#EHFA Celebrates Our Fifth Anniversary!

by Debra Brown

Thank you all for still being with us! The EHFA community is pleased to have posted five years of fascinating British history and introduced many historical fiction authors and historians (and their books) to time travelers everywhere.

There were changes afoot this year. I left off full time management of the blog and related work thanks to the assistance of a team of editors, Annie Whitehead, Anna Belfrage, EM Powell, Char Newcomb, and Cryssa Bazos. They have put many hours into keeping things going, for which the rest of us are most grateful. All but Annie and I met up at the HNS Conference in Oxford to deal with the stress....

Warrior in the woods
Copyright Matthew Harffy

Our most popular new post of 2016 was Swords, Seaxes and Saxons by Matthew Harffy. Do read it if you have not already, assuming you are intrigued by seventh century battle gear.

Our all time most popular post has not changed in three years. Seven Surprising Facts About Anne of Cleves by Nancy Bilyeau has had 51,950 views, far surpassing the second, Little Ease and the Tower of London, also by Ms. Bilyeau with 11,529. Other hot topics include Who Placed the Earliest Roman Footprint in Scotland? by Nancy Jardine, Stand And Deliver ... Your Tolls? The Rise and Fall of the Turnpikes by J.A. Beard, Victorian Violence: Repelling Ruffians by Terry Kroenung, and Tudor England's Most Infamous Villain: Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich of Leez by Beth von Staats. Nancy Bilyeau has two more posts in the top ten, both Tudor tales. I'm seeing a definite lust, here, for Tudors and violence. And Nancy Bilyeau.

When I think back over the years, the post that stands out most in my mind is Old English - The Language of the Anglo Saxons by Richard Denning, mainly for the eerie video of the Lord's Prayer in Old English (yup, I just had to go play it again), but also because I learned something about the meaning of the names of English towns and locations. Fascinating!


Thank you to those who have bought Volumes One and/or Two of our anthology, Castles, Customs, and Kings: True Tales by English Historical Fiction Authors, published by Madison Street Publishing. Both volumes are now also available as lengthy audio books narrated by Ruth Golding. To quote Steven A. McKay, "Talk about value for money!" These are 25+ hours of fascinating listening while you do the laundry or commute.

Please join in the celebration of our five years by leaving a comment telling us what posts you remember, what authors you have discovered and loved, or anything. We'd like to hear from you and chat about your experiences with EHFA. And we are giving away two free audio books of Volume Two, names to be drawn in one week from those who comment below by a very disinterested party.

Thanks, and join us for another great year!

Editors Weekly Round Up: July 10, 2016

by the EHFA Editors

Enjoy this week's wrap up of posts on the blog:

The Bishop and the Bread-knife

by Anna Belfrage

Margaret Beaufort: The King's Mother

by Judith Arnopp

Captain Henry Jennings: A War with Spain, Wrecked Ships
and Some Sunken Treasure - How the Pirates of the Caribbean Started 
by Helen Hollick

Shell Shock in WWI 

by M.K. Tod
(an Editor's Choice archive post)

What Caused the General Strike of 1926?

Annie Whitehead

WILD FOODS - Historical Fiction Research

By Elaine Moxon

One of the things you swiftly learn, as a historical fiction author, is that you must become well read in a myriad of subjects. Many of these topics, to external eyes, may seem entirely disconnected with writing a novel. Little do they know, this knowledge is invaluable. Creating a historic and accurate landscape within which your characters can travel and interact is hard work.

I thought I’d share some research I’ve been doing for some travelling characters that may not always be able to pop into the local town for supplies. Living in the 5th Century AD as they do, and also wary of bumping into enemies, they have only what they brought with them for the journey, and what they find along the way.

From Saxon settlement, along ancient roadways, across rivers towards the coast, this is what they might discover.

DANDELION, publicdomainpictures.net

Woodland, Hedgerow, Roadside, Heath & Moorland

In scrubby woodland you’ll find young Elder buds for salads, and hazelnuts rich in protein, fats and minerals. The best dandelions are found on hedge banks and roadsides, and their young leaves are good in salads. Eat them in moderation, however. As suggested by their French name ‘pis-le-lit’ (or more politely, wet-the-bed) they are a diuretic and can have you running for the nearest facilities!

Blackberries ripen in August and are at their sweetest then. Also known as the ‘blessed bramble’ it was so called for the joy its fruit brought to areas where fruit was rare. Its leaves soothe burns and bruises, and a rich dye can be made from the berries, as can also be made from sloes. Sloe berries also make delicious wine, though I doubt my travelling companions have time for that.

Columbines love limestone woods and flower May-July. While most of the plant is poisonous, the 17th Century herbalist Nicholas Culpeper observed that ‘the seed taken in wine causeth a speedy delivery of women in childbirth’. Handy if any of your travelling party are in the later stages of child labour!

Pollen from the Common Mallow has been found in Roman remains in Britain, suggesting it was imported for medicinal purposes. Pliny the Elder declared a daily ‘spoonful of the mallows’ to be preventative of illnesses. A decoction of boiled leaves is said to calm fevers and a lotion of the same alleviates swellings. Mucilage of the roots of the variety known as ‘Marsh Mallow’ once provided a chewy filling to chocolate coated biscuits. Today it is somewhat rare and used only in toiletries and cosmetics.

Another ancient acquaintance is the Crocus, harvested since medieval times for the spice ‘saffron’. Although this doesn’t necessarily constitute a ready food source, I felt it worth a mention as an ingredient. Also within this realm is Lady’s Bedstraw or ‘Galium verum’, once used as a rennet in cheese-making. Thyme can flavour soups, stews, sauces and stuffing and is thought to prevent bad dreams. Ideal for travelling nobility with heavy weights on their minds.

Galium verum

Photo credit: bastus917 via VisualHunt / CC BY-SA 

Coastal

The obvious one here is seaweed, of which two types can be cooked as a spring vegetable - laver and caragon. You can also cook ‘Fat Hen’ and nettle leaves as you would spinach (but wear gloves when picking the latter!). Nettle leaves also make a refreshing drink. Molluscs such as cockles, mussels, and if in Cornwall, pilchards, all make tasty additions to a meal. At the end of summer, enjoy sweet chestnuts, eaten raw or even better roasted. Then in autumn, berries, nuts and fungi can be found, mostly in woodland, but field mushrooms are common in pastures and meadows (particularly where horses graze). Pick early in the morning and fry or add to soups.

By streams, fields and riverbanks you can find water-loving mint, watercress and wild garlic – all great for making soups. Wild garlic, also known as Ramsons, gives its name to several settlements in Britain known for the pervasive smell of this pretty flower, including Ramshope, Ramsbottom, Ramsey and Ramsholt. The name derives not from male sheep, but the Old English word ‘hrmsa’ meaning ‘wild garlic’!

Bogbean can be found in wet soil, mud and water – its bitter trifoliate leaves were used as infusions to alleviate scurvy and rheumatism. Laplanders used the powdered roots to bulk up the meal in their bread, though it leaves a bitter taste. Another lover of moist ground is Common Comfrey. All parts of the plant have a reputation for healing cuts and fractures and reducing swelling. Often going by the name ‘knitbone’, an infusion of the leaves in warm water gives relief to sprained wrists and ankles. My heroine in WULFSUNA uses a comfrey poultice beside a stream to alleviate swollen ankles.

Mentioned by the Greeks as early as the 1st Century AD, ‘seseli’ or as we know it Sweet Cicely, can be added to salads. Its fresh, sweet leaves counteract any bitterness or remove tartness when boiling fruit. With an aniseed flavour, it was used as an aphrodisiac in the 16th Century to ‘increaseth...lust and strength’ (John Gerard’s ‘Herball’).

Photo credit: col&tasha via Visualhunt.com / CC BY

Wild Animals

Some wild animals are predators to be cautious of, others may be sacred and some will be food sources. Wolves, foxes and badgers are main predators. Boar, while a ferocious beast particularly when breeding, makes a large meal, as do deer. Hares were considered sacred by some pagans and eating them was forbidden if not all of the time, then at least during certain symbolic festivals especially around springtime. Others believed them to be witches in animal form and were so avoided. Their later cousins, rabbits, are low in fat and good in a stew, though not widely available. Introduced by the Romans, they died out post-Empire and were not reintroduced until later centuries. Snakes and certain birds were also pagan symbols and so may have had a bearing on whether they were eaten. Poisonous snakes would be avoided for obvious reasons.

With an abundant array of salad leaves and stewing vegetables, my characters’ wild food table will be replete with tasty dishes to serve alongside freshly caught fish, berries and nuts, and maybe even a boar if they’re lucky. However, I must stress it is not suggested nor advised that you go munching on anything you find growing along the roadside. Some plants are highly poisonous. As Ben Law says, if you can’t identify them, ‘don’t eat them!’.

~ ~ ~ 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Farmhouse Cookery, Readers’ Digest

Wild flowers, Graham Murphy

The Woodland Way, Ben Law

Blood, betrayal and brotherhood.

An ancient saga is weaving their destiny.

A treacherous rival threatens their fate.

A Seer's magic may be all that can save them.

WULFSUNA

Elaine Moxon writes historical fiction as ‘E S Moxon’. Her debut Wulfsuna was published January 21st, 2015 and is the first in her Wolf Spear Saga series of Saxon adventures, where a Seer and one named ‘Wolf Spear’ are destined to meet. 

She is currently writing her second novel, set once again in the Dark Ages of 5th Century Britain. You can find out more about Book 2 from Elaine’s website where she has a video diary charting her writing progress. She also runs a blog. Elaine lives in the Midlands with her family and their chocolate Labrador.

Intellectual Life in Medieval England: William of Ockham and London Greyfriars

By Mark Patton

In the shadow of Saint Paul's Cathedral, between the London headquarters of British Telecommunications and the American bank, Merrill Lynch, the bombed-out remains of a Wren church have been converted into a pleasant garden, little-visited by tourists, but popular with city workers as a place to eat their sandwiches or sushi at lunch-time. There are few clues to the fact that the second largest church in Medieval London once stood here, or that it was, from 1225 to 1538, the intellectual powerhouse of this great European city.

Christchurch Greyfriars. Photo: Gryffindor (licensed under CCA).

Friars of the newly created Franciscan Order first arrived in England in 1224. Saint Francis of Assisi was to die in 1226, so it is an intriguing thought that, among their number, there may well have been individuals who had actually known him. A wealthy London businessman, John Iwyn, made a grant of land in the north-western corner of the city to enable them to found a friary. Within a few generations, the establishment was flourishing, with the help of royal patronage: both Queen Margaret, the second wife of Edward I, and Queen Isabella, the wife of Edward II, endowed it, and were buried in its church. Although it was not, in the strictest definitional sense, a university, it was an important seat of learning, with a library to rival those of Oxford and Cambridge.

Plan of Greyfriars in the late 16th Century, from The Greyfriars of London, by Charles Lethbridge Kingsford, 1915 (image is in the Public Domain).

In the last decade of the 13th Century, a boy named William made his way from Ockham, in Surrey, to London. He may have been as young as nine, or as old as twelve. Perhaps he walked alongside a drover, bringing beasts to the city for slaughter, or he may have hitched a ride on a wagon bringing vegetables or flour to market. He is likely to have carried with him a letter of introduction and recommendation from his parish priest to the Prior of the Franciscans in London. There he entered the order as a novice. He would have studied the scriptures in Latin; Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy (one of the few texts from the classical world to have remained in widespread use throughout the Middle Ages); and Peter Lombard's (1150) Sentences, a standard primer of theology.

William of Ockham, from the margins of a copy of his Summa Logicae. The caption reads "Frater Ockham iste," and it is tempting to think that it was drawn by one of his former students. MS Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, 4641571, fol.69r, 1341 (image is in the Public Domain).

By the age of twenty, William of Ockham was an ordained priest. He was himself teaching at Greyfriars, and writing his own commentaries on the works he had studied. In 1309, at the age of twenty-four, he moved to Oxford, where he would have studied the works of Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, and the philosophy of Aristotle, recently translated into Latin by scholars such as Gerard of Cremona, James of Venice, and William of Moerbeke.

Merton College, Oxford, Mob Quad. Built between 1288 and 1378, William of Ockham would have known it as a building site. Photo: DWR (licensed under CCA).

At Oxford, however, William also learned some hard lessons. Men who served the Church in Holy Orders did not always keep themselves above the insults and back-biting of institutional politics. John Lutterell, the deeply unpopular Dominican Chancellor of Oxford, may have been jealous of William's superior learning, or of the affection in which he was held by his students. Despite fulfilling all the requirements for a masters degree, Lutterell saw to it that he was never promoted above the rank of Inceptor (the lowest teaching grade). When Lutterell was chased from Oxford by his own faculty members in 1322, he sought refuge with Pope John XXII in Avignon, and persuaded the pontiff to summon William of Ockham to answer charges of heresy.

William arrived at Avignon in 1324, and soon found himself in good company. Arraigned with him before a Papal court were Michael of Cesena, the head of the Franciscan Order; Marsilius of Padua; and other leading Franciscans. Lutterell's specific indictments of William were ill-founded, and swiftly dismissed; but there were genuine and significant doctrinal differences between John XXII and the Franciscans. The latter, with William's active and vociferous support, insisted on the doctrine of "Apostolic Poverty" that lay at the centre of their founder's view of the Catholic Faith. Christ and his apostles, they argued, had owned absolutely nothing, in stark contrast to the Pope, who was living like a prince in his palace, paid for by the sale of indulgences which had no basis in scripture. The Pope excommunicated Michael, William and Marsilius, and held them under house arrest in Avignon.

The Palace of the Popes at Avignon. Photo: Jean-Marc Rosier - www.rosier.pro - (licensed under CCA).

In 1328, almost certainly with the connivance of agents loyal to the Holy Roman Emperor, Louis (or Ludwig) IV, they escaped, making their way first to Pisa, and thence to Louis' court at Munich, where they lived out their days (William died in 1347, not, as is sometimes claimed, of the Black Death, but some months prior to its arrival in the city). Louis, who had his own disputes with the Pope over the relationship between religious and secular power, was only too happy to give them his patronage and allow them to continue writing and teaching at his court. Since Latin was the universal language of academic instruction and debate across Catholic Europe, William could as easily teach and write in London or Oxford, Avignon or Munich: the boy whose father may have been a peasant, or a yeoman farmer, in a Surrey village operated within a single academic network that extended from Portugal to Austria, and from Norway to Sicily.

The Alter Hof, Munich, the centre of Louis' court, reconstructed following destruction during the Second World War. Photo: Robert Theml (licensed under GNU). 

William of Ockham may not be a household name today, but some of his ideas remain highly influential. In Munich, he wrote of the need to separate spiritual rule from earthly rule: kings, he insisted, ought not to interfere in the life of the church; and nor should popes or bishops interfere in the administration of states. Earthly power devolved from God to rulers, not via spiritual intermediaries, but via the people, whose right it was to remove unjust rulers. It was an idea that suited his imperial patron, but it is also the basis for the social contracts, and the separation of church and state, that underlie many of today's democratic constitutions.

He is best remembered, however, for an idea that he formulated in his early teaching days at London Greyfriars. William of Ockham never owned a razor, although, as a tonsured friar, he must surely have used one (the distinction between "ownership"  and "right to use" was central to his understanding of his Franciscan vocation). That razor, if it still exists, probably lies buried somewhere in the vicinity of Newgate Street.

A monk or friar tonsuring the head of another (image is in the Public Domain).

"Nunquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate," he wrote, in his commentary on Peter Lombard's Sentences ("plurality must never be posited without necessity"). It was not a wholly original thought (versions of it can be found in the works of earlier theologians, including Thomas Aquinas), but it is as "Occam's Razor" (an analogy that he never used) that it has entered modern thought. In simple terms, "never invoke more variables (or more complex variables) than are actually required to explain a set of facts." It was used by Copernicus to insist on his preference for a heliocentric over a geocentric model of planetary movements (it was possible to believe in either model, but the heliocentric model required only seven variables, the geocentric many more), but it is as useful to the historian as it is to the astronomer. It is our ultimate weapon against extravagant theories, such as Erich von Daniken's sensational notion that the pyramids of Egypt were built by extra-terrestrials; but, perhaps more importantly, against pernicious conspiracy theories directed against particular groups in society, from Anti-Semitic "blood libels," to Holocaust Denial, and fear of a Masonic "New World Order."

Mark Patton blogs regularly on aspects of history and historical fiction at http://mark-patton.blogspot.co.uk. His novels, Undreamed Shores, An Accidental King, and Omphalos, are published by Crooked Cat Publications, and can be purchased from Amazon.

'Sacred Fire'

by E S Moxon

After publishing Wulfsuna, the first in my Wolf Spear Saga series, in January 2015 I took a break for a few months before embarking on the planning for my next book. Writing often sparks the necessity for research when we happen upon a circumstance and need more detail. However at other times research can spark ideas for writing. For this reason I enjoy researching for my novels, hoping to find something unusual that provides inspiration for part of the current work in progress. My research comes from many places: books on my shelves, libraries, reenactors and the World Wide Web. My gem of a find this time was an article entitled ‘St Anthony’s Fire’ courtesy of Pearson College, CA and a website called ‘iamshaman’ both from 2004.

Known as ‘Sacred Fire’ and ‘Invisible Fire’ the claviceps purpura fungus, or ‘ergot’, germinates on rye in warm, damp conditions but is dormant in severe cold. Growth is therefore more prevalent in a wet summer following a harsh winter. The fungus is poisonous and manifests in several ghastly forms:

• -          Gangrenous
• -          Convulsive
• -          Hallucinogenic

Each of these has particularly vulgar symptoms. For instance the gangrenous strain produces areas of the body that become numb to touch or pain, known in medieval times as ‘witch spots’. Vein and artery walls contract, stemming blood flow and limbs literally break off at the joints! If the central nervous system becomes infected the body is thrown into violent convulsive fits and twitches (the convulsive form) and the ergot component lycergic acid (also in LSD) gives the sufferer hallucinations.

As you can imagine, in medieval times the causes of these symptoms would have been beyond the comprehension of most and assumptions of witchcraft were attributed. Both the afflicted and those attempting to heal (family members or healers) were accused. The sick were either seen as witches themselves who were being punished by god for spell casting, or as the victims at the hands of others’ dark deeds. Other factors that did little to assuage these accusations were the illness of cattle and other animals (falling ill as a result of grazing on infected rye) and that ground infected rye turns red, blood being a further sign that witchcraft was involved.

Consequently, witch trials increased during outbreaks of ergot poisoning and many met their deaths unjustifiably, as a cause of the ergot fungus. As a writer of historical fiction, with elements of magic and fantasy running through my sagas, I could not help but be intrigued by this phenomenon that can exist today where humid, wet summers and poor grain storage create the right conditions. Unable to resist using this newly acquired information, it is now part of a plotline in my next novel!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Elaine (E S Moxon) is currently writing Book 2 in her Wolf Spear Saga series. Her debut novel Wulfsuna is published by SilverWood Books and is also available from most retail outlets. You can find out more about E S Moxon and her novels from her website here

The Third Anniversary of #EHFA

by Debra Brown

Thank you! We have enjoyed your visits to the blog for a full three years. Your comments, Google plusing, and help with sending out links has been very much appreciated. At this writing we have had 1,759,084 pageviews since Day One, September 23, 2011.

Lindisfarne Castle, Holy Island*

Our all-time most visited posts, counting down, have been:

#10) Playing Doctor with the Queen by Anna Belfrage
#9) Samuel Leech's Account of War at Sea by Wanda Luce
#8) The Real Identities Behind the Books we Love by Karen V. Wasylowski
#7) Victorian Violence: Repelling Ruffians (Part Three) by Terry Kroenung
#6) Tudor England's Most Infamous Villain: Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich of Leez by Beth von Staats
#5) Stand And Deliver ... Your Tolls? The Rise and Fall of the Turnpikes by J.A. Beard
#4) Who Placed the Earliest Roman Footprint in Scotland? by Nancy Jardine
#3) Greeting Nobility by Marie Higgins
#2) Little Ease: Torture and the Tudors by Nancy Bilyeau
#1) Seven Surprising Facts About Anne of Cleves by Nancy Bilyeau

Congratulations to all of the authors above, and especially to Nancy with the #1 and 2 posts.

There are ever so many other wonderful posts by regularly contributing authors. We have several by Linda Root on the topic of Mary, Queen of Scots and the people and events surrounding her. Beth von Staats who runs the Queen Anne Boleyn blog focuses on the ministers of and people living during the time of Henry VIII. Helena P. Schrader is currently discussing people and events surrounding the Crusades, and Octavia Randolph takes us back to Anglo-Saxon times. Mark Patton shares information on Roman and pre-Roman Britain.

One of my favorite all-time posts remains that of Richard Denning with his haunting video of the Lord's Prayer in Old English.

I am seriously neglecting many other outstanding authors whose posts fill the pages of this blog, and I apologize that I cannot name them all. If you have not followed them here for long, please take a good look through for true tales from your favorite eras and authors. Please use the blog's search function. On social media sites, watch for our hashtag, #EHFA. It will take you to our group posts and projects as well as those of some of our members individually. And we'd love to have you join our Facebook group where we actively discuss history and historical fiction topics.

Mistletoe at Hampton Court Palace**

Last year at this date we released our anthology of selected posts from the first year of this blog titled Castles, Customs, and Kings: True takes by English Historical Fiction Authors edited by myself and M.M. Bennetts and published by Madison Street Publishing. CC&K has done well and continues to sell. Volume II is in the works.

We had at one time planned to announce the release of CC&K Volume II today, but tragedy cut into our path with the illness and death of M.M. Bennetts, one of the blog's beloved member-authors and a co-editor of the book. Her death has keenly saddened the group and the historical fiction community. Her witty posts and the extensive knowledge she imparted when we had questions on historical topics will be greatly missed. What more might she have taught us? Please browse these EHFA posts, most of which are her writing. I am sure you would also enjoy her own blog focusing mainly on Regency and Napoleonic (she hated him--that will clearly and amusingly come through) history.

If you have not read M.M.'s books, you are missing a treat. They can be found on Amazon US and UK.

Plans for a distinguished, annual M.M. Bennetts Historical Fiction Award at EHFA is in the works with Katherine Ashe as Chairman of the Board.

The following post is a tribute to M.M. Bennetts by her good friend, Nancy Bilyeau. Please read on.

Thank you for being a part of our lives, and I hope we will be invited to join you at tea every day!

Photo Attributions
*"LindisfarneCastleHolyIsland" by matthew Hunt - originally posted to Flickr as Holly Island 11. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LindisfarneCastleHolyIsland.jpg#mediaviewer/File:LindisfarneCastleHolyIsland.jpg
**"Mistletoe at Hampton Court Palace" by Jonathan Cardy - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mistletoe_at_Hampton_Court_Palace.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Mistletoe_at_Hampton_Court_Palace.jpg