Fantasy writers, like myself, often draw heavily from history, especially from the medieval period. With all its sword, bows, castles, and noble lords and ladies, it’s perfectly suited to the fantasy genre. But sometimes it can be hard to visualise what life would actually have been like in those times. To get the correct facts and the authentic feel often involves at least some research. Thankfully however, we have the internet, which makes researching much easier.
Recently, I discovered an amazing resource for information
about life in medieval times. And that is a TV series, available on YouTube, called
‘Secrets of the Castle’. The series is focused around an archaeological
experiment of building an authentic medieval castle. This series is full on
interesting information about not only castes and how to build them, but about
the trades involved with the building such as blacksmithing and masonry, and
also showcases some of the war machines. I haven’t yet seen the entire series,
but I’ve already learned a whole bunch of things about life in the medieval
period that I know will help my writing in the future.
If you’re looking for information on life in the medieval period,
want to learn more about trades like blacksmithing, or are interesting in
seeing a real castle and how they were built and decorated, you might like to
check out this series. They’re highly informative and very entertaining as
well. Theirs is nothing like actually seeing a castle, weapons, and a medieval
village to help you get a real feel for what life might have been like back
then. You can find the first episode down below, and the rest are freely
available on YouTube.
Do you do research for
your books? What writing resource have you discovered? And are you interested
in seeing more resource recommendations from me in the future?
