The Noisy Middle Ages
Let’s take five minutes to lend the Middle Ages an ear.
How to Get Out of a Conviction in the Middle Ages
Whether you’re guilty or innocent, here are five handy tips to help you avoid getting convicted in a medieval court.
Five Things Medieval People Would Hate About the Modern World
Although a medieval person vacationing in the twenty-first century would no doubt be overjoyed at things like electricity, modern transportation, and flushing toilets, there are a lot of things they probably wouldn’t appreciate about our time.
Five Medieval Toothpaste Recipes
Need advice on how to keep your teeth clean and shiny white? Medieval writers have got you covered!
Dolphins in the Middle Ages
Like just about everyone else on planet Earth who’s been lucky enough to see them, medieval people shared a friendly admiration of dolphins. Their smiling faces seem to have garnered them human respect, and curiosity enough for medieval people to study them carefully and share dolphin stories.
Agnès Sorel: Death of the Official Mistress of the King
Some people are born to break the rules, and one of those people was Agnès Sorel.
Using Salt in the Middle Ages
Salt was an integral part of medieval life: not only is some salt a necessary part of a human diet, but it’s also essential for preserving food such as meat, seafood, and dairy products in the absence of refrigeration.
Five (In)famous Medieval Break-Ups
The other day, a friend put me on to the very funny It Ended Badly: Thirteen of the Worst Break-Ups in History by Jennifer Wright, a modern and cheeky look at some truly awful splits from Emperor Nero to Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher (and Elizabeth Taylor).
New Online Course: The Middle Ages and the Modern World: Facts and Fiction
2015 brought a lot of interesting opportunities for our Five-Minute Medievalist, Danièle Cybulskie, including the chance to use her expertise to create a new, fully online course on medievalism in collaboration with Conestoga College.
Robot Saints in the Middle Ages
While it’s easy to think of the Middle Ages as a backward time in which everyone struggled with the most basic things, medieval people were no strangers to some pretty cool technology, including robots.
Five Medieval Games to Get You Through Long Winter Nights
Here are five games that date back to the Middle Ages that you can stay in and play on these long nights of winter.
Five Favourite Reads for Medievalists
I thought I’d share just a handful of my favourites that range from medieval-for-beginners to heavier academic stuff.
The Story of Exodus: The Anglo-Saxon Version
The clever authors of these Anglo-Saxon biblical poems knew their audiences, engaging readers and listeners by retelling Old Testament stories in an epic way that was both familiar and beloved.
How to Write a Letter for a Suspicious Knight
For some were shoemakers in their own shires, some swineherds, and the man has yet to be found who would couple a girl of such noble birth to a man of ignoble origins.
5 Things to Pack in Your Medieval First Aid Kit
Here are five things that would have been a handy part of a medieval ‘first aid kit’ and that (incidentally) science is slowly proving can still be counted on to work in a pinch.
7 Things One Should Know When Dealing with Kings: The Icelander’s Version
Here is MaryAnn R. Adams’ winning advice on how to deal with Norse kings.
In Search of Guinevere
As a lifelong lover of Arthurian stories, I have always had a love/hate relationship with Guinevere. In some stories, she is the well-mannered and generous ideal queen; in others she is a jealous and spiteful adulteress. How can she be both? When did she change?
The Snow Baby: A Cautionary Tale
Most of the time, fabliaux are lighthearted and lusty, but occasionally they stray into dark humour, like ‘The Snow Baby’.
Last Words from a Medieval Mother to her Son
Yesterday, I stumbled across a passage from the Liber Manualis, written by a ninth-century Frankish woman named Dhuoda to her fifteen-year-old son.
How to Tell if Your 12th-Century Lover is Just Not That Into You
In the twelfth century, courtly love was all the rage with the French nobility. To participate in this trendiest of trends, though, you actually needed to know the rules.
Gargoyles: Mysterious Monsters of the Middle Ages
I love gargoyles. While there are so many beautiful pieces of sculpture that have survived the Middle Ages, like so many people, I’m drawn to those strange and ugly funny faces, not least of all because I can’t figure out what they’re for.
‘One Thing I Know’: Werewolves Are a Thing
In his Otia Imperialia, Gervase of Tilbury tells of many strange creatures he knows all about. One of these creatures is the werewolf.
Meet the Real Ulrich von Liechtenstein
If you’ve ever seen A Knight’s Tale, you’ll know that the titular knight takes on the name of Ulrich von Liechtenstein in order to joust on the tournament circuit and win the hand of his lady fair. What you may not have known is that there seems to have been a real thirteenth-century knight named Ulrich von Liechtenstein, who spent his youth jousting to win the heart (and body) of a capricious lady, and then wrote a book about it.
Why was the Longbow so effective?
One of the most feared military weapons of the Middle Ages was the longbow, used to legendary effect by the English in The Hundred Years’ War. While the longbow has gone down in history as a mighty weapon, what exactly was it and why was it so effective?