--- title: Vikings, knights and the Middle Ages — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Vikings, knights and the Middle Ages», a lesson of the myths course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Ned bursts into the classroom in his plastic helmet with two huge horns, roaring "Vikings wore these so enemies wet themselves!" And th --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Myths](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/) / Vikings, knights and the Middle Ages # Vikings, knights and the Middle Ages Lesson 18 of the myths course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/0/) — Ned bursts into the classroom in his plastic helmet with two huge horns, roaring "Vikings wore these so enemies wet themselves!" And the Middle Ages of the story books are just as wild: everybody filthy, everybody dead at thirty, knights so heavy they were winched onto their horses by crane, and people who thought you'd fall off the edge of a flat Earth. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/1/) — Brilliant stories, and almost all made up later. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/2/) — The horned helmets came from costumes for an opera in 1876; no Viking-age helmet with horns has ever been found, and horns would just be something for an enemy to grab. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/3/) — Many of these myths were spread by later writers, especially in the 1800s, who liked to make the past look silly and backward. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/4/) — In fact medieval people washed, had public bathhouses, knew the Earth was round, and some noble women ran castles and even whole countries. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/5/) — Some myths hide in numbers: "everyone died at 30" is an average pulled down by the many babies who died. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/6/) — Work out the average of 1, 1, 60 and 70 and you get 33, yet two of those people lived to old age. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/7/) — The best answer is evidence from the time itself: a real helmet in a museum, a king's round golden orb in a painting, a modern person running in real armour. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/9/) — No Viking-age helmet with horns has ever been found; the well-preserved Gjermundbu helmet is a rounded cap, and horned helmets came from costumes for an opera in 1876. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/10/) — Medieval people washed their hands and faces every day, and many towns had public bathhouses. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/12/) — A full suit of battle armour weighed about 20 to 25 kilograms spread over the body, and knights could run, climb and get onto horses. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/13/) — In the old story, King Canute set his throne by the sea to show his flattering courtiers (the people around him who praised him to please him) that even a king cannot command the tide. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/14/) — Educated people in the Middle Ages knew the Earth was round; it was taught in universities and books, and kings held a round orb for the world. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/15/) — Historians do not know whether Robin Hood was one real person; the stories grew over centuries, and "giving to the poor" was added later. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/16/) — Medieval people drank weak ale, but they also drank water from wells and springs. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/17/) — The famous iron maidens were probably put together in the 1800s, and there is no good evidence they were used in the Middle Ages. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/18/) — Royal and noble women ran estates, managed money and wrote letters, and some ruled, like Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, and Eleanor of Aquitaine. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/18-vikings-knights-and-the-middle-ages/19/) — "Dark Ages" was a name used by later writers, mostly because fewer written records survive; it was a time of art and learning, like the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Sutton Hoo treasures. - ← previous: [Magnets, compasses and big Earth facts](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/17-magnets-compasses-and-big-earth-facts/) - next →: [Kings, queens and emperors](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/19-kings-queens-and-emperors/) - ↑ back to [Myths](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/)