[TOPIC] Common Myths of Medieval Historical Fiction: Herbal Medicine

A leech called Panacea

     Authors of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages appear to have a penchant for certain romantic notions about life during that period. One of these is the efficacy of so-called natural medicine. Whether it is Brother Cadfael's herbarium or Lucy Wilton 's apothecary shop, the myth is not so much that such practices existed or were common but that they worked.
     Whatever palliative effect herbal medicaments may have had, there is a great deal to say about medicine during the Middle Ages that does not commend it. Authors appear to prefer to represent it romantically, mirroring the modern notion that somehow science is oppressive and that we have lost something by assigning older treatments to the past. The fact is that until the 1900s life expectancy was shorter than now. If you factor out child mortality, people generally did not live more than 50-60 years which only sounds old if you are under 25! Frankly, factoring out child mortality when discussing medieval medicine is absurd as children primarily died of illnesses that at least in the west no longer kills them. If things were better "back then" in terms of health, this would not be the case.
     "Science" has been reinterpreted over the past few decades since the very romantic 1960s as being an oppressive and heartless practice of capitalist patriarchy or some such bugaboo. All the word means is "knowledge". That is the key to understanding how it operates. Science calls for verification of claims, in medicine or in any other area of knowledge. A Lucy Wilton is shown learning herb craft from a teacher of lore passed on over the centuries. It can be enlightening to remember that lore included a lot more than just drink a tisane to rid oneself of a headache. It included the belief in the body's humors and how placing a leech on one's skin to suck out blood was a cure for any variety of ailments. In some cultures the accepted way to relief headaches was to drill a whole in the skull. The Church's lore may have been different from Pagan societies' but which herb was related to what saint basically mirrored it. Often an affliction was considered "God's will" and not treated. These issues were all concerned with belief, not science. When the two coincide, that's all it is, coincidence.
     In medieval era historical fiction you run into a lot of situations where a character runs into the herbalist's or apothecary's to get a nostrum much as we would run to the drug store for a bottle of cough syrup. Perhaps this is why the authors write it that way. It's familiar. Perhaps it is also more fun. One of Ellis Peters' Cadfael books is about gardening and herblore. And it's colorful, intriguing and romantic. It is, in short, prettier, much prettier than amputations, gangrene and leeches and considerably prettier than a dead body.

Originally posted 11/23/08.

See these excellent videos on medieval medicine from the Okinawa barony of the Society for Creatibe Anachronism, coutntesy Frian Jak.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D577eQBNzUk&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFpjVrYE7zM&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRAUHvqZCxM&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0zcbNF4wWA&feature=relmfu

[TOPIC] Climate As a Force in History: The Medieval Warm Period

Oringinally posted 10/13/08.

No one would question that climate impacts our lives in both trivial and devastating ways. But did you know that many of the dramatic themes in historywere caused by an event called the Medieval Warm Period (MWP)?

Much like most scientific or historical theories there is some controversy, climate may be the answer to a number of question about movements and events between the ninth and thirteenth centuries. Why did the Danes and Norse suddenly abandon their societies and lands to raid throughout the British Isles and into Normandy? Why did they settle in Greenland and Labrador in North America but leave these settlements never to return? Why did the Black Death happen when it did?

Many scientists and historians believe that two periods of climatic change explain all. The MWP brought warmer weather and as a result better and longer growing periods for agriculture. As food became less scarce, more children survived to adulthood. In places like Scandinavia more children meant more sons to inherit land. When land became scarcer than food, the landless had to go looking for new places to settle. Thus the Danes raided and then settled parts of the northern and eastern coasts of Britain, and the Norse made their way to Iceland and west to Greenland and Labrador.

One indication of the more favorable climate is the fact that during the MWP wine grapes were grown as far north as southern England!

When the sea was relatively free of icebergs, the Norse who settled the eastern shores of Greenland were able to send ships back and forth from Greenland to Norway and Iceland. While children are still taught that "Columbus discovered America" the fact is that the Norse settlements in what would become the Maritime Provinces of Canada were established and shipssailed back and forth between Labroador and Greenland.

So why did the Norse not make a permanent mark on North America? And why did Greenlanders completely abndon the hometeads they built and maintained in the ingospitable land? The weather grew colder and the iceberhs returned, making the trips between the new world and Norway and Iceland too perilous to continue. They could not subsist without trade with the lands of their heritage, nor did they wish to disconnect from their homelands. So they up and left.

After the centuries of a better life in the North Atlantic, the temperatures suddenly dipped. What had been plenty became over-population and scarcity. The famines of the early fourteenth century made the coming of the Black Death devastating. Whole billages were left unpopulated. Then the lack of cheap labor meant that social conditions for the poorer folks had to improve. What is often called The Little Ice Age brought a change in the social fabric of Europe.

But that's a tale for another blog entry.

[Topic] Why You Should Buy Books In this Economy

Originally post 10/7/08.

A friend of mine had comforting words when I expressed my concern about having come out with my first novel just as the world economy is taking a nose dive. She said, "A book is solace in times of need."

She's right. If the electricity is off, you can't watch TV but you can still ruin your eyes by reading by candlelight.

Plus, there are lots of practical uses for books in times of scarcity. Here are just a few.

• Home defense.. best with a really fat book like my novel.
• Insulation... four to five inches of densely packed paper, that is, a book, floor to ceiling on every wall beats the best commercial insulation around.
• Books as fuel... to start fires or just to feed them. You could cook a whole meal on my novel.
• Hunting...a book makes a great missile.
• Padding clothes... again, paper makes great isulation.
• Trade... with people who didn't think of how bored they would get with nothing to do.
• Weights... for holding down the edges of the tarp you now live under.
• Food extender... adds no calories but lots of bulk, add to ground meat, bread, mashed potatoes.
• Home repairs... use books as shingles.
• Bedding... crumple pages and put inside dubet cover.
• Entertainment... your kids will love all the unbelievable stories and pictures of what life was like before the Crash.
• Defense... buiild fortress out of piled books.. not recommended against flamethrowers.
• Pest control... wait until the cockroach wanders onto and open book.. then shut it fast.
• Furniture... it just takes a third of an encyclopedia to make a stool!
• ... and the unpleasant but obvious, toilet paper.