Mind-Travelling

by

Gillian Polack

Not all the books we ought to read were published this year or will be published next year. Some of them were published a little while ago. Not all academic books are stuffy and need to remain the quiet joy of the specialist reader. I was recently reminded of both these points.

When I was in Leeds (I like saying that, it makes me feel all kinds of journeyed—Leeds is a long way from Canberra) I was talking to a bunch of people about the importance of knowing when works cross these various boundaries and about reviewing. We all kept coming back to the fact that some academic books that have a wider appeal also often have a longer research shelf-life than their popular equivalents. One of the people I chatted with was on the Boydell and Brewer stand and he instantly handed me a book off that stand (a review copy) as proof positive of the crossover between the scholarly and the stuff of wider interest. It also turned out to be the perfect example of an older book that is just as interesting now as when it was hot off the press.

I knew it in its first incarnation. Norbert Ohler’s The Medieval Traveller was a rare overview that kept its historical and teaching values, while being enormously useful as a source of information on travel in the Middle Ages. Also, it was easy to read. The new edition consists of a long extra chapter added to the end of this first incarnation. Let me explain why this book is as important now as it was when it first came out. Let me first, though, enjoy it. That’s the thing about books published by academic presses—they are just as much for enjoyment as any other book. Enjoyment and learning and cool history in one neat little pack.

Norbert Ohler’s The Medieval Traveller is a rare book in that it’s easily accessible to an audience that’s interested in the Middle Ages but not necessarily well-acquainted with it. It covers a vast range of territory, from tides and currents through to sending messages and finding places to stay. It’s not definitive. Not even with the new chapter is it definitive. This is because in crossing normal scholarly boundaries, in bringing together a vast range of material, it can’t cover everything, perfectly. It’s as close to definitive as a work on the subject can be, however, given our current state of knowledge, and it’s head and shoulders above other accessible works on travelling in the Middle Ages.

I would like to read the German update (I would like my German to be good enough) for the new chapter in the new version suggests that Ohler has taken great advantage of recent research and has done a very solid revision. What we have in the English updated version are some extra pages. Quite a few very good extra pages, but still, they tantalise. They make me want to see the whole book revised. Comparing the new to the old, however, the new is a distinct improvement. Those extra pages sum up a lot of the new research in the field, succinctly and straightforwardly. Because it’s added on at the end, however, you have to read the whole book to understand it: those extra pages do not really stand alone.

All this is clear. A good book, where the updated version is, lo, more up to date than the older version. No surprises. What’s interesting, however, about this book is just how useful it could be to different groups of people. This is where it crosses the scholarly/general public divide.

For writers like me (putting on my science fiction and fantasy hat for a moment) it’s a very useful tool for world-building. Good speculative fiction often has worlds so carefully pieced together that the reader accepts them as real. Good historical fiction often has times and places to carefully put together that readers accept them as real. Thought and preparation and careful writing go into creating these worlds. It’s easier for the writer to put in that thought and preparation when there are good reference books to lean upon for the development of a place and of a time.

If one wants to write a journey into a novel, there is information on currency, on places to stay (a whole chapter on hospitality and inns, covering such crucial questions as how external pressure developed into travel lodgings for Jews, how religious hospitality operated in monasteries, and some of the evidence we have for inns and their operation), on communications, on costs. It doesn’t answer every possible question, but it does give a summary of what we know about a number of key details of the Middle Ages that often get used in fantasy and historical world building. If Ohler’s book were used by a clever writer, could save months of research.

Let me change hats. My teaching hat says that I need books to use in class. Books that are affordable and that contain a broad enough range of information so that students don’t have to buy a hundred expensive books on a subject to cover three classes worth of work. I took my Ohler into class and tested it. I was able to open the table of contents and list key factors that the students need to take into account: seasons, reason for travel, accommodation, travel by land, travel by sea, travel by inland waterways, travel conditions, local law and more. So it’s handy. It’s more handy on travel than on why people travel, but the arrangement of the chapters was good for teaching and the class enjoyed the book. Most importantly, it made sense to them. The language is accessible.

Historical recreation and re-enactment groups—for them (I don’t have a re-enactment hat, sorry), Ohler can save a lot of time and effort, for they have their own version of world-building. The world built is quite different to that of a novelist, but it entails some of the same research and has quite specific needs. It talks about who travels and why, for instance, which would be very helpful in establishing a persona.

And just dreaming. I do have a dreaming hat, and my dreaming hat says that this is the Middle Ages we dream about, turned into reality. It’s a handbook on a very solid aspect of history, and one that has the same appeal as the Middle Ages themselves— it’s just a bit foreign, and just a bit familiar.

While I would still like to see that complete translation of the new and revised German version of The Medieval Traveller, the new English edition is a wonderful example of an older book that still has a lot of uses and should definitely not be forgotten.

Books mentioned in this column:
The Medieval Traveller by Norbert Ohler (Boydell Press, 2010) 

Gillian Polack is based in Canberra, Australia. She is mainly a writer, editor and educator. Her most recent print publications are a novel (Life through Cellophane, Eneit Press, 2009), an anthology (Masques, CSfG Publishing, 2009, co-edited with Scott Hopkins), two short stories and a slew of articles. Her newest anthology is Baggage, published by Eneit Press (2010).One of her short stories won a Victorian Ministry of the Arts award a long time ago, and three have (more recently) been listed as recommended reading in international lists of world's best fantasy and science fiction short stories. She received a Macquarie Bank Fellowship and a Blue Mountains Fellowship to work on novels at Varuna, an Australian writers' residence in the Blue Mountains. Gillian has a doctorate in Medieval history from the University of Sydney. She researches food history and also the Middle Ages, pulls the writing of others to pieces, is fascinated by almost everything, cooks and etc. Currently she explains 'etc' as including Arthuriana, emotional cruelty to ants, and learning how not to be ill. She is the proud owner of some very pretty fans, a disarticulated skull named Perceval, and 6,000 books. Contact Gillian.