Customer Reviews

Everyday Life in the Middle Ages (Writer's Guides to Everyday Life)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This is truly one of those books that half good, half useless. It should not be used as a sole reference to medieval life. But as a supplement, it can be useful. For example, the chapters about knights, the Church, and food are woefully inadequate. But the chapter about festivals does a good (though not complete) job of listing important holidays and the traditions associated with them. This is not the best medieval reference book I've read, but to be fair, it is only a GUIDE, which I think a few reviewers forget. The author even includes "further reading references" at the ends of the chapters, which is a good thing, since the chapters are sparse. All in all, the book is helpful as a quick reference to find dates of a certain king's reign, or to find what fabrics were used for clothing in 1255. But please don't use this book as a substitute for down-and-dirty research.

I think that this book is extremely useful, especially the chapter about food, as it tells you things that is almost impossible to find elsewhere - such as a brief list of what they ate, what they did, when they ate, who served what, how they were seated, etc etc etc.

I've been hearing all this trashing about how horrible the pictures were, but I don't think they're nearly as bad as everyone keeps making them out to be. So what, a person left his glasses on - they weren't depicting a full-size model of someone from the middle ages, he was only modelling certain features. And also, below the picture of the Viking it says "the model wears a Viking CEREMONIAL horned helm with ear flaps." It never stated that that was the everyday helmet of a viking, if anybody bothered to read what was underneath. The robes of the two monks in the picture looked different to me, and it says "the man on the left wears a Benedictine robe; the man on the right wears a Franciscan robe."

Everybody here is looking for a textbook for school, as opposed to a guide book. She even says so in the Introduction - "this book is designed as a mere starting point or as a reference to look up much needed information as quickly as possible."

I think this book is a terrific guide and can't honestly see what all the fumes and steam are about. Some of the vocabulary words and definitions are utterly useless for me, but then most of them are gold. I'm not a professor of Middle Ages, so obviously I'm not picking up the grittiest mistakes, but that doesn't matter - I'm a fantasy writer, I don't need to know the specifics, and after being one of those people who went to the Library to look for information.... half of the books were crap meant for someone who had five years to read and understand a 900-page manual on FOOD that only talked about how they had no information and could not get any information on the food.

And frankly, if you're a fantasy writer, you don't need to get into the nitty-gritty stuff. I really don't care if the peasant-garb existed or not (and yes, it did, because I used to go on the internet on all sorts of sites on the middle ages, and for every typical female peasant garb it looked remarkably like the one in the book.)

This book has to be the clearest and quickest way to get information on the middle ages, and it gives you all the information you need to write an entire scene on something in detail and clarity, without blurring the background and hoping everyone won't notice the lack of detail and knowledge. You all can trash this book or toss it in the flames, but it's going to stay with me for a looooong time.

I suppose the front cover of this book says it all. It's supposed to cover the British Isles from 500-1500, so why does it show a picture of Queen Elizabeth I who wasn't even born until 1533? The photographs of supposedly authentic costume are risible - especially the Viking and the book is peppered with numerous fallacies and inaccuracies, suggesting that the writer really needs to do more research on her subject. As a prize-winning published author of fiction set in the Medieval period, there is no way that I would recommend this book to authors seeking to increase their knowledge and understanding of the Middle Ages.

I hope that no teacher seriously thinks about using this in a classroom to teach history. It perpetuates many of the myths medievalists have been trying to dispel for ages. Many items are misdated, or out of the period all together. Some of the clothing shown looks like it came from a bad renaissance fair. Some it probably never existed, such as the "typical peasant garb of the middle ages". If you are trying to do a play or a light novel, the inacuracies will proably not do any harm, but for a serious student this book is not recommended, with one exception. The bibliography does include some excellent books that would clearly contradict a good deal of the information contained in this volume. (Note to the author and editor: according to my copy of the OED, "Coronated" is not a word. Kings are crowned.)

On my first or second reading I would have given book a negative review. I think that was because of the awe-inspiring title: "The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the Middle Ages: The British Isles from 500 to 1500". That in itself was enough, an almost impossible premise for any book to live up to, particularly one that is only 232 pages (counting the index). But the back of the book adds more hype, suggesting it will provide all the facts you need to write about food, clothing, medicine, royalty, heraldry, vocabulary and war in a period that spanned 1000 years and saw massive social and technological change.

By that standard it fails. This book will only get you started. But by that second definition, a "starting point", it's excellent. I have ultimately come to love it and regularly use on it as my first source. At the end of each chapter is a bibliography of books that go into a lot more depth on each topic. And the chapters, while short, are well organized and for the most part decently written, giving a good introduction to the topics mentioned earlier as well as a brief overview of kings of the middle ages (both in the British Isles and nearby places such as the Scandinavian countries and France) and invaluable discussions of the different ethnic groups that populated this place and time, with chapters on Anglo-Saxons, Britons (Welsh), and Vikings, among others.

Yes, you can find most of this stuff on the Internet. But who wants to surf through dead links and long-winded URLs trying to find out who was king of Scotland in a particular year? Besides, some of the places I go to write don't always have internet access. You have to have a few books.

Among the book's faults are the pictures, black-and-white photos apparently of friends dressed for re-enactments. Vikings didn't really wear those stereotypical horned helmets, yet she includes a picture of a strapping blonde Viking wearing one. Another shows a young man wearing a thirteenth-century cape and some hip modern glasses: groovy, but probably not accurate.

Faults aside, this is still a great starting point for any historical fiction writer's library. If I could only keep five of the pile of books I've accumulated while writing a story set in 1033 England, this would be one. I do wish Kenyon had expanded it to another hundred pages and provided more detail (particularly regarding how things changed in specific centuries and maps). I would have especially liked to see more specifics in the lists of words that end many chapters. Sometimes they appear to be French, for example, but there's no indication where or exactly when they were likely to have been used.

I must concur with the other reviewers here in saying that this book is fairly awful. One needs only to flip through the book and look at the black and white photographs of Renaissance Faire-goers in their homemade costumes and Museum Replicas store-bought armor to get an idea of the book's quality as an accurate guide for writers. One example: a photo of two people in identical black robes are identified as monks of two different orders. One of the monks is wearing an ankh necklace.

According to these photos, the weather must have been fairly warm in medieval England, considering all of the peasants and soldiers alike who were apparently wandering around in sleeveless outfits. I half expected to see a picture of a woman in a chainmail bikini before the end of the book.

At the risk of sounding catty, I've read children's picture books on the medieval era that were far more helpful and accurate. I'd seriously advise anyone considering a purchase of this book to look elsewhere.

This is a very poor source for anyone trying to write accurately about the Middle Ages. The author is trying to cover much too much ground too skimpily. Most of the information is either flat-out wrong (leading one to wonder if the author actually read the books she lists as sources) or is so poorly written that it will do nothing but confuse readers. For only one example, the heraldry section states: Segreant -- a rampant griffin.

Someone whose knowledge of heraldry is "pretty pictures on a shield" would take this to mean that 'segreant' is another name for 'griffin', leading to a passage like "The black banner with its white segreant flapped in the wind."

In fact, segreant is an heraldic term for the *posture* common to winged monsters like griffins -- up on one hind foot with the other three clawing at the air (rampant), wings erect and back to back (addorsed) behind it.

Similar misinformation is (if you will pardon the expression) rampant throughout the book. The best things about it are the bibliography lists at the end of each section. Go straight to those sources, most of which are excellent, and skip the rest of the book.

Another of the "Great for writers but even better for gamers" series, this book is exactly what I wanted from a reference, unlike the somewhat meandering Body Truama in the Howdunit series. The book hits on so many topics, it's impossible to list them all: food, clothing, medicine, economy, measures, titles, saint, weapons...the list goes on and on. All are referenced in an easy to read, no commentary style that provides keywords in bold text with their definitions in each section. Even better, there's a Further Reading section at the end of each chapter.

As a springboard for further research, What Life Was Like is a prime resource. Of most immediate ues to gamers with a historical bent are the date of clothing styles (to avoid anachronistic styles of dress) and a description of the day to day activites of a castle. While it's probably a bit extreme to apply all of these principles to role-playing fantasy, which is, after all, FANTASY, this book goes a long way in providing a sense of feel to an environment that's so different from the modern world, it seems fantastic.

Thus this scene: "The warrior takes a slurp from his soup bowl, then sticks another forkful of meat in his mouth as he mumbles, 'Yeah, I know him. What's it to ya?'"

Becomes this: "The warrior takes a slurp from his trencher, then sticks his knife into a hunk of meat and stuffs it in his mouth. He mumbles, 'Yeah, I know him. What's it to ya?'"

No forks til the late fourteenth century! Forget wooden bowls, people used hollowed out bread as bowls.

Also prevalent throughout this Writer's Guide are the pictures and lists. Although my own personal preference is for line drawings in a work such as this, the pictures (of period actors) do the job. Also, the lists, when they appear, are relevant and to the point, including a list of popes and kings.

There are other books in the series that would probably find an application in role-playing: Guides to Victorian England, Renaissance England, and even the Wild West. If they're anything like Everyday Life in the Middle Ages, they're worth checking out.

I got a copy of this book because I was looking for a concise reference on the middle ages for fiction writing, primarily as a source of names and terminology. For this purpose, the book satisfied my needs. I found the vocabulary lists throughout the book particularly helpful. I don't have the expertise to comment as to whether the book is any good as a historical reference.

With all the good books out there about daily life in the Middle Ages, this is definitely not the one that anyone should be buying. This book is useful only if you're trying to write formulaic fantasy and romance novels, because otherwise it's full of errors and oversimplifications. Most of this same information (like the lists of popes and kings) can be found on the Internet for free. Need info about the Middle Ages? Take your writing seriously, go to the library, be a diligent researcher--and avoid Kenyon's book like that other medieval scourge: the plague.