How much did the people in the middle ages know about the past?

Histories and chronicles existed but they weren't exactly a thing for the illiterate masses. Folk stories served for that.

>>2614124
since the average citizen didn't know how to read until the 19th and 20th centuries in the west, extremely few were able to actually learn much

the only real history that was passed on through time was that of rome and the greeks to an extent

and like
>>2614140
said, the rest was passed on through folk tales and the like

We know next to nothing about what the average person in the middle ages thought because writing was mostly in the domain of the clergy and the nobility.

You can infer things from historical references but you have to take into account the audience for the reference and stuff like that.

Just looking at Irish history because that's what I specialised in: Brian Boru is consistently referred to as the °Augustus of the North" in a propaganda piece intended to be read by Irish nobles so we can assume that the average 11th century Irish nobleman would know a little bit about Roman history. In a 15th century annal, Mael Mórdha mac Murchada, an 11th century Irish king, is referred to as "putrid while living, damned when dead", so we know that his status as a kind of Arch-Traitor in the Irish national consciousness persisted until then.

>>2614124
The church destroyed books and with it,literacy

>>2614214
that's pretty wrong though, as throughout the early middle ages, the catholic church was the only institution in the west to carry on the writing of books, and most books of the time were held within monasteries

>>2614224
Oh you mean the 5% of books they didn't destroy?

Very charitable

>>2614236
most of the book burning within christianity was by fundamentalist protestants and puritans

>>2614253
>&humanities strikes again

>>2614256
what did he mean by this

Almost all art referenced history, religion, and mythology.

There was no "pop culture" as we understand it; there were no Kardashians or Paris Hiltons to obsess over.

My guess is that the average peasant had a vague understanding of the past.