The Middle Ages, the most hyped period of history of the moment

The reinterpretation of "Mario Bros" by Simon de Thuillières -

• On YouTube, in bookstores or on social networks, the Middle Ages took hold of the web.

• Whether for musical or graphic diversions, this period inspires the most history buffs.

• What if it was the confinement that started this trend?

Hear, hear, good people, damsels and damsels!

Put on your shoes, it's time to step back a few hundred years.

Don't you know?

The Middle Ages are in fashion.

The habits and customs of the medieval population, as well as its arts and culture are inexhaustible sources of inspiration for artists of the moment.

If the cinema, television and literature have been surfing on this period for several years, fans of the time of the knights are multiplying the initiatives that are successful on the Net.

The most striking example is that of the “medieval covers”, including covers of current songs before instruments that were used more than ten centuries ago, such as the tambourine, the harp, the transverse flute or the lute.

The explosion of the genre, which took place at the end of confinement, even has the right to its name: the "bardcore", from the word "bard".

From Lady Gaga to ABBA and the Bee Gees, pop culture takes on a whole new dimension that has reached millions of views.

In the discussions surrounding this fashion, a theory emerges: was it the Black Death that revived the hype around the Middle Ages, in this period of a global pandemic?

A renewed interest in confinement?

Simon de Thuillières began publishing medieval-style illustrations on a daily basis during confinement.

As a student, he followed an art history course and has been practicing medieval reconstruction for several years.

On the Net, he takes (among others) posters of films and series in the Middle Ages sauce.

“I think this confinement was an essential vector in the hype around the Middle Ages today.

It's a prospect of societal collapse that makes people say that we may be going back there, ”he explains.

An idea validated by Damien Berné, curator at the Cluny museum, who maintains that we “observe this revival in the field of creation.

"

Here is the account of the strong stills and intrepid adventures of Sievr Thomas de la Croix.

Take care to read this document, then be very careful to destroy it. # MissionImpossible #TomCruise #Illumination pic.twitter.com/J9IVpuqtXw

- Simon de THUILLIÈRES (@thuillieres) September 10, 2020

History and geography teacher in secondary school, Justine Defrance has also observed this trend, but for several years now.

With his YouTube channel, “La Prof” popularizes history, especially the Middle Ages.

Coincidence or chance, one of his most viewed videos is ... a column on the Black Death.

This month, the videographer was exported to paper with the release of her book,

(Éd. Nouveau Monde).

The opportunity to restore the truth over a period that arouses many fantasies and rantings.

No, not everyone was dirty, and society was not ultra-violent.

Does that mean the 10th century didn't look like

 ?

The impact of a “reinterpreted and fantasized” Middle Ages

Obviously, we can't give all the laurels of this hype to Covid-19, even though the lockdown has given artists more time to create.

Sometimes unrecognized and vast (we are still talking about a thousand years), the Middle Ages appealed to the imagination and left the field open to historical extravagances.

“You can put whatever you want in it, it allows you to appropriate it in many different ways,” notes Justine Defrance.

What partly makes the success of the images, "it is the shift", adds Simon de Thuillières, who has fun illustrating pop culture while remaining "strictly in the medieval aesthetic.

"

Each of the personalities interviewed by

aims to anchor the Middle Ages in its reality.

Damien Berné and the team from the Musée de Cluny, for example, are fighting “against a vision of the dark Middle Ages which is exploited for aesthetic purposes in certain productions.

Whether it is series like

or in novels by JRR Tolkien, the imagination of the medieval marvelous inspires many works.

“Even if it is a reinterpreted and fantasized Middle Ages”, literature and cinema are therefore important factors in the hype around lords and troubadours.

If medieval time lends itself so much to the game of creation, it is also thanks to its photogeny.

“There is gilding everywhere, a bling-bling side, supports Damien Berné.

There is this connection with a contemporary culture that is made quite regularly.

But why this period rather than the Renaissance or the modern era?

According to Justine Defrance, it is the great historical figures, anchored in our memories of school, who make the difference.

“There are certain important dates and figures that have been hammered into us which make up the Middle Ages.

Clovis, Charlemagne, these are things that have remained unlike other periods which were perhaps a little less studied.

Too bad for Godefroy de Montmirail and Jacquouille la Fripouille, who have become far too old to be part of the latest TikTok trends.

Society

"After the Black Death, medieval society did not learn the lessons of the crisis", recalls historian Claude Gauvard

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