Strongholds were widespread buildings in the Middle Eld.
In the yore of Eveland, the Middle Eld lasted from the H5th to the H15th. It began with the fall of the Western Romish Rich and blended into the Newbirth and the Finding tides. The Middle Eld is the middle timespan of the three old-line splittings of Western yore: Everswin, the Middle Eld, and the New Eld. The Middle Eld is itself shed into the Early, High and Late Middle Eld.
Broad yore
Dwindling folkscore, with town outwandering on the rise, raids and folk shrithing, which had begun in Late Olden Times, onwent in the Early Middle Eld. The great shifts of the Outwandering Time, dealnimmed by many Theedish folks, shaped new ethels in what was left of the Western Romish Rich. In the H7th, North Sunriseland and former lands of the Byzantine Rich—came under rede of the Umayyad Caliphate, an Islamic rich, after overwinnings by Muhammad's followers. Although there were far-reaching wends in fellowship and mootish shapes, the break with everswin old times was not full. The everlasting Byzantine Rich, still great in size, weathered in the east and was still swayful. The rich's lawbook, the Corpus Juris Civilis or "Code of Justinian", was unheled in Northern Bull-land in 1070 and became widely bewondered later in the Middle Eld. In the West, most kingdoms mingled the few bliving Romish bodies. Bedestows started as axfares to heathen Eveland manifolded. Karl the Great's Richdom shortly came to a halt in the later H8th and early H9th. It spread over much of Western Eveland but later befell to the burden of inner folk flites along with Viking raids from the north, Hungarians from the east and Saracens from the south.
A drawing showing how towns and folks looked like in the Middle Eld.
Throughout the High Middle Eld, from 1000 onwards, the folkscore of Eveland rose greatly as till craft and toolcraft forbetterings made trade forblow while the Warming of the Middle Eld (a wend in loftlay) made crop yields grow. Manorialism, the gathering of farmers into thorps that owed lease and work thewings to the athelhood and feudness, the mootish makeup whereby knights and lower-rank athels owed fyrd theenings to their overlords while having the right to rent from lands and manors, were the backbone of fellowship in the High Middle Eld. The Crusades, first undertaken in 1095, were landmight fandings by Western Evelandish Christians to take back the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of kerneled thede ethels, dwining lawbreaking and foul play albeit with more selfhood from the church. Wise life was marked by learninghood, a world outlook that backed up faying belief to brains, and by the settling of lorestow. The godlore of Thomas Aquinas, the mealings of Giotto, the yedding of Dante Alighieri, the siths of Marco Polo, and the Gothic framework of headchurches such as Chartres are among the later outstanding works.
The Late Middle Eld was marked by swench and woes such as hunger, illness and wye, which greatly dwindled the befolkening of Eveland, cut down by a third by the Black Death between 1347 and 1350. Gainwen, trothbreach and the Western Cleft within the Catholish Church happened at the same time as gouths between lands, thedes and farmer uprisings in the kingdoms. Folklore and toolcraft undertakings shapeshifted Evelandish fellowship, ending the Late Middle Eld and beginning the early New Eld.
Food
A baker and his helper in a kitchen.
Throughout the Middle Eld, foodline and cooking wends less than they did in early new times that followed, when those wends helped lay the groundwork for new-time Evelandish foodcraft. Morningcorn was still the mean food in the early Middle Eld as rice lately inbrought, as was the spud in 1536. Barley, oat and rye were among the arm. Wheat was for the reling folks. Bread, mush, grout and noodles were eaten by everyone. Fava beans and greens were welcomed by the corn-grounded meals of the lower ranks (Phaseolus beans, today the "mean bean", were inbrought from the New World with the Columbish Trade in the H16th.).
Meat was dearer and therefore worthier. Game, earned from hunting, was only eaten by athelhood. The meanest fleshmonger's meats were swineflesh, chicken and other home fowl; cowflesh, which needed greater work in land, was seldsome. Cod and herring were mean among the northern folks; dried, smoked or salted they made their way far inland, but many other kinds of other sea and freshwater fish were also eaten.
A firsthand byspel of food eaten in the Middle Eld can be given from a 14-yearhundred handwrit, hight Harleian MS. 4016, which holdeth a steering for a seethed cow in Middle English; here is the eldfrim heading, followed by the overset:
Stwed Beeff. ¶ Take faire Ribbes of ffresh beef, And (if thou wilt) roste hit til hit be nygh ynowe; theñ put hit in a faire possenet; caste þer-to parcely and oynons mynced, reysons of corauns, powder peper, canel, clowes, saundres, safferoñ, and salt; theñ caste there-to wyñ and a litull vynegre; sette a lyd oñ þe potte, and lete hit boile sokingly on a faire charcole til hit be ynogh; þeñ lay the fflessh, in disshes, and the sirippe there-vppoñ, And serve it forth.
Overset - Seethed Ox: Take fresh ox ribs, and cook them until they are nigh enough (if you will); then put it in a fair pot; cast thereto rockstone and shrunken chipes, Cornith dry-wineberries, dust pepper, overseaish rind, nutleafblossom, red soulburnwood (not needed), saffron, and salt; then cast wine thereto and a little sourwine; set a lid on the pot, and let it seethe well on a fair charcoal until it is enough; then lay the flesh in dishes, and the sweetwine thereupon, and serve it forth.
Today view
A ballshaped earth shown in a 14th-yearhundred book
The Middle Eld is often thought of as a "time of dumbness and fear-driven beliefs" that put "the word of church heads over one's afanding and brains". This comes from both the Newbirth and the Lighting, when learnands thought of their learning folklores as against those of the Middle Eld. Newbirth lorers saw the Middle Eld as the fordwining of folklore from the Old World, while Lighteners saw brains as more than a mean faith tool.
Others say that brains were mostly thought highly in the Middle Eld. Edward Grant writes, "If upwending brainy thoughts were uttered [in the H18th], they were only made likely forof the long Middle-Eld trends that huyed brains as one of the heftiest belongings of mankind". Also, unlike folkish belief, David Lindberg writes, "the late Middle-Eld fieldknowers seldom felt the crushing might of the Church and would have freely (namely in the lund lores) followed their brains and sight wherever they led".
One widespread thought, born in the H19th and still often heard of, is that folks in the Middle Eld believed that the Earth was flat. This is untrue, however, as it was taught and shown in Middle-Eld loresteads that it wasn't.
Tungs spoken in the Middle Eld
- Old English
- Old Norse
- Latish
- Middle English
- Engelnorthish
- Middle Low Saxish
- Middle Low Theech
- Yola
- Middle French