How did medieval people keep warm?
How did medieval people keep warm? The short answer might be they didn’t, but that’s only half an answer. Certainly, in medieval Wales like in modern Wales, people didn’t have to deal with extreme temperatures of say–Minnesota–but they did have to deal with snow and cold in the winter, and occasional heat waves in the summer. How did they protect themselves against the cold? Houses, certainly, weren’t kept very warm. Cloaks, scarves, boots, and gloves were worn indoors. Especially with the inefficient and smoky heating system (see my post on chimneys), the cold inside could approximate the cold inside. Medieval people had gloves, for example: http://medievalgloves.blogspot.com/2007/11/three-pairs-of-gloves.html “For the peasant, the garb was basic and simple. The outer clothing was commonly made of wool with undergarments of linen. As one would expect, the wool garments were hot, heavy and itchy, but Read more…
Welsh Heraldry
Knights in the Middle Ages wore a coat of arms to distinguish themselves from one another in battle. Within a given family individuals would have their own coats of arms, separate from each other and sometimes blending with another family, depending on the circumstances of marriage. A family would also have crests and seals, which might or might not be the same as the coats of arms. All are referred to as heraldic devices. “Generally the language of heraldry suggests its warlike origin. The term Coat of arms is derived from the surcoat worn over the armor to keep off the rays of the sun. It was a waistcoat-like garment, on which the heraldic design was depicted. The knight wore the arms shown on the surcoat on his shield, the trappings of his horse, and his lance pennon. In addition, Read more…
An Indie’s Prayer, by M. Edward McNally
From my friend Ed, reposted with his permission from: http://www.indiesunlimited.com/2012/04/20/eds-casual-friday-an-indie-prayer/ Dearest Digital Gawd, now available as gif, jpeg, or bit map, Give me this day a couple uninterrupted hours, As I swore to myself I would have this chapter done Tuesday, and now it is Thursday. No wait, it’s Friday. How did I lose a whole day and this thing still isn’t done? Grant me the serenity to just let that idiotic comment on facebook pass by, Lo, though it is the stupidest thing anyone has ever said, ever, and it vexes me sorely, And though I have typed a long, witty rejoinder that no one with half a brain could possibly argue, Just let me hit delete instead of post this one time, and return to my labors. Cyber Gawd, grant me the courage to write with honesty, Even though technically I’m Read more…
The Quest for Welsh Independence
When the Romans conquered Britain, the people they defeated were the Britons, the ancestors of the Welsh, a Celtic people who themselves had come to the island hundreds of years before. After the Romans marched away in 410 AD, the Saxon invaders overwhelmed the British in successive waves, pushing them west and resulting in a Saxon England and British Wales. When the next conquerors—the Normans—came in 1066 AD, they conquered England but they did not conquer Wales. Not yet. For the next two hundred years, power in Wales ebbed and flowed, split among Welsh kings and princes, Marcher barons (Norman lords who carved out mini-kingdoms for themselves on the border between England and Wales), and the English kings. Through it all, the Welsh maintained their right to independence—to be governed by their own laws and their own kings. The ending came on Read more…
Crops in Medieval Wales
Wales has always been known as a pastoral society, in that farming was a less common occupation than herding. Crops were grown, however, and new archaeological studies are shedding light on the nature of that form of agriculture. “In about 4,000 BC farming was introduced into Wales, although the people still used stone tools.” http://www.localhistories.org/wales.html http://www.ruralia.cz/119-123.pdf “The discovery of corn-dryers with early medieval radiocarbon dates has contributed to the growing number of early medieval examples excavated in Wales which can throw valuable light on the crops grown, their ratio to each other and how they were processed. South Hook (Herbranston) is a particularly important site since several corn-dryers were excavated together with rotary quern-stones and a significant assemblage of charred grain samples. Two types of oats (bristle oats and common oats) as well as hulled six-row barley grains were the Read more…
Medieval Coinage
When Edward I hanged Jewish merchants for coin clipping in 1277, confiscating their goods and disinheriting their children, he was making a comment not only on the state of his own treasury, but on the economics of medieval life. Over the previous centuries, coinage–having been scarce once the Romans left Britain–had become more and more important in trade throughout England. Edward the Elder (c. 902-925 AD) ordered: “there be one money over all the king’s dominion, and that no man mint except within port. And if the moneyer be guilty, let the hand be struck off with which he wrought that odense, and be set up on the money-smithy; but if it be an accusation, and he is willing to clear himself, then let him go to the hotiron, and clear the hand therewith with which he is charged to Read more…
Traveling on Medieval Roads
Traveling on medieval roads meant traveling on surfaces as varied as stone, gravel, grass, and dirt. There have been roads across Britain for as long as people and animals have traversed the landscape. The original roads were tracks, created by years, decades, and millennia of people and wheeled vehicles, wearing a passage through forests, fields, and mountainous terrain. One of the first videos we produced was about Bwlch y Ddeufaen, an ancient road across north Wales marked by two standing stones, dating back thousands of years. Because of the difficult terrain, rather than build a new road entirely, the old one was improved by the Romans and then was in continuous use up until the modern era when a new road along the coast line was blasted through the mountains. One of the most lasting effects of the Roman occupation Read more…
Crossroads in Time released! No foolin’ :)
I am so excited to share with everyone my new book, Crossroads in Time, the third book in the After Cilmeri series. Four and a half years in the making, I began it soon after I finished Prince of Time. Life intervened in the writing process, however, and I only returned to it in 2011. And had to delete everything I’d written up until then and start over 🙂 As a side note, I have only realized as I type this that I began this book again just a few weeks after the death of my father at the far too young age of 68. And maybe that’s why Crossroads in Time is a story so close to my heart. It’s meant to be FUN. A fun, romantic read, following the adventures of David and Anna and their family and Read more…
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