All Things Medieval discussion

I hope you love the contrast here:

Medieval castle enters solar age

Chirk Castle, near Llangollen, has installed solar panels onto its historic roof, thanks to an award from the National Trust's green energy fund.

That's a hoot!!!

Love it.

I think it's even funnier given that the word for the first sitting-rooms was 'solar'

:O))

Bettie wrote: "I think it's even funnier given that the word for the first sitting-rooms was 'solar'

:O))"

Good catch, that went right over my head.

Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays! now for a New Years book reading goal, don't know if anyone was doing one but I am, I want to read more medieval books this year. I said that last year then got distracted with other contemporary subjects. And of course explore more medieval authors.

Finish Cleopatra and be more committed to including one of the HF or NF books in my rotation.

lol, I hear that. though I love to 'browse' my shelves looking at the ones to read.

hi Nona!
Best authors I can think of are ELIZABETH CHADWICK (not the American romance one) and SHARON KAY PENMAN! Fabulous works by both these extremely talented and historically accurate writers!! But not dry by any means truly the best ever!!

yes I agree I have all of SKP books and only lack a few of Chadwicks, they are both truely gifted authors that take you right there.

I like Katherine Deauxville for medieval romance, stays true to the period and tells a good tale. Another great medievalromance is Roberta Gellis I own some of her works but have not read them yet, however Elizabeth Chadwick speaks highly of the first three of her series. Judith Tarr's Queen of Swords is another highly recommended medieval read.

Yes! Roberta Gellis is great I find she is more towards the romance but with a good dose of history!

Hi Elizabeth good to see you here. I do like Gellis and she definitely doesn't sugar coat her medieval period like some romance authors, but I do recommend spacing her books out. Read them too close together and you'll get a serious burn out factor.

Yes I learned that for myself when I was on a Gellis role! LOL!

Those BIG MISUNDERSTANDINGS can get mind numbing after a while :p

way off subject but not really at the same time...I got my first tattoo and love it! I want to draw up something custom or rather I want the artist to draw something up but he said to bring him the ideas. So...I'm wanting something historical, medieval not some dominating viking on my leg or anything but a tastful tattoo on my back (where I can hide it if need be) so does anyone have any good ideas?

Nona wrote: "way off subject but not really at the same time...I got my first tattoo and love it! I want to draw up something custom or rather I want the artist to draw something up but he said to bring him the..."

WOW! GreaT! What nationality are you? We can start there...using something from your historic nationality...?

my great grandfather came over from East Prussia, East Germany. I though of getting the black Prussian Eagle but to clearly get all the details it would be a whole back covering and I'm not sure I'm ready for that. My husband and I fell in love with William marshall through Chadwicks books, my hubby suggested getting his colors and markings on a shield. I would like to think of something different though, not seen anywhere else.

Nona wrote: "way off subject but not really at the same time...I got my first tattoo and love it! I want to draw up something custom or rather I want the artist to draw something up but he said to bring him the..."

Have a look at Written on the Body. Good Hx of tats. Medieval pilgrims often got tats to commemorate their journeys...though by modern standards they would look like cheap scratch work, a good artist should be able to adapt one though.
Or something from a favorite illuminated manuscript?

I thought I'd come and post something here as the medieval threads all seem to have faded away. Shall we wake them up again?

Loretta,

There was bit of chatter about the evolution of armour recently, but that has quieted too. Perhaps everyone has "slombred into a slepyng" like Langland's Will or gone on Pilgrimage with Chaucer. How shall we rouse the masses?

Ruth

Ruth wrote: "Loretta,

There was bit of chatter about the evolution of armour recently, but that has quieted too. Perhaps everyone has "slombred into a slepyng" like Langland's Will or gone on Pilgrimage with ..."

Lol, the Great Fire did a pretty good job last time, but not sure about the ethics of that.
Mayhap we should tweak noses and scatter water from above like raindrops until their sleeping eyes awake. What think you, Ruth?

Loretta,

What about a small fire?

OK, OK — no fires.

What interests you? ME Literature? History? Recent (post-1550 let's say) fiction about the Middle Ages? Monty Python and the Holy Grail jokes? The Plague and ME medicine? The movie coming out about King Arthur the commercials for which do not look promising? ME England or Italy or France or Mars? ME music? Particular individuals? Food — those swans and pigs sewn together and the live birds in pies? Crusades? The lack of hygiene? Beowulf?

Be not ashamed! You are among friends. What topic shall we broach?

Ruth

Ruth wrote: "Loretta,

What about a small fire?

OK, OK — no fires.

What interests you? ME Literature? History? Recent (post-1550 let's say) fiction about the Middle Ages? Monty Python and the Holy Grail jo..."

Oooh, I'd quite forgotten pigs and swans sewn together. Darn! That woild have worked so well in my latest book! I did remember the live birds, but didn't want to copycat another author so just had falcons chasing them around the hall. My time traveller did NOT like that! Couldn't make it too 'nice' for her or they'd never have got rid of her. (Not published quite yet so don't look for it.)

Not ME (ah, bless you, you read my profile. That was nice of you.) I do my best to forget about that, haha. And I talk about it as rarely as possible. I refuse to give it any more attnetion than absolutely necessary for survival..

Fav subjects, Prince John - the man we love to hate. Wouldn't history be boring without him? I love the way Sharon Penman writes him. She gives him a misunderstood side which stops him being a pantomime villain. Eleanor of Aquitaine. Nicholaa de la Haye - I don't know as much about her as I'd like but when I have time, I want to learn more. Don't know if I'd ever have the guts to put her in a story, mind. Alfred the Great - he sounds a most interesting man. I would love Sharon Penman or Helen Hollick to write his story. Helen is another of my fave authors. Such a lovely lady. I'm less keen on her pirate stories but love her tales of Arthur, Harold and Emma. I bought her books years ago and can barely believe she's reviewed a few of my own. I met her at a book signing she did and she is kind enough to answer my emails. Sharon Penman has to be the queen of medieval fiction imho followed closely by Elizabeth Chadwick.

I quite enjoy a bit of medieval music - it's rather jolly. I enjoy dressing up as a medieval lady and the hubster looks awesome in his totally unauthentic Richard the Lionheart costume.

I could do with knowing Beowolf better.

And how about what the medievals would find shocking/interesting/wonderful - apart from chocolate, of course. That's a given - if they were to time travel to visit us? Now, there's a topic. I had to think about that recently because my editor nagged me about it, lol.

What about you? Do any of those topics bring to mind the thoughts which dwell within? The thoughts which other - nay, shall we say lesser and be done with it? - mortals do not care for?

I wait to hear your eloquent words, my lady,

Loretta (doesn't Lady Loretta sound awful? - notwithstanding the fact that there actually was at least one of them in the twelfth/thirteenth century - William de Braose's daughter, poor wight.)

Loretta,

You know, when I was writing the note above, I wasn't thinking about your M.E. (the ailment); I meant ME for Medieval : )! I don't know why the confusion didn't occur to me; I guess it didn't occur to me to transfer that issue to this conversation. Sorry about that!

John Lackland interests me too. He was no angel, but I think he gets a worse rap than he deserves. I know little about Alfred and nothing about de la Haye: tell me more! Start a thread.

I don't think I've read any of Penman's or Hollick's books, but how lovely that Hollick is so gracious! I'm pleased you have that connection.

As for what would shock the medievals: Have you read "The Immortal Bard" by Isaac Asimov? http://www.mayofamily.com/RLM/txt_Asi...
I think you'll find the story amusing and to the point, even if it's about an Early Modern figure rather than a medieval one. What answer did you give your editor?

And Lady Loretta sounds beautifully alliterative, and therefore Medieval, to me!

Ruth

Ruth wrote: "Loretta,

You know, when I was writing the note above, I wasn't thinking about your M.E. (the ailment); I meant ME for Medieval : )! I don't know why the confusion didn't occur to me; I guess it d..."

Lol, it just goes to show I think about ME more than I realised, lol.

I think if I start a thread about Nicholaa, I'll be floundering. I only have a superficial knowledge of her. Suffice it to say, she held a castle against the French for John when he wasn't Lackland any longer, lol. And Alfred was featured in a TV documentary a while ago. He sounds like a really forward-thinking king. He had his own clock - I can't remember whether it involved water as well as candles but it sounded rather clever. I'd have to look him up[ again, but if I remember correctly, he had a finger in the pie of education, too. They read out bits of Old English and it sounded so interesting. If I had the time and the skill, I might be tempted to learn it - although modern languages might be more useful.
Yes, Helen is lovely. Sharon chats to fans on her blog, too, which is nice, but Helen is so supportive.

My editor is a great fan of John - I try to make him show a touch of kindness in my new book, but he does make such a lovely villain. But my editor reckons, as you do, that he is painted darker than he really was.

Maybe I can start a thread just asking people to contribute what they know about Nicholaa. Then, if I don't say too much, I may get away with it. You know what they say. Better to keep your mouth shut and have people thinking you're a fool than to open it and prove the fact beyond all doubt, haha.

Ruth wrote: "Loretta,

You know, when I was writing the note above, I wasn't thinking about your M.E. (the ailment); I meant ME for Medieval : )! I don't know why the confusion didn't occur to me; I guess it d..."

Here you go, Ruth. Here's the new thread and a link to an interesting article about her.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Fantastic, Loretta!

I'm looking forward to learning more about this interesting lady.

Ruth

Ruth wrote: "Fantastic, Loretta!

I'm looking forward to learning more about this interesting lady.

Ruth"

:-)

And who are your favourite characters, Ruth? Which authors do you think portray them the best?

Loretta,

Sorry for the delayed response; I got caught up in some family happenings that were more time-consuing than I had foreseen.

I have read some historical novels about medieval figures, but the only ones coming to mind right now are from a trilogy (I think) about John's daughter Joanna who married Wales' Llewelyn. I handed the books off to someone and never saw them again so I can't even tell you anything more about them, but I thought they were well done. I'm working on re-arranging my bookshelves — a long process — and will keep an eye out for other ones I have read. I'm not sure why I haven't read more.

Most of the medieval lit I've read is medieval: Chaucer, Margery Kempe, The Vision of Piers Plowman, that sort of thing. When I was young, I read a fair bit in the Arthurian legends (oh! yes — Mary Stewart's trilogy and White's Once and Future King), but never really studied them.

You must have a long list of favourites. What are some of yours?

Ruth

Ruth wrote: "Loretta,

Sorry for the delayed response; I got caught up in some family happenings that were more time-consuing than I had foreseen.

I have read some historical novels about medieval figures, b..."

Hi Ruth,

No worries about the delay. Family should always come first. In fact, I've been tied up getting prepared for a library event, and since I can never resist answering asap, it was probably a good thing you were busy, haha. I needed to focus on what I was doing. As an aside, I can tell you, I now know the wearing of veils and wimples can be a very sweaty business, even if they're made of silk. And my fringe kept disappearing beneath my veil, making me look more like Ena Sharples than Eleanor of Aquitaine, lol.
The trilogy you mentioned about Llewellyn - that sounds like it could have been my fave author, Sharon Penman. I have every single book she has written, When Christ and His Saints Slept (King Stephen and Empress Maud) Time and Chance (Henry and Eleanor) Falls the Shadow (Simon de Montfort) The Sunne in Splendour (Edward IV, Richard III) Here be Dragons and The Reckoning (Llewellyn), A King's Ransom (Richard I) plus all the King's Man series and a few others on my Kindle.
I like Helen Hollick's Arthurian trilogy where Arthur is not portrayed as a chivalrous Christian king but more of a warlord and there's no Merlin (I can't be doing with wizards and dragons even though I use time travel as a device in my own novels, lol. Is that hypocritical?) and her books on Emma (wife of Aethelred and Cnut) and Harold. She also gives a darned good and entertaining talk on 1066 - I was lucky enough to meet her recently at one of her book talks. I like most of Elizabeth Chadwick's earlier works but I'm not keen on one I bought recently about the young Eleanor - it doesn't really do it for me.
I don't like Philippa Gregory's style - but I'm sure she'll sell quite well without my patronage, haha.
I enjoyed Samuel Pepys Diary, but my brother-in-law (who probably thought I was too frivolous to cope with the unabridged version) bought me the shortened edition - which is still pretty long. I find Pepys quite hilariously pompous and hypocritical but can't help but warm to him, and he did work hard at sorting out navy issues so respect to him for that.

Sorry, thought I'd better stop there and post it before my iPad decided to refresh the page and disappear all my words. It does that.
Right, who else? I do have a book which covers Margery Kempe as well as others. I'd like to read more about Nicholaa de la Haye, I love Iain Mortimer's Time Traveller in Medieval England and Gilian Polack's factual book about life and customs in medieval England, the name of which escapes me at the moment.

I read those for research, of course, as although I write historical fiction (which I always declared was something I wouldn't write because I wasn't knowledgeable enough, lol. But Helen Hollick loved it so I must have got something right) and Medieval Underpants (can't remember the author) which is entertaining. Also, the Anglo Saxon Chronicles. But mostly, I read fiction.

I did try Chaucer but I do struggle with his English, which I was sad about. But, I also have a couple of books about the life of Queen Victoria as one of my ancestors worked in the Royal Lodge at Frogmore as well as previously having worked on the royal yacht. He also taught the two young princes who became Kings George and Edward to swim, I believe. It's documented in my family history along with the fact that Victoria often dropped by the lodge to take tea with my ancestors. Sadly, it isn't recorded in the books I read, but I live in hope. Haha. He is on the staff records at least.

I do also read contemporary stuff and a few good Christian authors - but not all their work. Some got too Hollywoodish for me. Karen Kingsbury and Francine Rivers. And, I'd better take a break and let you get a word in edgewise now, lol.

Nona wrote: "my great grandfather came over from East Prussia, East Germany. I though of getting the black Prussian Eagle but to clearly get all the details it would be a whole back covering and I'm not sure I'..."
So, Nona, did you ever decide on a tattoo? What did you pick?