Carol’s Comments (group member since Jun 05, 2013)

Carol’s comments from the Ask Carol McGrath group.

Actually she advised me on some of the research I integrated into The Handfasted Wife. Henrietta is an Oxford academic. She teaches at St Peters. Her book is highly regarded and really accessible and it goes into the period you asked about. There is one you can put on a kindle and I think it is a paperback, penguin possibly, Medieval Writings on Secular Women. It is an interesting source collection explained by various writers.

I love the Jorvik centre and also there is one in Dublin which I visited prior to writing about Dublinia in The Handfasted Wife. The museum in Dublin is good on Viking Dublinia as well.

It really is a great picture, Paula. To think it was silk!

Have a look at Henrietta Leyser's book Medieval Women. It is not a period I have investigated in detail. From This book you will discover others as her end notes are good.

Oh I see, gosh, no idea. Apologies if that showed up on your emails as many repeats. How peculiar. Duke William's revenge perhaps.

Interestingly there is much on early nuns in A Swarming of Bees which I have just added to the bookshelf as I am currently reading this novel. In The Handfasted Wife Elditha visits a nunnery where she works on embroidery. This connects with The Bayeux Tapestry. Wilton was an important Abbey in Wessex. It had a nunnery, embroidery workshops and many young noble women were sent there during 11thC for their education. Edith Godwinsdatter wife of King Edward, sister to Harold learned languages, to read , write and her embroidery was the best in England during her lifetime. This is an interesting fact concerning noblewomen which I emphasise in the novel. Daughters of aristocrats did get educated. After the Battle of Hastings many wives and daughters who lost their English fathers or husbands retreated behind abbey walls since there they were safe. William had a policy that operated on the aristocratic level, marry with the enemy. He did after all consider himself the lawful king of England.

Of course some one else said that. Will get it. Could you describe for us their clothing and maybe a brief account of their day. And we're these nunneries built of stone or were they hall like in Saxon tradition? Wood.

Now my turn to ask a question. Who has information on 11thC nunneries?

The reference is St Dunstane in the AS Chronicle in the 10th c I believe. I was think of Wulfhere too as I thought of the bower hall and the life in that hall was superbly depicted in Sons of the Wolf.

Hi Liz et all, The bower hall was usually a separate hall within an Anglo-Saxon complex of hall buildings occupied by women. It became the solar in Norman times and then was incorporated within the later castle or manor house. There women sewed, occupied themselves with spinning, and weaving and it also was a social space. It was truly a woman's world. I can imagine the buzz of conversations, the music, the dancing that might occur there. The Bower is my favourite location within the hall or, by the end of the 11thC, within a castle, though I suspect that change to a solar was gradual. I use this space in The Handfasted Wife in many of the locations , in the palace complex of Westminster, the estate at Reredfelle and in Gytha's palace at Exeter. Anglo-Saxon embroidery was valued throughout Europe in the 11thC and thus this was an important occupation within the bower halls of 11thC England. I am sure there is much more to say on this topic and would love to open it up to discussion.

The Norweigian might be fun.

Actually, the sources, primary ones are not necessarily what really happened. The Tapestry is an amalgamation of The Carmen and Poitiers. This is what Barlow goes into great length about in his notes in the back of his translation of The Carmen. I think though we can safely say that Harold took a wound to his leg, thigh possibly at Stamford but positivity is difficult.

That too is a great story.

I think they are one and the same. It is mentioned in a few sources I have at home.

It is mentioned in quite a few secondary sources and if you look in Harriet Harvey-wood you might get the primary source. I am here in the Mani without my library. I shall look in July. Not in Barlow . Could be mythical like so much else. I shall try to put Harriet's book on the bookshelf. It is a paperback.

Have you seen the post on navigation? That is a great topic too.

The Normans were of Viking descent and they had an innate understanding of navigation. With the introduction of pomigentature in 11thC they needed to expand their territories and as a consequence travelled overland to Sothern Italy and established Norman states there and in Sicily in the mid 11 th C. They used familiar landscape features if travelling by land. Early maps were lists of places usually a castle, mountain pass, church. Sea navigation - they used longships designed for speed and agility. These were equipped with oars as well as sails making it possible to navigate independently of the wind. Their long narrow hulls made it possible to land easily on beaches eg Pevensey. Kars were merchant ships with a broader hull and deeper draft and less oarsmen. A spar mounted on the sail allowed them to travel against the wind. At this time Normans and Anglo-Saxons navigated using the sun, moon and stars especially the pole star. They did not, to my knowledge, have instruments but they could smell land on a foggy night, have a feel for the currents and depth. Winds played a part in this ability to navigate.

Now, does anyone else have any knowledge on this subject and can add or disagree here? I would love to know more.

I did research tower houses on google. I think there are articles n their construction in Ireland and in Scotland. Walter Scott has one in his novel The Bride of Lammermoor. It is very gothic. But it too went back centuries. It is a bit like the Maniot Towers here in southern Greece. I think the upstairs was fortified as a last stand against attack and also the family lived up there. They could see all around. As for the vault, I think it could be a safe room, the place of last retreat or where valuables were stored as well.

I am researching Domesday Book right now. It was accompanied by a period of famine and terrible weather. It was ruthless. Also in 1085 King William billeted mercenaries on the tenants in chief. This meant Castle Richmond too. They suffered much up there. The survey was military in that he needed a geld tax so he could feed his armies, as well as other reasons such as control and establishing fiscal control and legal control over England. Dramatising the surveyors in my new novel is great fun. They are not nice people.

Can you put it on our bookshelf or should I do this if it shows up. I shall get this for sure. Thank you. Fabulous.