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For me the fascination with fairy tales began very young. I remember being in my first grade class reading Sleeping Beauty. I immediately felt drawn in by the illustrations and the details of the castle. Having an obsessive personality, I wanted to know everything there was to learn about castles, kings, queens, knights their lovely ladies.
The fascination continued with fairy tales and reached its climax when The Hobbit was assigned summer reading material in middle school. I was full steam ahead researching the world of faeries, Celtic mythology, Arthurian legends, the classical era, Nordic epics (Das Niebelungenlied and Beowulf were a major influence on Tolkien’s LOTRs).
Then I began researching the Plantagenet dynasty, spending hours mapping out complex genealogies of European royalty. While engrossed in my studies it occurred to me that I was reliving the fairy tales I loved as a child.
The era of the War of the Roses is especially interesting because you have historical figures, so closely connected in kinship battling it out for the right to claim the throne of England, switching sides, melodrama and intrigues galore. The key players of the period are fallible in some way so it is easy to relate to them as being merely human. Some managed to maintain valor and honor in the face of almost insurmountable odds, like Richard III. Others like Warwick the Kingmaker are doomed by their own hubris, and fail miserably when all glory should have been their right.
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[[Why do you love it?]] The first movie I remember seeing at the drive-in was Disney's Sword in the Stone. Maybe I was marked for life. Not sure. The popcorn and Good & Plenty went untouched and this wide-eyed haze followed me around for days. Sticking strictly to romance fiction here--I like the illusion of oaths meaning something, and vows being taken in earnest. While there are shades of grey, there are also lines between good and evil, right and wrong. Honour and bravery are expected. Strength is respected. Men are men and women are...capable of dealing with them one way or another. While I know those things are a given in almost all historical romances, I want the medieval trappings...the chainmail, helm, sword, shield, etc. I want to hear the blades ring/clang against each other. I want to see the linked mail ripple as it drops into place, I want to envision the steely glare from behind the nasal helm right before the bad guy meets justice. For me, medieval romance is pure escapism.
Denise Lynn
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LadyEmm
- Sunday, September 16 2007
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I agree with all that Denise Lynne wrote. Men being honorable and brave, oaths and promises actually having meaning- Truth being something to rely on, rather than a quaint tem for an archaic notion.
Men were ...well not that much different, just more athletic and better built, and women- well, in a lot of ways we were worshipped. :-D {Ok if only in groves, and among certain wise peoples} but the smart ones still knew how to get their way- as ever.
I also adore the clothes and magesty and beauty of the period- although if I ould go back I would hope we could at least bring indoor plumbing, I would truely miss the bathing part we have here, other than that- Give me historical medieval fiction. Chivalry, Knights on any color horse, firies, gnomes bronies and magic, the Round table, Avalon, and looking across the room and into the eyes of the knight who will fight for my honor......
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Sounds like a great article and hope you will post it on your website.
It's a two part question for me--why literature written in medieval times and why modern historical writing set in that time. I specialized in Medieval literature in graduate school because I loved it more than any other period. The language, the themes, the symbolism. I must be weird but Dante, Beowulf and all the Old English poetry, Chaucer, Robert Henryson, the troubadors and trouvere courtly poetry and of course all the many English and French King Arthur stories... Other time periods have been fascinated with the Medieval period too, with different authors/artists going back to these stories too.
One thing I love the most about Medieval literature is the way a certain story is told by different authors. It might be a familiar story (such as the wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell taken up by John Gower and Chaucer) but each author brings something entirely new to it or catches a different aspect by changing certain components, esp. in the Arthurian romances and chronicles. A wonderful combination of the familiar and the new.
Why historical romance set in Medieval times? Hopefully it catches some of the period but with another viewpoint, another way of seeing into the past. I read all historical fiction because I want to learn about history but in a story rather than a history book (I read those too but not always in the mood for non-fiction).
One element common to both--the notion of pledging one's trouthe---honor. Truth but more than that. Who tells the truth today in terms of public figures? War was noble, at least it seemed so, instead of for debased reasons. The legends like Avalon or the Holy Grail and hope mixed with legend or spirituality. The horses. The courtly side. The men and women being strong and not wimps. Even if women had certain roles, there were always strong women to challenge the men in the anchoresses or even Margery Kempe who wrote the first autobiography (through a scribe) in English. I like the themes of the transience of earthly things more than Botox etc. we see in today
I am a fairly new romance reader and planning on a reading binge of historical romance set in the period so I am very interested to see what other readers think. My big hope is that I will find something familiar from my Medieval studies and love of Medieval literature and also something new to excite my imagination...and to be able to read without a dictionary of Old/Medieval English or Old French by my side. :-)
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My initial obsession also began quite early in the form of fairy tales but my addiction to the period in my adult years is a bit different than most. While I do adore the pomp and pagentry, I am much more drawn in my research and reading to learning about the lives of the common people of that period. I have always been fascinated with how people live and while I love to read about those fortunate enough to live in castles and manors, I am more drawn to reading about the peasants and serfs, the unnumbered nameless souls who lived during the time and all the minituae of what life was really like for most of the population. I am also very interested in the various "gypsy" groups during this time period and how they lived.
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Life was so hard back in the middle ages. Life expectancy was short, maybe 35 years. There was one faith. No debates. I think such books as 1000 AD paint an effective picture of the Early Middle Ages. Then of course you have the Black Death in the 1300's just when there was some prosperity . I am facinated by books about that period. Probably Umberto Ecco's the Name of the Rose is my favorite. I am currently reading Weir's Queen Elizabeth. I keep thinking how much better life would have been for her if she had only had a good dentist. She sufferes so in her years after age 50 due to her bad teeth.
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For some reason I'm not getting a "reply" button under Jerry-Book's post so I'm replying here.
Jerry, Name of the Rose is also a favorite of mine. I also like Ellis Peter's Cadfael mysteries for the same reason. I read the Elizabeth I bio and enjoyed it quite a bit. A couple of years ago I did quite a bit of research on the Black Death. Primarily I think because my great-grandmother died in 1918 during the Spanish Flu pandemic and I done some comparing of the two. In some ways, the lives of rural Americans was similar to the lives of the Black Death Europeans.
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miekeh
- Friday, September 28 2007
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I have been fond of history ever since I can remember. My mother read me dutch history novels when I was a child. And I became fond of the King Arthur stories. They have always fascinated me, especially sir Gawain, my favorite knight. I tried writing a novel about him in Dutch but it was rejected by publishers. :( Lataer came a love for later medieval British history. Richard III, Tudor times. And Welsh history.I also like to read about ancient times or closer to our times the american civil war.
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HBee
- Friday, September 28 2007
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I began with Nathaniel Hawthorn's Tanglewood Tales. I love mythology and read any I could find. From there went history and then historical novels. I have recently discovered Kate Sedley. She writes a very good picture of medieval times.
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I could probably sit down and write a scholarly paper if I loved Medieval writing...but when it comes right down to it, it's simple---I love it. I was hooked from the first book I read in college back 1980. Although I love a huge variety of genres and time periods, Medieval just clicks in a deeper place. For my MA exams in Comparative literature, we had a reading list full of classics. My classmates struggled over Dante's Inferno...in the whole list, it was the easiest for me whereas their comfort reads were my struggle. I spent 10 years studying it after college and still love it. I just started reading Medieval historical romance for the first time out of curiosity. It's like coming home. My heart fluttered when I saw the word destrier...now if I just see a palfrey horse, I'll be in 7th heaven. It's hard to put words to my fascination. It's a comfort read and yet at the same time, it is unfamiliar enough through history and language from the modern world to feel new and exciting. A mix of traditional and more cutting edge at the same time. Also enough variety in the time period so that if I feel I have mastered one area, there is enough to keep exploring. Even the same story told by another author feels new. Please add books about Medieval gypsies and peasants to our group bookshelf.
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ChoChi
- Monday, October 22 2007
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For me, I like Medieval Times because there were knights, and it was the time where everything is majestically done, where everything is like "just happening in dreams of women", because for me, women should be treated like goddess and well, something like that.. ^^
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I think a lot of people like the Middle Ages because they are a time so far-removed from today's life. This period was a long time ago, and because of that, we can create our own legends and make is seem something idyllic. Today, we do not see knights and princesses holding court in a grand castle. (And if we do, they are probably in need of meds or at a Renaissance Fair.) Realistically, the Middle Ages were not quite as grand as we make them, but there is a common human quality of looking back and idealizing previous eras. Personally, the chivalric code is something I think many are fascinated with as well. There is something grand about the image of the knight riding off to battle, with his return uncertain. He loves the princess from afar, and slays the proverbial dragon, and so on. We imagine these things and they provide an escape from our everyday, routine lives. I like the Middle Ages because of the air of romance attached to misty hostorical periods, sure, but I also like them because they were a period in which much history was being made and ideas were being transmitted. The priniting press, the many explorations, and all the political and religious upheaval made for quite a time to live! I do not, however, subscribe to the image of the brave knight slaying that pesky dragon. (Sorry to all those who do; I have just read waaay too much history for my English degree. But don't worry; I won't ruin it for the rest of you :) )
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Deborah, I think medieval historicals are popular for several reasons, but I think the concept of knighthood has a lot to do with it. We've really romanticized what it means to be a knight, idealizing the "knight in shining armor" to the point of cliche. But even in its time, the idea of being a knight wasn't something to be taken lightly. Men prepared themselves long before they reached adulthood and it was a position to be respected.
Also, in a culture that has actively worked toward gender neutrality in our language (firefighter, not fireman, etc.), I think we look back nostalgically on an era where gender roles were so clearly defined and people seemed content with them. Boys weren't chastised for fighting or sent to the behavior modification specialist because they were restless and unable to focus. They were sent to a practice yard or given practical manual labor to teach them discipline. There are problems inherent in that approach, too, but I think we enjoy the fantasy aspect of a culture so different from our own.
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I got to say i love how its all so simple on the outside but when you dive into the details its like trying to swim through pudding with your arms and legs bound together. the politics are even more complicated than our own in some cases.
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