This story is divided into four narrative passages. The first passage, headed:
PARIS, TUESDAY, 10 OCTOBER 1307
- is historical fiction, not science fiction, because it does not disclose that one of its characters is a time traveller. It begins with a detailed Andersonian description of the urban environment:
Weather
Clouds race.
Wind booms and whines.
Dust whirls.
Chill.
Stenches
offal
horse droppings
privies
graves
smoke
Din
footfalls
hoof-beats
creaking wheels
thudding hammers
chatter
anger
plea
pitch
song
prayer
church bells
Folk
housewife
artisan
priest
mountebank
blind beggar
merchant with apprentices
drunk man-at-arms
gowned student
foreign visitor
carter
That is only the first page. The covert time traveller makes first appearance on the second page.
5 comments:
Though almost all urban artisan's wives helped them with the family business -- "housewife" didn't mean "just does housework and child care" back then.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That must have been true even of the wives of blacksmiths. Even if they did not swing hammers and wield tongs, they probably handled customers or took payments from them.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: a lot of metalworking was done by women as late as Victorian times. Most farriers these days are women, for example -- fitting and nailing on horseshoes. Foundry work might be more difficult.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Yes, but blacksmiths did a lot more than just shoeing horses in times when that profession was far more common. Including heavier and more difficult metalworking than shaping horseshoes.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: once horseshoes became common/universal, they were a -big- part of a blacksmith's business. Up until cars, horses were everywhere.
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