Customer Reviews

The Axe and the Oath: Ordinary Life in the Middle Ages

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Robert Fossier, a world's leading medieval historian, sounds the bodies and minds of the poor everyday people in both the countryside and the city during the Middle Ages, especially between the twelfth century and the fourteen century. Nobility and clergy come into play only when their coverage is useful to better apprehend the bodies and minds of the little people. The book under review was originally published in French under the title "Ces gens du Moyen Age." Mr. Fossier chooses most of his examples from (northern) France that he knows best (pp. xi-xii).

Mr. Fossier wants to convince his readers that the medieval man is us, despite the differences in the daily life, economy, social hierarchy, and spiritual climate (pp. 383-384). Man is and remains a "human beast" whose ordinary life presents many similarities with that of the medieval man. As Mr. Fossier puts it succinctly, "all of those (medieval) men, no matter what their origin, clearly ate, slept, walked, defecated, copulated, and even thought in the same ways that we do (p. x)."

To his credit, Mr. Fossier also wants to dispel stereotypes and a priori statements that reflect either ignorance and/or contempt for the Middle Ages. Think for example about the assumed modification of tree species due to the hand of the man during this period (p. 177). Another cliché is that medieval justice was nothing but torture racks and gibbets (p. 268). A third and last example is that military operations like the Hundred Years' War were continuous military campaigns (pp. 280-281).

Unfortunately, Mr. Fossier does not disclose the many sources that he uses to write his panorama of the medieval man. The book under review contains neither notes nor an index. Notes and index would have been useful to an English-speaking audience who is not necessarily familiar with the history of the Middle Ages in (Continental) Europe.

In conclusion, "The Axe and the Oath" is not for the faint of heart. Some readers will feel uncomfortable about some analogies that Mr. Fossier makes about the contemporary and medieval men.

This book is very French, by which I mean that it is philosophical and filled with generalizations rather than being concrete and filled with research. If you pick it up under the impression that it will tell you what the everyday life of ordinary people was like during the Middle Ages, you may be disappointed, as I was, to discover that it instead mostly consists of what Fossier believes ordinary people thought about their lives during that period. You're not going to get a lot of information about how many hours per day people worked or what they ate. It is all very elevated and stylized in the French manner, but a bit thin on concrete information.

Fossier brings a lifetime's work of medieval scholarship to a highly personalized overview of ordinary life in the middle ages. Rummaging through monastic archives, literature and archeological evidence, he attempts to portray daily life of peasants and urban artisans who are normally left out of the historical record of the middle ages. While only partially convincing -- it is impossible to really summarize a thousand years -- he vividly brings together birth, death, eating and drinking, shelter, work habits, and beliefs of the "man in the street". Although he is clearly steeped in the source material, his writing is lively and never academic.

While the book omits discussion of the main elements of traditional medieval history, it is useful to have to have some background in the middle ages before reading.

This book deserves a title specifically designating it a book on sociology, perhaps bad anthropology. If you are looking for a good exposition on what 'Ordinary Life in the Middle Ages' was like, look elsewhere. Thoroughly disapointed reader here. I dare not even re-gift it, or pass it off as a gift because - more fool I - I bought it for myself. Besides, I've no enemies I'd do it to!

Have not read this book, however, as a work of history I cannot believe it would pass muster because it is completely lacking in any sort of a reference material - there is no bibliography, no footnotes, nothing to show any effort to back up whatever claims this book makes - and that is inexcusable.