Lifestyles of the Rich (and Poor) & Feudal – pt. 1 (Medieval Mondays #4c)

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Janna G. Noelle

The medieval times, we’re well aware, hardly boasted an equal society.

Rather, the feudal system saw a single, all-powerful monarch as ruler of everyone and everything; a couple handfuls of earls or other magnates – direct liegemen of the king – below that; many more subinfeudated lords of lesser nobility below the magnates, sometimes two or three levels down; and finally, at the lowest levels of society, the non-noble peasants who held land in exchange for their labour upon it in producing their lord’s food.

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Making Rent in the Middle Ages (Medieval Mondays #4b)

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

Medieval knights paying a portion of their “knight’s fees”

In modern times, rents on property are paid in money. In the medieval England and elsewhere, however, payment for a vassal’s fief or a villein’s farmland took a rather different form.

A vassal’s assorted obligations to his lord – his so-called “knight’s fee” – were collectively deemed military in nature. However, as mentioned in my previous post on the feudal system, this isn’t to say all of a vassal’s responsibilities involved fighting.

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Thoughts on Reading Through My Novel’s First Draft

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

My first draft chapters, bottom to top, colour coded by their revision needs

It was like grading the world’s longest midterm paper.

Coming in at 402 pages and with all but the last two chapters having been written some ten years ago, I really had no idea what I was in for when, upon completing my first novel ever (technically my first trilogy, but I count it as one completed story), the time came to read through the entire first draft.

The age of the thing alone terrified me, for how well could a ten-year-old story possibly hold up? I already knew going in that I’d have a fair amount of rewriting ahead of me, but the question was how much?

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Resistance was Feudal (Medieval Mondays #4a)

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

Medieval commendation ritual

Life in the medieval times was the ultimate pyramid scheme. It was also a perilous numbers game in which, perhaps unsurprisingly, the number that trumped everything (except when it didn’t) was one.

In the history books, all of this is more commonly referred to as the feudal system, which was the dominant structure of society in England for some four hundred years, and in continental Europe, even longer.

In this first of three post on this subject, I’ll provide a general overview of what the feudal system was.

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Getting Ready for Revision (for the Very First Time)

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

If I were to equate the current stage of my writer’s journey with that of the classic Hero’s Journey, I’d now find myself at stage sometimes referred to as “The Belly of the Whale”.

Which, in my opinion, is perhaps the most perilous of all the stages – even more so than the main confrontation of the story’s climax – for at this stage, the hero still doesn’t have a complete sense of what s/he is up against; a true, Rumsfeldian “unknown unknown”.

That is to say, I’m getting ready to revise my first completed novel.

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Home is Where Too Many Hearts Were (Medieval Mondays #3b)

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

Remnants of Peveril Castle’s keep: the basement as viewed from the upper level

Peveril Castle, located in Derbyshire, England – the site where much of my novel-in-progress takes place – had one of the smallest examples of a castle keep in England.

As shown in the artist’s rendition to the right, it contained only two rooms – a principal chamber and a basement underneath that was likely used for storage and accessed via a spiral staircase.

The keep also had a latrine, a wall cupboard, and a large window looking out over the rest of the castle and the surrounding Hope Valley, but it didn’t have a fireplace, any food service rooms, or even a well.

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A Castle was a (Noble)Man’s (and Woman’s) Home (Medieval Mondays #3a)

Posted on August 31, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

Remnants of the keep and curtain wall of Peveril Castle in Derbyshire, England

As a child, I used to like drawing pictures of medieval castles.

These drawings always took a similar form: a large square in the middle of the paper, two taller turrets on either side, and a wall that extended the remaining length of the page on either side. I even owned a stencil that had a guide for making square waves that I used on the upper edges of each part of the picture.

For a frontal, ground level representation by an eight-year-old, I actually think I did pretty well, having depicted the three key components of the average medieval English castle: the keep, the tower, and the curtain wall.

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Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner in the Middle Ages? (Medieval Mondays #2c)

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

Dinner scene from the Luttrell Psalter (c.1320-1340, Lincolnshire, England)

I first began this series on medieval food by questioning what sort of experience one would have if transported back in time to a 13^th century dinner table.

The time has now come to take a seat at said table and finish finding out.

The very first point of difference one might encounter relates to the time of day “dinner” was actually served. One might expect that turning up anywhere between 6:00 and 8:00pm as is common for modern dinners (particularly in North America) would also apply to the 13^th century.

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Medieval Meals Made Not-So-Easy (Medieval Mondays #2b)

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

Cooking scene from the Luttrell Psalter (c.1320-1340, Lincolnshire, England)

In the medieval times, our modern emphasis on easy, speedy meals would’ve been an inconceivably foreign concept to a noble family.

In my previous post on medieval food, I discussed the raw ingredients that comprised medieval cookery.

In turning now to discuss how that cookery was done and what recipes often resulted, a key point made by Margaret Wade Labarge, author of Mistress, Maids and Men: Baronial Life in the Thirteenth Century, is as follows:

The medieval baron liked a complicated and highly seasoned dish. (p.118).

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What’s On the Menu in the Middle Ages? (Medieval Mondays #2a)

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

Kitchen scene from the Luttrell Psalter (c.1320-40)

Kitchen scene from the Luttrell Psalter (c.1320-1340, Lincolnshire, England)

If you were magically transported back to early 13th century England and invited to dinner in a noble household, what sort of experience would await you?

An experience so different, it will be the subject of three separate posts in this blog series, the first of which (today’s) focuses on the raw ingredients of medieval cuisine.

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A Frame Around Infinity

Tag Archives: Historical fiction

Lifestyles of the Rich (and Poor) & Feudal – pt. 1 (Medieval Mondays #4c)

The medieval times, we’re well aware, hardly boasted an equal society.

Making Rent in the Middle Ages (Medieval Mondays #4b)

In modern times, rents on property are paid in money. In the medieval England and elsewhere, however, payment for a vassal’s fief or a villein’s farmland took a rather different form.

Thoughts on Reading Through My Novel’s First Draft

It was like grading the world’s longest midterm paper.

Resistance was Feudal (Medieval Mondays #4a)

Life in the medieval times was the ultimate pyramid scheme. It was also a perilous numbers game in which, perhaps unsurprisingly, the number that trumped everything (except when it didn’t) was one.

Getting Ready for Revision (for the Very First Time)

If I were to equate the current stage of my writer’s journey with that of the classic Hero’s Journey, I’d now find myself at stage sometimes referred to as “The Belly of the Whale”.

Home is Where Too Many Hearts Were (Medieval Mondays #3b)

Peveril Castle, located in Derbyshire, England – the site where much of my novel-in-progress takes place – had one of the smallest examples of a castle keep in England.

A Castle was a (Noble)Man’s (and Woman’s) Home (Medieval Mondays #3a)

As a child, I used to like drawing pictures of medieval castles.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner in the Middle Ages? (Medieval Mondays #2c)

I first began this series on medieval food by questioning what sort of experience one would have if transported back in time to a 13^th century dinner table.

Medieval Meals Made Not-So-Easy (Medieval Mondays #2b)

In the medieval times, our modern emphasis on easy, speedy meals would’ve been an inconceivably foreign concept to a noble family.

What’s On the Menu in the Middle Ages? (Medieval Mondays #2a)

If you were magically transported back to early 13th century England and invited to dinner in a noble household, what sort of experience would await you?

The medieval times, we’re well aware, hardly boasted an equal society.

In modern times, rents on property are paid in money. In the medieval England and elsewhere, however, payment for a vassal’s fief or a villein’s farmland took a rather different form.

It was like grading the world’s longest midterm paper.

Life in the medieval times was the ultimate pyramid scheme. It was also a perilous numbers game in which, perhaps unsurprisingly, the number that trumped everything (except when it didn’t) was one.

If I were to equate the current stage of my writer’s journey with that of the classic Hero’s Journey, I’d now find myself at stage sometimes referred to as “The Belly of the Whale”.

Peveril Castle, located in Derbyshire, England – the site where much of my novel-in-progress takes place – had one of the smallest examples of a castle keep in England.

As a child, I used to like drawing pictures of medieval castles.

I first began this series on medieval food by questioning what sort of experience one would have if transported back in time to a 13th century dinner table.

In the medieval times, our modern emphasis on easy, speedy meals would’ve been an inconceivably foreign concept to a noble family.

If you were magically transported back to early 13th century England and invited to dinner in a noble household, what sort of experience would await you?

I first began this series on medieval food by questioning what sort of experience one would have if transported back in time to a 13^th century dinner table.