Oh my brain!
I’m doing some reading on medieval life. I decided I wanted to read scholarly writings rather than re-enactment stuff. So using my cool iPod Touch and an “app” called Stanza, I downloaded some ebooks from Project Gutenberg.
- Libraries in the Medieval and Renaissance Periods by John Willis Clark (from a 1894 lecture)
- Life in the Medieval University by Robert S. Rait (1912)
- Medieval People by Eileen Edna Power (1924)
- Scottish Cathedrals and Abbeys by Dugald Butler and Herbert Story (1896)
The reading is…interesting. With the dates they were written and the dry subject matter, reading is tough. There’s a lot to swim through to try and glean what I need from it. Then add in that a lot of what was assumed about the “Dark Ages” has since been proved wrong. That time period wasn’t as “dark” as we once thought.
But that’s not what I am looking for. I am looking for the feel, the day-to-day life, the experience of living in that time period. What were the roads like? What was traveling on those roads like? How did they live? How did people living in towns get their wood? What happened to the ashes? To the trash? Where did they get their water?
Sigh. Sometimes I think I am asking to know too much. That knowing too much I may add in too many details that the readers doesn’t really need to know nor want to know. Sigh.