this is Avery. Avery everywhere.
A strange nickname for a young boy, right?
But wait until you hear how he got it. Just by blinking his eyes, Avery is transported to another country...
AND ANOTHER TIME IN HISTORY!
Some say that he just has an overactive imagination. Yet, if you believe Avery, everything he says really does happen to him!
todAy, for exAMple, he is Averus,
A boy in the Middle Ages in 1050 CE!
The last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, is defeated by the barbarian Odoacer; it is the end of the Western Roman Empire— and the beginning of the Middle Ages!
For the first time, all the laws of the Roman Empire are unified in a large collection called Corpus Juris Civilis, the Body of Civil Law.
Saint Benedict, the founder of the monastery of Montecassino, writes the rule that the monks must devote themselves to prayer and work.
The Lombards invade and conquer Italy.
The Arabs conquer Spain, and from there they attempt the occupation of France, but Charles Martel defeats them in the famous Battle of Poitiers.
The pope crowns Charlemagne as emperor of the Romans—the Holy Roman Empire is born!
Our story begins here, in 1050 CE, right in the heart of the Middle Ages!
The First Crusade in the Holy Land is initiated. It ends in 1099 with the Siege of Jerusalem.
The Lombard League is born, bringing together several autonomous municipalities in northern Italy.
In Palermo, Sicily, the first Italian poets are invited to the wealthy court of Emperor Frederick II.
The Hundred Years’ War between France and England breaks out.
The Black Death, a plague, spreads across Europe.
Christopher Columbus sails to the Americas; it’s the end of the Middle Ages!
The FIEF first and foremost!
To help them govern the kingdom, monarchs rely on nobles and bishops (considered men worthy of their trust), who become feudal lords. Each of them is granted a fief, or a portion of land to be administered. This system of government is called feudalism. The feudal lords swear loyalty to their monarch, to whom they send a part of what the fiefdom produces (usually crops and timber). Also, in case of war, they fight for him along with his soldiers. This is why the feudal lords are also called vassals (which means “servants of the lord”).
If the fiefdom is very large, the feudal lord can divide it into parts that he entrusts to the knights of the region. The knights can further divide their land and entrust it to the serfs.
SO
A ceremony called investiture makes official the granting of a fief by the king. It begins with the hominium, the homage: The vassal declares that he is undertaking to “become the man of the lord,” thus putting himself at his service. Then follows the immixtio manuum, where the hands of the kneeling vassal are intertwined with those of the lord. Next there is the osculum, the kiss that seals the pact. At the end, the king gives the feudal lord a symbolic object that concludes the investiture: a knife, a stick, a ring, or perhaps a clod of earth.
I can’t abandon the land without my lord’s permission!
The curtis is a farm that produces everything you need to live. Since movement from place to place is infrequent, also due to regular attacks from bandits everywhere, and trade is limited, these farms become more and more numerous.
The part of the curtis under the direct control of the lord is called pars dominica (from dominus, that is, “the lord”). It includes the manor house, the servants’ houses, the stables, the workshops, the granaries, and the mill.
Peasants like me live in the pars massaricia, along with their families. We pay the lord rent to cultivate our plot of land, and we cannot abandon it without his permission (that’s why they also call us feudal serfs, that is “belonging to the fief”).
The life of us sharecroppers is not simple; we have to give the lord part of the crops and products from the farm. Furthermore, we must do the corvées, that is, the days of free labor in the lands of the pars dominica.
But that’s not all! We also have to pay a lot of taxes because nothing in the curtis belongs to us—it is our lord’s. We have to pay to use all the mills and the ovens, but we also have to pay to fish, hunt, collect wood, walk the roads, and cross bridges. Around the curtis there are pastures for the herds and woods where we can hunt and collect fruits, wild plants, and honey.
Don’t expect much to EAT!
Unfortunately, food is scarce and not varied, especially in winter; fruit and vegetables must be eaten quickly!
We dry the meat or we use salt to preserve it for as long as possible. We store oil and cereals inside the warehouses and granaries.
WE ONLY EAT WHAT WE CAN PRODUCE IN THE CURTIS, SUCH AS EGGS, MILK AND CHEESE, CEREALS (WHEAT, SPELT, BARLEY), VEGETABLES, MEDICINAL PLANTS, AND HONEY.
We don’t all eat the same way. The nobles eat white bread obtained with refined wheat flour, roasted game seasoned with pepper and other spices (rare and expensive ones), and then meat and fish with sauces and mustards.
All others eat dark bread made with rye, oat, and barley flour (which is of inferior quality to wheat), soups with vegetables grown in our fields or harvested in the woods, and legumes. Sometimes we get some pork. We often use hazelnuts, walnuts, and pistachios. We drink a lot of water, especially those of us living in the countryside, because finding drinking water in the city is much more difficult. Wine is popular too; we get it from a second pressing of the grapes that were used to make the wine for the rich. Also, there is no shortage of beer and apple cider.
There are usually two main meals: lunch (halfway through the day) and dinner. We eat seated, eating the food with our hands and using cutlery only to divide the meal among the diners.
Chapter 3
Indeed, Averus now feels better with a full tummy. He is ready to go. The sun breaks through the clouds as his four-year-old sister runs after a sheep.
“Follow me and we will soon find Catherine,” says his grandfather as he walks through the door.
At this point Averus just can’t take it anymore. He has to tell him the truth.
“You are very slow!” he snaps as he clenches his fists at his sides.
He knows that he is about to receive a lecture and looks up at his grandfather, who does not seem angry at all—in fact he is smiling!
“Good,” he answers, “we have to walk all the way to the castle, and it is a long way to go.“
“Wh-what?” Averus stammers. Just hearing that word gets his head spinning: the castle. Wow! Now he is really excited! He loves the castle; it is an incredible place, so tall and imposing…and inside the walls there are so many other things: shops, workshops, stables. Every time he goes there, he’s left speechless.
It doesn’t often happen that he gets to go to the castle. But, come to think of it...
“Catherine always talks about the castle! You’re right, she definitely went there!” he says, walking next to his grandfather. The elderly man nods. “Of course, all children find it interesting. What do you think?”
Averus puffs up his chest proudly: “Grandfather, you really know a lot...”
He chuckles as he takes one step after another.
Indeed, he is not the fastest travel companion in the world, and Averus sometimes struggles to understand this, but his grandfather knows so many things...
Nobody is like him!
“Have you ever been in there?” he asks, hopping around him. “Can you tell me again what the first floor is like? Come on, Grandpa, tell me!”
The keep can have two functions: It is the most fortified part of the castle (the one where you can take refuge in case of extreme danger), and it is often the residence of the lord, too. Each castle has a keep that can vary in size, but it generally is made up of at least three rooms: the main hall, an antechamber, and the master bedroom.
The main hall is the area where the lord and his family eat their meals and receive guests. It is made up of a single very large room.
The antechamber, on the other hand, is a smaller passing area. Finally, the master bedroom is where the lord and his family spend their days. Most of the activities take place here.
Over time, the structure of the castle has become more complex, and it generally includes two floors.
The ground floor is where the servants (all those who frequent the keep, working, collaborating, or serving the lord) live.
Here there are the vestibule, the kitchens, the servants’ rooms, the guardhouse (where the guards and sentries are), and the postern, a small hidden door that the guards use to reach the watchtowers.
The first floor (also known as the “noble floor”) is dedicated to the lord and to the most important members of the court.
In addition to the three main rooms, there is also the main chapel (or palatine), where the lords pray, the apartments of the lord’s family and those of the castellan (the one who defends and guards the castle), and the weapons room
Chapter 4
so MAny things i don’t know...
Finally, there it is: The castle looms in front of them. Averus can’t wait. Sure, he would have preferred to find Catherine already, but he still hasn’t been able to. In any case, his grandfather has pulled him away from the small market, and now they are at the walls; they are tall and imposing, made of huge stones...
“Listen, Grandpa, what if...” the boy looks around. “Hey!” he shouts, noticing that his grandfather is already entering.
“For once you didn’t wait for me,” he chuckles as soon as he reaches the old man. Sometimes his grandfather is just a big joker! The boy looks up in front of him and is left speechless: If the small market had seemed chaotic to him, once he crosses the threshold of the walls, he finds himself enveloped in so many colors, movements, and people that he can’t believe his eyes! With shops and huts, animals and carts, there is so much to see. Averus doesn’t even know where to look! Yet, his attention is first caught by the people. They are indeed similar to those he meets in the countryside: the trousers are dark, while the women’s long tunics are more colorful here…but this is not what strikes him. There is something different, something that he cannot fully understand.
“Have you seen how many jobs they do here?” asks his grandfather.
Of course! Averus nods, as perhaps his grandfather can read his thoughts; in any case the boy spots the differences immediately.
There are people holding swords and pieces of fabric or handling transparent and shiny fragments of something.
“That’s glass!” the boy whispers.
“And this is wood!” adds a man who walks up from behind and makes Averus jump.
The grandfather smiles at him, and the two greet each other warmly. The man holds a huge piece of wood with the internal grain typical of tree bark.
“Hey, boy, do you want to try to work it?” the man asks him. “Maybe one day you will become a carpenter like me...we can do a lot of things with wood, you know?”
“You’re right!” the grandfather intervenes, giving him a pat on the back. “You can even use it to heat yourself when it’s too cold!”
“I prefer to make some tools with it, as I can get paid for those!” the man replies, laughing.
Meanwhile, Averus realizes that he is blushing. Darn, so many things he doesn’t know...
Not every boy can become a KNIGHT!
If a boy wants to become a knight, he must first work as a squire to an older knight. It is necessary to practice and to learn how a knight really lives.
At the end of this apprenticeship, the evening before his investiture, the boy is washed and shaved, then is clothed in a white tunic—a symbol of purity—a red cloak (the color of blood that is shed in battle), and black armor.
THE YOUNG MAN MUST BE READY TO FEARLESSLY CHALLENGE EVEN THE MOST FEARSOME ENEMIES.
After praying all night, in the morning he is blessed and can finally be in the presence of the knight to whom he served as squire.
Thus begins the investiture ritual: the knight places a sword three times on the young man’s shoulder, then pronounces the following:
“In the name of God, St. Michael, and St. George, I appoint you a knight.”
Only at this point does the young man officially join the order of the bellatores.
BUT THAT’S JUST THE BEGINNING! A KNIGHT’S LIFE IS VERY HARD AND FULL OF DANGERS...
MONASTERIES
are very important places!
In our monasteries, which are mainly places of prayer, we also welcome pilgrims and assist the poor and the sick. Furthermore, there are schools (for the training of the monks themselves) and markets near the great abbeys.
Among the best-known monasteries are the Benedictine ones. There, the monks’ lives follow a very simple principle, alternating between prayer and work. In fact, the Rule of St. Benedict is “pray and work.”
Our day begins at dawn. We cultivate the fields, which often we have converted from marshy areas, or we work in the workshops, laboratories, and kitchens. We all stop to pray at regular intervals.
Some monks dedicate themselves to a very important activity: copying the current and past manuscripts by hand.
It is a fundamental role, and the monks who do this are called amanuensis, that is, scribes. They work in the scriptorium (the place in the monastery where books are produced), which are usually close to huge and very well-stocked libraries—precious places in every monastery.
THANKS TO THE WORK OF THE SCRIBES, MANY MANUSCRIPTS CAN BE READ EVEN AFTER DECADES AND BEYOND, ASSUMING THAT THEY ESCAPE LOOTINGS AND FIRES.
LET’S PLAY!
We children often play racing games with sticks and barrel hoops, which we roll along the street toward a finishing line, or we have fun with spinning tops.
SOMETIMES WE USE A PIG’S BLADDER THAT WE INFLATE LIKE A BALLOON, OR WE PLAY WITH LITTLE DOLLS, MARBLES, SKITTLES, AND PINWHEELS. WE ALSO REALLY LIKE THE PINATA! WE OFTEN PLAY CHASE AND DO SOMERSAULTS.
Poorer children like me get by however we can. We are used to playing with what we find, such as animal bones and hemp threads.
Rich children, on the other hand, are gifted with miniature wooden horses, built especially for them, or wooden swords with which they play at being knights.
BUT RICH ADULTS PLAY, TOO! THE NOBLES GO HUNTING AND DEVOTE THEMSELVES TO FALCONRY, JOUSTING, AND TOURNAMENTS.
Jacopo Olivieri was born in Verona, Italy, in 1966, and then spent part of his childhood in the Ivory Coast. After deepening his experience as an illustrator, cartoonist, and author of comics, as well as a designer of toys and of costumes and theatrical sets, he has devoted himself to children’s fiction as a translator, editor and, above all, author.
Clarissa Corradin was born in Ivrea, Italy, in 1992. She attended the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Turin, where she specialized in painting and editorial illustration, a field she is particularly passionate about, choosing to link her business to fiction for children and young people.
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Translation: Inga Sempel
Editing: Michele Suchomel-Casey
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First printing, November 2021
ISBN 978-88-544-1825-7
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