From Melissa Snell,
Your Guide to Medieval History.
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Perhaps it was a knight in shining armor, thundering up on a magnificent charger, wielding a blazing sword. Or maybe it was a mighty castle with banners snapping in the wind. Could it have been the image of a lady in a flowing gown and pointy hat, trailing veils behind her? Was it the jester in motley, the monk in his scriptorium, the peasant behind his plow? It may even have been a tale of King Arthur that drew you here.

Whatever attracts us to the Middle Ages, this dim and distant era holds an undeniable fascination for scholars and laymen alike. The romanticized images may soon give way to hard realities like the Inquisition and the Peasants' Revolt, yet even these heavier subjects rarely fail to intrigue. We cannot look at this era for long without wondering why the Crusades began, what it was like to live through the Black Death, or how a war could last one hundred years.

Because of this dichotomy of fantasy and fact, no other period of history holds quite the same attraction as the medieval. Certainly no other period has been quite so colorfully misrepresented, and perhaps none has been so frequently misunderstood. Often the Middle Ages are seen as a single, homogenous era that experienced little change in technology or daily life. But in truth, the medieval era spans more than a thousand years, during which time some of the most important developments in western society took place. And while the bulk of modern scholarship has concentrated on Western Europe and Britain, the influence of the Byzantine Empire, Islam, Africa, and various eastern societies on western culture must not be overlooked.

Encompassing as it does such a broad range of time and space, the Middle Ages offers an extensive variety of subjects to explore. Step into the medieval world and--

• visit a vanished village
• meet a warrior-king
• admire the art of the past
• learn to fence
• enjoy an epic poem
• tour a cathedral
• encounter a hero
• construct a lyre
• ponder the nature of God
• spend a day in a castle
• speak a forgotten language
• survive a fearsome battle
• set sail with Viking adventurers
• meet a Renaissance master
• explore a different worldview

--or set off on any one of a thousand journeys of discovery. The only limit is your curiosity.

So welcome to the Middle Ages! I think you'll like it here.