Tom Allen (7)

It’s rare that I read non-fiction books and actually enjoy them lately (or National Geographic magazines for that matter), but this book balanced the historical content with the authors’ exploration of the current medieval settings quite well. At times the personalized tone made it feel more like a travel memoir for history geeks than an actual historical tome, but this technique gives the reader a bit of a mental break from the topic. Having a more casual take on the subject actually works quite well in this case, since it still presents the historical facts within proper context but it allows the reader not to get stuck on too much technical detail or overweighty academic jargon (a serious issue with a lot of historical writers and academic historians). Clearly the book is a bit dated (references to the Soviet Union were quite amusing), but it still stands well within the oeuvre of National Geographic writing.

The book as a whole could have done with some improvement in terms of their maps - there were a few times when I found myself wanting a quick reference between medieval places names and modern locales, and the few maps that were included had backwards colouring (blue land, white ocean) - but the rest of the visual material worked quite well, I thought. Photos were matched carefully to the main text and included their own captions to further explain topics, and the painted images added a lot of much-needed visual stimulation. Most books on this topic tend to use live recreations, but I find that concept a bit trite, since obviously we don’t have photos from the Middle Ages and trying to recreate scenes just looks like glorified cosplay - which is great, but has no place in non-fiction books.… (mehr)

True to the tradition of Natl Geogr Society books, The Age of Chivalry has beautiful color illustrations on nearly every page. There's even a 16-page fold-out showing the entire Bayeux Tapestry! The story begins with the classic gigantic face of Constantine, the first Christian emperor in 324 AD founding his great city, Constantinople as the new Rome to replace what the barbarians were destroying. And from here, on we go through the history of the Byzantine empire and emperors such as Justinian to Carolus Magnus, Charlemagne in 800 AD. Most of our classic Latin literature came to us through Charlemagne's establishment of scriptoria where monks laboriously hand-copied the ancient texts--even inventing a new form of script called Carolingian minuscule. Although Christianity had spread considerably since the death of Jesus, the old pagan religions of the Vikings, the Celts and the Saxons still flourished. The days of the Anglo Saxons were numbered, however, and the year 1066 as we all know marked the beginning of their conquest as the Normans led by William of Poitiers poured into Britain. The battles and intrigues between Harold, the last Saxon king, and William of Normandy epitomized by the unique record of the Bayeux Tapestry have provided poets, minstrels and writers with songs and stories for centuries. Some 900 years ago in 1112 lived a monk who was destined to be one of the greatest shapers of the Middle Ages, Bernard of Clairvaux. His contemplative mind and need for discipline naturally led him to become a monk in the austere Cistercian order, started by St Benedict. But Bernard went on to spread the ideals of fruitful labor as a way of praising the God, founding many more monasteries. Now the book takes you into the realms of what most people think of as chivalry--the exploits of true-hearted knights and the pageants of medieval jousting and the court of the king. The authors of the various sections in this book traveled to France and England and other countries to see firsthand the places where Medieval events took place. Illustrated by the wonderful NatGeo photographers, we are treated to a visual narrative of this spirited era that would require many weeks of travel and expense to see. It serves as a wonderful historical document, but also as a guide to the places we may want to visit like the Cathedral of Chartres, Mont St Michel or Campostela.… (mehr)