AA a Books were the most important creation to come out of the Middle Ages Libraries too I'm thankful I don't have to visit a monastery or beg a king to see the royal library I thank my libraries for being there when I want to find information Be sure to visit your library Volunteer to help sort and shelve books make posters donate old books and magazines Most of all enjoy the books they keep for all of us to use Thank you Coeur d Alene Public Library Hayden Lake Public Library University of Idaho Library North Idaho College Library and Foley Center Library at Gonzaga University I ll be back with book bag in hand
Medieval What's That Huzzah That s how people said Hooray in Europe long ago It was in the days of knights and queens castles and cottages We call it the Middle Ages or the medieval time For us today huzzah is a funny word It sounds a lot like fuzz SAW The word medieval is pronounced meed evil The years were between 480 and 1500 A D It was a time span of about a thousand years and ended when Columbus and other explorers traveled to the rest of the world Europe was made up of many small countries and kingdoms then The people lived under the rule of a king and queen or lord and lady who owned the land Kings and queens tried to rule more land by taking over their neighbors kingdoms through war During that time people depended on one another for many things Those who worked the peasants fed those who fought the knights and those who prayed the monks The fighters protected the king dom and the monks prayed for all The days of knights and castles were long ago yet we still find them interesting We can look at their books and paintings and see that their customs and beliefs were the beginnings of our own People who traveled to the New World brought many customs
and ways of living with them from their Old World homes Their ideas about freedom government and religion formed the ways we do things in North America today Their writing schools and art influ enced ours When we look back we can see some thing of ourselves Many years ago Europe was very different from today During the Middle Ages homes were castles if you were rich and royal or cottages for everyone else People lived in small towns around a castle where they farmed or made things to trade with each other The owner of the castle might have been a king or a rich and powerful knight who served the king Most people didn't travel very far because bandits and robbers would stop them and the people in other kingdoms usually didn't speak the same lan guage It was a dangerous time to live because pirates bandits and attacking armies from other lands were always a threat People lived near a castle so that the king's knights could protect them Vil lages and castles had walls around them with gates At night these gates were closed Watchmen were assigned to spot travelers coming Explorers began traveling to other lands by the end of the Middle Ages That s when Columbus made his journey to North America and Marco Polo explored far off China In the Middle Ages only neighboring villages could under
