Hurricane Sandy as a Window into the Middle Ages

Life in the Early Middle Ages was remarkably different from our existence today. The harnessing of electricity has vastly changed the way society functions, and our reliance on electrical power controls much of what we do at home, work, for recreation, and even to survive. One major difference between modern and medieval society was how far a person would travel from their home in their lifetime. Many people would never even venture outside the village of their birth, and one medieval historian has estimated that in the year 1000, an average person would see only about 500 people in a lifetime. While today it is possible for a person to live in the same town for a lifetime, there is a high probability that they will travel from it at some point.

Even if a person does not go to faraway places, there is still the opportunity to research and find pictures of others via books,

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television, and the Internet. The commoners of the Early Middle Ages did not have these opportunities to broaden their worldview, nor did they have any fast means of communication to the outside world. Their primary focus was working to survive, mostly by tending to crops. Children and adults would work together to provide a meager sustenance for the family. Work was done by daylight, and the cold night would be spent in the family dwelling, such as a thatched-roof cottage, sometimes huddling with animals for warmth. Most peasants also wore loose clothing and hoods to keep warm. Life expectancy was short: disease was a major issue due to a poor diet and poor housing as well as little medical attention. Infant mortality was so high that a woman might have a dozen pregnancies and no living children. Day-to-day life for early medieval commoners often meant wondering if they would survive to see the next sunrise. Religion was one of their few consolations.

This is all a stark contrast to the modern day, when work continues long after sunset and access to heat makes cold nights far more bearable. However, with the recent destruction of Hurricane Sandy, some of us were given a taste of what it was like to live without power. Living standards remained far above those of the Early Middle Ages, although the power outage did prove just how dependent our society is on electricity. My own home was left without power for about a week. Simply maneuvering around the house became a chore due to lack of lighting, even with flashlights at our disposal. As a result, we ended up taking care of chores in the daylight hours. Like those in the Middle Ages, we wore layers upon layers of clothing—jackets on top of sweaters, socks on top of socks, sweatpants over pajama pants—both around the house and in bed. Although we at least had working cell phones, we used them very sparingly to conserve their batteries, which meant being disconnected from others and much of the news. The lack of electronic entertainment and the difficulty of seeing written entertainment made days feel very slow. Battery-powered radios were one of the only sources of recreation we had. Luckily, we were able to light our gas stove in order to cook warm meals, although they did not stay warm for long in a cold house. After the experience of Sandy, I can barely imagine existing in early medieval living standards every day. I give each and every person credit for doing so.

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There were moments during the power outage when I felt quite miserable.

I had restricted access to the outside world, and at times the isolation stung. My creative outlets, as both a designer and artist, felt suffocated. As an aspiring graphic designer, for work and fun I normally spend much of my time glued to a computer screen. My computer is my instrument of creativity, so it is an integral part of my life. Being without power, even for a short time, proved to me just how reliant I’ve become on technology.

Heat turned out to be the amenity I craved the most. I discovered that I can be without a phone, Internet, and computer if I really need to, even the lack of electrical lights was tolerable, but sleeping in a cold house felt intolerable. I craved a warm bed. Despite all of this, I kept reminding myself that there were so many people who had it much worse due to the storm. I’m thankful there is still a roof over my head, and I hope all the victims of Sandy are able to rebuild their homes and their lives. There is still hope for them, but I imagine there were times when people of the early Middle Ages felt hopeless. Although they had no sense of what central heat, electric lights, and long-distance communication would be like, they must often have had an overbearing fear that they and their families would not live to see the next day. Yet, surviving in those harsh times meant you had to continue living in very uncomfortable conditions. It must have taken enormous resilience to survive in early medieval times. In comparison, my week without heat was inconsequential, although I certainly did not experience it as such.

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