Mythology.
• Line-of-Sight Name:The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, 1300s
• Literal Ass Kissing: "The Miller's Tale" inThe Canterbury Tales, late 14th century
• Mad Eye: Cuchulain,Irish folk hero, sucks one eye all the way into his skull while the other pops right out when he gets into a rage.
• Magic Knight: TheNorse god Odin.
• Merlin: The "modern" incarnation of him began in this time period, along with the modernArthurian mythos.
• Merlin and Nimue (a relationship between two magic-users): The pair fromArthurian legend are theTrope Namers and makers.
• Mineral MacGuffin: InChivalric Romance, the magical jewel that shone of its own light is a stock magical item.
• The Mourning After: TheChivalric RomanceFloris and Blanchefleur.
• Murder, Inc.:The Hashshashin, the original assassins, come from this period.
• Name and Name:Troilus and Criseyde,Geoffrey Chaucer.
• Nerf: Generals inXiangqi.
• Once Upon a Time: Per Webster's, started around 1380.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Pieces in Chaturanga.
• Our Genies Are Different: The varying portrayal of genies in theArabian Nights are often quite different from what the Western world expects of genies.
• Pop Goes the Human: There's a Celtic yarn about a boy who is mad at his brother for being a glutton, and makes aChain of Deals so he can hang him. When he finally gets the materials to build a gibbet, he returns home to discover that his brother burst.
• Privately-Owned Society:Real Life Gaelic Ireland, between 650 and 1650, and the Icelandic Commonwealth, between 930 and 1262.
• The Promise: In theChivalric RomanceSir Orfeo.
• Random Events Plot:Apollonius of Tyre, aChivalric Romance.
• Rage Against the Reflection: InRomance of the Three Kingdoms Xiahou Dun, after getting hisEyepatch of Power, is said to have a "wanting to break things" expression on his face whenever he got near a mirror.
• Reforged Blade: TheTrope Maker is the IcelandicSaga of the Volsungs: When no other blade meets his requirements, the hero Sigurd makes the dwarf Regin forge the pieces of his father's sword into a new weapon of superior quality.
• Religion of Evil: Pre-Christian pagan religions thought Judaism was this. Later on medieval Christians accused pagans of Satan-worship. Nowadays atheists accuse Christians of this. Tomorrow....?
• Robe and Wizard Hat: TheNorse god Odin invented it.
• Sassy Black Woman: Brunhild the Moor inDie Mörin, Hermann von Sachsenheim, 1453
• Self-Insert Fic: Dante'sDivine Comedy
• Shapeshifting Lover: Japanese kitsune and tanuki,Irish selkies, European swan maidens, and others.
• Shapeshifter Showdown: TheWelsh myth of Cerridwen and Taliesin. The Tale of the Kalandar Prince in TheArabian Nights.
• Shapeshifting Squick: Foxes in Japanese folklore who seduced men, then turned back into foxes after a one night stand.
• Short-Lived, Big Impact:The Canterbury Tales were never finished yet have influenced all of Western literature.
• Shut Up, Kirk: In theChanson De Roland, Charlemagne calls on the Pagan leader Baligant to repent and be baptized, and then the Emperor his "first friend will be." Baligant tells him, "Your sermon's but ill preached." Of course, the medieval belief that being non-Christian necessarily makes Baligant the villian of the piece hits modernValues Dissonance.
• Simple Staff: Little John,Robin Hood, 14th century
• Slasher Smile: Skarp-Héðinn Njálsson inthe IcelandicBrennu-Njáls Saga. Loki inNorse Mythology.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil:Beowulf, in the order in which he fights the three monsters.
• Strange Salute: InThe Divine Comedy, some demons salute each other byfarting.
• Stylistic Suck: The tale of Sir Thopas inThe Canterbury Tales.
• Suicide Attack:The Hashshashin, the original assassins.
• Third Eye: The HinduMatsya Purana tells of the fear of the gods when Shiva mourned unceasingly for his dead wife Sati, because a prophecy stated that a new son of Shiva was needed to save the gods from a coming catastrophe. Kama, god of love, shot Shiva to make him fall in love with Parvati, so Shiva grew a third eye and burnt him to a crisp withEye Beams.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: FromNorse heroic legend: When the hero Sigurd is stabbed in his sleep, he throws his sword after the fleeing murderer that cuts him clean in two. The incident is related identically inProse Edda,Poetic Edda andVolsunga Saga.
• Thud and Blunder:Beowulf
• Turn Out Like His Father: Some variants of Percival, fromKing Arthur myths.
• Uptown Girl:Prince Justinian I married Theodora, a low-class actress/prostitute. He actuallyabolished the laws prohibiting their marriage.
• Valkyries: May have dated from earlier, but the age of Vikings was in full-swing during this period, and mostNorse Mythology was codified and recorded during this period.
• Villainous Breakdown: InRomance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhou Yu is completely unhinged by the failure of his last plan against Zhuge Liang. Zhou Yu's rage causes a wound to reopen and he sickens and dies shortly thereafter.
• Where Da White Women At?: In the framing story of theArabian Nights, as well as within more than one tale. The women in question are Persian, but the dynamic with black male slaves is the same.
• Who Needs Their Whole Body?: In the Arthurian story ofSir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Green Knight gets beheaded and then calmly talks and walks while carrying his head.
• Wife Husbandry: Hikaru Genji does this with/to Murasaki inTale of Genji. Lugh tries to do this with Deirdre inDeirdre of the Sorrows, but it doesn't work.
• The Wild Hunt: Unequivocal instances of this trope date to this era, the oldest probably found in theBhagavata Purana of Hindu literature (9th or 10th century), where mention is made of a travelling army of ghosts, headed by Shiva. For Europe, this supernatural phenomenon is probably first described by the chronicler Ordericus Vitalis in the 1130s.^[1]
• William Telling: The earliest instance is that of Palnatoki or Toko, recorded in the 12th century in Saxo Grammaticus'Danish History. William Tell, in contrast, is first described performing the feat in the 15th century in theWhite Book of Sarnen.
• Wishplosion: In the originalArabian Nights a man's wife gets rid of an evil genie by wishing he would straighten out a single hair. (In today's age of salons, this wouldn't work.)
• You All Meet in An Inn: The pilgrims inThe Canterbury Tales, and Liu Bei and his (future) sworn brothers inRomance of the Three Kingdoms.
• Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb: InBeowulf, the eponymous hero describes his and his cousin's swimming across the sea as something they did when they were young and prideful.

• Trope
• Pages that should be categories
• The Oldest Ones in the Book
• Index
• Older Than Print