Here is the latest response to our Back-in-Time Survey. Thank you Elin, for your reply.
If I was able to travel in time, I'd choose no specific time, place or person to go to. Though I'm interested in Leonardo da Vinci, who is my ideal for life (because of his interest for almost everything, the results that he came up with which were way ahead of his time and the "mastery" that he achieved in everything he did), I don't want to limit myself to extaordinary people. I'd like to find myself in some middle sized medieval castle, say in England, France, Germany or Ireland (the latter would be a little out-of-the-ordinary because of the celtic influences, but nevertheless interesting), and just experience every-day life, toils and joys.
I would pick the early 11th century, latest middle 12th, because in this time, there were no fire weapons, no industrialization (which started in the 13th century with spinning and weaving factories, also with new techniques used in architecture, which led to reduced building times, e.g. for churces, and so on) and a very natural way of dealing with religion. In later times (in Germany, for example, beginning around 1250, there was a tendency to religious fanatism, which resulted in a lot of books telling women how to behave and the first burings of witches). Before that time, women could be doctors (even in high courts), masters in any craft, warriors (on horse, even on crusades) or jesters at court.
I believe that, through most of the medieval times, women were free to do what they wanted and were accepted for what they did as long as they seriously wished to be. They were accepted in any role they wanted to play, even in exceptional ones, as Leonore of Aquitaine proved.
Elin
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