THE ICE PICK

The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies. www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/labyrinth-home.html ("old" site) or labyrinth.georgetown.edu (new "improved" site)

This website, sponsored by Georgetown University, is a real heartbreaker. The site comes up quickly, and is easy to navigate. And there is so much fascinating and useful information here, but a plethora of broken links make it one of the most frustrating websites I’ve ever tried to work with. So, I quickly went to their "new and improved" site. In my opinion, the old one is much better, broken links and all. If you know precisely what to ask for, (e.g. "Wharram Percy") or exact terms in a title (e.g. "Medieval village") the new site may help you, but I was unable to find anything useful.

On the old site, the "Labyrinth Library" lists Medieval books and articles from French, Iberian, Italian, Latin, Middle English, or Old English literature, as well as modern articles.

"National Cultures" lists Anglo-Saxon, Byzantium, Celtic, England 1066-1500, France, Germany, Iberia, and Italy. But I must warn you that this is where the problems start.

Seeking information on daily life that I might be able to use in a story, I began with "Anglo-Saxon" and was impressed. It has Manuscripts; Art and Archaeology; Living History; Teaching Resources; links to organizations, journals, and to ORB---the Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies.

If you want to set a story in a Medieval village, "Wharram Percy: A Lost Medieval Village" is a wonderful resource. A description of the valley and the people who lived there, the church, the peasant and manor houses, and a bibliography is accompanied by illustrations and a map showing the land and what the village looked like, plus floor-plans and descriptions of the church, century by century, and an drawing of the interior of a peasant house. It is almost like a pre-fabricated setting, to which you can add your own characters and story.

In "Living History", the "Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Recipes" worked fine. "Clothing" required a short detour. Most of the other links are broken.

"Teaching Resources" had interesting material and may be worth exploring.

The rest of "National Cultures" was disappointing. The link to "Byzantium" was broken. Nor could I find anything for it on the new site. "Celtic" was okay, but all the links within it were broken, as were many under "England 1066-1500."

The link to Wales, however, was wonderful. (Never mind that, technically, Wales isn’t England.) If you’re interested in setting your story in Wales or a Welsh-like world, do check out this link. When I tried "Wales" on the new site, I got nothing.

Most of the links for France, Germany, Iberia, and Italy were either broken or mostly general discussions of those countries in the Middle Ages, but Iberia, for example, on the new site turned up only copies of historical documents.

Under "International Culture," "Archaeology and Cartography" holds the aforementioned "Wharram Percy," and "Arts and Architecture" has a neat "Visual Tour of the Deserted Medieval Armenian City of Ani." Most of the other links unfortunately seem to be broken, as were nearly all the links I tried under Medieval, Religious, and Social History.

"Science," with information on alchemy, falconry and hunting, medicine, etc., was more rewarding. When I searched for "science" on the new site I turned up only something on gargoyles. Nor could I find anything specific, e.g. leprosy.

In "Science," my favorite section was "Medieval Technology," which can help you set a scene, avoid anachronisms, and understand how things worked if you need or want to include them in your story. For example, under "Soap" and "Mirrors" you can find out where they were invented, how they were made, and who used them. Should your hero use liquid or hard soap--or none at all? Should your heroine’s mirror be polished bronze or lead-backed glass? Do you need a description of a Medieval rat trap or how wattle-and-daub was made? Although some of the pages were better than others, there were no broken links, and most of the descriptions, illustrations, and bibliographies for further information, were excellent. Again, I could find nothing comparable on the new site.

This old site has a lot to offer, as, I’m sure does the new site, if I could find any of it, but a major university like Georgetown can do a great deal better than this.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Aug. 2002.}