Medievalist Professor Answers Medieval Questions From Twitter | Tech Support | WIRED

I'm medievalist Professor dorsy Armstrong let's take some questions from the internet this is Medieval [Music] support Johnny V45 38576 asks what did Medieval English sound like a good shorthand way to figure out what medieval English sounds like is to take all vowels and pronounce them as you would in French and pronounce every letter the word for wife we would be pronounced we the word for house would be pronounced H the word night K here is what the Lord's Prayer would have sounded like in Middle English probably sometime in the 14th century father that in Haven us the the or Kingdom to and let us not into temp but Deliver Us from Evil at caffeinated days asks why was it called The Middle ages how did they know when the end was the name Middle Ages was given to that period by people who came much later and the middle that they were thinking of was the period roughly from about 500 to 1500 after the fall of the Roman Empire and before the Renaissance around 1,000 there is an increase in population and so we call this period in between say about 1,00 and 1300 the high Middle Ages this is when the university system comes into existence this is when those beautiful cathedrals are all being built it really is a golden age in the medieval period at before we kiss asks wait the Game of Thrones red wedding really happened it's well known that George RR Martin borrowed liberally from medieval history the Red Wedding itself is based on Scottish history in 1440 the young King of Scotland invited the young leaders of the Douglas Clan to dine with him when you're invited into the feast Hall you dine with the king the code of hospitality should maintain that no ill can come to you and instead they were betrayed and beheaded like in Game of Thrones much of the contest over the throne has to do with rival factions that maybe to some degree or another are related to one another George R Martin took as his template for this the late medieval conflict known as the wars of the Roses you have have the Lancaster cousins against the York cousins and in the show the Lannisters have a name that sounds very much like Lancaster and the Starks with their one syllable name that name Chimes nicely with York as far as characters go the Mad targarian King would seem to be a pretty clear analog to King Henry V 6 who suffered bouts of Madness Cersei Lannister very much resembles Margaret aanu Henry VI 6th Queen her son was probably not the son of Henry v 6 Henry VI 6 himself commented that he could not remember when the conception had happened and that it must have been a miracle this of course seems to be very much like the situation with Cersei whose children are not that of Robert Baratheon but are indeed the children of herself and her twin brother Jamie Lannister at suiss comrade asks do I have narcolepsy or do I just have the natural sleep cycle of a medieval peasant sleep in the Middle Ages was very different from sleep today people in the Middle Ages generally slept B phasically which means in two stages so there was what was called the first sleep if you're in a natural sleep Rhythm that does not have any exposure to unnatural light you will fall asleep when the Sun goes down you will sleep for a few hours and then you might get up maybe around 11: midnight might do some chores you might have sex you might visit your neighbors in early castles the Lord and Lady usually slept in the Great Hall behind where they would sit at table for great feasts all of the king's retainers and loyal War Warriors would also sleep in that same room there might be a screen separating their sleeping quarters from the rest of the hall but there was not a ton of privacy then usually around 2:00 a. m. or so you might enter What's called the second sleep and this sleep would go until the sun came up and you would arise and get ready to do your chores or your work for the day it's not until the Advent of electricity and people are able to work longer hours and they need to compress their sleep into one single block that we see people sleeping say from 10 p.

m. to 6:00 a. m.