雙語+MP3|美國學(xué)生世界歷史50 真正的城堡

50
Real Castles
真正的城堡

     You may think that castles belong only in fairy tales of princes and princesses.
     But about the Year 1000 there were castles almost everywhere over Europe, and they were not fairy castles but real ones with real people in them.
     After the downfall of Rome in 476, the Roman Empire was broken to pieces like a cut-up puzzle-map, and people built castles on the pieces, and they kept on building castles up to the 1400's. This is why and how people built them and why they at last stopped building them.

Castle, drawbridge, moat, and knights
城堡、吊橋、護(hù)城河和騎士
     Whenever any ruler, whether he was a king or only a prince, conquered another ruler, he gave to his generals, who had fought with him and helped him to win, pieces of the conquered land as a reward instead of paying them in money. The generals in turn gave pieces of their land to the chief men who had been under them and helped them in battle. These men who were given land were called lords or nobles, and each lord was called a vassal of him who gave the land. Each vassal had to promise to fight with his lord whenever he was needed. He could not make this promise lightly in an offhand way, however. He had to do it formally so that it would seem more binding. The vassal had to kneel in front of his lord, and make the solemn promise to fight when called upon. This was called doing homage. Then once a year, at least, thereafter, he had to make the same promise over again. This method of giving away land was known as the Feudal System.
     Each of these lords or nobles then built himself a castle on the land that was given him, and there he lived like a little king with all his workpeople about him. The castle was not only his home, but it had to be a fort as well to protect him from other lords who might try to take his castle away from him. He usually placed it on the top of a hill or a cliff, so that the enemy could not reach it easily, if at all. It had great stone walls often ten feet or more thick. Surrounding the walls there was usually a ditch called a moat filled with water to make it more difficult for an enemy to get into the castle.
     In times of peace, when there was no fighting, the men farmed the land outside the castle; but when there was war between lords, all the people went inside the castle walls, carrying all the food and cattle and everything else they had, so that they could live there for months or even years while the fighting was going on. A castle, therefore, had to be very large to hold so many people and animals for so long a time, and often it was really like a walled town.
     Medieval women managed many of the things that went on inside the castle- cooking, spinning thread, weaving cloth, overseeing the servants, and taking care of the animals. When the men were away at war, sometimes for months or even years at a time, the women were in charge of all the farming activities and the family's money as well. Because there were so many wars, many women became widows. In that case, they took total charge of the family estates.
     Inside the walls of the castle were many smaller buildings to house the people and animals and for cooking and storing the food. There might even be a church or chapel. The chief building was, of course, the house of the lord himself and this was called the keep.
     The main room of the keep was the Great Hall, which was like a very large living room and dining room combined. Here meals were served at tables which were simply long and wide boards placed on something to hold them up. These boards were taken down and put away after the meal was over. That is where we get the names boarding and boarding house. There were no forks nor spoons nor plates nor saucers nor napkins. Everyone ate with his fingers and licked them or wiped them on his clothes. Table manners were more like stable manners. The bones and scraps they threw on the floor or to the dogs, who were allowed in the room. Itchy scratchy! What a mess! At the end of the meal towels and a large bowl of water were brought in so that those who wished might wash their hands. Do you suppose anybody washed the floor?
     After dinner the household was entertained during the long evenings with songs and stories by men called minstrels, who played and sang and amused the company.
     Shut up within the castle walls, it seemed as if the lord and his people would be absolutely safe against any attacks of his enemies. In the first place, any enemy would have had to cross the moat or ditch filled with water, which surrounded the castle. Across this moat there was a drawbridge to the entrance or gate of the castle. In the entrance itself was an iron gate called a portcullis, which was usually raised like a window to allow people to pass. In time of war the drawbridge was raised. But in case an enemy was seen approaching and there was not time to raise the drawbridge, this portcullis could be dropped at a moment's notice. When the drawbridge was raised there was no way of getting into the castle except by crossing the moat. Anyone trying to do this would have had stones or melted tar thrown down on him. Instead of windows in the wall of the castle there were only long slits through which the fighters could shoot arrows at the enemy. At the same time, it was very difficult for anyone on the outside to hit the small crack-like openings with an arrow.
     Yet attacks were made on castles. Sometimes the enemy built a tall wooden tower on wheels. This they would roll up as close as they could get to the walls, and from its top shoot directly over into the castle.
     Sometimes they built tunnels from the outside right under the ground, under the moat, and under the castle walls into the castle itself.
     Sometimes they built huge machines called battering-rams, and with these they battered down the walls.
     Sometimes they used machines like great sling-shots to throw stones over the walls. Of course there were no cannons nor cannonballs nor guns nor gunpowder then.
     The lord and his family Were the rich people; all the others were little better than slaves. In times of peace most of the common people lived outside the castle walls on the land called the manor. The lord gave them just as little as he could and took from them just as much as he could. He had to feed and take some care of them, so that they could fight for him and serve him, just as he had to feed and take care of his horses that carried him to battle, and the cattle that provided him with milk and meat. But he didn't treat the people who served him as well as he did his domestic animals. The common people had to give their time and labor and a large part of the crops they raised to the lord. They themselves lived in miserable huts more like cowsheds, with only one room that had a dirt floor. Above this was perhaps a loft reached by a ladder where they went to bed. Bed was usually only a bundle of straw, and they slept in the clothes they wore during the day.
     These workpeople were called serfs. Sometimes serfs could stand this kind of life no longer, and they would run away. If a serf was not caught within a year and a day, he was a free man. But if he was caught before the year and a day were up, the lord might whip him, brand him with hot irons, or even cut off his hands. Indeed, a lord could do almost anything he wished with his serfs except kill them-or sell them.
     What do you think of the Feudal System?