Medieval Myths and Makings

The Middle Ages, a time period from 500 to 1000 AD, was a rather gloomy time in history. In the unit we’ve been working for quite a while (Stitch in Time; Feudalism to Nation States), the lessons went through time with the driving question “How did the Crusades stimulate cultural, social, and political change for both the Western and Eastern worldviews?”. Along learning history, the class also read a novel from the age (The Book of the Lion), following a young boy on his Crusader journey. As every other unit, there would be a final project. Focusing on storytelling and myths, the project was for each group in the class to make a quilt that told a story from the crusades we wrote.

Lessons started with the fall of Rome, taking off where grade seven history ended. Through a mix of economical crises, the empire crumpled while other groups of people grew. We did a class activity where three groups got assigned either the Vikings, Anglo-saxons, or the Franks and had to pose in a scene that showed how they contributed to the fall of Rome. 

A couple lessons were spent on myths, and the power they have in our cultures. Even though myths are stories, they are an elaborated truth, so we had a discussion on History vs. Myth about Robin Hood. The class then went back to learning about Medieval society. The three F’s of the Feudal system (the way society worked) were fief, fealty, and faith. Fief was land controlled by the wealthy, fealty was the obligation workers had to the landowners to work and faith was their devotion to Christianity. The power in the Middle Ages was headed by the Pope, the the king, filled by nobles, knights, and finally serfs/workers. Knights were supposed to be the chivalrous men who fought in the Hundred Years’ War. 

Going back to the myths side of this unit, I learned some important things about the heroes we read in myths and stories. The main idea, taken from Joseph Campbell’s “The Power of Myth” is that all heroes follow a similar journey. Reading some Ancient Greek and English myths showed that this was quite true. Now that our groups had some background knowledge, we could start making our own myth that would end up on our quilt. My group consisted of Jordyn, Emerson, and Caleb. We did so much drafting and planning out for our story. The story had to be based on the Crusades, with one side of the quilt being a crusader and the other being a Muslim, and they had to be connected in some way. The quilt was two-sided, one story on each.

To be accurate in our story telling, the class needed to know about the crusades. We read some primary sources (first-hand accounts of events) as well as continuing in with our novel study that followed a young crusader. I thought the author did a good job of explaining what it may have been like in the Middle Ages. 

Going back to the quilt side of this project, Ms. Willemse showed us some example quilts along with symbols that would help us put our story into six pictures. We also took a small trip to a nearby art gallery, the Gordon Smith, because they had an exhibit on First Nations art. They’re very good at putting stories into art, and gave us inspiration while we looked around. Having reached the point where our stories were done, it was time to start drawing out the quilt squares. This took quite awhile, and a few drafts, but soon enough we finished the good copies. 

The last bit of this unit was spent reading and talking about trade leading to towns. Everyone made a visual that displayed this idea through a couple drafts and critiques. To finish off the learning there was a reading on how Feudalism ended. My group continued to put the finishing touches on our quilt, and then we were done!

There was a fair bit of switching around during this unit, however the pieces all fit together in the end. I extensively learned about heroes, myths, and followed the timeline of the Middle Ages while making a story-telling quilt. It’s a good thing that the next unit would start right where this one ended…