What Do You Think Of?

@bella-d When I hear “Dark Ages” I think of the plague, grey stones, monks, Bibles with the really intricate hand-drawn colored pictures and font, and marauders. When I hear “Medieval” I think of knights with swords, jousting, rich women in dresses, castles, peasants in a town or village, and forests and rolling hills.

And for the record, I really enjoy Medieval adventure stories (might explain why I’m writing one too). They are so much fun. 🙂

@bella-d

Mud. That’s what comes to mind first: mud, and lots of it. ;P Other than that, fancy family crest thingies on flags, knights in shining (or muddy!) armor, guys with longbows, big battle horses, and those ice-cream-cone shaped hats that princesses wore.

And mud. 😀

@bella-d I second all the comments above! 🙂

Something I think is interesting about Medieval times is that back then very few people knew how to read, and so almost all news was carried from castle to castle by minstrels who would make up songs about the famous deeds done, and would learn songs from other minstrels to carry the news of those deeds to the next castle.

Another thing that comes to my head when I hear the words “Medieval fiction” is the butchering of the old English. 🙂 Something to avoid is using old-style language, often referred to as “thees and thous,” incorrectly.  A lot of people think if you throw a “thee” or a “thou” or an “Alas!” into a sentence, it automatically sounds Medieval.  And it does.  However, a lot of those people don’t realize there is a very complicated grammar system that comes with the use of those words, and to me using the old words wrongly feels as bad as if the author wrote a sentence like, “Him and her could have went with I to the game if they’re mom had let them.” 😀

Sorry for the little rant. 🙂  I hope it doesn’t throw you off, because I really do like reading about the Dark Ages and Medieval times.

@bella-d Dark ages = The plague. Dirt floors and poor peasants.  Farming. And medevil.. Elegant rich princesses sitting in castle towers.
And also, stained glass!!! Like, seriously, though. whispers stained glass. And the endless arguments over popes and kings over whos more powerful /rolls eyes.