I had an interesting thought yesterday. I was pondering, what if some of the archaic literature we relied upon to document past events was actually fictional accounts intended to be read for leisure?
This prompted me to ask what ancient or medieval (preferably before the 15th century) do you know of? Some may describe The Iliad as historical fiction, what do you think.
P.S. Regarding fictional accounts mistook as historical, I found this enlightening discussion on reddit, libreddit link.
The Canterbury Tales is an interesting one because it’s obviously fiction but it’s really one of the only sources we have about how certain members of society were perceived or treated by their peers. So although it’s meant to be read for leisure, you could argue it inadvertently documents past events. The idea of going on a pilgrimage at all is something strange to us at this point in timed in England.