by Molly Owen | Sep 13, 2013 | Blog, Terry Blain
My experience at Bodiam Castle, one of our adventures in England.
In 2004 my husband and I took a trip to England & Scotland. This was one of my dream trips as I have a MA in History (specializing in Tudor and Stuart England) and taught Western Civilization at the college level.
After a week in London, we rented a car and took off to tour the country, staying in B&Bs. At one point we stopped in a small village to get snacks, and the store keepers, knowing we were tourist by our accents, asked we we’d been to Bodiam Castle and recommended we see it. So next morning we went to see. As you can tell from the photo, Bodiam Castle was a moated castle built in the 14th century, the very iconic fairy tale castle with crenellated four towers. The castle was partly dismantled in the 16th, but in the 1829 was partially restored. Now it belongs to the National Trust and open to us tourist. The exterior is almost complete, and even the gatehouse has the original wooden portcullis.
Since we arrived early before the castle opened, we visited the souvenir shop. While in the shop we talked to one of the locals who ask about our visit. Learning I was a history teacher, he mentioned that later that evening the local historical society was having a reading of Rudyard Kipling and would we still be in the area. He asked, “Do you like Kipling?” A pause while my inner American/Groucho Marx took advantage of an opening too good to pass up. “I don’t know,” I replied, “I’ve never kippled.” Apparently even old American jokes are new in England and everyone laughed. Then I apologized as we would have to miss Kipling as we were leaving that afternoon.
The castle is only about half there as the timbers and wooden or lath walls are gone. Was really interesting, you cross the moat, and at the barbican, the murders’ holes (pics). Once inside, it’s quickly obvious that medieval people were much smaller that we are. I’m not a tall person (5’4”) anyone taller than I probably would have to duck to get through the door ways. Once inside one of the room that was still complete accept for the roof, it would have been very dark.
The really fun part was going up one of the towers. As we’re going up the clockwise staircase (with very little steps, couldn’t get my whole foot on the steps), I’m explaining to my husband that the stairs are this way so that most people being right-handed, any invaders wouldn’t have room to swing their swords. And right after I said this, we met a husband and wife coming down the stairs, the husband swing his cane to show his wife how the defenders would have the advantage over any invaders. I forget if we backed down or they went back up, but there was no room to pass on those stairs.
Once we got to the top of the tower, here was a great view over the country side. You could have seen anyone who was coming a long way off. We had a great time at Bodiam Castle all because we stopped and talked to people in small shop.
Have you ever stopped and without planning found an interesting place?
by Molly Owen | Jul 13, 2013 | Blog, Terry Blain
I remember a comment a friend of mine made after reading a very inaccurate historical novel. She said there ought to be a rule that you can’t write a historical novel unless you’ve been camping at least once. I think she might have a point.
One of the goals of the historical writer is to bring the past alive for those in the present. You can do all the research in the world into the history, politics, customs, costumes, etc. And an imagination is a great thing, but the more ‘hands on’ experience you’ve had the better I think your story will be. Experience, even a little, can help you add the details that will make your scene come alive.
So, my advice is, if you’re lucky enough to have the chance to do so, live a little in the past. The experience will do wonders for your imagination and help with the details that will make your historicals come alive.
For example, your western heroine is cooking over an open campfire. Think about how and what you would write in this scene. What would she do, feel?
(pause for thinking – come on, really think about it for a moment)
OK, now that you’ve thought about it, did you have her feel the heat on her face? The breeze will blow smoke in her eyes no matter where she stands and she’ll have to watch out for her skirt tails as she squats. And that night, her hair will smell of smoke when the hero hugs her.
Trust me, I’ve cooked many a meal over an open fire. We did a lot of camping with the Scouts with our boys as my husband was the Scout Master. I know what it’s like to heat water and then take a bath in a bucket. (Makes you appreciate the shower, let me tell you). And you know all those cowboys sitting around the campfire drinking coffee out of tin cups – you know how hot those cups can get when you pour hot coffee into them (ouch!).
In one of my western ms. I have the hero teach the heroine (from back East) how to ride a horse. Just to make sure I got a good feel for those scenes, and how long it might take to learn to ride as much as I needed her to ride for later in the story, I took riding lessons.
I can now brush, bridle and saddle a horse, and of course tell it to go where I want him to go, not just around and around the corral. Lots of fun, and I figure if an old lady like me can learn to be fairly proficient, the my hero, who is not only great with horses, but a great teacher, can teach the heroine to ride well enough and soon enough to fit my ms.
I’m always amazed at the way some historical heroines run up and down steps in long skirts. I don’t know about you, but when I’ve worn long skirts/dresses, I have to pick up the hem to go up and down stairs. And you haven’t lived until you try wearing a hoop skirt a la Scarlett O’Hara. There is a real skill to maneuvering and sitting while wearing a hoop skirt. I only did this once when I was very young, but I remember wearing the hoop skirt and sitting down without thinking first. And so I sat on the back of the hoops – a mistake, as the front of the skirt came up and hit me in the face. Fortunately this was not in public.
And I can imagine that those American colonial women, or any 18th Century lady with panniers had to turn sideways to get through a door way (think of Grace Kelly’s costume in the masked ball scene of To Catch A Thief). Unfortunately, I’ve never danced at a Regency ball, but would if I was writing Regency.
I know as a Campfire Girl in my youth, and going through Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts with our sons, I’ve cooked over an open fire, made soap, made adobe bricks, dipped candles, made cornshuck dolls, churned butter, chopped wood, etc.
I’ve been lucky enough to come from a large mid-western family with a great oral tradition, so as a child I heard stories of my ancestors. In Kentucky Green, when the heroine churns butter, I have her say the rhyme that my grandmother said when she was a little girl and had the job of churning the family butter.
Experience can make facts you find in research books come alive for you. I’ve known that spiral stairways in medieval castles spiral up counter-clockwise. This is so the person going up (an attacker) has his right/sword arm against the wall, and the person going down (the defender) will have his sword arm unencumbered by the spiral. 
My husband and I had the wonderful experience of touring several English castles one summer, and I had just finished explaining this right hand/left hand business to him as we started up a staircase in Bodiam Castle. Now just knowing why the stairs are as they are is totally different from us going up one of those staircases — and meeting another tourist coming down swinging an imaginary sword as he’s explaining to his wife why the stairs are that way!
I notice a lot of medieval heroines are experts with herbs/healing. But how often do we actually see/feel/smell them digging in the dirt tending to the herbs? I admit I do very little gardening, but the earthy, moist smell of the garden, the texture of the soil, the dirt on your hands and knees, the smell of a garden after a rain or the smell of a garden on a hot, dry afternoon — all this should be in the text if you have a scene where the heroine’s in the garden.
I’ve also been fortunate enough to travel through most of the US, either going to visit grandparents as a child, or following my military husband from duty station to duty station. My story for Colorado Silver, Colorado Gold came from the setting, as I was always struck by the clean, high mountain beauty of Durango each time we went through there. And my visit to the Molly Brown house in Denver gave me not only the feel of houses of the period, but useful information for this story.
We may be able to walk up castle staircases or plant some flowers. And if you have the chance to do any of the everyday tasks we expect our historic heroines to do, then I strongly urge you to do so.
Living in the past can be a lot of fun (especially when after a few days you can come home and have a nice hot shower), and it can only help you bring your historical novel alive for the reader.
A short list of some of the places I’ve been that will take you back in time.
http://www.logcabinvillage.org/ Log Cabin Village in Ft. Worth, TX
http://www.nps.gov/york/planyourvisit/hours.htm Yorktown Battlefield, VA
http://www.historyisfun.org/Jamestown-Settlement.htm Jamestown Settlement, VA
http://www.julianca.com/historic_sites/index.htm Julian, CA a gold rush town
http://www.oldtownsandiegoguide.com/history.html Old Town San Diego, CA
http://www.okhistory.org/mwp/index.htm Museum of the Western Prairies, Altus, OK
http://www.williamsburg.com/ Colonial Williamsburg, VA
http://www.mountvernon.org/ Mount Vernon, VA
http://www.nps.gov/mima/ Minuteman National Park, Lexington & Concord, MA
http://www.chicagohs.org/ Chicago Historical Society, IL
http://www.nps.gov/casa Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine, FL
http://www.mollybrown.org/ Molly Brown House, Denver, CO
by Molly Owen | Aug 14, 2012 | Angelyn Schmid, Blog
Yester Castle (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0)
The Borders of Scotland have always been the inspiration of superstition. The Catholic Church and its successor, the Presbyterian one, never had strong influence there and commanded even less obedience. These are fertile grounds for tales of necromancers, long thought to be dead, easily resurrected by the fire of Romanticism.
Sir Walter Scott loved tales of magic almost as much as he loved the Lothians. After he published the Lay of the Last Minstrel in 1805 (see Wizard Lady of Branxholm), he published Marmion (1808). In it, readers are seduced to descend to an underground vault beneath the castle of Yester called Goblin Hall:
Of lofty roof and ample size, Beneath the castle deep it lies;
To hew the living rock profound, The floor to pave, the arch to round,
There never toiled a mortal arm; It all was wrought by word and charm.
(more…)
by Margaret Breashears | Nov 18, 2011 | Blog, Margaret Breashears
Like most medieval castles, Heidelberg Castle was built in stages reflecting its owner’s needs and status. Originally constructed by the bishops of Worms, the castle passed into Karl Hohenstaufer’s possession with his inheritance of the Rhine-Frankish territories in 1155.
As Konrad consolidated his holdings, the town of Heidelberg became the territories’ center and his family seat. He enhanced the castle’s ramparts and stone walls to protect the growing town. Inside the stone perimeter, he ruled his lands from his wooden residences and administrative center.
By the thirteenth century, the Hohenstaufer dynasty was emerging as a political power power in the old German Empire. A succession of Counts Palatine undertook to renovate and expand the castle to reflect the family’s rise in status.
Rupriecht III, after acquiring the title of king in 1400, added an almost square courtyard and three stone buildings used for residences and administration purposes. His successor, Ludwig V, finished the stone buildings, and expanded the castle’s fortifications.
Heidelberg Castle now boasted a mighty defense tower, a broad deep moat, and a new entrance. The entrance had a gate tower and a drawbridge. The stone buildings’ elaborately carved exteriors displayed the wealth of the Hohenstaufer family. Striking among the carvings were sixteen gilded figures representing various mythological heroes and noteworthy Counts Palatine. Ludwig V’s likeness claimed a central position among the figures. As an emphasis of his high rank in the German Empire, his coat of arms sported the imperial apple.
Elector Friedrich (1548-1556) changed Heidelberg Castle from a fortress to a Renaissance Palace with the addition of the Hall-Of-Mirrors Building and the Hortus Palatinus garden complex. The Hall-Of-Mirrors Building was a modern sovereign apartment and an ornate chapel.
Friedrich V, married to James I’s daughter Elisebeth Stuart in 1603, used his construction to emphasize his close ties with the English monarchy. His English Building was built in the Gothic style, so popular in England at the time. The completion of this building marked the high point of Heidelberg Castle as a palace. Friedrich V’s successor, Karl Ludwig, contented himself with repairing the buildings and collecting artwork and furnishings to decorate the interior.
With territorial wars and the decline of the Counts Palatine in the late 1600’s, Heidelberg Castle suffered two devastating occupations by the French. In 1688-89, the French dynamited the Thick Tower and parts of the outer wall. Although the castle was hastily repaired, it was recaptured again in 1693. This time the destruction by the occupying French army was so great the successive Counts Palatine removed their family residence to Dusseldorf rather than rebuild the castle.
Margaret Breashears
www.wantedghostbustingbride.com
