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Welcome to the Middle Ages!
The fascinating facets of medieval times that draw us into
the past
Perhaps it was a knight in shining armor, thundering up on
a magnificent charger, wielding a blazing sword. Or maybe
it was a mighty castle with banners snapping in the wind.
Could it have been the image of a lady in a flowing gown and
pointy hat, trailing veils behind her? Was it the jester in
motley, the monk in his scriptorium, the peasant behind his
plow? It may even have been a tale of King Arthur that drew
you here.
Whatever
attracts us to the Middle Ages, this dim and distant era holds
an undeniable fascination for scholars and laymen alike.
The
romanticized images may soon give way to hard realities like
the Inquisition and the Peasants' Revolt, yet even these heavier
subjects rarely fail to intrigue. We cannot look at this era
for long without wondering why the Crusades began, what it
was like to live through the Black Death, or how a war could
last one hundred years.
Because
of this dichotomy of fantasy and fact, no other period of
history holds quite the same attraction as the medieval. Certainly
no other period has been quite so colorfully misrepresented,
and perhaps none has been so frequently misunderstood. Often
the Middle Ages are seen as a single, homogenous era that
experienced little change in technology or daily life. But
in truth, the medieval era spans more than a thousand years,
during which time some of the most important developments
in western society took place. And while the bulk of modern
scholarship has concentrated on Western Europe and Britain,
the influence of the Byzantine Empire, Islam, Africa, and
various eastern societies on western culture must not be overlooked.
Encompassing
as it does such a broad range of time and space, the Middle
Ages offers an extensive variety of subjects to explore. Step
into the medieval world and visit a vanished village, meet
a warrior-king, admire the art of the past, learn to fence,
enjoy an epic poem, tour a cathedral, encounter a hero, construct
a lyre, ponder the nature of God, spend a day in a castle,
speak a forgotten language
survive a fearsome battle, set sail with Viking adventurers,
meet a Renaissance master, explore a different worldview or
set off on any one of a thousand journeys of discovery. The
only limit is your curiosity.
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