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In the year 1000 the world was one of mystery and magicians, monks, warriors and wandering merchants - people who feared an apocalypse and who had no idea what year it was or what lay beyond the nearest valley. It was a world of dark forests and Viking adventures in which fear was real and death a constant companion. People felt they walked hand-in-hand with God, and envisaged him so literally that even Christians were sometimes buried with supplies for the journey to the new life in heaven. 'The Year 1000' is a vivid and surprising portrait of life in England a thousand years ago - no spinach, no sugar, but a world already knew brain surgeons and property developers, and yes ... even the occasional gossip columnist. Both an entertaining and highly informative read, 'The Year 1000' brilliantly brings this distant world closer than it ever has been before. This book is narrated through the progression of the seasons, and it presents a re-creation of English life at the end of the first millennium AD. Contents:
The Julius Work Calendar: The Wonder of Survival
January: For All the Saints
February: Welcome to Engla-lond
March: Heads for Food
April: Feasting
May: Wealth and Wool
June: Life in Town
July: The Hungry Gay
August: Remedies
September: Pagans and Pannage
October: War Games
November: Females and the Price of Fondling
December: The End of Things, or a New Beginning?
The English Spirit
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Source Notes
Index Review:Readable, entertaining, informative, surprising and lively. This book is like no other I have read on pre-Conquest England. While most books deal rather dryly with thegns and eaoldermen and the coming of Christianity, this book focuses on what life would have been like for the ordinary man and woman of the time. It is full of illumnating anecdotes about such things as the various types of worm people might have in their guts and the process of minting a silver penny - and what happened to you if you were found to be forging them - not a happy fate. It offers insights into the life of the monk and nun - and tells you where their ink came from to copy their devotional texts. It gives a powerful impression of how life could be very rich, or almost unbearable in times of famine. It deals with diet, religious beliefs, work and labour, slavery and bondage, the legal system, women, the class system, the economy, medicine, paganism, town and country life, battle and war, and all this in a fresh and lively manner. The authors make liberal use of sources to illustrate their topic, to great effect. This text is not written by academics, but it is a very useful insight into the world of 'real' men and women. Highly recommended. - Reviewer, Amazon.co.uk, 1 June 2004
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