Greetings. This week's link are all about children: toys for children, games for children, books for children, and articles and books about children in the middle ages and renaissance. I hope you enjoy this links list. Feel free to pass them along to anywhere they will find an audience and feel free to update YOUR links lists if you so choose. Cheers Aoife Call for Papers: Medieval Children's Literature http://www.english.upenn.edu/CFP/archive/1998-06/0073.html Medieval Costumes paper Dolls (A book) http://www.alude.com/books/itm0486289257.htm Medieval Castle and Knights (pirates, dragons, play sets, etc.) http://www.toyknights.com/ Toy Castles and Accessories (siege engines!) http://shop.store.yahoo.com/toysoldier/castles.html Medieval Knights (for gaming) made in Novgorod (Shop is in PA) http://www.the-toy-soldier.com/knights.htm Medieval Children (a book review) http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0206/reviews/allen.html (Site Excerpt) Nicholas Orme, a professor of history at Exeter University in Great Britain, has published more than a dozen books about ordinary life in the Middle Ages. His latest one, Medieval Children, is a delightfully encyclopedic survey of everything imaginable concerning young people from birth to adolescence during a time span extending from the Anglo-Saxon era until the sixteenth century: toys, games, church-going, family life, education, jobs, even fickle teenage crushes.......Medieval Children contains one hundred twenty-five illustrations, most in color, most taken from manuscripts. Many represent adults' loving views of children just having fun: boys spinning tops, or egging on a cockfight, girls taking in a puppet show, adolescents wrestling, a toddler manipulating a surprisingly modern-looking walker. Adults made ingenious toys for youngsters: hobbyhorses, toy knights, dolls, dollhouse-size plates and candlesticks, marbles, balls, board games, puppets, chessmen and dice, pint-sized lances and bows and arrows. A 1559 painting by Pieter Bruegel that adorns the cover of Orme's book depicts seventy-five different children's games, including hoop-rolling, swimming, wrestling, and handstands. The Original Renaissance Teddy Bear Company http://www.orenco.net/ Stefan's Florilegium: Period and SCA toys http://www.florilegium.org/files/CHILDREN/toys-msg.html (Site Excerpt of one message of a great many) There's a 1560 painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder which shows all kinds of recognizable games, and some involve equipment--tops, knuckle bones, hoops, a couple of different propeller toys (one to pull a string and have it fly up, one on a stick, like a windmill, so that if the child runs along it will turn in the wind (like a pinwheel, but only two vanes, and the stick mounted straight on and held horizontally, rather than perpendicular as our modern pinwheels). There are stilts, balls, baskets, a sack of something hanging from a stick (you'd have to see the picture to appreciate this one). They're playing with brooms (as horses, balancing them on their fingers), there's a fancy stick horse with reins, dolls (doll furniture is shown), masks, caps, blindfolds, they're tumbling and doing handstands, swimming, climbing trees, playing on a pile of dirt (king of the mountain), they're playing leap frog, buck-buck, they've dressed one little girl like a queen and are having a processional with smaller girls throwing petals from a basket out front... There's lots more. It's worth trying to buy a large print of this painting if you're intending to pursue this seriously. Medieval and Renaissance Games http://jducoeur.org/game-hist/ A comprehensive site that lists a great many historical games, their rules, how to set them up, etc.(Site Excerpt from the Bibliography Section) Justin's Games Bibliography This file is an ongoing, and probably ever-growing project. It is simply a place where I record my notes on books that I am coming across, as I think of them. It may, in time, get merged together with other bibliographies to become The Mother Of All Period Game Bibliographies -- but not today. (Note, after this paragraph there follow 56 items in the bibliography, each with extensive notes and some with large quoted sections, which very well may be The Mother Of All Period Games :) MOAS Atlantia Games, Toys, and Past-times http://moas.atlantia.sca.org/topics.htm Toys excavated from a Carmelite friary at Esslingen http://home.bawue.de/~wmwerner/essling/english/karmel08.html (Site Excerpt) Typically for an urban excavation, a large amount of medieval toys were found, which came from the Carmelites neighbours along the stream, not from the friary itself. This complex included the characteristic ceramic puppets, horses and miniature pots, along with several rarities, including a child's rattle in the form of a bird (cockerel?). Pastimes of the Viking & Anglo-Saxon Age http://www.regia.org/pastimes.htm Despite the full agricultural year that most people faced, there was always time for folk to partake in games, challenges, tests of skill and general larking about. These sorts of things are often festival based, but not exclusively. Gatherings at cattle markets, large social events such as weddings, were also an excuse for the competitive and those of the gambling persuasion to exercise their skills. If there were those who were prepared to take part, then there were always those who were prepared to bet on the outcome. An article on Hopscotch by Dagonnel the Juggler http://www-cs.canisius.edu/~salley/Articles/hopscotch.html (Site Excerpt) Hopscotch began in ancient Britain during the early Roman Empire. The original hopscotch courts were over 100 feet long and used for military training exercises. Roman foot-soldiers ran the course in full armor and field packs to improve their footwork, much the same way modern football players run through rows of truck tires today. Roman children drew their own smaller courts in imitation of the soldiers, added a scoring system and "Hopscotch" spread throughout Europe. The word "London" is often written at the top of hopscotch courts to make the court reminiscent of the Great North Road, a 400 mile Roman road from Glasgow to London frequently used by the Roman military. What types of games did the Vikings Play? (Viking Answer Lady) http://www.vikinganswerlady.org/games.htm (Site Excerpt) The Vikings had a great many amusements, from very physical sports such as footracing, swimming, wrestling and skiing, to horse fighting, playing a game very like the Scottish sport of curling, and several board games. The most useful of these for the snow-bound will of course be the board games, so herewith I shall tell you more about them. Read on... Rules for Medieval Games http://www.tarahill.com/instruct.html (Site Excerpt) Tafl (pronounced TAH-bl) dates back to before 400 AD, and was played throughout Scandinavia, Iceland, Germany, England, Wales and Ireland. It remained popular until the 17th. century, when it was gradually supplanted by chess. The word tafl is probably derived from the Latin tabula, which also referred to a board game. The game was also sometimes called hnefatafl, meaning 'king's table'. The Online Guide to Traditional Games http://www.tradgames.org.uk/ (Site Excerpt) The histories of all the major board games played today from all over the world. Including Western board games favourites like Chess (descended from Shaturanga), Draughts (descended from Alquerque), the ancient Egyptian game of Nine Mens Morris and Backgammon (descended from Senat) and childrens favourites Snakes and Ladders, and Chinese Checkers (a modern version of Halma). Just as importantly, games which are even more popular but less well known in the West such as Go, Shogi, Chinese Chess, Mancala and Pachisi (Ludo). Plus some unusual games like the ancient Norse game of Tafl, the Madagascan game of Fanorona and some really ancient games like the Royal games found at Ur. The Medieval Child: an Unknown Phenomenon http://orb.rhodes.edu/non_spec/missteps/Ch6.html (Site Excerpt) It seems inconceivable that, in a period when the most popular image was that of the Madonna and Child, there was little or no understanding of or affection for children in everyday life, yet such is the popular misconception about medieval childhood. Herstmonceaux Medieval Castle Image Bank: Medieval Children http://www.herstmonceux.com/medieval/image-bank/medieval-children/ Medieval Children's Fun Site http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/josephscastle/ The Children's Crusade http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1212pueri.html (Site Excerpt) The "Crusade" was preached in France by a peasant boy named Stephen from a village near Vendome. In Germany, a boy named Nicholas from Cologne started the movement . The sorry business was summarized by a chronicler in these terms: In this year occurred an outstanding thing and one much to be marveled at, for it is unheard of throughout the ages. About the time of Easter and Pentecost,4 without anyone having preached or called for it and prompted by I know not what spirit, many thousands of boys, ranging in age from six years to full maturity, left the plows or carts which they were driving, the flocks which they were pasturing, and anything else which they were doing. This they did despite the wishes of their parents, relatives, and friends who sought to make them draw back. Suddenly one ran after another to take the cross. Children's Medieval Historical Fiction ( Book List) http://hallkidshistory.com/history_historical_fiction/16.shtml 92 books are listed of varying reading levels. Free Educational project: Build a Medieval Castle http://hallkidshistory.com/history_historical_fiction/16.shtml (Site Excerpt) Free educational software. Build your own medieval castle, complete with towers, gatehouse and keep. To understand how an army lay siege to a castle, how a castle was defended, or what it might be like to live in a castle (though this varied by who you were) -- build a model castle.