Medieval Journal

1130 A.D. Week 1

I am a peasant serving for my lord and some may call me a serf. Today was just like any other day. I farmed all day on the manor and kept myself at work until the sun came down. When the day is done, my family comes home and has a normal dinner. I have a family of two sons and a wife. My wife is a very hard worker and I lover her to death. The same goes for my two sons. My wife’s name is Mary and my two sons are John and Henry. John is ten years old and my eldest son Henry is fifteen. They too are very helpful. As we came home, we were all exhausted and after we ate, we went straight to sleep until sunrise. My name is Anthony Williams and this is my life.

1130 A.D. Week 2

There are only a few more weeks until planting season. My family and I started to get our equipment ready and left them out in the shed until they are used. Our lord has ordered us to build a fence around the western side of the manor. We had only gotten about a fourth of the fence done when we had to stop and eat our afternoon lunch. Carrots were today’s goods. While I ate, Henry decided to go on and do more work on the fence. While he was there, he tripped on a solid object and slit his finger off a sharp edge on the fence. The blood was dripping drastically. I brought him back to our hut and washed his wound out with water and wrapped it with straw. I called out Mary and John to come back home and wait for tomorrow to finish the fence. 

1130 A.D. Week 3

One week away from planting season and we still have a bridge to rebuild. Mary and I worked on one side and my other two sons worked on the other. Fortunately the two sides were still held together by a hair. The wood was replaced with thicker, more firm pieces of lumber. Only one side was finished, which was mine and Mary’s. After lunch, we all worked on the other side which was a little more challenging because of the thickness of the wood. The sunset came around the same time we finished with the bridge. When my family and I came home, we found out that five of our pigs have been slaughtered by mad wolves. There were blood strains everywhere and we spent half of the night cleaning up.  

1130 A.D. Week 4

Today is the first day of planting season. The goal of the day was to plant as many seeds as we can and to plow the remaining soil. My children were to plant the seeds while Mary and I plowed the rest of the soil. While I drove the ox-driven plow, my wife guided the ox with a sharp stick. Since we were late on schedule, our meal time was cut short today. The plowing has almost finished but the seed planting has gone a little slow because John and Henry were messing around. I yelled at them and ordered them to get back to work. I might have been a little harsh but they needed discipline and that is what they got. Only half of today’s work was done and tomorrow we would have to move more quickly in order to meet our lord’s needs.

1130 A.D. Week 5

Today is a good day. My family and I took the day off to join the festival we had today. We mainly rested and joined our friends in conversations. The children played ball games and some watched entertaining wrestling matches. My wife and I enjoyed the dancing that was provided. The music was very enjoyable. I also played a little bit of the sport games they provided. Although my team lost, we all enjoyed our free time and relaxed the whole day. At night, there was roasted chicken which we rarely eat. The food was delicious ant made our stomachs very full. My family came back to our hut and started getting ready for the next day of hard work.

1130 A.D. Week 6

Our lord today has given us orders to build extra roads to different parts of the manor. These roads took a lot of work and everyone had to work hard in order to get the job done. I told my John and Henry that there were no slacking off today and if they were, they would be punished. First we took rocks and stones to give a pathway to the direction we wanted. The objects were to be carefully placed in order for it to not stick out sharp edges. This definitely took the whole day. Before the day’s end, we laid dirt to cover the road. This gave a better support in holding the road together. As a result of our hard work, the lord rewarded us to have the rest of tomorrow off as soon as the road is done, which should only take the morning. My children were very happy and I told them that they were not needed for tomorrow and that they can sleep longer. The looks on their faces said everything.

1130 A.D. Week 7

John has fallen very sick today and I decided to have Mary stay home with him while Henry and I work for the day. My wife provided John with a warm cloth over his for head and sat by him the whole day. Henry and I worked on watering the plants that have just started to grow. Some have even grown fruit and vegetables. They may be small but this gave me a sense of relief that our hard work is going to pay off in the winter. I watered one part of the manor while Henry did another. Since today’s work did not take as much time, Henry and I got home before noon. We all sat besides John and prayed that he would be okay.

1130 A.D. Week 8

Amazingly today John is feeling much better considering he was deadly sick last week. This made my family relieved that John will be better. John took his day to rest until he has fully recovered while the rest of my family worked. Today was very warm. We constantly kept drinking water to keep us hydrated and to keep us from getting sick. This made our work progress a little bit slower. Although it was extremely hot, our lord ordered us to keep working in order for us to survive during the cold winter. After the sunset, my family decided to sleep outdoors and this made us feel a little cooler than sleeping in our heated huts.

1130 A.D. Week 9

One week before Easter and our work is fortunately on schedule. This should give us enough time to get ready for our grandest holiday. Work still had to be done though, so my family and I kept on farming and later we found out that some of the fruits were being eaten tiny insects. We had to re-water the plants so that the bugs get washed off. This added more work for today but the thought of Easter coming soon motivated us to work as hard as we could. The water not only gave us more work but helped us be more prepared for more insects to come. The sooner we know if the plants are being eaten, the sooner we can fix it. As the long day went on, we finally finished our watering and went back home and we all thought of Easter coming.

1130 A.D. Week 10

Today is a special day. Easter is celebrated today and everyone including our lord has the day off. Firs we went to church and joined in the prayers that were said and thought of. After, there was a huge feast given and we all sat together to celebrate this great day of Jesus. Today was also a day of rest from all the hard work we have done and to commute with our neighboring people. The lord was enjoying his feast and he was also entertained by the music and dancing. Before the day end, there was still rest given that we had the whole week off. Without hesitation, my family and I came home to enjoy the rest of the night and we looked forward on our weekend off.