A PEEK INTO MEDIEVAL HISTORY & THE MAKING OF ‘CUTHWIN’ FROM CUTHWINANDCWENBURH.COM

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THE MAKING OF “CUTHWIN” ITS GENESIS

THE SOCIETY OF IT ALL

At the start of “Cuthwin”, I was certain I wanted the reader to ‘hear’ a narrative from the common everyday person—from the so termed ‘third’ layer of society, meaning “Those who worked”. Feudal society was made up of the three estates: The first estate being the church and its many offices; the second estate were the nobles, or those who ruled and fought; the third estate being those who worked.

There was mobility between the first and second estates, but less between the third and other two. I look at it this way: There were those who raised food and worked to earn a living and who directly or indirectly fed, clothed or equipped society. Then those who ate the food and were often embroiled in power and/ or land issues. During these conflicts they killed each other, including anyone who got in the way, too often those who raised and prepared the food and were non-combatants.

This is how our protagonist Cuthwin views events around him, and he was right. So, he avoided all the power players in every way he could. This is an important and intelligent component of Cuthwin the person and character. Almost every time in my novel when Cuthwin becomes associated directly or indirectly with “power players” in the first or second estates, very bad things happen.

A commonly held concept was that, “Life (i.e for ordinary workers) on the medieval manor was perhaps dull and uninspiring...there must have been little time left over for things of an intellectual or cultural nature.” (Kries, 2001).

This, of course, wasn’t wholly true, and a challenge to a storyteller.

One of the main problems was little was written about this “third estate” or common worker. This continued for the first seven hundred years of the medieval period. (In schools of my time, they termed them the “dark ages”, which was more appropriate for teachers and fellow students than a historical period.)

Much more was written about the second estate (those who fought and ruled) and the first estate, those who prayed. In fact, much was written about both of the foregoing in verse and prose history. So, then and later a great burgeoning of verse and prose fiction had a foundation to built upon around activities of war and conflict between the two estates. Meaning, the two often were complicit in wars and scourges and during them dealt out plentiful ‘collateral damage’ of the time.

LANGUAGE AND SOURCES

In the 11th century England people spoke a hodgepodge of languages if they got around at all. In fact, most who traveled on business or such were distinctly polyglot—able to speak in local Saxon dialects, and the language spoken in “Daneslaw”, that area which is roughly north of the Umber river. In the north they spoke a mixture of Old East Norse and Old English, which supposedly were mutually comprehensible.

However, much of the population lived on farms either as thanes/freemen, serfs/ cottars or slaves, and didn’t travel far from home their entire lives. These people would speak the language of their area (say, Saxon, which was beginning to be called ‘Anglish’) but a regional dialect of Saxon; therefore, just listening to a person speak you could make like Henry Higgins and know where they were from.

The most dramatic and lasting development in the beginnings of our language was the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, kept concurrently at different monastic locales between 871-1154. It began at the time of Alfred the Great (849-899) who had a great vision to have many documents and books written in the vernacular. In fact, he made some of these translations himself. In Alfred’s view, literacy should be spread everywhere; hence, the language of the common people should be the language of the realm. This way, all people would have access, especially to religious works, not the least being the Gospels.

I would need to get all historical information for “Cuthwin” via translations. These must be respectful to their sources; hence, my previous scholarship did come in handy. I had learned some basic ways to discern a lousy translation from a better one, and a better one from an outstanding rendition.

My objective was single-minded, to not commit anachronisms that would destroy the texture and ambience of the eleventh century Saxon world of my fictional “Cuthwin’s”, and indeed he was fictional.

Yet, things and places I wanted to be real, unless I had no other alternative: I could not have doors opening and closing that were not there; people buttoning up clothing when there were no buttons. Nor could I have children of common people going to schools that didn’t exist, evil-doers going to jails that were not there. And finally, contrary to many movies, common people sitting down to even the most festive meals with ‘boards’ festooned with fatted calves, pigs, lambs, poultry and just about fatted everything.

No, in the eleventh century common board, eating fare, was basically vegetable for animals were expensive to eat. In brief—kill an animal and eat it, it’s gone! “Poultry were considered a luxury food and it was also recognized as a therapeutic diet for invalids particularly in broth form. (Lacey, Danziger, The Year 1000, p.58).

Oh, yes—boards were boards because there were few if any tables. Boards were kept along the side of the domicile, and moved out and set up during meal times—or, people just sat and ate from plain wooden bowls or trenchers. And, there were no chairs—an occasional stool, and that was it.

Move over to the monastery or church, or into the great hall either ‘burh” or not (walled or unwalled) there were some of those human comforts, but not amongst the common folk, unless they were not common or struggling to be not common. I look at it this way about those who worked, and “the others”: The difference in material means between an Archbishop or land owning Lord of a manor was wider than it is today between a C.E.O. and the janitor cleaning out the corporate offices, and today the janitor is free and not a slave or serf.

Making a very general statement about a complicated system, human beings could be slaves, serfs/villains or free. Serfdom was more common in European feudalism, but was present in Saxon and Daneslaw England. Slavery was common in England, “Slavery and the recruitment of slaves was an integral part of Anglo-Saxon society. The institution of slavery was never questioned by contemporary moralists” (Slavery in Early Mediaeval England: From the reign of Alfred until the Twelfth Century, David Pelteret).

Cwenburh, Cuthwin’s wife, was a slave; Cuthwin was not, but owed money to (first) the manor he was raised upon, then Peterborough Monastery. Slavery/ Serfdom/Free born in my view, was one of the hardest “nuts” to crack in understanding 11th century society. I don’t think I’m clear on it now and trying to learn about the topic through readings is like counting eels bare-handed.

THE YEARS OF THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD

The medieval or middle ages is defined as: The history of Europe lasting from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. The problem for me in researching was many authors just cast categories like the “Early, High and Late” divisions to the winds (I guess) and wrote on about the late Middle Ages as it were all one. This was way far from the facts as they were, and so their work was of little use to me. Seems unimportant here, but it sure wasn’t to me.

In the case of a novel such as mine, we don’t have to worry about if the events are real or not, for they are not; however, we (and “I” as an author) must make sure the entire human and physical surroundings of the novel/journal is spot on, or the result is genre fiction or a comic book.

Then there is the chronic problem in historical fiction. Just how much can we forgive a writer regards historical “warping” or outright omissions; or worse than all, historical facts and activities made up. So, if in our readings we run into a gay Henry VIIIth, Earl Marble at the Battle of Frostingbridge or Queen Carmen of Finland, as a reader how must we feel?!

If the writer is doing something humorous/comedic, that is, kicking history in the tail feathers, it works beautifully.

However, if you are writing a serious literary work and pull a fictional “whohaw” out of your pocket, then you –as an author—must deal with your audience’s ability to suspend their belief for a bit. Now, with full disclosure, I have orphanages present in pre-Hastings England, but they were not. I just needed them to sufficiently bring out Cwenburh’s nature, and the predicament it lands them both in. Well, I just put orphanages in. An author just must deal with their audience’s suspension of belief—a little.

 

 

 

 

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