Historical Fiction Fun: The Blue Door: 1191 A. D.

Did she really fall off the stupid horse? It felt like she had fallen off a rooftop.  Slowly, she got up off the ground.  It wasn’t the ground she was riding across a while ago. Something was different; the whole area was different. Thick trees, and lush grass surrounded her and it was dead quiet. 

 

“No. It couldn’t be…” She whispered to herself, as she slowly got up and brushed the grass and pine needles off her clothing.  She then remembered.  She had left the door open… and it was a full moon.  She spotted the warhorse a few yards over, happily grazing. She whistled to him and he came trotting up to her. 

“Well boy, where ever we are; we best go find someone who can find your master.” She said as she climbed up on him. She definitely wasn’t anywhere near home. Where, she did not know exactly yet. To her fascination, some how the stupid blue door still worked even with her just in her backyard. It bewildered her.

She found a path and diligently kept to it, yet the more they rode down it, the longer it seemed to go. Animals seemed to hop or leap out of nowhere as the trotted along. Her steed wasn’t even bothered. They came to a crossing in the road. There was a sign, she couldn’t read it. It was in a language very not familiar to her, she decided to go to the right, as the path looked more traveled that direction. Perhaps there was a town or something up above. She only hoped.

They rounded a bend in the road and she came upon a familiar sight.  A church. The church looked like the one in the village that she lived in or just moved to. But something about the little church was vaguely different. It was actually busy and it seemed a bit more new, or in much better keep. She rode the horse up to what looked like a hitching post and jumped off. She felt bad tying him by the reins, but that was all she had. She had always been told that was a no no in the back home in California… but she had nothing else to secure the horse with.  She hope he minded his manners. There were a few people tending the church garden, they all seemed to stop and do what they were doing once they saw her making her way towards the church. As she walked she studied their clothes and quiet quickly realized, this was not home, or time, or even close.  Most definitely the Middle Ages, actually quite early Middle Ages by looking at the gardeners clothes. There was nothing elaborate about their modest outfits and they actually seemed to look at her in fear. A thought raced across her mind, she soon dismissed it and kept walking to the big large wooden doors. 

She pushed open the doors, they were quiet heavy.  To her surprise there was a group of nun’s praying at the front of the church. She stopped in her footsteps in astonishment. One of the nuns stood up. Her clothing was a bit more regal than the rest. She spun around and dropped her rosary. 

“His Holiness, what have you brought to our church?” She looked Clarise up and down and gasped.

“A witch…” She gasped as she held her hand over her mouth in shock.

Clarise didn’t know what to say or do. She stood frozen in the isle. Just what she needed… to be called a witch and all she did was walk in to a church. But in modern clothing. This was going to be interesting. 

The head mistress or prioress swiftly grabbed Clarise by the arm and started to haul her out of the small church. Her grip was tight.

“Please, I am looking for someone…I am not a witch.” she said in slight panic, pleading with her accuser. 

“Witch or no witch dear, you are frightening my sisters and we must see to it. We have never seen the likes of you and it is quite out of the ordinary.” She said curtly.  Clarise wasn’t exactly thrilled.

“Where are you taking me? I am looking for someone; he left his horse at my cottage. Sir Mortimer... Ugh, let go of me!” Clarise stood her ground and pulled away from the prioress as hard as she could and fell backwards loosing her balance and falling to the hard stone floor.  The prioress stood still for a moment gazing down at her. 

“Sir Mortimer? How do you know him?  He is back from crusade?” She asked as Clarise slowly got up and faced her.

“Crusade? What crusade? Please don’t tell me… what year is it?” She asked out of curiosity.

“The year of our Lord 1191. The Pope has called crusade. Many have gone, many have not come back. This will be good news for his father. He has quite missed him. His dear wife died a few years back; he has been very lonely since.  Please follow me.” 

The prioress’s voice changed and was now more civil and a bit more welcoming. Clarise thought maybe she was in the clear and wasn’t going to be lynched, as she followed the prioress to the back of the church and down a small path, hidden from view from people passing by, to a small garden or courtyard. 

“Alright. I apologize for calling you a ‘witch.’ I had to get you out and away from the others as fast as I could. I know where you are from. There have been others like you, as well over time.  For at least as long as I can remember. There is magic in those woods you were in.  I am surprised Sir Mortimer, or as we all call him, Rowan found it. Otherwise, you would not be here. His parents always tried to keep him away from and out of those woods.  He would go there as a boy, I have always kept an eye out for him, as best as I could.  I know that is how he found you.  I know where you are from, as I came from your time as well.” She said softly as she sat down on a bench near by.

Clarise didn’t know what to say. She was in awe. 

“Your from my home, my time? How?” Clarise was taken by surprise.

“Your house has a portal. It has been around for as long as those stones have been laid on the foundation of your house.  It’s old Druid magic, dear.  I suggest you keep what I have told you to yourself. I have some peasant clothes that you can have, so you blend in or look more at home. Do not go to the village or the manor house like you are. Some will not take kindly to it. I also do not know how his lordship will act as well.” 

Clarise nodded her head and took the advice as a warning.  

“I need to take the horse back to Sir Mortimer. I am sure he misses him…” Clarise said as she turned towards the path wanting to go back and make sure her steed was still tied to the post. 

“I will help you take him back. Yet I am going to be honest with you; we might not be able to get you back home. Those that I have known, have ended up staying, as they can’t find the portal back or have nothing to take them back.” The prioress said as she placed her hand on Clarise’s shoulder.

Clarise put her hand in her pocket of her jeans. The key was there.

“But I have this? It’s the key to my door…” She said as she handed it to the prioress.

“Where did you get this? We all have heard tales that there was a key of sorts to the portal. But never have seen one until now.” The prioress studied the key that Clarise had with great interest. 

“This is a good thing. Keep it safe. This may eventually help you. How I do not know. But obviously you are closer to getting back to your home than the others.” Clarise wondered who “the others” were and how many had come to pass into this realm.

“The agent who sold me the house had it. It opens the door and locks it nothing else, but I think it is magic or something. It is not ordinary. Both times the portal worked was when it was a full moon and I used this key on the door. Even when Rowan left. I closed the door out of habit that night and he was gone the next morning. But the horse, stayed in my barn.”

“Poor steed was probably too far away for the magic to work and he got left behind.” The prioress followed.

“What did you do to go back to my time? Back home? I am a veterinarian for animals mainly horses. I am not sure what I am going to do here...” Clarise started, as panic and uncertainty started to seep in to her mind.

“Ah a doctor of sorts. I was a teacher. I used to help many in the village with schoolwork after school, as well as help run the school in the village.  Do you know if the school is still there? It would have been next to this church. It well looked many years older.” She asked, her eyes looking sad as she remembered her past life before, this one.

“I believe so… yes…” Clarise struggled to remember the town back in her time. She hadn’t lived there too long, maybe a few months before she bought the house.

“There are times, I miss where we are from, but then sometimes not. Things are simpler here you will see. Yet other times and most often, very harsh. Life is so much more fragile.” She continued.

What to watch: "Penny Dreadful"

The cast of "Penny Dreadful"

What began in the mid 1800^’s as stories which were intended for young men at a price of a penny, evolved into a spectacular cinematic display of gothic horror, which is where, “Penny Dreadful got it’s start. Showtime’s “Penny Dreadful” is a mind-sweeping and alluring tale of some pretty fascinating characters. Their stories delve into our imaginations, hearts, and souls as their lives unfold throughout the serious various episodes. 

The show takes the viewer back to Victorian London. The backdrop of the show evolves around the murders of Jack the Ripper, and other various tid bits of historical drama of the times. The center of the story evolves around Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) and Sir Malcolm Murray (Sir Timothy Dalton). The underlining story is one of heart break, yet a reality for many during this time. Forbidden love affairs and the impact of mental illness and its influence on spirituality and the supernatural unknown. This first season revolves around Vanessa’s demons and how she overcomes them to help Sir Malcolm with his mission to find out what happened to his daughter Mina.  Interestingly Mina is also the name of one of the main love of the vampire Dracula in folklore.

Additionally, the show, historically does a very good job of depicting how mental illnesses was treated during this time, and also how it was so misunderstood, both the supernatural and medical aspect nature of treatment is shown. The show also explores how sexual trauma can impact ones view on reality and ones around them. For Vanessa, it is all too real for her and perhaps the source of her illness.

But what is the story, the genre that “Penny Dreadful” falls into? Gothic horror.  The history of Gothic horror or romance grew its roots deep before Victorian society emerged to the forefront. It began with the works of Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, which combines genres of romanticism, fiction, and horror. It became the foundation of the literary genre that reached its height of popularity in the mid 18^th and 19^th centuries. Other authors such as Ann Radcliffe, the Bronte sisters, Mary Shelly, Edgar Alan Poe, and even Charles Dickens, were all gothic horror romance novelists who later help shape the genre to what we know of it today.

In examining Walpole’s 1764 novel in which the genre is attributed, it introduces into literary society something new. It held a host of new elements that were pleasing in sorts of terror, and held an extension of literary romance, which was relatively new to this period in which his novel was introduced. His novel also introduced parody and melodrama, also including self-parody. All are fundamental elements of all Gothic genres.

Most importantly, the term “Gothic” was applied to this new form of literature simply because these were the architectural style of the buildings in which the literature had its stories take place. They were the backdrops for these dramas to unfold.

After Walpole’s introduction of the genre in England, others followed. In France the genre was called “roman noir” and in Germany it was called “schauerroman.” Walpole’s overall intent was to combine elements of medieval literature, which in his mind it was too fanciful, and then with the modern novel. To him the modern novel was too strict and confining. The combination of the two is what he intended the story of The Castle of Otranto to be.

Walpole also introduced the basic structure for these novels. The basic plot introduced included a threatening mystery, an ancestral curse, many trappings or hidden passages (This is quite apparent in the later story of “Jane Eyre” by Emily Bronte.) and off fainting heroines. There also became a demand for romances with superstitious elements, that at times were void of “didactical intention.” Some argued that this had no place nor was it acceptable as a modern piece of literature.

Walpole’s novel is essential because even though named a forgery at one point, it was a story with history and fiction, that at times contradicted the main principles of the enlightenment. It also brought to light the relationship with “fake” documentation and folklore. Which were very recurrent themes in Gothic literature.

Eva Green as Vanessa Ives

Many influential authors helped shaped the genre. One was Ann Radcliffe. Her works introduced the basis of having a brooding gothic villain, whom later became the “Byronic hero.” Her stories also introduced a theme called “supernatural intrusion,” which eventually throughout the story, gets traced back to a natural cause, called “explained supernatural.” All her works became best-sellers despite the highly educated of society calling the works “sensational entertainment.”  She also provided an atheistic value for the genre with “On The Emphasis of Supernatural” which is poetic work. It examines the relationship and correlation between horror and terror in Gothic fiction.  Later, the genre was strengthened by many of the major romantic poets such as Poe, who made many contributions to the Gothic genre in terms of darkness and the unexplained.

Movie Review: "The Black Death"

When I first saw the previews for this flick, I was like... yeah this is dumb...according to my medieval expertise and nit-picky-ness.  But I evenutally ended up renting it off iTunes.  iTunes is awesome by the way for random stuff.. or Netflix.  Either way, not bad for the $6.99 I paid.  The show had some familiar faces: Sean Bean (Bordamir in LOTR and Ned Stark on Game of Thrones) and the actor who played Jack from "Pillars of the Earth" on Starz, Eddie Redmayne.

My opinion historically, to be honestly, some of the depiction seemed accurate, but I would have to review notes from past studies, to say wither it got a rotten tomato or not. But of course it is Hollywood, artistic license likes to be taken a lot. It was graphic.. kinda, but oh well. Costumes seem okay, not sure about the amour, it did seem a tad out of place. Remarkably though, the villages portrayed seemed very Anglo-Saxon. There is a historical reproduction of a settlement in East Anglia, that the villages reminded me of.

One thing that stood out were the masks worn by the individual's who buried the dead, and yes they did have the pointy nose bit on them. Historically speaking, why were they constructed like this? Reason behind it was that they wearer put herbs and posies in them to help filter out the smell and "protect" them from the pestilence.  The song "Ring around the rosey, pocket full of posies" has it's origin from a time when pestilence and plague were quite common in communities.  The idea though, pretty slick.. I guess for the medieval person yes.

Through out the film there are notations of witchcraft, necromancy etc.. Highlighting the still very strong pagan, or mystic belief systems of the medical era. Yet, when examining the education level of the average person back then, people believed what they saw, fact or not, real or unreal. For they had no other reason to not belief in the folk lore of the time. With the church and daily life painting many of times a dark picture, individuals turned to old beliefs to keep faith and hope in society going, a hope and will for survival, that the new gods could not bring.

My over all opinion: Redbox it and buy it when it gets cheap. It is a fun flick to watch, and if you are a history buff, perhaps buy.

Wheel of Fortuna

How was medeival society influenced by Fortuna's Wheel?

The relationship mysticism and its importance with in the belief system of Medieval society is a strong example of this. Fortune or Fortuna’s Wheel (Rota Fortunae) known by some is an ancient and medieval philosophy that refers to the constant changing nature of fate. It is a wheel that is owned and spun by Fortuna. It can change individual places on the wheel at random, thus determining their “fate.” They can have great misfortune, or be blessed with good. 

The wheel itself is depicted in many manuscripts both medieval and ancient and highly referenced in the medieval allegorical religious teachings of the time.

John Lydgate's Siege of Troy, showing the Wheel of Fortune

Fortuna Wheel's beginnings began in Ancient Greek mythology, as a celestial zodiac with 8 points, and the 9^th being the pointer.  It is referenced in the play Everyman c. 1495. In this play the wheel is known to play reference to the value placed on everyday things, and stress the “temporary” nature of them. Death comes of course unexpected to those who do bad deeds, there is emphasis placed on doing good deeds in order to secure a place in Heaven.

The emphasis of these philosophies and the strong religious teachings of the day more than likely were very prominent in the morals of many of the day. For many in the Middle Ages, this would have been more than likely a very important aspect of their beliefs and thought process.  To many this piety, and loyalty show the value placed on morality and to keep in mind the teachings both allegorical and religious of the day in thought and decision making process. 

Unfortunately, as history rolls on, many were not completely in control of what was to come next in life. Plagues and famine and poor crop production, were seen as signs of poor fate that directly came from the Wheel of Fortuna and influenced the basic belief system of the time.

First edit of book cover!

Tossing this out for feed back and suggestions. Just comment below to let me know what you think, I need to change etc. Very much appreciated! Thank you readers! 

Shakespeare in Love, in London, on Stage, it’s beyond words.

Shakespeare in Love, is really just Love!

Yes, it’s exactly like that! I was fortunate enough this summer to be able to spend some time in London and see this fabulous show. Co-produced by Disney, the show leaves nothing lacking, and I mean nothing, even after 48 hours or so of no sleep, as I arrived in London earlier that day.

It has been a while since the movie was made which the stage production is based off of.  The original even won a few Oscars. The production I saw that night of Saturday, August 23, was one of a magical experience and one I will never forget.  As the reviews say, it is the “Best!” and they are right!

Before the show I spent some sterling to support the show and bought my book, program, and my “Romeo and Ethel, the Pirates Daughter” T-shirt. All very well done and treasured.  I was able to take a few shots of the theatre inside, the Noël Coward Theatre. It was beautiful! I have never been to a play in London before; this was for sure a treat!

Inside the Noel Coward Theatre

Similar to the movie, the show centers on the two main characters.  First is Viola played by Lucy Briggs-Owens and she is fantastic, stunning, and brings so much light to the show.  She is like a jewel that just shines for two hours non-stop. Just perfect in my book. Will, Will Shakespeare of course, is portrayed by Tom Bateman.  He puts so much heart and feeling into his role as Will, its not to be missed.  I do wonder though, if or how long, his thumb will be stained with black ink. 

Some of the other actors you might recognize from other productions and shows, probably the most well known is the wonderful David Oakes. Whom I met after the show and is such a saint! He has been in The Borgias, The White Queen, and Pillars of the Earth. His Marlowe is perfect and he shows just the right amount of cunning and conniving which is very Mr. Oakes’s style and so Marlowe.

The Cast

Being a total costume nut, the costumes did their duty and impressed. They were all just stunning all the way down to the little costume bits that the token puppy wears. It's a coin toss to say which one out of Viola's dresses is my favorite, perhaps her blue dress? So stunning...wait they are all stunning.

So if you are in London, do see the show. You will not be disappointed. Since my visit, two of my good friends have gone. We all loved every minute of it. Maybe I will get lucky in March and it will still be playing? I would love to see it again.  Also the cast is all very warm and friendly and wonderful company, so if you have the time, please do go say hello.  I learned so much that night; it will be a hard one for a long time to top.

Reminiscing.....

Inside the Tower of London

So this last week, I have been reading, amongst other things Markham’s Richard III: His Life & Character. It got my wheels turning, as to some of his major points he draws on in his chapters about the princes and what became of them have also been questioned by myself. He also brings up a very interesting point about the authorship of the many articles that were written about the incident, as well as many others; including the Croyland Chronicles of London through out his argument. What went on in those author's heads?

He tried not to let the wax from the candle above the ledge of the writing desk drip to the parchment as he hurried the last few sentences of the following day’s news. Out of the corner of his eye watching the wax drip… and drip. People were talking, talking about many things, and the word needed to get out; Edward IV’s sons were missing. More than likely dead. He hadn’t heard the word murdered yet from anyone’s lips, but definitely missing. 

His hands shook as he blew the drying sand off the parchment to help make the ink set and dry faster. King Richard was still in York. He knew that much, but still there were many unanswered questions. He had to have known the fate of the children, how could he not.

Nervously, he read over his work, blew out his light and gave it to the grandmaster.

“I am done with tomorrow’s bit.” He nodded and said, as he backed away from the elder monk, waiting for criticism or acknowledgement. He never knew which would come first if any.

“The words, stories, are every where. Where is the King? He has to know?” He said again.

“Let's hope we know the truth soon, once he returns. Perhaps this is a misunderstanding, or one of the Lancaster’s plays of folly.” The grandmaster said as he glanced over the article the novice monk gave him. He hoped he didn't have to publish this... or more like wish it wasn't so.....

Folly, or misunderstanding, many of the accounts that were written whether they were against Richard’s reign or not, many baseless and not backed up by solid evidence as noted in Markham’s book. Personal prejudices at times, got in the way and aided the rumors. Will we ever know what happened? We might not but we can for sure develop a better understanding of the writers who wrote the articles and their basis for doing so.  Markham's book is perhaps one of my favorite sources of the life and time's of Richard III and the world he lived in.