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I have been researching medieval dances this week, as it turns out that Benedict, the protagonist in my 13 century novel, has an aptitude for dance – who knew! (Neither he or I did until I got to that scene in the book)

As we medieval history fans are well aware, sources for many medieval facets of life are limited and fragmentary, and of course this is the case for examples of dances. There are patchy references, and texts are alluded to, but not much more than that. The best examples seem to be depicted in paintings. However, we do know that medieval dance can be split into two categories, one being court dance and one country dance. 

The most common dances of the period are the carole, the jig, the egg dance, the quadrille, morris dancing, country dancing and May pole dancing.

The scene in the book requires an element of comedy, as well as being Benedict’s first performance as a skilled dancer. On first investigations I liked the sound of the egg dance, until it clicked that this was probably a seasonal dance, and it was. It was a traditional Easter game involving the laying down of eggs on the ground and dancing among them whilst trying to break as few as possible. 

The carole was a very popular dance, and could be found in both rural and court settings. No surviving lyrics or music are known for this dance, but we know it consisted of a group of hand holding dancers, usually in a circle. The dancers sang along in a leader and refrain style, repeating the verse after each stanza. 

The scene is set around late November/early December, so after ruling out the other dances as being a bit too involved for what I needed, or not being appropriate, I settled on the jig.

The jig was a general name, used to describe a variety of rustic style dances. It involved skipping, kicking and leaping. Music was played in three-four time, i.e. having a ‘waltz’ quality to it, 1-2-3, 1-2-3. 

The jig was general enough for me to use and mould it into what I needed for the scene, and had enough scope in it to give Benedict a range of movements that he can impress with.

Now to research how he would be musically accompanied whilst dancing…

I recently was lucky enough to tour the 13th century Greyfriars building in Lincoln, a Grade 1 listed building and possibly the oldest standing Franciscan buildings in England being built around 1230. It was a wonderful, surreal and atmospheric visit. 

St Francis created the order, and soon the Franciscans spread far, with many of them being priests and men of learning. The development of towns and cities meant large numbers of homeless and sick, and the franciscans had the mobility to deal with these contemporary problems. They were not tied to monasteries and could take the gospel to the streets and minister wherever they were. They were referred to as greyfriars because of the colour of their habits. 

In 1538 the order was expelled as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

The surviving building is the remains of the infirmary, and along with its original features it has mid 19th century additions. The friary precinct occupied a large site and had a stone-vaulted first floor added later in the 13th century. Just like Lincoln cathedral, it is amazing to look up when you’re inside and see the amazing vaults above you. There is some great graffiti to spot as well, many are from various school pupils from the 16th century until 1900. The undercroft was a spinning school and there was a mechanics institute from 1833 to 1862. A famous participant of this institute was George Boole.

Other friary buildings including the kitchen, refectory and dormitory were excavated in the 1990s as part of the Central Library redevelopment. And now City of Lincoln Council are looking to relaunch the building as a heritage attraction. The project, called re-imagining Greyfriars is very exciting and I can’t wait until it’s up and running. I hope you’ll come and visit this treasure!

https://www.visitlincoln.com/things-to-do/greyfriars

So, what is the general consensus on Census Day, how many people will fill their details in with writer or author as their profession?

Will we have hundreds of thousands of writers in the UK? Millions?

What do you think?

I’ve just chopped a character out of my first draft of The Wait’s Son! It feels weird getting rid of someone after spending time crafting their character. But it just wasn’t working out. The character was confusing the story and in the end she just did add what I thought she was going to. Oh well, bye, bye…I’m sure she won’t be the only one.