Increasing respect for this guy. Forgive me but I need to have a brief rant. GOING MEDIEVAL is now, at last, available on dvd in the UK. I am pleased for that. However why is that the designers of dvd covers never so much as glance at the programme featured on the disc? The cover of this dvd is the antithesis of everything the programme is about. With its washed out colours and grey forboding skies it evokes the nonsensical ‘medieval’ fantasy worlds of popular drama. Such dramas are ostensibly set in a quasi-medieval world but in fact are located in the realms of the imagination, in dreamscapes, worlds from which the colour has drained and there is the omnipresent threat of dark forces (and crows). Such fantasy worlds have always been a part of fiction – they were equally popular during the actual middle ages. HOWEVER this programme, my programme, is not about these fantasy worlds - it is about the middle ages as an actual historical period. Moreover, in the programme, I place great emphasis on the fact that, in reality, the medieval world was a world full of bright colour! The tagline on the cover is ‘Get Hands On With A Thousand Years of History’. Now it would be true to say that, technically, the middle ages spans from the end of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century to the Renaissance at the end of the 15th century. It was the bit between these two well-defined epochs – the ‘middle’ ages (as noted in a post the other day, the so-called dark ages refer to the earlier medieval period, during which the written record is more scarce; hence later scholars were more ‘in the dark’ about it.) HOWEVER ‘Going Medieval’ focuses almost exclusively on what is, to my mind, the high point of the middle ages in the 14th century. There are a few earlier and later references but for the most part it confines itself to a 100 years of history, not the over-arching 1,000 years as announced on the cover. I appreciate that the knight is an enduring emblem of the medieval period and there is a section about knights in the programme but if you are going to put a knight on the cover, he should at least look like an authentic medieval knight. The sights (vison slit) on that 13th century style helm are preposterously wide, offering no defence against either lance or sword. Such images are sloppy. The copywriter who produced the blurb for the back has done little better. It states “It is a distinct period in time that conjures up images of knights on horseback, castles, combat and chainmail…” I understand the urge to alliterate – I am myself a compulsive alliterator – HOWEVER ‘chainmail’ is a defunct term. I have spoken of it many times on tv and there is no reference to ‘chainmail’ in this programme. The word is ‘mail’! Chains are formed of linkages of single rings. Mail is an intricate web of rings. The word chainmail was coined by Victorian writers, it is not a medieval term. It is most definitely not a term used by arms and armour aficionados. Why do I care about any of this? I am very happy with the programme itself. The executives at the channel and the production company were hugely supportive in the making of the show and encouraged me to give my personal take and to report the reality of the period. I applaud them for that at a time when there is such a clamour for the stereotypical ‘fantasy’ middle ages. However I find this dvd cover deeply annoying because it misrepresents the content – it deceives. Because I wrote and presented the programme, I am by implication complicit in this deceit. I apologize for that but unfortunately I have no control over such things. As a final flourish, pouring salt into the wound, the text states, “From living, working and fighting to how to keep a knight’s armour shiny using a vigorous rub of sand, vinegar and urine…” This is not something that is mentioned in the programme! I suspect that using these ingredients formed into a paste would produce a very useful abrasive mixture, though I am not familiar with this as an exact formula from original sources (though it may be). Certainly barrels of sand were used to roll coats of mail in to clean them. Sticks, covered in glue, were rolled in various grades of sand to make polishing tools. Vinegar, as a mild acid, and the ammonia from urine are both useful chemicals for cleaning duties. HOWEVER the point is that none of this is in the programme. If you haven’t already seen this programme, do buy this and take a look and please don’t be misled or put off by the cover.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 17:53:28 +0000
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