Hey all! I bought a book of Grimm's fairy tales not too long ago and am looking to dive deeper into the medieval world, in hopes of understanding how the average peasant understood things. I'm quite interested in how some of the tropes are still bouncing around in my head today, probably thanks to Disney (the knight in shining armor, the fair maiden in the tower, the return of the good king, the evil stepmother…)
Does anyone know of a good place to start? My initial thought is to jump into the King Arthur myths, but even given that I'm unsure of where to begin.
Thanks!!
by Shiv888
2 Comments
It’s been a minute since I’ve read them but The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer and How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England by Ruth Goodman were both very interesting and entertain.
Elizabethan England isn’t strictly speaking medieval, but the Medieval period just didn’t end when Henry VII took the throne. Culturally, much of it remained for centuries.
If you have an Audible subscription, pretty much anything by Dorsey Armstrong is fantastic. She has a number of lecture series through The Great Courses, many of which come with a subscription.
Nikola Griffith writes historically informed fiction about the Medieval era, Spear is specifically about Arthurian times, but Hild is about the life of a real woman who eventually became Saint Hilda of Whitby. They’re written from the perspective of a woman living during that time, so I felt really placed into the minds of the characters and their specific points of view and ways of perceiving.