Knowing that no one would believe his story, he tried to hop on one of the riderless horses, and he carried the scars from the reins and stirrups for the rest of his life.Īccording to Medievalists, it wasn't uncommon for people in the Middle Ages to tell tales of seeing ghosts. He claimed to have seen an army of the dead, made up of commoners who walked while weighed down by heavy burdens and women who rode on saddles of burning nails. Take the tale told by a priest named Walchelin and written down in 1091 (via the London Review of Books). Ghost stories from the Middle Ages make modern ghost stories look like the work of complete amateurs. If more extreme measures were needed, it might be off to the castle barbers for a little surgical intervention. Healers would tell patients what they needed to collect, how to prepare it, and what special words and prayers to say while they were making - and taking - their own prescription. Today, a synthetic version of the same prescription and ingredient is called aspirin.Ĭures were mostly herbal, and it's no wonder that many castles (and monasteries) had their own herb gardens, with plants like sage, chamomile, dill, and cumin (via English Heritage). Anyone suffering from aches and pains might, for example, be prescribed a dose of willow tree bark. Here's the thing - it wasn't all hocus pocus. Instead, these healers - most of whom were illiterate - got their knowledge by studying with the previous generation of healers, who would have had quite a bit of experience. Medieval medicine changed a lot over the centuries, and early on, most of the medical advice would be given by a local healer who almost definitely didn't spend a decade at medical school.
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