Monday 23 March 2015

You know how to shoot that thing?

Archery.
Can't write about the history of Medieval England without archery. The nation's been at it's most warlike when archery has been a fashionable pastime. You can argue the point (and please do, that's what the comment box is for) that England's success in medieval overseas conflict went into decline as the bow itself declined in popularity.
Young people stopped shooting, and so didn't grow up to keep shooting all over Christendom

With archery popular at the same time that the early Robin Hood ballads were popular it's no surprise that the outlaws were depicted as archers. These were songs and plays for pubs. If the sport of the day had been football, they would have been footballers.
In the ballads, archery is used more as a sporting contest than deadly combat. Hood rarely shoots it out with an enemy, and rarely kills with the bow. Most of the time Hood and his opponent set a wand in the ground and shoot at this, with the winner being he that shoots closest.
Violence, when it happens in the poems is usually settled with swords.

Now personally, I've ignored this 'sportsmanlike' behaviour in my own novel. Looking at it with an ex-copper's set of eyes, the average bloke in 12C England had a social (and later, legal) obligation to practice with a bow, and often, a need to steal to feed himself.
It's the equivalent of every single person being trained to shoot, and having a gun in their home, but not enough money to eat.
Of course those bows are going to get used for violence.

side note - The practice of shooting at wands is pretty common in the ballads. It bears a striking similarity to 'clout archery'; shooting at pennants still practiced today.

I'm interested in the idea that archery is on the rise again. 

It's getting popular.
It's attracting attention.
Lets just keep it sportsmanlike though, eh?


As a parting shot, take a look at http://markstretton.blogspot.co.uk/ (see the note in the sidebar) on differences between modern shooting technique and medieval stance and draw, and the incredible 200lb draw bow!

-Tom

Sunday 22 March 2015

Kirklees Priory - an Extract from Cutthroat.

'Cutthroat', was my first full-length book. It's something I threw together as a re-imagining of the Robin Hood ballads, portraying Hood as an enterprising career criminal on the way up. 
I re-wrote the plotlines from the Robin Hood ballads to correspond to the attitudes of the violent criminals I saw in my time as a police officer.
This extract (Chapter 10 of the book) is a reworking of  'Robin Hood and Alan Adale' into a heist, or a rescue, or a kidnapping (depending on your point of view). 


No heroes here; just half a plan and half a chance...getting worse with every line. 


It's in 'Sample Scribblings' (over on the right). 
Take a look, and if you want to, leave a comment, like or share. 
-Tom







photo by Roy Smallpage

Saturday 21 March 2015

World Poetry Day - One from the Vault.

You would be forgiven for thinking that Additional MS. 27879 doesn't sound like an inspiring title for anything to do with World Poetry Day.

It refers to a near forgotten manuscript in the British Library's vast collection, just 520 or so pages (many of them worn so thin as to be illegible).
Known as the Percy folio, it contains about two hundred stories and ballads, written in the mid 1600's, describing tales and events stretching back to the mid 12th century.

They tell of Robin Hood.

Despite many of the original pages having been damaged through faulty binding, the ravages of time, or their original owner using them to light fires with, not all the stories were lost. fragments of 8 ballads remained, and it was these that formed the basis for the later, lighter, and altogether more pleasant stories of the 1883 collection by American scholar Francis James Child.
One of the original surviving ballads deals with the death of Robin Hood at what was probably Kirklees Priory, but notably, the death scene is one of the damaged pages, ending halfway through Robin's Plea to Little John:

And sett my bright sword at my head,
Mine arrowes at my feete,
And lay my yew-bow by my side,
My <and there is no more>

Though we're faced with the absence of a confirmed kill in the ballad ( though one is added later by Child) the prose does at least lead us to Kirklees priory.
It's there in the grounds, on a grave where we can find our verse for #WorldPoetryDay.


"Ne'er an archer was as him so good
And people called him Robin Hood.
Such Outlaws as he and his men
Will England never see again."


No Truce in Old Age

I've uploaded an old backstory piece to the blog and thrown it into the 'Sample Scribblings' section (over on the right).

'No Truce in Old Age' was written for a group of Norse Historical Roleplayers who wanted a quick and dirty backstory to provide a shared history for the group.
The woman who leads them is fierce, wild and more than a little bit like Aude the Deep Minded (who I mentioned in an earlier post).
They wanted a grim little tale of shieldwalls and viking-era violence. Nothing complicated or clever, just a violent scrum, scribbled by a guy who knows what it's like to stand in one


Take a look in 'Sample Scribblings' on the right, and share it if you like it.
-Tom








photo by Roy Smallpage

Foresters miniseries

I'll  be breaking ground on a new project - a bit of fun I'm calling 'Foresters' while I'm hunting for a literary agent.
It's an episodic miniseries featuring a grubby trio of Nottingham lawmen, working one of Norman England's most dangerous beats.

I feel the sudden need to mention that it is 
in no way a thinly veiled ramble through some of my own police experiences, seen through a flimsy historical filter (no, wait, that's exactly what it is).

coming soon.
-Tom

Friday 20 March 2015

it doesn't just filter robots...

While posting up a few blogs by people that I've found helpful or inspiring I just had to include a link to the incredibly talented Lars Brownworth.

I've enjoyed his blog; Finding History, and his podcasts on the Norman Era for a long time.
I went there looking for inspiration for Norse reenactment a couple of years back, and I'll say that even if your thing is historical fiction or fantasy, over say, an actual history book, you can't fail to be entertained.
'Sea Wolves' is a great look at some of the better - and lesser - known characters from the era, and features one my favourites, Aude the deep minded, who ranks as one of the most interesting women of the age.
After her husband (who happened to be the viking king of Dublin) went back to the mud (to borrow from Abercrombie) she gave the concept of re-marriage the finger, led an army of terrifying Vikings and went off to put half of Scotland to the sword. So fierce was she, Brownworth writes that she was given a full viking ship funeral, the only women ever recorded as being honoured with one.

Funny thing: I meant to leave a comment on Lars' website today, and prepared to fill in the contact form.
I braced myself for the usual captcha form to filter out the robots, only to find that it doesn't just filter robots.
Instead I got five cryptic thumbnails and the instruction
'click on the Mosaic of Justinian to submit'
Well played sir, well played.

So do take a look.
The blog is in the sidebar, or at http://larsbrownworth.com/blog/

Thursday 19 March 2015

First Shot.

Hello and welcome, you found us alright then?
Come in, close the door, keep the forest out there.
This is my blog, it's a place for rambling and writing, for a loving look at all things from the late 12C, for medieval Archery, and of course: crime. Take a look around, get comfortable.

If you stumbled here from facebook, or twitter you probably know I used to be a police officer, working on an ordinary inner-city response team, where I learned more about violent crime (particularly robbery) than anyone probably should.
When I came out of the service I had a LOT of holiday owed. The concept of a 'disciplined service' means they can order you to work if needed, and they were a bit shortstaffed back then. I'm pretty sure the longest stretch was 28 days on, 2 days off (ouch).
Anyway, I left with a load of leave owed, so I did what any right-thinking person with a couple of months to spare would do. I wrote a book.

___________________________________


Someone once told me to only write about the things I knew best.

During my time in time in the force, I saw firsthand how the most successful criminals learned their trade; how they came up from nothing and carved out their little empires.For them, crime wasn't an image or a lifestyle accessory, it was their life. They were the career criminals, making banditry into a business. I've also seen that even the best of them fail when they get too famous to ignore; then the door crashes inwards and the response team burst in shouting “Down down down”.

As a dark-ages re-enactor and historical roleplayer I've also spent two decades wearing very different bodyarmour; slogging about the woods of England in chainmail, with a bow or a blade.
With a little research, anyone can write convincingly about a arrow or a helmet, but if your hobby is camping and fighting for up to ten days at a stretch with nothing invented after 1200AD, you come away with firsthand knowledge of the microdetail of day to day life in another time. You learn the things you need to get by in that world, like how to scrub the rust out of armour (put it in a bag with sand and vinegar and kick it for an hour) or how to site a campfire that can’t be spotted at night (always useful when the other side are better armed than you are).

So returning to that advice I was given; what do you write that first book about when your sole areas of expertise are crime and medieval living?

Robin Hood, clearly.

'Cutthroat', is a re-imagining of the Robin Hood ballads, portraying Hood as an enterprising career criminal on the way up.
I've re-written plotlines from a fistful of the Robin Hood ballads: Robin and the Forester, Robin and the Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood and Alan Adale as a violent tale of banditry in lawless 12C England mashed up with the gallows-humour of my police days.
The book asks 'what would these guys have been like if they were actually Norman era armed robbers, rather than Disney characters'
Let's look at that old cliché; ‘robbing from the rich to give to the poor’. In my time as a police officer I never once saw the hardened blagger give up his piece of the score to the poor and the needy, however, a robbery suspect on the run will bribe, buy gifts, and outright pay people for a place to stay until the heat dies down.
That’s a plausible reason why our gang of cutthroats would give stolen coins to common folk: for a place to stay where the Law isn't welcome. That’s a believable ‘truth’ behind the ballads and legends.

No glory, no golden arrows, no heroes; just bad men doing bad things and trying to stay a jump ahead of the law.
___________________________________


So yeah, I wrote a book, and now I can't stop.
I'll talk a bit about that, and about writing in general on the blog, but I'm mainly planning to use this dark corner of the interwebs to post notes and ramblings about aspects of medieval life, along with aspects of Nottingham, Robin Hood, or the history of the 12th and early 13th century.

I'll also be writing and posting an episodic miniseries called 'Foresters', featuring a grubby trio of Nottingham lawmen, working one of Norman England's most dangerous beats. I feel the sudden need to mention that it is in no way a thinly veiled ramble through some of my own police experiences, seen through a flimsy historical filter (no, wait, that's exactly what it is).

Finally I'll point my pen at anything else that has even a passing relevance to the fairly broad topic of writing about bastards...

...hopefully you enjoy reading about them.

-Tom