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An armored knight on a lumbering steed, toiling serfs, tied to the lands of their lord, cloistered monks and nuns, lost in prayer, and don’t forget the scenery: high-walled castles, great gothic churches, farms, farms, and more farms. We all know the kind of things we’d find during the Medieval Age. But what actually was the Medieval Age? Join us here at MedievalMadness to find out...
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It’s hard being a teenager. Coping with raging hormones, insecurities, and acne while trying to figure out just who you are and where you fit in society is no joke. It’s not really the best time to try and make important choices about your future. So, just imagine what being a teenager was like without the comfortable, modern amenities that we have today. Let’s face it, in Medieval Europe, you were lucky to have even reached your teens when childhood mortality was so high. Let’s travel back i...
Once again we delve into the reasons why you probably wouldn’t live very long in the Middle Ages. For one reason or another death seemed to be waiting around every corner. Having dealt with war, poison, and squalor in our last video we now move on to religion. Really, things just don’t get any better. And with one year in particular being described as the worst year EVER to be alive, we can’t see any reason why you would want to even go there.
Vikings, eh? Bloodthirsty, vicious barbarians, well-known for their willingness to loot monasteries and murder their enemies in a variety of gruesome ways. Including perhaps the grisliest end you could imagine – the blóðǫrn, or more commonly known as the ‘blood eagle’. Reserved only for the worst of the worst in Viking eyes – people who had lost their honour through acts of cowardice or who had killed one of their family members – it was a horrifying torture method that struck fear into the ...
14th-century London was tiny when compared to today's modern cities, but much larger than any other English town at that time. In 1300, the population stood at approximately 80,000, all crammed into one square mile. It was noisy, pretty stinky, packed with people, and not the safest place to be when you consider that getting mauled by a pig was a thing. Let’s travel back in time now to the London of the Middle Ages and experience the sights, sounds, and smells of life there in the heart of th...
It’s that time of year again when we want to hear tales about ghosts, demons and mythical monsters. And what better era was there for stories of these supernatural and fabulous occurrences than the Middle Ages? A period in European history that was thick with superstition and when religion commanded everything. A time when the Christian Church decided to place All Souls Day right in the middle of what Celtic Pagans called Samhain. The point of the year where summer light turns into winter dar...
What did Vikings eat? Let's find out! A smoky longhouse, the sound of a fire crackling and fat sizzling off a haunch of venison, mugs of mead being quaffed and sagas being recounted. Every day was a feast day in the world of the average Viking, right? Well, maybe not so much. The typical diet of a Viking was seasonal, varied, and apparently really quite indulgent at times. Welcome to the Viking Vault.
Most of us have heard the fairy story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. What many of us don’t know is that the legend is based in truth. There is very little evidence as to what actually happened in the German town of Hamelin during the 13th century. In 1384 a short and sinister entry appeared in one of the town’s chronicles. It stated – “It is 100 years since our children left”, but what does this mean?
Just suppose you could travel back in time and experience life as a Medieval. Maybe go back to the Middle Ages and live there, in England as an adult, (now why the hell would I want to do that, I hear you shouting, but just bear with me, it’s quite interesting). How would you survive? What would you eat, or wear? Where would you work? How would you avoid getting into trouble with the Church and the authorities? Let’s journey back through time now and experience the past through the ey...
Having Viking DNA doesn’t mean that you should automatically construct a longhouse and start planning your ship burial – although you’re absolutely free to do that if that’s what your seafaring heart desires. And actually, having Viking DNA doesn’t make you all that special – about 6% of Britons are likely to have Scandinavian DNA according to a study published in 2020, and about 10% of Swedes can claim Viking ancestry. To detract even further from your dream to claim that you’re a des...
For thousands of years, people have placed curses on their enemies and wished them misfortune. Many of these hexes have involved pleas to the forces of the occult with prayers and rituals. Sometimes it might be an actual object or a place that is cursed, like a tomb. Many Medieval tales involve warnings about destruction and deaths that appear to be linked to curses. Let us travel back in time now to the Middle Ages and hear about some of these mysterious tales of a biological bomb, th...
Menstruation is a milestone in the life of any girl or woman. A biological phenomenon that changes her body and her social standing. But what about women who lived during the Middle Ages? Knowing what we do about Medieval hygiene it’s hard not to feel sympathy for them, without the convenience of modern pads and tampons. Did they understand what was happening to their bodies during their period? What sort of sanitary products and pain relief did they use? Why did the Medievals believe that me...
Honestly, Vikings were pretty much the same as any other medieval people – they were farmers and handymen most of the time. Most Vikings lived on a farmstead and they would have had to have been able to grow crops, tend livestock, and create all the tools they’d need to maintain their homes and animals. But that’s not all. Vikings were versatile and able to turn their hands to anything they wanted to. Things started to change as Viking settlements became larger – if you lived in a smal...
What would the Medievals want with a burnt owl, a chopped-up cat, or dove faeces? How do you help a bald man with gout? Or a woman with ‘blocked menses?’ If they weren’t too complicated, most medicines in the Middle Ages were homemade. Many were quite practical, and most of the ingredients make sense to us because they are still recognisable today. Others are just downright freaky…
It was a spectacular win for the young English King Henry V on St. Crispin’s Day 1415. And everybody loves to see a win for the underdog, a victory for the common soldier over the well-armed knight. It felt like every moment of the Hundred Years War had been leading up to this point. A pivotal battle that would change the course of European warfare forever and saw the French army lose to an English army that was less than half its size. But war is, and was a dangerous and violent affair, so t...
Being a criminal in the modern age really doesn’t have quite the same thrill anymore – you get caught by the police, tried, and then sent to prison for a certain amount of time. The Vikings on the other hand... Well, they knew what to do with a criminal. Viking society didn’t have political or criminal institutions in the same way as we do now – but they did have a complex web of honour and justice that ran throughout their entire society and laid the foundations of their legal system. Taking...
Alberico was many things, a friend and patron to troubadours, an Occitan poet, a mercenary, and a Podesta. But being politically allied to his notoriously cruel brother Ecelino didn’t help Alberico when he was eventually captured by Papal troops. What was Alberico so guilty of that had caused him to be hated in the Italian city of Treviso? The Middle Ages were violent, pitiless, and revenge-driven times. So today we continue our ‘Day In The Life’ series and travel back in time to see what lif...
During the Middle Ages, ale was the most popular drink in England, and Medieval taverns, inns, and alehouses held a very important role in society, providing drink, food, and lodging to weary travellers, pilgrims, and even occasionally royalty. When we think of the Medieval tavern we imagine dark and smelly places with huge wooden tables and benches, places of gambling, violence, and shady business deals. But what were pubs really like in the Middle Ages? Let’s travel back in time for some le...
Vikings loved their kids, relying on their offspring to support them in their old age and carry on the family name. In Njal’s Saga we see how Njall chooses to die rather than live without his sons, showing how deeply important children were to Viking families. Although what was it like to be a child in the Viking era? Was it a carefree time of exploration and learning to fight and pillage, or did Viking children need to grow up before their time? Was it even a probability that they’d live to ...
Many people look at the Middle Ages through romantic eyes. They think about “armoured knights on lumbering steeds”, beautiful damsels in pointy hats, dragons, chivalry, and courtly love. Nothing could be further from the truth. For most people, the Middle Ages were dirty, difficult, and really dangerous. Let’s find out now why it was unlikely that you could stay alive and prosper and why you were likely to die quite quickly during that time. Welcome to Medieval Madness.
At what age was someone considered to be ‘old’ in the Middle Ages? Did greying hair automatically guarantee respect from the younger generation? Were Medievals afraid of becoming old, with all its infirmities, or were they happy to live to such a great age when death was everywhere? Now, let’s travel back in time and discuss cougars, flying monks, fat children, and their urine. Welcome to Medieval Madness.
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