So, recently I saw a short of a dude jumping into the pool with different weights on a weight belt and trying to swim up. He got all the way up to 15kg and he couldn't swim to the surface, at all. That had made me remember that knight's training involved swimming in bodies of water with their armor on that could have reached up to 20 kilos of weight. Kind of insane to think of how strong the knights must have been back then to be able to do this kind of training.

Books of hours structured a person’s day around set hours. I borrowed that idea for everyday planning: Roman-numeral hours, a seven-day “sennight,” a page of vows and a commonplace book.

It’s inspired by the genre and isn’t a reproduction. I’m a designer, not a historian, so I’d like to know what a real book of hours had that I could add, such as a calendar of feasts, marginal drawings or a particular border style. And what looks wrong?

A tattoo artist's flash style print of a set of odd marginalia fellows. I'm particularly happy with the skeleton florist, the walking fish, and the human radish.

Medieval Knight in 3D made by me
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ndd054

Structure relatively "quick" to make that you would not care about leaving behind like how trenches would be abandoned as your side was able to advance. I would say seige camps, but those often turn into pure forts with literal food markets over time so they dont count.

I am not too worried timeline wise, early renaissance is fine too.

I am not too fussed about how the information is presented, be it book, article, or video.

I'm making a card game inspired by marginalia and the medieval era in general, and right now I'm tightening up the events on the map.

So far I've got generic dice roll stuff (chests, crates), one very enthusiastic barber (especially about the cutting and bleeding part), and a little KCD reference.

Already planning a pig trial, falaise 1386, pig in clothes and all. What else would you add? Superstitions, weird laws, history, strange jobs, anything odd that actually happened.

Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, was pacing around a field in southern England on Sunday, giving a thunderous speech to energize his troops before a battle against the forces of William the Conqueror, the Norman invader who was trying to steal his throne.

“People of England,” Godwinson bellowed, “I ask for you to believe in me, believe in our England!”

If they did, Godwinson added, history would remember them as the heroes who “drove the Norman dogs back into the sea whence they came.”

As Godwinson’s rousing speech reached its climax, the bearded king punched the air in celebration, and, like a rowdy sports crowd, the dozens of onlookers chanted his name. “God-win-son! God-win-son!”

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It's episode 19 of The Cartoon Chronicles of the Wars of the Roses, and the brown stuff is starting to hit the fan for the Lords Appellant... Read all previous episodes for free at warsoftherosescomic.com

When I talk about the world, there are a few things I want to clarify. I'm mostly interested in how people would react to modern alliances and national borders.

For example, how would people in the Middle Ages feel about France and England, two kingdoms that were often at each other's throats, now being friends and allies with two massive Empire's. What would they think of France having such a large empire while being a republic rather than a monarchy?

And what about Germany? In 1914, Germany was a unified country, but its territory was only a portion of what had once been the Holy Roman Empire. How would medieval people react to seeing Germany as a unified nation rather than a collection of smaller kingdoms and territories?

I'm sure there are plenty of other interesting things for people from the Middle Ages to discover about the modern world, but these are the main things I'd like to explore.

I’m absolutely baffled by how specific the Lex Frisionum gets
I’ve been reading about the Lex Frisionum, an early medieval law code associated with Frisia (roughly the coastal regions of today’s Netherlands and northwestern Germany), and I’m fascinated by just how detailed it gets.

There are rules for all sorts of injuries, with different monetary fines depending on exactly what you did to someone. Even facial injuries could be distinguished by location: the upper forehead versus the lower forehead, for example. Apparently, in early medieval Frisia, where you hit someone mattered quite literally in terms of compensation.
The text also reflects a society with a strict social hierarchy, in which the amount owed for an injury could depend on whether the victim was noble, free or semi-free.
The Lex Frisionum was written down in the late 8th century, around the time Charlemagne was incorporating Frisian territories into the Frankish realm. It also preserves traces of religious customs that predated Christianisation, which makes me wonder how much older tradition survived in a text recorded in this particular political context. For instance, sacrilege: the highest punishment was for a person who violated a sanctuary, they were sentenced to death as a sacrifice to the god whose sanctuary was destroyed/stolen from.
The offender was tied to the beach at low tide, then drowned as the water rose.

I came across it while visiting the Redbad-exhibition at the Fries Museum in the Netherlands, and now I have far too many questions about this law code. Very interesting times, early medieval Frisia. And the archeology in the exhibition is breathtaking..
Are there any other law-texts from this same medieval period from other societies that are also so detailed?

A few odd fellows with no common theme. Just threw them all together like a tattoo artist's flash.

Hello, can anyone here help me by giving a breakdown of how to estimate what century of the middle ages a peasant village house, manor house, or town house might be from based on its construction? Pictures would be greatly appreciated. I am particularly interested in telling the difference between 12th and 13th century houses vs Late Medieval and pre-1066. This is for an art project and I am trying to find references I can know are historically accurate.

Long story short, I’m a jazz bassist and guitarist, and I recently got hired to play medieval songs with some improvisation, on mandolin and voice. The catch is that I don't really play mandolin nor I'm a singer. Today my client told me the music was great, but it lacked the vibe of a bard playing in a tavern. Honestly, they’re right. I caught the musical style but not really the performance side.

I’d like to hear how you bring that storytelling feel to a performance, whether it’s how you talk to the crowd, how you move, or how you sing when you don’t have a big trained voice. on the side of the music, I’m comfortable with modes and improvising, but I think there’s a rhythmic feel that I’m missing specially when strumming.

On the repertoire side, I’d really appreciate pointers to songs that I should know when playing medieval stuff. I know there’s a gap between historically medieval pieces and the fantasy stuff people expect from games, my client really likes video games like The Witcher, and I’m not sure where to focus. Any recordings, channels, or books for someone starting from scratch would be amazing too.

Thanks, any advice would be really appreciated since I just have a month to do it.

so long story short, im working on designing weapon types for my fantasy/scifi setting which i like to keep in the realm of practicality and plausibility. that being said while doing research, ive gotten an idea for a type of warhammer but i wanna make sure i get the details right in how the head of it is designed and its key features/reasons for them being designed that way.

ive seen a lot of different types of hammers in games and different designs, some just being a straight up flat face sledgehammer, some having a more concave look to the face, some having a spike, etc etc...

im trying to figure out the different ideas behind these designs but its rather difficult. especially given that searching up 'warhammer' online doesn't exactly point you in the direction of the medieval weapon but instead the tabletop game.

all that being said, anyone more knowledgeable able to explain the design philosophies behind the different faces of a warhammer?

Alexander the Great (Alexandre le Grand) reached far beyond the confines of historical biography, emerging as one of the most versatile and ubiquitous figures in medieval Western European literature. The legendary narratives that coalesced around him after his death preserved more than just his military victories; they captured a life reframed by supernatural encounters, explorations of uncharted lands, famed intellect, open-handed generosity, and an unyielding drive to test the boundaries of human knowledge.

Much of this literary tradition flows from the Alexander Romance attributed to Pseudo-Callisthenes, compiled in the early centuries of the Common Era. By Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, this narrative material entered Western Europe through key Latin adaptations: Julius Valerius’s Res Gestae Alexandri Macedonis, its ninth-century Epitome, and the widely circulated eleventh-century Historia de Preliis.

From the twelfth century onward, Alexander took on a distinctly contemporary resonance in Western vernaculars. No longer treated merely as an ancient ruler from the distant past, he was absorbed into the medieval framework of chivalry, courtly culture, political legitimacy, princely pedagogy, and Christian moralizing. As the historical Macedonian faded, a literary archetype took his place—one onto which medieval Europe could project its own ideals, anxieties, and political ambitions.

See also: The study as it was published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.

Five years ago, I decided to photograph an entire Tarot deck (78 cards) using a medium-format film camera.

Only real historical costumes, weapons, and jewelry. Only analog film. No digital manipulation, no compositing, no Photoshop.

That’s how the Amber Tarot project was born.We started looking for historical reenactment groups and reenactors who could help us bring these scenes to life.

Two reconstructed medieval villages, representing the 13th–14th centuries, joined the project and helped us recreate the atmosphere of the Tarot while making the weapons, clothing, and historical details feel as authentic as possible.The Five, Six, and Seven of Swords cards were actually photographed in a reconstructed medieval village, featuring its modern-day “inhabitants”.

And for the cards that were impossible to photograph in real locations, we built our own practical sets.For example, The Tower was a massive, several-meter-tall structure built from wood and foam, with real stunt performers jumping in front of it.

Everything you see in the cards was physically there, in front of the camera.

What do you think of a project like this?

I've loved illuminated manuscripts for years, so I tried building a planner around them. A few things I took from the real ones:

• Corner ornaments, like the little circles in the corners of old book pages
• The thin gold double border around each page
• Uncial lettering for the headings, which is the rounded script from early medieval books
• The wavy vine strip under each title, like the decorated bands in books of hours

The colours are lapis blue and parchment, since lapis and gold were the classic manuscript pairing.

The handwriting in the pictures is sample text so you can see it filled in. I made some layouts with some help from AI tools and checked and fixed everything by hand.

If you've seen a manuscript that would make a good planner page, tell me which one. I'm curious what other people would pick.