Long Ago in the Middle Ages...
The Middle Ages had it all, from science to holidays and celebrations to fairy tales. The Middle Ages were new to science so not many people studied it or had interest in it. It was also an unfamiliar subject. Holidays were a way for people to separate seasons. There was also a holiday for each month. Some of the oldest and best fairy tales came from the Middle Ages. After all, the Middle Ages was a time that will never be forgotten.
Medieval Science
At the beginning of the Middle Ages, there was not really any research going into science, but by the middle and end of the Middle Ages, there was starting to be more research going into science. Some people believed that since God created the universe he created the scientific world too. So anyone who did scientific research was actually considered worshiping God. People were able to do scientific research because of that belief. While not everyone doing scientific research truly believed this logic. Some scientific beliefs were against the Catholic Church's beliefs and teaching techniques which led to a debate during the Middle Ages. People would use science to disprove the teaching of the church and the church would charge them with heresy. Churches would be extremely timid about the use of science in the Middle Ages during everyday life. Eventually, Churches realized the importance of science only for medical improvement. Science never really started until the Fall of the Roman Empire, the Roman Empire was where science really “started”. So after the Fall of the Roman Empire was when science was really “discovered”. Science was tricky subject during the Middle Ages. Some people had no interest in science, but that did not stop people from being curious about the subject. The science of the Middle Ages was mainly resided outside of schools. Some scholars may learn about properties of numbers especially ratio and proportion. They also might learn the use of abacus, the computer of the ancient and medieval world. The scientific part of the curriculum was the quadrium. The most popular subject in the quadrium was astronomy, a mixture of science and astrology. (Gies, Newman, and Shuttleworth).
Medieval Holidays and Celebrations
People in the Middle Ages used holidays to separate seasons. The season of winter was separated by the holiday Michaelmas all the way to Christmas. From the end of Christmas to Easter was the season of spring when crops were grown. From the end of Easter week to Lammas was summer. And finally, from Lammas to Michaelmas was autumn. Most holidays were celebrated by feast of the church. Followed by a week of vacation. Followed by another feast not of the church but of the people to mark the resumption of work. Some of the lesser religious holidays were Candlemas (February 2nd) when tillage was resumed. Hocktide which was at the end of Easter weekend, Mayday, Midsummer, also known as St.John’s Day (June 24th), Lammas, also known as feast of St.Peter, and Michaelmas.
Some holidays that were celebrated in the Middle Ages are still celebrated to this day like Valentine’s Day, Easter, and Christmas. There also was a holiday for each month. Starting with January, was the Twelfth Night religious festival and feast celebrating the visit of the wise men, following the Birth of Jesus. Next comes February. In February there was St.Valentine’s Day, celebrating love, singing, dancing, and pairing games. After February obviously comes March. In March there was Easter. They would celebrate with mysterious plays depicting the crucifixion and the resurrection. In April, they would celebrate with All Fool’s Day. The Jesters, or Lords of Misrule, took charge for the day and caused mayhem with jokes and jests. In May, there would celebrate Mayday. Mayday was a spring festival celebrating when a queen of the May was chosen and villagers danced around the maypole. Next would be June, and in June is MidSummer Eve. Mummers entertained at the “Festival of Fire” reliving legends such as St.George and the Dragon. In July, is St.Swithin’s Day. Some people believe that if it rains on St.Swithin’s day it will continue to do so for forty days. Next is August, in August is Lammas Day. The festival of the first wheat harvest of the year. In September is Michaelmas, celebrating the life of St.Michael and eating the traditional food which was goose or chicken. In October is the day of St.Crispin’s Day. Revels, bonfires, and people acting as “King Crispin”. Next is November, Day Of the Dead is celebrated in this month, when revels were held and bonfires were lit. Last but not least, December. In December was Christmas celebrations. (Gies, “Holidays and Celebrations”, and “Middle Ages Holidays”).
Medieval Fairy Tales
One of the well known fairy tales is Beowulf. It is Beowulf, who saves Hrothgar, the Danish king from monstrous enemies before eventually being slayed. Another well known fairy tale is Sir Gawain And the Green Knight. The mysterious Green Knight turns up at King Arthur’s court and challenges anyone to strike him with his axe and accept a return blow in a year and a day, Sir Gawain the youngest knight in Sir Arthur's court decides to prove his mettle by accepting the challenger. The Nibelungenlied is also a well known folktale. It came from medieval Germany, written in 1200 but rediscovered in the 1700’s. This folktale contains dragons, invisibility cloaks, fortune telling, and hoards of treasure guarded by dwarves and giants. Folktales had series and collections and the world’s best known collections of folktales is the Grimms’ kinder und Hausmarchen. It contains over 200 tales which on their simple, but far from artless prose have come to be regarded as a formal folk tale. The world’s oldest fairy tale is called, “The Smith and the Devil. It is about a blacksmith who sold his soul in a pact with the devil for supernatural powers. This tale has been told in more than thirty-five languages. It is way older than the Brother Grimm's Classics, it is around 7,000 years old.
Some of the most odd folk tales come from the Middle Ages. The first odd fairy tale is “Ursilla from Stonsa, in Orkney. It is about a strong willed girl who would not marry any of the local well born men but when she married her ideal man, a low born man, he turned out to be a rather unsatisfactory husband. The second odd folk tales is called “The witch-hare of Cleveland”. This odd folk tale is about some farmers out hunting but when they ran into a local witch things went wrong. “Black Shuck of East Anglia” is the name of the third odd fairy tale. There are many tales about this creature, a huge rough coated black hound with fiery red eyes and slavering jaws. The fourth odd fairy tale is titled “The dandy devil dogs of Devon. It was about Dando who was a parson but cared more about hunting than his parishioners souls. Last but not least, the fifth odd folk tale is called, “The mermaid of Galloway, Scotland”. To this day we are aware of tales about mermaids singing at sea, combing their golden hair and trying to attract sailors to be their lovers down below the waves, but fresh waters has it’s mermaids too. Like all stories, fairy tales are meant to entertain but that is less important. Unlike today’s novels, their main purpose is to give a moral in a way the audience will remember. They exist to teach a clear lesson. (Blamires, Harris, Kennedy, Larrington, and “The Smith and The Devil”).
Illuminated Manuscripts
The art of illuminated manuscripts began around the time of the third century. Illumination is the word used to describe handwritten books embellished with gold and silver. The pages of these books would give the impression of illuminated light, hence the description of illuminated manuscripts. Illuminated manuscripts were difficult to attain because of the amount of time and money needed to make the books. Therefore, most illuminated manuscripts were owned by wealthy people. The invention of the printing press in 1445, led to the elimination of illuminated manuscripts as an art form.
The creation of an illuminated manuscript was a complex task. Monks were the main artists and they worked in a special room in the monastery called a scriptorium. The monks, sometimes called the illuminators, supplied the decorative work that embellished the borders and initial letter. Illuminators used vellum as a form of paper. Vellum is dried, stretched sheep, goat, or calf skin. The first step to making an illuminated manuscript is the application of the gesso. The gesso is a special type of glue. Gesso is made of plaster, white lead, water, sugar, and egg white. The gesso was used to make the surface of the paper sticky so that the gold leaf could be applied. The second step caused for the gesso to sit overnight. The illuminator would smooth the rough edges and breathe on the gesso to make it moist. Next, gold lead would be laid over the gesso. Gilded gold leaves were used to make the script brighter. Gilding is the process of using gold leaf to turn the scripting gold. Once the gold leaf was set into the gesso, the illuminator would make the the leaf shiny. To accomplish this task the the illuminator might use a dog’s or wolf’s tooth as a burnishing tool. Finally, the background was painted around the gilding. Illumination artists would decorate the initial letter and sometimes the border of manuscripts. Artist used nature to help add more colors to create illuminated manuscripts. Minerals, precious stones, insects, and plants were used to add color and brighten the page. The process of making illuminated manuscripts created four different trades or careers: vellum maker, calligrapher, artist, and book binder.
The manuscripts were beautifully illuminated and decorated to glorify God. Religious books, such as Bibles, Prayer Books, and hymnals were the most common examples of illuminated manuscripts during the Middle Ages. The Book of Kells is considered to be one of the most prominent examples of an illuminated manuscript. (“A Brief History of Illuminated Manuscripts”, “Illuminated Manuscripts”, and Langley).
The Middle Ages were a time for everyone. For some people it was to experiment and do scientific research. While for others it was for celebrating holidays with feasts and weeks of vacations. For others it was to tell some of the oldest and best fairy tales so they could be passed down through generations. For many people the Middle Ages was a time where history was made.