by Molly Owen | Apr 2, 2013 | Blog, Merry Farmer
Every once in a while, Amazon gets it right. A few weeks ago I pulled my Kindle out of its cover and there, on the sleep-mode page, was a recommendation for Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen, by Mary Sharratt. Well of course I bought it! Hildegard is one of my favorite historical figures.
At the same time, I’m really not all that surprised when I hear someone say “Hildegard von Who?”. Precious few people are aware of medieval history, and even fewer of those people stop to consider what women in the Middle Ages were doing. In the case of Hildegard, she was doing a lot!
In a nutshell, Hildegard was a German (and I use the term anachronistically) nun whose life spanned three-quarters of the twelfth century. She was a mystic, a writer, an abbess, and one of the greatest minds of the High Middle Ages. The crowned heads of Europe, including the Pope, wrote to her for advice on some of the thorniest issues, both personal and political. Her musical compositions are still performed. Her dramatic works are some of the finest of the pre-Shakespearean era. (more…)
by Molly Owen | Mar 2, 2013 | Blog, Merry Farmer
Okay, I’ll confess. I’m not anywhere near a computer or the internet right now. I scheduled this post to appear way ahead of time. Why? Because as you read this I’m probably sitting on the balcony of the Atlantis Resort, staring out over the pristine beaches and crystal waters of the Bahamas. And it’s just as likely that I’m daydreaming about pirates and treasure. Because who wouldn’t be in a setting like this? But what is the real history of this island I’m sitting on? Were there pirates and buried treasure here?
Well, in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. And he landed in the Bahamas. On the island of San Salvador, to be exact. What he found there was a tropical paradise inhabited by a small number of natives. These natives, the Lucayan, were either of Carib descent or related to the indigenous peoples of Florida, the Seminoles. They were a peaceful, non-cannibalistic people, so of course Columbus scooped them all up as slaves to work in the mines of Hispaniola. No one ever said Columbus was a nice guy. (more…)
by Molly Owen | Feb 2, 2013 | Blog, Merry Farmer
So what do you do if you’re a Medieval lord with twelve children and not enough land to divide between them all? You give your kids away, of course. And who do you give them to? The Church.
One of the areas of medieval history that we in the modern world might find it the hardest to identify with – particularly as romance novelists and enthusiasts – is that of the life of the Church. How could people stand to live cloistered lives, praying all day and at the mercy of a Pope you would probably never see? Chances are it was a life that wasn’t chosen freely either. About 80% of the monks and nuns of the Middle Ages had been given to the Church as children. These children, also known as oblates, had no say in the life they were given to.
But before you are tempted to think that this was horrible and cruel of Medieval parents, let’s take a look at exactly what these lucky few could expect from their lives. (more…)
by Molly Owen | Jan 2, 2013 | Blog, Merry Farmer
A couple of weeks ago I ended up in an interesting conversation after a meeting. As per usual, I’d been talking about history to random people, and one of the guys in the meeting made the statement that before the modern era, child abuse was rampant. He stated that it was everywhere and that the plight of children was a horrible one. This struck me wrong. But I like and admire this guy so I didn’t say anything. But I walked away from the meeting agitated and disturbed and thinking “that can’t be right”. So of course I went home and started pouring through my history books to see what they had to say.
The notion that the lives of children were fraught with abuse and neglect most likely comes from two sources. First, child labor was commonplace until the 20th century. And of course we’ve all seen those fascinating old photographs of children in deplorable conditions in factories. We’ve all read Dickens and seen the horrors of early industrialization. But the Industrial Revolution is a relatively recent thing, only a couple of centuries old. What about before that? What were the lives of children like before industrialization? (more…)
by Molly Owen | Dec 2, 2012 | Blog, Merry Farmer
Last month my medieval post generated a lot of discussion, and while some of it set me off, other points set me to thinking. One point that was made was that you can’t judge the mindset of medieval people using modern worldviews and values. True. Very true. So, curious as ever, I dove into my collection of history books to piece together a picture of what the mindset of the medieval world really was.
Just some of my history books
Of course the first thing I discovered is that it was as drastically different within the different eras of the Middle Ages (commonly divided into Dark Ages, High Middle Ages, and Late Middle Ages) as our modern worldview is from any of those three. A peasant living in the kingdom of the Franks under the rule of Odo the Great in 870 would have had a vastly different view of the world than a nobleman living in the England of Henry II in 1170, and both wouldn’t have recognized the values and thought process of a Venetian living in plague-swept Italy in 1370. Life changed, and values with it, just as fast in the overly long stretch of time that we call the Middle Ages as fast as it changed from 1900 to today.
Okay, but what where those values, world views and thought processes like? (more…)
by Molly Owen | Nov 2, 2012 | Blog, Merry Farmer
Here’s a bit of real history for you in honor of the release of the final book of my “Noble Hearts” Medieval romance trilogy, The Courageous Heart. The underlying history of the trilogy surrounds the years from 1191 – 1194 when King Richard I was fighting the Crusades and then getting his butt captured and held for ransom while his brother, Prince John, schemed his little schemes back home in England. Sound familiar? Sound like one of the most classic tales of all time? Think you already know what happened in this chapter of history?
Chances are you have it dead wrong. Why? Because the Robin Hood story is one of the most grievously falsified accounts of what things were actually like in all of the annals of popular history.
Here’s how things really went down…. (more…)
At the same time, I’m really not all that surprised when I hear someone say “Hildegard von Who?”. Precious few people are aware of medieval history, and even fewer of those people stop to consider what women in the Middle Ages were doing. In the case of Hildegard, she was doing a lot!
