Medieval Maps

Woo! You know this is bound to be an exciting post, right? Well, it is.

Traveling around in medieval Europe could not have been a fun thing...even the word travel comes from the French "travail," which we still use in English to indicate a suffering in labor. Mothers, you know what I'm talking about...better than I do. The Old English word for going around is "faran," which has a friendlier ring...imagine that. We still use it in a phrase like "fare you well," and it seems I've heard people ask me "So, how'd you fare?" and so on, but "travel" replaced "faran" as the more common usage quite a long time ago. (I don't think "far" is from the same word, but I'm not sure. In OE, it's "feorr.") I've thought a few times that, for those crazed Germanic raiders, it was easier to sail the ol' Channel, spoil the island, carry some stuff back or maybe settle down--easier to do that than actually, you know, build roads and stuff. Just use the old Roman ones, if you need 'em.

Anyway, there really weren't any road maps back in, say, the 14th century, and there really wasn't any reliable way to get from here to there, unless you were going by sea. Seems strange, doesn't it? The sea is a fickle, violent thing, and it has no landmarks, because...it's...well...not land. What it does have is skymarks. Stars, you know. If you think about it, you can be more familiar with the rhythms of the sky and sail by that really anywhere, so long as your vessel holds together and you keep yourself supplied. I know some sailor'll read this and be like, "Arrr! Ye keep barkin' up barnicles, an' Ah'll have te give ye the keel haul!" Well, don't do that. I'm not saying sailing is easy; I'm saying travelling around medieval Europe was rough. So, get off my back, sailor.

At the time, maps were products of artistic ingenuity, works of intellect and book learning, because real travelling was travail: "The world is thus and so, and therefore obviously it must be shaped thus and so." Not exactly what we think of as scientific. But maps weren't really meant as road guides. For example, there was a map in the 14th century (the mappa mundi at Hereford Cathedral, pictured above) which showed Scotland as an island. Now, Scotland is not an island, nor would any Englishman (or Scot, though he might wish it) believe that Scotland was an island. The "map" represented an abstract political idea, and thus it was meant as an intellectual guide rather than a travel guide.

Completely fascinating. Admit it. Do it. Right now. Admit your fascination to the computer screen, and I'll catch the vibes.