So the Italian author Umberto Eco died a few weeks ago. It was a big enough event to have made national news. I have never read the novel which made him famous, The Name of the Rose, and if I’m being frank, I’m not likely to. However, he is worth a mention from me here because his work as an academic and essayist has massively influenced my own choice of studies and professional interest, both as an undergraduate, and a post-graduate.  I came across his work when I was asked to write an essay on medievalism and modern-medieval culture as an undergraduate. I, as anyone who knows me won’t be surprised to know, decided to write an essay on Dungeons and Dragons. What better way to sneak gaming into something real. My lecturer at the time insisted I make use of an essay by Eco. The essay was entitled ‘Dreaming of the Middle Ages’ in which Eco talks about the different ways that society reinvents the ‘middle ages’ for its own end. It was definitely interesting and for me, it set me down a path that for most of my time in education, I clung to.

So let’s add a few years. When I started my masters’ degree it was hard to

ignore Eco. In fact he was so relevant I referenced him in nearly every piece of coursework I did. For anyone wanting to have a good, insightful read about how the stories of our society are constructed, look to Travels in Hyper-Reality, which is the collection that ‘Dreaming of the Middle Ages’ comes from. It’s wonderful. I managed to track down a copy for myself a few months ago which alas wasn’t easy, partly to do with the fact I don’t think it’s in print anymore. His essays about what academics like to refer to as ‘medievalism’, that is the use of medieval tropes and things that are perceived as ‘medieval’ to create a narrative that people are immediately comfortable with. I suppose the modern, most relevant equivalent of this would be HBO’s Game of Thrones. Eco’s arguments were that things like Game of Thrones are not medieval at all, and instead use a mythologised version of the medieval to map modern thought and storytelling onto. Ergo, Game of Thrones is not medieval at all; it’s simply what we as an audience perceive to be medieval.

You might be asking yourself why all this is relevant to a blog about games and geek culture. It’s a fair question and I’ll admit I doubted the point of posting this several times. In the end I resolved to do so because it is relevant to games. Modern gaming and pop culture is bathed in what we perceive to be medieval. Say ‘medieval fantasy’ to someone and they immediately know what you’re talking about; orcs, dragons, elves, swords, knights, etc. But we must be aware of the gradients of fantasy involved, and whether we as people passionate about the period and about our hobbies care about historical vs.

fantasy perceptions. If I’m honest, I don’t care too much whether something is accurate or not, so long as it is enjoyable. The History Channel’s Vikings is more literary than historical, basing itself several old norse sagas. However, I suppose the issue people may take with something like Vikings is that it is claiming to be ‘historical’ when it isn’t. Is this something we need to concern ourselves with? Game of Thrones gets away with copious amounts of sexual violence and intrigue because it is justified within the periphery societal consciousness as ‘medieval’. It is not.  I hope that this post has been of some insight to someone, I’d be interested to hear what other people have to say on the matter, and whether medievalism is a topic worth talking about. Either way, Eco’s work has already outlived him and will continue to do so.

Party on, friends.