<![CDATA[the Middle Ages for Middle Graders - Blog]]>Fri, 29 Nov 2024 15:56:40 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[On Titles]]>Wed, 27 Nov 2024 14:16:40 GMThttps://www.middleagesmiddlegraders.com/blog/on-titlesSo far in writing this novel, I've been through nine full drafts and a handful of titles. My original title was The Pilgrim in Chains. Not that great, I agree. Later, I came up with The Pilgrim in the Garden. Then, one day, I decided to break up my original novel and make it three stories, the first of which would be about Deotila. That was the beginning of a few Deotila titles, one of them being Deotila and the Moon Lizard. Bear with me: it's still a work in progress!
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]]><![CDATA[On Writing]]>Fri, 21 Jan 2022 19:50:03 GMThttps://www.middleagesmiddlegraders.com/blog/on-writingPicture
I never thought I would be writing a novel! Writing fiction, as I have found out, takes time. The main thing I have learned so far is to be patient. I finished my first draft of “Deotila and the Moon Lizard” seven years ago, in 2015. As you can see from the image on the left, I wrote the entire novel out by hand. Seven years later, I am on my seventh draft of the same novel!
​          It takes time to create a story world. It takes time to find the heart of the story. And it takes time to learn the fine art of storytelling.
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​The other thing I’ve learned about writing fiction is the helpfulness of others. Whether it’s colleagues and teachers in writings groups or literary agents who rejected my queries, everyone has taught me something. I’ve even learned a thing or two from fellow artists on Instagram. The drawing you see here I made seven years ago for the first draft of “Deotila and the Moon Lizard.” 
]]><![CDATA[On names of characters]]>Wed, 14 Jul 2021 19:23:37 GMThttps://www.middleagesmiddlegraders.com/blog/on-names-of-characters
​Some of my novel's characters are based on historical figures.  Emperor Charlemagne, for example, is mentioned often although he never makes an appearance.  One of my main characters is based on Kenelm prince of Mercia, a prince who left the courtly life to become a monk.  Kenelm is still celebrated today in England as a saint, and his shrine is in the old church at Winchcombe shown here.
While most of the characters in my novel are fictional, their names are based on those used in medieval times.  Take Gesta, for example, the older sister of the main character Deotila. Although not as common as late medieval names like Gertrude or Genevieve, “Gesta” was sometimes used for girls in the early Middle Ages.  Because it is the plural Latin word for “deeds,” I chose the name Gesta for that character’s bravery and strength. 
]]><![CDATA[On place names]]>Wed, 31 Mar 2021 14:57:09 GMThttps://www.middleagesmiddlegraders.com/blog/on-place-names
Let’s return to historical fiction v. fantasy and explore the topic of place names. A place name can really help you enter that “once upon a time.”  In fantasy novels, place names are made up by the author.  In the Lord of the Rings series, place names like Mordor and Rohan sound vaguely Anglo-Saxon. Middle Earth even looks a little like the southwest coastline of England.  But these places and their names are all made up.
​In an historical novel, however, it’s the writer’s job to use places that actually existed. Take Septimania, where my own middle-grade novel takes place around 800 C.E.  A province of the Frankish Empire, Septimania was a crucial stepping stone to outside territories like Carthago across the Mediterranean.  For most Franks, the Mediterranean was simply known as “the Big Sea” because it was the biggest body of water they had ever seen. 
​Septimania still exists today. It is known as the Aude department in southern France.  Still today, you can visit what were once Septimania’s two main cities during the Middle Ages: the fortress of Carcassonne and the town of Narbonne, mentioned more than once in my novel.  Here is a picture that I took at Carcassonne almost three decades ago…
]]><![CDATA[Let’s not badmouth the Middle Ages]]>Thu, 25 Mar 2021 18:35:24 GMThttps://www.middleagesmiddlegraders.com/blog/lets-not-badmouth-the-middle-ages​Many of us use the term “Middle Ages” without giving it a second thought.  Where did this weird expression “Middle Ages” come from?

Interestingly, people during the Middle Ages never referred to their time as “the Middle Ages.”  You can understand why.  The expression implies a time period that didn’t quite make the grade. 
Middle Ages!  It would be like people centuries from now referring to our time as the Primitive Internet Period or the Icky Eats Epoch. 

It was only after the Middle Ages ended that people during the Renaissance period came up with the label “Middle Ages.”  Many during the Renaissance believed that Classical Antiquity was superior to the period that had come just before them, and so they called that period the Middle Ages. 

To help you picture the three time periods we’ve been thinking about, I have drawn a time line.  Whereas Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages lasted roughly the same amount of time, the Renaissance whizzed by in a little over a hundred years.
 
____________________|_________________________|____
ANTIQUITY                             MIDDLE AGES              Renaissance
 
And that’s how the belittling moniker “Middle Ages” came into existence!  Thankfully, nowadays we look a little less disparagingly on the Middle Ages than people did during the Renaissance.  We now know that the Middle Ages weren’t that “middling.”  In fact, a lot of important developments happened during the Middle Ages, from mechanical clocks to multi-voice musical compositions.
 
QUIZ #2
To help you think some more about this, I have listed three people below, one each from Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.  Which one of the three lived during the Middle Ages? 

  1. Agrippa von Nettesheim
  2. Hildegard von Bingen
  3. Marcus Vispanius Agrippa
 
For the correct answer, click on this button:
Answer
]]><![CDATA[Historical fiction v. fantasy]]>Tue, 16 Mar 2021 19:03:35 GMThttps://www.middleagesmiddlegraders.com/blog/historical-fiction-v-fantasyYou might be wondering what I mean by a novel “set in the Middle Ages.”  A novel that is set in the Middle Ages falls into the category of historical fiction, distinct from fantasy.

Many fantasy novels are inspired by the Middle Ages, a period of European history that lasted from around 500 to 1500 C.E.—or A.D., if you’re feeling old-fashioned. 

Take the famous Harry Potter stories, for example, by acclaimed author J.K. Rowling.  A lot in Harry’s world feels medieval, like the Hogwarts castle with its wizards and goblins.  Even the spells at Hogwarts sound a lot like Latin, which was the international language used during the Middle Ages.  Don’t be deceived by Rowling’s incredible story-telling, however!  Hogwarts and all of its characters are entirely made-up.  This is a work of fantasy.

Other fantasy stories sound a little more medieval, like Cressida Cowell’s How to Train Your Dragon series or J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novels, both of which became hit movies.  Yet here again, both the characters and settings of these stories are completely fictional.  I’m sorry to report that Hiccup Horrendous Haddock never existed; neither did Middle Earth or the Third Age!

A story that is set in the Middle Ages, on the other hand, uses a real medieval time and place.  This is historical fiction.

A good example of historical fiction is Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman.  While the main character Catherine never existed—that we know of—Catherine’s place and time did: central England of the late 1200s (near the end of the Middle Ages).  So did quite a few of the secondary characters in Catherine, Called Birdy, like Dewi of Wales or Gilbert of Lincolnshire.

Comment: What are some medieval novels that you've read in the historical fiction category?  How about some fantasy ones?

QUIZ #1
To help you think some more about this, here are three expressions that sound medieval from three different novels.  Can you tell which one of the three was actually spoken in the Middle Ages? 
1. Faeder ure
2. Expelliarmus
3. Khazad aimenu
 
For the correct answer, click on the button below:
answer
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