The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the Middle Ages: The British Isles, 500 to 1500

Writer's Guides to Everyday Life

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Writers will save hours of valuable research time and bring a richness and historical accuracy to their work as they reference the slice-of-life facts depicted for each of these major time periods. Each book contains descriptions of the period's food and clothes; customs and slang; occupations; common religious and political practices; and other historical details.

Genres: History, Writing, Nonfiction, Reference, Medieval, Research, Historical

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

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Reviews

[Marmom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I completely forgot about this book! I bought it at a thrift store as a teen and read it cover to cover, repeatedly

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book of lists, each chapter covering a different subject, from economics to the church to crusades to types of music and more, with vocabulary lists on each subject, covering common terminology of the era. The book summarizes in general terms about Europe from 500-1500, all while constantly warning the reader that people, no matter times or place, are all individuals, and advising more research on anything specific. Each chapter ends with lists of books that go more in depth on that chapter’s subject.

A great resource for anyone thinking of writing a medieval themed piece of fiction.

[Elin Eriksen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overview

This is a great overview of the medieval periode and it contained plenty of suggestions of books for those who want to delve further into the matter.

It was a little thin on the time period I was interested in which is the late 800s under the rule of Alfred the great. The period from the conquest and outwards had more meat on the bone (probably because there is more information to be had).

Recommend

[stephanie suh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the Middle Ages (roughly from the 5th to 15th century) is often dubbed as "The Dark Ages," the epitaph originated by the thinkers of the Renaissance, this was the period when many important social institutions, such as universities, hospitals, marriage as a sacrament, and use of surnames, which have become norms of our society, were established. In this book, the author Sherrilyn Kenyon succeeds in closing the great divide of time and space between modern readers and the folks living in the medieval time by presenting general aspects of life in the medieval England ranging from food to medicine and so forth which are not so much outlandishly different from what we are familiar with in one way or another. This review of mine intends to provide the facts on the two of the necessities of the human life, which are food and clothing, plus medicine to share the fun of knowing them and of learning about the misty but not too distant past on an evolutionary clock.

Food
The folks in the Middles Ages were not usually voracious eaters; breakfast consisted of a loaf of bread and some wine for the nobility or ale for the peasantry, partaken of after a daily morning mass. Then between 10:00 AM and Noon, a dinner was served, and supper at the time of sunset was prepared. In the castle of a lord, during a supper time, a traveling minstrel (a wandering singer-songwriter) entertained the host of the castle and received food or coins in return. The most perplexing fact about the medieval table etiquette involve s attitudes toward the dogs: food scraps were forbidden to be given out to the dog while the diners were at the table. It further prohibited tossing a morsel of food to the dogs even after the meal.

Sugar was a very valuable spice and expensive to import. It was during the 12th century sugar became a common ingredient in England, where sugar imported from Alexandria was regarded prime quality because it was flavored with roses and violets. In fact, England in the Middle Ages seemed to be quite actively engaged in commercial activities in comparison to Spain, France, and Italy as follows:

England's exports: Fish, Cheese, and Ale. Its imports: Raisins, figs, dates, olive oil, wine, almonds, and rice.
Spain's exports: Sugar, preserved fruits, and syrups
France's exports: Wine
Italy: Pies

The most common vegetables were onions, peas, beans, and cabbages. However, cucumbers and leeks were considered unhealthy. As for the kinds of fruit most consumed were apples, plums, pears, peaches, and nuts. Citrus ones, such as oranges and lemons were not seen in England until the Crusades. Speaking of the Crusade, it was said that the French crusaders' garlic breath disgusted the people of Constantinople for the reason that garlic was used as a main spice to conceal the taste of spoiling meat. There are two other ways to preserve meat: (1) Dry salting by burying meat in salt; and (2) Brune curing by soaking it in a salt solution. However, in many times, the meat, which was a main staple of the nobel and the wealthy, became perished, causing a variety of skin irritations, scurvy, tooth decay, and different types of infection.

Clothing
Despite the class differences, there was a little difference between the styles of clothing and the types of fabric worn by the nobility and the peasantry at least during the early middle ages due mostly to limited trade caused by poor travel conditions. Merchants and peddlers could not travel far with their carts and wagons as a result of such poor road conditions and a peril of highwaymen. So Nobles made their fashion statements with jewels as accessories for their garments. When the power of kings and nobles grew stronger, they also controlled the roads, decreasing the risk of robbery and violence. Consequently, this new social mobility led to an increase in trade, bringing a greater variety of fabrics and colors. Moreover, the term "Fashion Police" was originated from this period when this deputy of the nobility literally patrolled the streets and checked all to make sure they were wearing clothes appropriate to their social class.

Medicine
I was especially interested in this subject due to my recent urgent medical treatments. What was it like being a patient of painful ailment? Contrary to my previous beliefs of barbarian method of curing the sick without anesthesia, and other superstitious ways of treating common diseases, the medieval doctors were actually quite competent to heal the wounded with quite inventive surgical tools and remedies that can be adopted to the modern day patients. Also, Jewish doctors armed with the knowledge of Arabic and Greek were most highly esteemed and employed by kings, nobles, or wealthy merchants in their castles or manors. Also, many women were licensed to practice medicine equipped with knowledge of various remedies passed from their elders. Some of these women specialized in eye diseases.

The most common diseases in the middles ages were dysentery, epilepsy, influenza, diphtheria, scurvy, typoid, St. Vitus' Dance, St. Anthony's fire, stroke, heart disease, and leprosy. On the contrary, tuberculosis, cancer, alcoholism, and venereal diseases were rarely recorded despite the author's thoroughly extensive research. Also, doctors believed in the importance of preventive medicine, advising people to refrain from taking a nap because they followed the Greek belief that the body was made up of four humors that were sanguine, choler, phlegm, and melancholia and three spirits.

Interestingly, women gave birth in a sitting stance to allo gravity to facilitate the delivery process. Moreover, anesthesia was used in surgeries in the form of a sponge soaked in the juice of opium, ivy, or lettuce and then dried in the sun. It's re-soaked in water and held to the patient's nose and mouth whenever it was needed.

Further to the notable medieval medical achievements as listed above, here are some intersting information on how the folks at the time tried to cure their physical weaknesses which I think might benefit us:

Acorn: A woman carrying it will have the eternal youth
Amethyst: the possession of it will prevent you from falling into drunkenness
Blackberry: If you eat it, it will relieve you of diarrhea
Camphor: It wards off infections
Cold: Drink a warm cup of barley tea will cure you of cold,
Coughs: A pint of vinegar with a quarter ounce of finely grounded licorice will stop coughs.
Dandelion: A cup of dandelion tea acts as a laxative
Peppermint: its tea will relieve you of bloatedness and relieve you of gas.
Rosemary: If you wash your hair in water full of rosemary, it will make your hair grow,
Rosewater: Apply it to your inflamed eye for treatment.

To encapsulate, this book is a great guide to the ordinary customs of the middle ages that are compiled by the author's diligently thorough research on the vast time period. The way of life in the medieval time seems to be arcane or backward in our modern standard, but they lived in what they imagined as "modern" time and way. Therefore, we should not impose our fallacy of the human ego that makes us look back at the past and claim our superiority thereto. As discoursed in this essay on the book, the medieval was not altogether a grim and gloom dystopia ruled by religious didacticism and scientific ignorance.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gets a bad rep because it's simplistic and a lot of the info could've been found on Wikipedia, but this book doesn't pretend to be anything more than a quick and dirty reference book. Throughout, the author urges readers to do more research if they want specifics. For what this was, I'd say it was worth it. It was nicely broken up into easily digestible sections with useful if basic information in each. It's nice to have a resource that combines food with clothing with religious practices with economy with titles. Could Kenyon have gone into more detail? Absolutely, but she's not a historian. She did list some interesting titles for each chapter to make further research easier.

The biggest letdown for me was that this book says it reviews every day life from years 500-1500, but that's deceptive. Kenyon barely dips into the 15th century, which is what I was interested in reading. The 15th century was full of turmoil with the War of the Roses and the influences in this century from Flanders and Burgundy. The clothing section only discussed up to 1461, leaving about 40 years untouched, which was incredibly frustrating.

Anyone interested in the daily lives of those from the 10th-14th centuries will find a lot in this book. It's a great starting off point, even if it does leave one wanting more.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm always a sucker for this kind of book, I own several for different cultures. This on is aimed at writers and not the general public. It doesn't have many illustrations but does have a fair number of glossaries for the different sections. Contains multiple and extensive bibliographies. This feels like the author published her extensive personal notes as a book, not a bad thing, it's obvious that she likes the research.

It also gives me a burning desire to read a good bio about Eleanor of Aquitaine.

[Redsteve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very underwhelming. About half of this book is just very simplistic glossaries and lists of rulers/popes. I’m not sure how useful this would actually be for someone writing a novel set in the Medieval period. And don’t even get me started on the photographs (mostly described as “a typical x and x from the Middle Ages”) shot at the Georgia Renaissance Festival, and including a “Dominican Friar” wearing an ankh and a “Viking” wearing a horned helmet. Not recommended.

[Karen Van Buskirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

A guide to remember

This was a very interesting read. I enjoyed every minute absorbing the basic information. It gives the reader a birdseye view of life as it might have been and encourages further exploration with great recommended reading which I fully plan to pursue. I feel it is a must read for anyone beginning to explore the Middle Ages and certainly anyone who aspires to write such rich history real or fictitious. Good and easy read.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the Middle Ages: The British Isles From 500-1500
By Sherrilyn Kenyon
Reviewed November 21, 2022


This review is for the Kindle edition.

I bought this book because as someone who dabbles in writing and is fascinated by Medieval England, I thought it might make a nice reference to have on hand. That, and over the years I’ve enjoyed many of Ms. Kenyon’s books, especially her paranormal Dark Hunter series.

The book turned out to be pretty much what I expected, a general overview of England in the Middle Ages, from 500 to 1500, although in her list of English kings, she stops at Henry VI. Maybe she didn’t want to tackle the Wars of the Roses?

Each chapter covers a different aspect of medieval life – money, weights & measures, nobles and commoners, food, a sampling of words and phrases one might want to use in your story to give it a medieval flavor, festivals, music, saints and sinners, the church, knights and wars, and much more. Some entries are lists, while others contain short descriptive paragraphs. At the end of each chapter is a list of books for further reading.

This is not an in depth look at medieval England, but a broad summary of a variety of topic that a writer of historical fiction or someone looking for very general information about the time and place would find of interest, and for that purpose is a handy book to have on hand.

[Skippidy Doo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I didn’t finish this book.

And I probably won’t. Before reading this, I was wondering how accurate the information would be and didn’t find many reviews discussing its accuracy. The author isn’t a historian/academic and the book was published in 1995, so it’s pretty old.

However. I’m on page 13, and read this sentence: “Some of the foods (due to preservation techniques of salting and applying heavy spices to disguise rotting) would be quite unappealing to the twentieth century palate.”

Pretty sure that “using spices on rotten meat” is a complete myth that doesn’t make sense for multiple reasons. To see this incorrect statement so early on, it leads me to doubt how legit the rest of this information will be.

[Veronika Opatřilová · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a waste of money. The misleading title says: The British Isles 500-1500 and since this is supposed to be a writer´s guide I expected thorough and detailed information about everyday life in this particular period.

Instead, I got a very general set of information about the Middle Ages and a list of vocabulary terms. Sometimes the author said: ... in the 14th century... in Norway etc... I found this strange since this was supposed to be a book about "The British Isles 500-1500"! This was the reason why I bought it.
I was specifically looking for this period and place in time. Not a book about the Middle Ages in general.

[Jennie Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good source of information, though mostly focusing on 1000-1500s. I was excited to see that the time frame began in the Early Middle Ages, as that’s the period I’m writing, but once again information on the “Dark Ages” is few and far between (which is not the author’s fault!) I picked up a couple more little facts about my period useful to me, but otherwise I’d recommend this book for those writing the High and Late Middle Ages.

[Stefanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up to learn some fun facts before going to the ren faire this weekend. I liked the information about the clothes, but I wanted more detail about the lives of people. The majority of the book was just lists of kings and saints and felt more like a Wikipedia article than a "guide to everyday life." I think it's time for a modernized edition for post-internet readers.

[Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great companion to read alongside of medieval literature and historical fiction.

[BobbySue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good information.

[Kay A]

Will return to read this more in the future as it’s a really good research book!

[Shirley Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing amount of detail.

[S Sedgwick · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book felt like a refer-ologist kind of doctor. Chapters were sometimes less then two pages, not counting lists of further reading. It felt like it was just repeating Want to learn more? Read these books, not this one! I was very disappointed by it.

[Sarai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazon review by: Banana "Gabby"
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.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

My wife's face was hilarious when I told her that I was reading this. I'm certainly no writer, but I figured a book on every day life in the middle ages would be interesting. And it was free. It was mildly interesting and informative.

I skimmed it quickly: it's obviously meant to be more of a reference book. I skipped over lots of old English (and Scottish, and Welsh) words and titles and names of kings and queens. What I was interested in was the descriptions, and they were pretty interesting. Some of it seemed like she was advancing her own oddball pet theories, such as reinterpreting the Children's Crusade as a peasant rebellion in France, so that made me a lot less confident in the book. Her statements about the medieval world being the same as today strikes me as naive and myopic, I'm not sure I agree on that. From what I've learned, while it's true that basic human needs haven't changed much, the values and subconscious worldview of the medieval man or woman is hugely different than ours today.

The early chapters on clothing, medicine and society were pretty interesting, though. I learned a lot from those. It was a pleasant, quick read, but certainly not something I'd spend money on, even if I WAS a writer.

[Nic · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually read at least half of this book very carefully, but I'm still shelving it under "skimmed-for-info" because I skipped some parts that would not be relevant to the fantasy setting I'm writing.

I had hoped that this book would read more like one that was really targeted toward writers. Instead, it's a series of lightning-fast overviews of various topics (food, medicine, armor and weapons, etc.). Each chapter has a little background on the topic - sometimes less than a page - followed by a list of vocabulary words or similar, and then a brief list of other books you can use in your research.

There are a lot of vocab words. Some of their definitions are so brief as to be not terribly useful (certainly not as interesting as they could be). Sometimes a definition will include another vocabulary word that has not yet been defined - even one from a chapter you haven't reached yet.

Anyway, some interesting tidbits here, but overall it feels a bit shallow.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is much more a (short) reference work designed to get you started on familiarity with the culture and environment of the Middle Ages, but as an introduction it's nice. Even reading it straight through wasn't _too_ painful, even with various lists of terms, saint's days, battles, kings, queens, etc. Each chapter has references to other books you can look for more information. Even though I read almost everything I could get my hands on about the Medieval Era as a kid, I still learned some things. Apparently there were actual fashion police, which makes sense if sumptuary laws were actually enforced. Also, I didn't know that the people at a meal weren't supposed to eat their trenchers; the idea of eating your plate has always sounded great to me!

[J.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an excellent resource guide for historical writers. It provides minute details one might take forever to find otherwise. A really good series; I highly recommend them for anyone wanting to write historical stories.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read, lots of cool information. Some terms were not explained in the book. I would like to buy this one to keep for reference. Also would like to see an updated version, this one's from 1995. It looks like she did a ton of research, also got ideas for other books to read.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reference book for historical writers. I wish Writers Digest had kept the series up.

[Julia Milius · Rating 4 out of 5]

it has tons of cool facts.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good tool for those who want to write stories set in the Middle Ages. It examines the life and culture of the period.

[Kellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So very helpful for those beginning their careers.

[Ruth Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be very interesting. I loved the facts and words from each section.

[Elissa Kane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book with a lot of info. I especially love the chapter on food!