My first real memory about that I was 7 or 8 years old whatching the film “Conan the Barbarian”, with Arnold Scharzenegger and James Earl Jones, on TV. I was just amazed by that world “when the ocean drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Aryas” and then I started to read all […]

I’m not really a medievalist, but for some reason I’ve always had a fascination for that nebulous period that we could call late antiquity/early medieval when things changed in some very interesting ways. I don’t have an explanation why this fascinates me so much, except it goes back a long way, to second or third […]

My love of the medieval started around the age of 4 or 5. I didn’t know what medieval meant but that didn’t matter. There was an imported French-Canadian TV series in the late 60s called “Desert Crusader” (Thibaud ou les Croisades to the natives) that grabbed my attention. I didn’t and couldn’t possibly have understood […]

My interest in medieval history first began during a random bout of insomnia. The BBC and Open University used to show documentaries into the wee small hours. Presumably to be recorded and watched by OU students. There was always something of interest to watch, or to help you fall asleep, on a vast array of […]

I went Medieval for castles. My mom bought me a child’s castle book that broke down the many aspects of life in a Medieval castle when I was young. I spent my childhood roaming around the Lord’s residence and make believing I was a princess. What little girl didn’t want to be a princess? Courtly […]

Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved pictures and paintings that told a story. I never realised that this is why I don’t understand modern art – because it says nothing to me. There’s no curious little figure skulking away with a ladder on his shoulder towards the vague outline of a castle in […]

Medievalists.net has a page “Why Medieval?” It invites readers (scholars, teachers, fans, gamers, writers) to answer that question. I am working on my own writer’s insight. I’m a fiction writer, I hear voices. I eagerly press myself against stone ramparts, feeling for distant accents. I want to hear medieval voices. Same with castles. I want […]

Why medieval? I think it was medieval that picked me. At an early age I viewed and read books and comics on ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt and Babalyon along with ancient Irish history. My father and teachers made such material available. I quickly took to enjoying it. On many sunny days (it seemed to be […]

My transformation into a medievalist was like falling in love with an old friend. I’ve always been a great reader, and in high school I used to curl up with books by Rosemary Sutcliff, Jean Plaidy, and J.R.R. Tolkien although I gave little conscious thought to the history that infused them. For me the books […]

I have to say my first real memory of something that was obviously medieval was when I was 8 and accidentally saw Monty Python’s Holy Grail movie! (I did already know who they were tho) But even before that, when I lived in the middle of no where with no exposure to tv or movies, […]

Well, I always thought castles and cathedrals were “cool” but what won me over were the Anglo-Saxons. And I’m not really sure why. I read Beowulf in high school and enjoyed it and had an opportunity to take a Beowulf class in college which entailed translating the entire poem out of the original Old English […]

“Rolf stayed up all night preparing for the ceremony whereby he would become a Knight. It was a great honor that Tom would never experience. Tom would go to the castle tomorrow for a feast. When he finally arrived at the castle, he could hardly believe his eyes. He was surrounded by people in fine […]

I think it all started in grade school back in Hungary when my history teacher first threw his key at the boys who wouldn’t stop talking during his class. Let me explain that. He was an older gentleman, in a country where individualism and any deviation from the official doctrine was at minimum frowned upon […]

We here at Medievalists.net are interested in knowing and sharing the stories of how the people who love medieval history – scholars, writers, gamers, fans – first got interested in the Middle Ages. We think there are lot of wonderful stories of how you got hooked on medieval history, medieval literature or the medieval life. […]