October- December 2020 - Middle Ages Plus Vikings

In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery.



Books listed in LT tagged as medieval can be seen here: https://www.librarything.com/tag/medieval

Please update the wiki with your books: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Reading_Through_Time_Quarterly_Theme_Rea...

I am planning on reading Bracelet of Bones a Viking adventure story by Kevin Crossley-Holland.

I've had What Life Was Like: In the Age of Chivalry : Medieval Europe Ad 800-1500 on my shelf for more than a few years so now is a great opportunity to read it!

I will be reading The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson.

I hope to read as well, but we’ll see, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman.

So many fantastic possibilities in this time period!

I've opened a thread here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/324978 for us to discuss our plans for next year's Reading Through Time. Please come by and give us your views.

Oh my, probably my fav time period to read about!! I second Distant Mirrors, as well as anything written by Sharon Kay Penman tho might want to start with the welsh trilogy first Here be dragons

Also anything by Elizabeth Chadwick start with The Greatest Knight

The Journeyer is a very interesting take on the journey of Marco Polo.

Im trying to pick a book about the same time period, thats not in Europe. Need to check my shelves.

nvm double post

The Maurice Druon series The Accursed Kings take place in this time period. I've read 4/7 books and they are fanastic. The setting is medieval France.

With 2021 on the horizon we are once again looking for hosts. Please come by and volunteer.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/324978

I read Great Tales from English History: The Truth About King Arthur, Lady… This isn't the book I meant to pick up and read and I think at least 50% of it was not in the time period, but I don't have time to read another right now. I might get to something more Medieval later on in the quarter. I liked the chapters on The Plague, Tyndale, and Ethelred. 272 pages 3 stars (many grammar and punctuation errors).

I have two books that are reproductions of paintings and illuminated manuscripts that really stand out to me One is A Medieval Miscellany and The Tres Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry The latter has a fascinating story of being lost found and lost again and recovered. Both are beautiful to look at as well as interesting to read for for typical life of this time period.

Books about women of the time period that I think quite interesting:

The Book of the City of Ladies was written in the late 1300s -Early 1400s And is quite readable now

The woman who defied kings This true story was later made popular by Jacqueline Park in her novel The Secret Book of Grazia dei Rossi

I have completed my read of Bracelet of Bones by Kevin Crossley-Holland. This is a YA story set in 1036 about a young woman who travels from Norway to Constantinople to join her father who is part of the Viking guard of Empress Zoe. I was expecting a exciting adventure novel but unfortunately, it became more of an information dump.

>12 DeltaQueen50: Oh. I've got this one on deck, but may reconsider.

>13 MissWatson: You may get more out of it that I did, Birgit. It simply could be that I was too distracted by the U.S. election coverage on TV. I'll be interested in what you think of it.

>14 DeltaQueen50: It looks like a quick read, at least. Stay tuned.

BTW, I've worked on the wiki and updated the quarterly stuff, including putting up there the 2021 planned reads for all 4 quarters.

>16 majkia: Thank you so much!

Arghh, Matey. I've got some Viking lore to get to, and maybe I'll get to it in December (or else save it for Tess's Arghh, Matey theme in March). But to move myself along on this quarter's reading, I did a quick one of Jean Anouilh's Becket (5*****).

Of course I've seen the movie – more than once, but it's been years now. I may give it a rewatch for my favorite O'Toole performance (definitely preferring his Becket Henry to that of The Lion in Winter, and I think he played off a lot better against Burton than he did Hepburn). O'Toole should have had an Oscar for Becket, but of course he was in competition with Burton and the two split their votes. Not to mention that it was a pre-Stonewall era, and I do wonder if the limp-wristed portrayal of Henry (consistent on O'Toole's part with Anouilh's portrayal in the play) turned off some Academy voters.

My Becket edition (ppbk 9-781573-225083) has a nice little Forward by André Aciman.

January-March 2021 thread is up: http://www.librarything.com/topic/327112

My second reading for this quarter's time period: Neil Price's Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings. 5***** for the author's achievement; but personally, considering that my primary interest is literary, it was way too archaeological in its emphasis. If, though, your interests do turn toward detailed descriptions of funerary objects and the like, then definitely read this one.

I enjoyed this quarter's reads:

The Last Kingdom, Bernard Cornwell, Viking, 9th c
The Pale Horseman, Bernard Cornwell, Viking, 9th c
The Lords of the North, Bernard Cornwell, Viking, 9th c
Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott, 1194
A Burnable Book, Bruce Holsinger, 1385
The Scribe of Siena, Melodie Winawer, 14th c
The Iron King, Maurice Druon, 14th c

I’ve been falling down a bit in meeting the quarterly challenges. This time I was determined to meet the last challenge of 2020 and made my way through Vikings, a nonfiction history of these northerners and their affect on the peoples that they were in contact with.

I totally forgot to post here that I finished Alles Mythos! 20 populäre Irrtümer über die Wikinger some time back. But I did post it in the wiki.

And I also a couple weeks ago finished The Wake: A Novel by Paul Kingsnorth, which I just posted in the wiki. 3***. Not bad, but it was a gimicky use of "archaic" language that actually in no way approiximated Old English.

I just finished two Viking books, one I started reading in December. Can I still post them for the Oct-Dec 2020 quarterly read or is that cheating?

No hard and fast rules! Go for it!

I just finished The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson, which I began in December. The story tells of Red Orm and his adventures in a straightforward type of writing style, narrative and dialogue. The style reminded me of Jane Smiley’s book, The Greenlanders, which I absolutely loved.

Looking forward to the last book in Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon/Last Kingdom series. His books are told in the first person and are much more graphically violent than The Long Ships. Great stories all.