Is there something that really has been bugging you lately? Like something in your life that just doesn’t seem right? Well, for me that thing is the late Middle Ages. I mean, they hog all the glory for themselves! When people talk about the Middle Ages today, I feel like all anyone ever talks about is the stuff that happened post 1200—and it’s just not fair!
When the popular culture portrays the ‘Middle Ages’ it almost always gravitates to the later end of the spectrum. We see women in tudor dresses, curvy anglicana script, and gothic cathedrals. I mean, I recognize that Henry the eighth is cool and that everyone loves reading about the Black Death, but come on people, at least give the early Middle Ages a chance!
Now why are the early Middle Ages cool, you might ask? Well, of course there are lots of reasons but let just list a few for you:
1) The Vikings! You know who was more intense than Voldemort?! HELLO! THE VIKINGS! They had ships with dragon heads, scary swords, and something called the ‘blood eagle’ (p.s. do not look this up unless you want to be seriously disturbed). But yeah, they were so h-core that they thought you could only get to heaven (Valhalla) if you died fighting with a sword in your hand. Plus they spoke Old Norse, basically the most exciting language ever.
2) The early Middle Ages were before people starting throwing out Jews and burning heretics and stuff. You know how everyone thinks of medieval kings as doing crazy awful stuff like kicking all the jews out of their country, and burning heretics at the stake? Well, didn’t start at least until the middle of the Middle Ages. Back in the day, aka before the twelfth century, communities were much more tolerant.
3) in that same line: women could own property. Okay, so obviously this is something that varied from region to region, but generally women had more rights in the early Middle Ages than in the later (and don’t even ask about the effect of the so-called ‘renaissance’ on women…). In the Anglo-Saxon period for example, women could own land and had an equal say in raising their children.
4) early Medieval handwriting is a lot earlier to read: okay, I know this doesn’t probably make a big difference to non-acadmeics,
but I geeze, have you ever tried to read late medieval script?! It’s totally nuts. It’s like you have given a fifth grader a pen and a extra-large cappuccino and set them to work. I can’t even say how glad I am that the early medieval monks writing my texts had a bit more sense than that.
….
Okay, so you get my drift. The early Middle Ages are often forgotten and if not then falsely maligned (think the ‘dark ages’). But really, the early middle ages were very cool. Their medicine, science, theology–it was all more interesting (if you ask me) then all that stuff you read in Thomas Aquinas (can you say ‘B-O-R-I-N-G’?).
Okay, well maybe this is a pet peeve only to myself–but get with it folks! Give the early Middle Ages a chance.