The Axe and the Oath: Ordinary Life in the Middle Ages
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"What did men and women eat, drink, and wear in the Middle Ages? How did they work, fight, pray, and laugh? This book reduces medieval life to its most elemental functions. It encompasses not only material and social conditions, thought, and belief, but the natural environment as well. In other words, it raises all the questions that one never dares to ask. Among France's most active medieval scholars, Robert Fossier has spent more than six decades studying historical documents. Now he steps back from them to propose a deeply personal perspective. The result is a tour de force. Viewed in their bare flesh, humans living in the Middle Ages appear not much different from us."--John W. Baldwin, Johns Hopkins University"This is a provocative meditation on the human condition in the Middle Ages, written by one of the field's most distinguished historians. Robert Fossier thoughtfully probes the continuities and discontinuities of everyday life for ordinary people, with constant and daring comparisons to modern knowledge and experiences."--William C. Jordan, Princeton University"This is an outstanding book, an ambitious and strikingly successful attempt to capture the huge experience of human life in the Middle Ages. The most impressive aspect of this extraordinarily vivid work is the author's breathtaking mastery of everything he writes about. And the beautifully crafted and translucent prose gives the effect of a friendly and seamless conversation with the reader."--Piotr Górecki, University of California, Riverside Nick Schulz - National Review This remarkable book . . . belongs with William Manchester's A World Lit Only by Fire as a window into a world so far removed from us and yet still very much present today.
Preface ixPart One: MAN AND THE WORLD Chapter 1: Naked Man 3 A Fragile Creature 3 An Ungainly Being 3 Fairly Content with Himself 5 But Are There Nonetheless Nuances? 8 But a Threatened Creature 11 Does Man Really Know Himself? 11 "Abnormal" Assaults on Man 16 The Illness That Lies in Wait 19 The Black Death 23 Can Those Men Be Counted? 27Chapter 2: The Ages of Life 37 From the Child to the Man 38 Expecting a Baby 38 When the Child Arrives 41 "Childhoods" 44 The Child in the Midst of the Family 48 Man in His Private Life 51 As Time Goes By 52 Nourishing the Body 59 The Shaping of Taste 67 Adorning the Body 69 Man, Woman, and the Others 77 The Two Sexes Face-to-Face 78 Sexual Concerns 82 Living by the Fire and by the Pot 87 The Chains of Marriage 91 . . . And Their Locks 96 Kin 102 . . . And "Relations" 107 The Workplace 108 The House 109 . . . And What Was Found in the House 115 Man Is Born to Toil 117 But What Work? 121 And Tools? 127 The End of Life 131 The Elderly 132 The "Passage" 136 After Death 139Chapter 3: Nature 145 The Weather 145 The Paleo-Environment 146 What Did They See or Feel? 149 Fire and Water 154 Fire, the Symbol of Life and Death 154 Saving and Beneficent Water 157 The Sea, Horrible and a Temptress 160 The Products of the Earth 164 Mastering the Soil 165 Making the Earth Render 168 Grasses and Vines 171 The Trees and the Forest 175 The Forest, Overwhelming and Sacred 175 The Forest, Necessary and Nourishing 180 And the People of the Forest? 183Chapter 4: And the Animals? 186 Man and Beast 187 Fear and Disgust 187 Respect and Affection 189 Knowing and Understanding 194 What Are the Beasts? 195 Penetrating This World 198 Utilize and Destroy 202 The Services of the Beast 203 Killing: Man's Job 208 A Contrasting Balance Sheet 215Part Two: MAN IN HIMSELF Chapter 5: Man in Himself 223 Living in a Group 224 Why Come Together? 225 How to Assemble? 229 Where to Gather? 235 Laughter and Games 246 Precautions and Deviations 252 Order and the "Orders" 254 Peace and Honor 260 Law and Power 265 Gaps 276 And People from Elsewhere 285Chapter 6: Knowledge 292 The Innate 293 Memory 293 The Imaginary 298 Measurement 303 Acquisitions 310 Act, Image, Word 312 Writing 317 What to Learn? 323 And Where? 329 Expression 335 Who Wrote and What Did They Write? 336 For Whom and Why Did Authors Write? 341 The Artist's Part 343Chapter 7: And the Soul 348 Good and Evil 350 The End of Dualism 351 Virtue and Temptation 356 Sin and Pardon 362 Faith and Salvation 365 Dogma and the Rites of Medieval Christian Faith 366 The Church 371 The Other World 376 Conclusion 382
