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Short intro to the long Middle Ages

Read this or go directly to the following pages:
1. Epic heroes 2. Modern Sagas 3. Medieval Mysteries 4. A sense of justice 5. Medieval Japan

The Middles Ages were that long? Well, over a thousand years! (say from 300-500 until 1400-1500). Middle ages cover the whole period starting with the end of the Roman Empire, traditionally set in 475 with the fall of Rome, but Romans had then lost power everywhere for a long time. The start of the Renaissance varies according to which historian you consult: traditionally, the beginning of the Renaissance is the establishment of the spice routes and the development of commerce for the Italians historians, the discovery of America for Americans, the raise of the gothic style for the French, or the invention of oil painting for the Dutch. The image above is from the Bayeux tapistry and represents men building a ship (from PBS.org)

The fall of the Romans is a little bit like the fall of the Communist Empire: everybody has a different explanation why it fell, maybe the real question is how did it manage to survive so long?

The greatest specialist on lead we ever had in science, Clair Patterson (more on him in the science pages), used to tell me that lead poisoning caused the Roman Emperors to have various forms of saturnism and to be unable to govern. He stated that the aristocracy drank wine spiked with lead acetate in lead containers and that it destroyed them. Of course, a lot of other causes have also been invoked to explain the fall of the empire, ranging from climate variations, and the Huns pushing tribes in an East-West direction, to changes in the Roman army, and various social factors. Invasions (also called migrations by the politically induced) just happened, and in the end, the Romans were submerged. What troubles me is that these tribes have each kept a different reputation through time. When I was a little girl in the North of France, an Ostrogoth was an insult for somebody stupid (why not a Wisigoth, I wonder?); a Vandal defined somebody who destroys beautiful art without sense or reason (the reputation of Vandals is well deserved, but most invaders behaved like that too, we just kept one name for "vandalism"). The Huns were killing and raping without mercy, so calling somebody a Hun became equivalent to calling him a psychopath. Because of the Germans invasions of 1870,1914 and 1940, the name came to define Germans for a long time. but the real Huns, of course had been of mongol origin.

Not much of the science and knowledge and social organization of the ancient Rome remained. That is because the invaders were half-nomadic and more interested in plundering than learning. Traditionally, men were warriors and women tended to the rest of life, including agriculture if there was one. Little by little these tribes settled down, but by the time they did, the Roman culture was gone. Small islands of knowledge combined with a fair amount of obscurantism were kept in monasteries. Exciting knowledge was acquired elsewhere: in China, Central America, India, North Africa: Europe did lag behind for a thousand years.

So what happened in Europe during the Middle Ages that kids should remember? Christianity remained the main religion, but with mainly two trends: one to the East with Constantinople as a thinking center, and one in the West, with Rome as a center of power. It is still true today. North Africa will progressively turn to Islam and remains that way to this day. Languages developed into small entities and latin progressively lost its appeal as an universal language. I do think that the main point to make is that insecurity was the rule. There were always bands of thieves and killers everywhere. You can see the memory of that if you ever drive south of Paris. You come to the great plains of fertile countryside, and you do not see any window. The typical farm was made of four buildings built in a square around a court in the middle and only one door to the outside. All the windows were on the inside court, which made the building easier to defend. Between Paris and Chartres, you can still see hundreds of farms built like that. They symbolize for me what the Middle Ages were about: fear and hunger. Travel was very limited; except for a few businessmen and traveling comedians and workers, most people remained all their life under the protection of their villages. Until the 1970ies in France (and i would guess most of Europe), over 80% of people would get married to somebody who was born less than five miles away.

Amazingly, the Crusades brought out a better consideration for women in the high society: the long absences of men helped the promotion of a more romantic love: l'amour courtois (courtly love). It is "the imaginary form of medieval sexuality" says a site of the University of Denmark. Examples are Lancelot (in love with the wife of the king, he cannot touch her) or Tristan and Yseult, or Roland and Aude in the Chanson de Roland. The most perfect example of it that I know of is not medieval: it is the play Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand. Courtly love has a long history in Europe.

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