There are many myths about the Middle Ages, the main two are that everyone was illiterate, and nobody washed.
Check it out.
I think the “clergy use a mace” thing is mostly propagated from D’nD, myself, even if it originates in the Bayeux. There, it’s some pathetic attempt at game balance.
The height of the Greek and then Roman civilizations (and then the Byzantine and Arab ones) there were very large cities, and for the most part a large empire policed by a large army. It was safe to travel, scholars, scientists and architects managed to travel easily from city to city and exchange learning. Heck - there was enough riches to support a learned class. Rich rulers financed huge public works requiring significant engineering. The only thing medieval europe had to compare to that was the cathedral building. their learned class were generally clergy who either holed up in monasteries or were in the courts of the few nobles who could afford to support this class of person.
The exchange of learning was hampered in these ways - travel was dangerous, trade was slow and difficult, there was not a lot of money to pay people to be leisure class educators.
Take a simple concept like “unwashed”. When every bucket had to be cranked out of the well by hand, when every piece of wood to heat it had to be chopped by hand, when buildings lacked insulation but were heated by inefficient fireplaces - was it any surprise that bathing might become a seasonal occurence? When the barbarians laid seige to Roman towns, one of the things they tended to do was Vandalize the aqueducts. In an age where everything was in a state of war, it was difficult to mantain large public structures like waterworks.
The same goes for disseminating knowledge. The monasteries got by with taking 10% from the locals, and using their own inhabitants for essentially slave labour, to allow them to copy and store old manuscripts instead of putting up a few nobles with the good life. They didn’t distribute them widely because not too many people could afford to send someone there to copy a manuscript for the sole purpose of attempting to transport it to a remote destination. They weren’t lending libraries, they were treasures of knowledge.
Lee Modesitt, a F&SF author originally trained as an economist, has an interesting take on the middle ages. He says most faux-medieval fantasy novels seem to think people travel with a gold American Express card. the problem is, absent a strong empire (lacking in most mediveal times) the woods were full of highwaymen, the towns not much better. To travel a few hundred miles, a knight would need a large wad of silver coins. One knight, no matter how magic the sword, is no match for a dozen guys in green tights with big bows. So you need to travel with a large company of men for defence. (Hence the large caravans of the Silk Road to China). This just raises the stakes, until any serious travel requires a small chest of gold so the boss and his minions can afford to pay their way from one end of England to the other, with a force big enough to intimidate any gang of robbers. This is expensive, so travel was of course limited.
People also tend to think of distances in terms of cars. One time we were with our mountaineering group, with snow up to mid-thigh, my brother said “next time… the table-RPG guys… complain about ‘only 20 miles in one day’… I’m fucking making it snow on them! They’ll wish they had traveled 20 miles!” Horses sometimes do get unsaddled, but they never tire and if they have any kind of medical problem it’s a plot twist.
The Road(s) to Santiago used to be mostly by sea until the kings of the early Middle Ages made it a point to build a “highway” of sorts and get it populated, build hospitals, bridges, get inns… until it was easier and safer to travel by land than by sea. There are lots of “Queen’s Bridges” and “King’s Hospitals” (which were both hospital and hostel, back then) between Jaca and Compostela.
There were some descriptions which certainly wouldn’t have been vanilla when I was growing up bangs walker against floor. But then, I’m the kind of person who thinks that “After a while, the bed went SPROING” (paraphrased from memory) is the best sex scene ever and don’t understand why so many writers stick sex scenes in novels where they’re about as relevant as the birds singing out of my window right now. There’s people who think Little Women would be better if it had Jo giving Professor Baher a blowjob in the middle of the kitchen; or better yet, Mr Brooke*.
Thanks for the answer.
- Whether Mr Brooke should be giving Professor Baher a BJ or receiving one from his sister-in-law is an exercise left to the reader.
Again, check my link in post #3 - this is rubbish. Medieval people bathed lots. Bathhouses were ubiquitous.
And you wouldn’t use well-water for bathing - that’s what river water is for. Assuming you don’t just have hot springs (look at all the towns named Bad in Germany).