posted 10-06-2007 07:58 PM            

The actual content is interesting, of course, but also pretty typical for this kind of book – what people ate, what they wore, the role of women, etc. One thing that intrigued me was another document the authors used was a document traced back to the schoolteacher monk Aelfric of Cerne Abbas (same place with the chalk giant). This consists of a Latin dialog between a “Master” and various workers – plowman, fisherman, etc. – in which each explains what he does. This is clearly a pedagogical tool to teach students a lot of words in context. The neat thing is there’s an extremely similar Egyptian text usually called the “Satire on Trades” but officially The Instructions of Kheti which does much the same thing, listing the disadvantages of every occupation. Lots of copies of this exist, because it was used to teach schoolchildren reading and writing. And I remember various picture books from my own childhood with such things as “This is a fireman. He puts out fires. This is a doctor. He makes sick people better. This is a politician. He tells lies”. There is truly nothing new under the sun.

posted 10-07-2007 10:51 AM            

Edit: now that I think of it, there was one mention of the Medieval Climate Optimum. I went back and checked, and there's a paragraph on how honey and grape pulp were the only sweeteners, and that grapes grew as far north as Ely. However, a little Googling shows that there are vinyards that far north now.

posted 10-07-2007 07:02 PM            

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True, but have there been any changes in technologies that might account for that similarity?

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In medieval times the grapes grown would have, of necessity, to have been European (Vitis vinifera) strains. These varieties mostly only survive along the southern coast, and only on American rootstocks, for reasons other than climate.

Most of the wine in England is presently made from European-American hybrids (Seyval is an exemplar) where the vinifera species are crossed with labrusca species. These hybrids are MUCH more cold tolerant than European species.

posted 10-08-2007 01:08 AM            

As Set mentioned, the calendar is of interest because of the discussion of daily life in that day. Also though, I'd suggest that it's of interest because the considerable body of literature from that period was almost entirely destroyed in the generations following 1088.

I hope I'm not confusing this with another book on the same general topic, but as I recall there was also some interesting discussion of why the invasion of 1088 went as it did. For one thing, the Angle cavalry didn't ride horses into battle, but rode them to the battle. At that point they dismounted and lost the combat advantage.

For the twelve year old boys inside most of us, the discussion of certain parasites was also interesting. Imagine worms emerging from boils, or the corners of ones eyes. Euuuuch ... but an important part of the life of the time.

posted 10-08-2007 11:00 AM            

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Originally posted by billholt:
...For the twelve year old boys inside most of us, the discussion of certain parasites was also interesting. Imagine worms emerging from boils, or the corners of ones eyes...

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I wasn't quite sure about some of that; the authors don't use technical names for the worms involved. The one they describe as emerging from all over the place they call a "maw worm", which appears to be a roundworm, something in the Ascaris genera, which is pretty much confined to the intestinal tract. Things emerging from the eye sound like loa-loa worms (which have the easy-to-remember scientific name Loa loa:

However, these guys are (fortunately) confined to tropical Africa so their presence in England would be pretty interesting.

"Worms" emerging from boils cound be bot fly larvae, which are technically maggots and not worms. There's a picture floating around on the Web of one of these being extracted from a eye, but as I'm sure El Buggo could tell us, they normally turn up in little holes elsewhere in the skin. They could also be "Guinea worms" (Dracunculus medinensis):

which can sometimes be extracted from various lumps. (If they're pulled out by coiling around a stick, they're supposed to be the origin of the caudecus, the classic medical symbol with a snake winding around a staff). Right now they're confined to the tropics but if they turned up in England in 1000 that could also be a sign of a warmer climate.

posted 10-08-2007 12:14 PM            

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the invasion of 1088

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posted 10-08-2007 06:36 PM            

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Originally posted by SPQR:
Set must now be punished.

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Well, it's always handy to have some pictures around to show to nature enthusiasts what Nature is really like.

posted 10-08-2007 07:21 PM            

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Originally posted by setnahkt:
Also, I can't help it if I took invertebrate zoology from a helminthologist. We spent three quarters of the course on worms and one day on insects. I know some fascinating facts about homosexual rape in acanthocephalans, and how you raise cestodes in the lab without letting them tie themsleves in knots and strangle.

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Sex among molluscs and we are in Monty Python skit territory.

posted 10-09-2007 11:51 PM            

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That would be 1066.

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posted 10-15-2007 02:02 PM            

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Was there any mention of the weather/climate?

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In the September chapter, just after the above cited mention of the use of grape skins as sweeteners, there are a few sentences:

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It was a warmer world. Archeological evidence indicates that the years 950 to 1300 were marked by noticeably warmer temperatures than we experience today, even in the age of "global warming." Meteorologists describe this medieval warm epoch as the "Little Optimum,", ..."

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They go on to cite a number of favorable things that came about because of the greater warmth.