Medieval Research (for historical fantasy)

Image credit: https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2017/04/chaucer-hitteth-the-web.html--though the actual picture isn't from a copy of the Canterbury Tales, but a piece of fan-fiction--well, sorta. As the article says, "John Lydgate was such a super-fan of Chaucer that in his poem, The Siege of Thebes, he imagines himself bumping into the Canterbury Tales pilgrims on their road to Canterbury. This is Lydgate bumping into Chaucer's pilgrims, from 'The Siege of Thebes', by John Lydgate, Royal MS 18 D II, f. 148r

Pseudo-medievalism that simply reinforces misconceptions about the historical middle Ages has really annoyed me, and I tend to make my "medievalish" fantasy mirror the actual world in the details of daily life and culture more often than not. 

For that purpose:

(This post will probably eventually fractalize, but until then it'll just keep getting lots of updates.)

Names:

Update: I've found much more reliable and authentic sourcing for names: 

For really digging into medieval names, this is a very thorough site:

https://www.s-gabriel.org/names/index.shtml --has links to actual contemporary records (like this 13th-century Parisian census), organized by culture and time (more generally), here.

And then you can go look up the meanings and variations in this extensive dictionary drawn from real medieval sources (with references!) that includes the history of each name, when, where, and what variations have been used: https://dmnes.org/names

Medieval treatment of wounds:

https://www.quora.com/How-were-battle-wounds-treated-during-the-Middle-Ages

Medieval pilgrimages:

https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/pilgrimages-holy-land-and-communities-holy-land

Getting to the Holy Land overland was about 1500+ miles (from Paris to Jerusalem is about the same as LA to DC), and took months (going 25 miles a day, 60 days). They often began traveling in the spring with the hope of making it back before winter.  

Overland was more dangerous, especially after the Turks, in the 12th century, took over many of the areas crossed (eastern Europe to kingdom of Hungary and the Balkans, to Constantinople, to Anatolia, a region in western Asia Minor, and over the Taurus Mountains to Antioch, a Syrian seaport at the extreme northeastern tip of the Mediterranean Sea. From there they would proceed down the eastern coast of the Mediterranean through western Syria to Palestine and on to Jerusalem). 

And then the dangers: 

"A spring snowstorm could blow up, rivers could rise above their banks during the spring thaw, and bridges were often weakened by the ravages of winter. Whatever route they took, pilgrims confronted the danger of injury or illness, and many arrived in the Holy Land sick or exhausted from the journey. Some ran out of money. A drought during the summer could make food scarce, thereby causing it to become more expensive to purchase. Those who traveled by sea also had a long and difficult journey. Storms at sea could capsize the ships and send pilgrims to their deaths.

One constant danger was bandits. Pilgrims were easy targets, for they typically traveled with few defenses, although a nobleman and his companions might be armed, and prosperous merchants sometimes hired armed guards. Bandits knew that the pilgrims carried money and luxury goods to trade for food and other supplies along the way, and many robbers made a good living off them. Matters were no easier at sea. Pilgrim ships were frequently the prey of pirates, and the commanders of these ships had to go out of their way to avoid areas where pirates were known to lurk.

Another problem related to banditry was extortion. Along the way, local landowners and even entire villages demanded "toll" money for safe passage. Anyone who resisted paying the toll might be killed or at least mugged for money. In the Alps many local nobles held bridges and demanded a toll from pilgrims before allowing them to cross."