Ramblings about the Medieval era
So like to start, there are a lot of myths and misconceptions about this era in particular, which is partially because it's so long that even Medieval era authors writing about the earlier parts of Medieval era got stuff wrong, we're talking about an era that in Europe lasted from the fall of Rome (around 476, tho you can find other dates as well) to whatever age the historians in particular place decided. Some cite Guttenberg's invention of the printing press, some Columbo's dicovery of America, some people even believe in the "long Medieval era", which is basically that the Medieval era lasted longer in certain places like Russia, Bohemia or the Kingdom of Hungary. Hell, if we're going by important dates, I wouldn't blame some Slovak historian for specifying Medieval era in Slovakia to be from 623 (Samo's realm) to 1526 (Battle of Mohács) tho I have not met with such claim anywhere, this is a pure speculation as to how you also could split apart Slovak history in particular. These events were chosen rather arbitrarily due to the their importance - Samo's realm was the first "state" (it was actually a tribal union) in this area, meanwhile Battle of Mohács started centuries long occupation of Lower Hungary (today's Balkans and Hungary), which lead to Upper Hungary (today's Slovakia) becoming the Kingdom of Hungary as well as officially starting the Habsburg era in this area in particullar. Zápoľský was there too, but we don't care about him, his dynasty died off due to lack of male heirs.
So like, you can be met with documents from the 14th century talking about the 12th and there can be some utter bullshit, due to either negligence or a game of telephone. Kinda like when someone decides to make video essay on the 19th century today, but only uses Wikipedia and YouTube for research and doesn't do any fact-checking or cross-referencing.
Another thing tho is that only select groups of people were able to produce any written records, which lead to misconceptions as well. For example quite the amount of Slavic mythology wasn't recorded by the people who actually worhipped those deities, but Christian monks, sometimes even centuries later. Now, another thing is that oftentimes, records were vandalised, when they didn't serve the purpose the kingdom/state/church needed them to serve. We see it all the time even now. Also another thing is that they didn't preserve everything either. Which is a problem.
And then there's destruction of Medieval records, because people in the Renaissance and Victorian England wanting to push their own narratives about the Medieval era and also poor preservation at times, or the materials just being unpreservable. Like... Did you know that Kapušiansky hrad, a castle ruin that was abandoned in the 1700s had essentially a wallpaper at some point? I don't remember how old it is, but yeah, they found bits of what we would nowadays call a wallpaper as in wall painted with a pattern, I think, I doubt anyone was putting paper on walls at that time, wallpaper adhesive wasn't a thing yet. But people were decorating the castles, putting rugs on the walls, painting them. Medieval castles in their prime weren't just stone walls, but also a lot of these decores don't survive the passage of time. And also during the 18th century, tho it could have actually happened a little earlier, nobility was moving away from castles and into palaces (you could call them that in English) which also meant taking out the furniture the owners were most attached to or was too valluable to be left there and moving it elsewhere. And what wasn't valluable was taken once the castle was abandoned. That happens a lot with abandoned furniture in abandoned buildings.
What also destroys heritage? Wars. And there have been many.
So like, we know a lot about the Medieval era, because we have written records and physical heritage, but also we don't know much, because it's been so long and we've lost a lot of it due to lack of preservation, vandalism and wars. Like, it's questionable somewhat how widespread for example the belief in unicorns was. Were the stories of them actual mythos? Were they bedtime stories? Did people believe in unicorns? Was it some sort of ancient meme? Were they misinterpreted fossils? Were they just rhinos or narvals? Was there a species of 1-horned goats that went extinct and then became the unicorn? Or was it a rare plant or fungus and then someone made up the unocorn so nobody else would go looking? Was the unicorn used as a code for "trade secret"? We have theories, but very little proof of any of them being true. But we know that at least to some extent, people used to have believes connected to body parts of animals and people alike. Like the unicorn horn being able to cure everything or that if you consumed a powder from the skull of a hanged young warrior (an Ottoman warrior in some places or "exotic" as Orientalism was rampant) his power would get into you.
Anyhow, thanks for coming to my ted-talk.
