If small town life before the internet and iphones in the 70s and 80s, still contained clues as to what these guys did in the medieval era to kill the time, I'd venture to guess there would have been hours and hours of bawdy humour, jokes and riddles, physical assaults on each other (and if they weren't throwing acorns at each others heads, I'd be shocked), and of course gossip, complaints about the priest, cure and Seigneur, and an awful lot about Alice and Emma. If you were lucky, you'd get a companion who could tell a tall tale and sing a good tune and didn't try to push you into the river
I laughed out loud when I "got" the error - a rope! What a great solution for a magnificent error. That writer must have had a fantastic sense of humor, somebody I would have liked to have known.
The British Library posted some men-beating-trees-to-feed-the-pigs illuminations on instagram a few days ago and it really struck me – these images seem so unremarkable in passing, but when you look at them while sitting by a window that looks out over a grizzled oak tree raining acorns over a bed of leaves...suddenly you're *there*. I imagine William and Richard were also much keener observers of nature than the average person today, which would have provided additional ongoing fodder for conversation! I notice this keenness in my toddler, who points out bugs on the ground and birds in the air that would have gone unnoticed in my periphery...he's mastered the art of medieval living far more than I!
Well said, there is a mysterious power in these seemingly simple manuscript illustrations, and I do think that children naturally have a more "medieval" spirit, which they unfortunately tend to un-learn as they progress through the stages of modern society.
Love the typo!! Nice to know some things don't change for writers. Also love the thoughts on conversation. Never to bore. (Hope you are feeling better.)
If small town life before the internet and iphones in the 70s and 80s, still contained clues as to what these guys did in the medieval era to kill the time, I'd venture to guess there would have been hours and hours of bawdy humour, jokes and riddles, physical assaults on each other (and if they weren't throwing acorns at each others heads, I'd be shocked), and of course gossip, complaints about the priest, cure and Seigneur, and an awful lot about Alice and Emma. If you were lucky, you'd get a companion who could tell a tall tale and sing a good tune and didn't try to push you into the river
I laughed out loud when I "got" the error - a rope! What a great solution for a magnificent error. That writer must have had a fantastic sense of humor, somebody I would have liked to have known.
Yes, pondering that manuscript page is a great way to learn more about the medieval sense(s) of humor.
It's such a good image - I saved it for future laughs.
The British Library posted some men-beating-trees-to-feed-the-pigs illuminations on instagram a few days ago and it really struck me – these images seem so unremarkable in passing, but when you look at them while sitting by a window that looks out over a grizzled oak tree raining acorns over a bed of leaves...suddenly you're *there*. I imagine William and Richard were also much keener observers of nature than the average person today, which would have provided additional ongoing fodder for conversation! I notice this keenness in my toddler, who points out bugs on the ground and birds in the air that would have gone unnoticed in my periphery...he's mastered the art of medieval living far more than I!
Well said, there is a mysterious power in these seemingly simple manuscript illustrations, and I do think that children naturally have a more "medieval" spirit, which they unfortunately tend to un-learn as they progress through the stages of modern society.
Love the typo!! Nice to know some things don't change for writers. Also love the thoughts on conversation. Never to bore. (Hope you are feeling better.)
I enjoyed this: finding the errors and how they corrected them! And conversations for the sake of conversations!!
Oh, the other thing I noticed with the other manuscript error: it looks like St Andrew is actually scowling at the mistake!