Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Year 1000
    Unavailable
    The Year 1000
    Unavailable
    The Year 1000
    Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

    The Year 1000

    Written by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger

    Narrated by Derek Jacobi

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium

    The Year 1000 is a vivid and surprising portrait of life in England a thousand years ago – no spinach, no sugar, but a world which already knew brain surgeons and property developers, and yes, even the occasional gossip columnist.

    Uncovering such wonderfully unexpected details, authors Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger bring this distant world closer than it has ever been before. How did monks communicate if they were not allowed to speak? What punishments could the law impose without stone and iron prisons in which to lock up offenders? Why was July called “the hungry month”? The Year 1000 answers these questions, and reveals such secrets as the recipe for a medieval form of Viagra and an hallucinogenic treat called “crazy bread”.

    In the spirit of modern investigative journalism, Lacey and Danziger interviewed the top historians and archaeologists in the field. Their research led them to an ancient and little-known document of the period, the Julius Work Calendar, a sharply observed guide which takes us back in time to a charming and very human world of kings and revellers, saints and slave-labourers, lingering paganism and profound Christian faith.

    This exuberant and informative book concludes as the shadow of the millennium descends across England and Christendom. While prophets of doom predict the end of the world, AD 1000 sees the arrival of such bewildering concepts as infinity and zero, along with the abacus – the medieval calculating machine. These are portents of the future, and The Year 1000 finishes by examining the human and social ingredients that were to make for success and achievement in the next thousand years.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateDec 6, 2012
    ISBN9780007508747
    Unavailable
    The Year 1000
    Author

    Robert Lacey

    Robert Lacey is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty books, including The Queen; Ford: The Men and the Machine; The Year 1000; and Inside the Kingdom. He lives in London.

    More audiobooks from Robert Lacey

    Related to The Year 1000

    Related audiobooks

    European History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Hidden Histories

      Nov 25, 2021

      Edgar Mittelholzer was a Guyanese novelist who should be remembered not just for the quality of his writing, but as the earliest recorded writer from the Caribbean to make his living from the profession. I studied Caribbean literature at university,

      3 min read

    • Article

      Unlikely Auteur Of Mercy

      Nov 24, 2022

      Unlikely Auteur Of Mercy
      7 min read

    • Article

      “In China, The Fear Of Chaos And The Desire For Order Come First”

      Jul 8, 2021

      MICHAEL WOOD ON… UNDERSTANDING THE “CHINESE WAY” This summer, China is on everyone’s radar. News reports and water-cooler conversations cover Hong Kong, AI, Taiwan and the human rights situation in Xinjiang. President Biden visited Europe and Britain

      2 min read

    • Article

      When Christmas Was Cancelled

      Dec 13, 2023

      When Christmas Was Cancelled
      3 min read

    • Article

      Q&A

      Apr 11, 2024

      Q&A
      3 min read

    • Article

      TIME WARS: The Historical Hunt For A True Calendar

      Nov 17, 2021

      Seasonal animal migrations gave hunters a reason to follow the course of the year. And once humans learned to farm the land, keeping track of time became even more important. One of the earliest pieces of evidence for this may be the Neolithic monume

      6 min read

    • Article

      The 1745 Rising reassessed

      Oct 8, 2022

      Explore a selection of digital history guides in the History Scotland store: https://scot.sh/hsdownload Reminiscences of a Jacobite: The Untold Story of the Rising of 1745 Michael Nevin Birlinn Ltd (2020) pp. 288 Hardback, £25.00; paperback, N/A;

      7 min read

    • Article

      History Of Santa

      Nov 30, 2023

      History Of Santa
      11 min read

    • Article

      Have Yourself A Merry Roman Christmas

      Dec 14, 2022

      Who invented Christmas? The smart answer is the Victorians – and, for those who want bonus points, ‘Coca-Cola’. The usual Victorian suspects are Prince Albert and Charles Dickens, while Coke is the ‘reason’ Father Christmas dresses in red, not green.

      3 min read

    • Article

      So, This Is Christmas

      Dec 13, 2023

      CHRISTMAS is reassuringly infused with comforting traditions. Cards start fluttering in, Father Christmases appear soon after, a tree is erected and the celebrated (or despised) pudding is finally consumed on December 25. Remarkably, a great deal of

      5 min read

    • Article

      Professor Marion Gibson

      Aug 13, 2020

      Professor Marion Gibson
      3 min read

    • Article

      Christmas Through The Ages

      Nov 28, 2019

      Ancient Egyptians celebrate the birth of Horus, the son of the gods Isis and Osiris, during a festival on 25 December. This is the first record of this date being celebrated. Festivities involve large banquets, the burning of lamps and decorating hom

      4 min read

    • Article

      Lives Of Devotion

      Nov 25, 2021

      Lives Of Devotion
      5 min read

    • Article

      Q&A

      Nov 25, 2021

      Q&A
      3 min read

    • Article

      Ancient World

      Dec 21, 2023

      Ancient World
      7 min read

    • Article

      How Dark Were The Dark Ages?

      Feb 20, 2020

      How Dark Were The Dark Ages?
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Shroud Of Turin

      Jul 7, 2023

      Gospel accounts of the Passion identify the linens used to prepare Christ's crucified body for burial, as well as their disposition when left behind after the Resurrection. But nowhere do they definitively describe the features of the so-called Shrou

      8 min read

    • Article

      Pieces Of Our Puzzle

      Dec 15, 2019

      Fish, salted meat, perhaps some crayfish, probably some fur seal. The first Christmas dinner in the first Pākehā settlement in New Zealand would have been high in protein but low in trimmings. Just weeks after being dropped off on Anchor Island in Du

      7 min read

    • Article

      Over The Moon

      Dec 12, 2019

      There is something joyfully useful about an almanac. What until recently was seen as an anachronism should now stand at the forefront of our minds again, reminding us of how we are linked to the seasons and the world we inhabit, before we suffocate i

      2 min read

    • Article

      Who Were The CELTS?

      May 5, 2023

      The narrative of past centuries has led us to believe that we know who the fierce fighters, mystical druids and roundhouse-dwelling people we associate with northern and western parts of Britain and call the Celts were; but do we really? It’s a term

      4 min read

    • Article

      Michael Wood On…

      Dec 27, 2019

      The Staffordshire Hoard is back in the news. The greatest find from the early English period since the Sutton Hoo ship burial, this treasure trove of almost 4,600 fragments of metalwork, gold, silver and precious stones was found by a metal detectori

      3 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Mar 16, 2023

      Sam Willis's entertaining article about Charles Johnson's scandalous works popularising robbers, pirates and highwaymen (Murder and Mayhem in Georgian Britain, March) reignites a long controversy about the true identity of the author. Although the so

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Year 1000

    3.5/5

    391 ratings30 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      Short and chaotic. Half of the book doesnt even talk about "what life was like" but about politics, the Church and the Monarchy. The half that does is very ambiguous and is filled more with the authors' impressions and musings than facts.
    • 5/5
      In this interesting little volume, Lacey and Danziger take us into a medieval world which is at times both very alike and very different from our own. Using a contemporary calendar to guide the reader through the months of the year, and with doses of humor and trivia along the way, we are introduced to the daily life of royalty, churchmen and, more often, the ordinary man and woman. We learn how they worked, how they played, how they talked, and even how they ate. The Year 1000 is an accessible overview of the period and a surprisingly entertaining read.
    • 3/5
      The title and subtitle pretty much tell you what you need to know about the book. Except they mean what was life like in the year 1000 in Britain. Still, it was pretty interesting.
    • 4/5
      This was a very interesting, informative book.

      Each chapter did a split-focus, informing about a particular month and a particular aspect of society (generally associated with that month). For example, March and food, or July and food scarcity.

      Lots of references, lots of small and large bits of info. If you are interested in this time period and in England, then I whole-heartedly recommend this book.
    • 4/5
      The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium by Robert Lacey Wow, this is so good.

      Easily digestible in small chunks that never fail to amaze and illuminate. School put me off history for the rest of my life. It is books like this that make me realise how it could have been taught and how much I have missed. How much damage is done in schools!

      Well presented and a joy to drink!
    • 3/5
      How life was lived where and when is kind of a recurring theme with me. I was just a little surprised there was actually enough evidence to make a reasonable guess about life in 1000 AD, but it seems like there is. Although authors Robert Lacey (a historian) and Danny Danziger (a journalist) draw on a variety of sources, but the book is centered around the “Julius Work Calendar”, an Anglo-Saxon document listing various feast days and religious festivals, but also including an nicely drawn little vignette of the kind of activity that went on in each month – plowing, sowing, harvesting, etc. (It’s called the Julius Work Calendar because it once belonged to an English antiquary who organized his library based on busts of Roman emperors he kept on the top shelf).The actual content is interesting, of course, but also pretty typical for this kind of book – what people ate, what they wore, the role of women, etc. One thing that intrigued me was another document the authors used was traced back to the schoolteacher monk Aelfric of Cerne Abbas (same place with the chalk giant). This consists of a Latin dialog between a “Master” and various workers – plowman, fisherman, etc. – in which each explains what he does. This is clearly a pedagogical tool to teach students a lot of words in context. The neat thing is there’s an extremely similar Egyptian text usually called the “Satire on Trades” but officially The Instructions of Kheti which does much the same thing, listing the disadvantages of every occupation. Lots of copies of this exist, because it was used to teach schoolchildren reading and writing. And I remember various picture books from my own childhood with such things as “This is a fireman. He puts out fires. This is a doctor. She makes sick people better. This is a politician. He tells lies”. There is truly nothing new under the sun.
    • 4/5
      The book’s title is misleading in that the content does not focus exclusively on the year 1000; however, this doesn’t mean it’s in any way a let-down.This short history of Anglo-Saxon times, which predominantly covers the 10th century, is concise and engaging. It features some interesting facts and amusing anecdotes. It’s far from being a stuffy textbook and should appeal to anyone who likes English history presented in an easy-to-digest format.
    • 4/5
      It turns out that the average man in the year 1000 is a lot healthier than you'd think, and would easily win any edition of "Survivor" you'd care to enter him in. An interesting study of how the average Brit lived in the year 1000 (although a lot of the evidence is from the Domesday Book fourteen years before, and the Julius Work Calendar from around 20 years later). While it won't ever be seen as a great scholarly study of the times, it can be a quite useful starting point for time travellers looking for some intell prior to their visit to the Year 1000.
    • 5/5
      If I were born in England in the year 1000 I would be a farmer because that was the default occupation in those days. With famines ever lurking, food was the issue for most people. And if I had no land to farm I would have to submit myself to a landowner, voluntarily, to be a slave. Because the only alternative was starvation. Mine would be a short life of hard labor and exposure, for others. I would try to keep warm in winter by burning wood or dung, if I could get them. And I might have fleas or worms.I would not be able to read or write, but could communicate orally in English, such as it was then. I could not afford to own even one book. I would have only one name, no surname. I would live by saints’ days and the church calendar, like the neighbors. I would know nothing of the world beyond a few miles of my home, but would live in fear of invasion by armies of thugs. And I would have to behave myself, lest I be mistaken for the anti-Christ who was expected to arrive with the millennium. Typically, there was a gallows on the edge of town. Such was England, or Engla-lond, in the year 1000.This book is a fascinating glimpse into the past, derived from contemporary documents such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, the Julius Work Calendar, monastic rules, wills and legal documents, even bawdy jokes and poems. Plus archaeological findings. It makes me appreciate the comforts I have now, but it was not all bad then. Their world was quiet, unpolluted, and not overpopulated.
    • 4/5
      What was life like at the turn of the first millennium? ‘The Year 1000’ will tell you… A great overview!The book's chapters and topics are set up to correspond to the months of the year, detailing what life was life was like during that time and in particular that month. For example, March was the beginning of spring and the equinox, what did they inherit from the Romans, Vikings, and Anglo-Saxons besides the names of the towns and their calendar. July was hay month and goes into harvesting the crops, the weather, and how the monks not only prayed but carried out certain agricultural tasks themselves. December talks about the breaking with the past and beginning anew.Overall I enjoyed the book, it was not too heavy but such is its design. It was written to ‘ask the questions about everyday life and habits that conventional history books often ignore…’ It paints a picture in one’s mind by merely giving the reader a feel for the time not a starched compilation of tedious facts. As a history buff, I found it a light yet interesting read. If you are looking for a more thorough historical chronicling of the time, this is not the book for you.
    • 4/5
      Insightful read about life a thousand years ago in England. Makes one thankful for modern conveniences. And respectful of these peopl.
    • 5/5
      As the Shadow of the Millennium Descended Across England and Christendom, it Seemed as if the World was About to End. Actually, it was Only the Beginning... Welcome to the Year 1000. This is What Life was Like. How clothes were fastened in a world without buttons, p.10 The rudiments of medieval brain surgery, p.124 The first millennium's Bill Gates, p.192 How dolphins forecasted weather, p.140 The recipe for a medieval form of Viagra, p.126 Body parts a married woman had to forfeit if she committed adultery, p.171 The fundamental rules of warfare, p.154 How fried and crushed black snails could improve your health, p.127 And much more..
    • 4/5
      I didn't quite know what this book was going to be about when I picked it up, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was an easy read that brought me back in time to how it might have been around the year 1000.
    • 2/5
      Not good,not accurate, uninteresting.
    • 5/5
      Much of what we know about the first millennium comes from a book written around 1020 called The Julius Work Calendar. It is the earliest surviving example of the English daily routine, "the schedule of the earth, and the life of the spirit." The ink used to put the characters on paper is interesting in itself. It was tapped from oak trees boils, created by wasps that had gnawed at the bark to lay eggs. In self defense, the tree formed a gall that was filled with a clear acid. The ink was called encaustum from the Latin caustere, meaning "to bite," because the ink literally "bit into the parchment." The parchment was made from the skin of a lamb or kid; the ink was finished with iron salts to provide black or brown color and thickened with gum arabic. Treated appropriately, the document lasts for centuries. Life was short, but the skeletons unearthed reveal people of stature similar to our own. It was only later that malnourishment and overcrowding created the shorter people of the middle ages and Victorian era. Life was simple and work hard.

      Buttons had yet to be invented, so clasps or thongs were used to hold simple sacklike tunics together. Children of age twelve were considered old enough to swear allegiance to the king, and marriage between early teenage girls to older men was the norm. The wheeled plough was crucial to their existence, for it enabled two men and an ox to open up acres. England supported about a million people at this time. It would not have been possible without this invention, which was available as early as the first century, according to Pliny. Slavery was a fact of life and prevalent. In 1066, the Normans introduced the feudal system, but, prior to their invasion, slavery, was introduced by Germanic tribes who made war on their Slavic neighbors — slave derives from the fact that most slaves were "Slavs." Anglo- Saxons raided Wales for slaves, also. Dublin operated the largest slave market in western Europe. It was not uncommon for slavery to be an alternative to prison and it became the penalty for numerous offenses ranging from adultery to theft. Almost everyone was in bondage of one form or another, and often families were forced to place themselves in bondage during times of famine in order to eat. Famine was frequent, especially during July when supplies from the previous year were running low and the new harvest was not yet ripe. Infanticide was not a crime; the law recognized the horrible pressure placed on families by another mouth to feed. Children under the age of seven could legally be sold into slavery to relieve the pressure. The authors have an interesting and plausible explanation for rural frenzies that erupted during the early summer months (see Breughel's famous tableaux of crazed festivals). Lightheadedness was inevitable from lack of food, and the poor had to subsist on whatever they could find during the lean month of July. Rye that has gone moldy is a source of lysergic acid: LSD. " Poppies, hemp, and darnel were scavenged, dried and ground up to produce a medieval hash brownie known as 'crazy bread.'“ According to one modern historian, entire communities became virtually somnolent from the stuff. Taxes were collected in an interesting fashion. Mints were scattered throughout the kingdom, licensed by the crown and strictly watched to make sure that the percentage of silver to alloy was not adulterated. Coin was soft metal (to get a half-penny, one simply cut a penny in half) and to prevent it from becoming debased, it was good for only a relatively short period, two to three years. It then had to be turned in for new coins, exchanged at ten coins for eight or nine, depending on the level of taxation, the difference being kept for the king.

      Clinton's peccadilloes were not unknown in the eleventh century. When King Eadwig failed to show up on time for his coronation in 955 C. E., a search party went looking for him. He was discovered in bed with a pretty young lass and her mother. Top that one, Bill. This bucolic picture becomes tainted with the evidence that while today’s air is polluted with gasoline fumes, the first millennium was pervaded with the odor of excrement. The toilet was behind the house and animals went just about everywhere. Parasites were a terrible problem, especially the maw-worm, which might reach 30 centimeters in length and had the disconcerting practice of migrating throughout the body and emerging unexpectedly from any orifice, sometimes from the corner of the eye. Despite their ignorance of elementary hygiene — if food fell to the floor, one made the sign of the cross and ate it anyway — they had extensive anatomical knowledge. A ninth century book still extant displays profound knowledge of the body’s interior mechanisms, and another describes the various fetal development stages in detail, even indicating that the soul was not present until after the third month, which suggests a tolerance of abortion.

      Skulls dug up in ancient cemeteries of the time reveal evidence of trepanning, a technique still used today to relieve pressure in the brain following head trauma (except that we prefer Black & Decker to a bow drill). They were able to grow grapes for wine in England during this period because the climate was much warmer than today — even warmer than with “global warming.” The period 950 to 1300 A.D. is known as the “Little Optimum.” Archaeologists estimate the climate of the world was at least 4 degrees warmer than today, and the retreating arctic ice may have helped make possible Leif Erikson’s discovery of the New World and the vines he found growing there.

    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. It was a great introduction to the life of the English people. The chapters were the months of the year, illustrated with drawings from the Julius Work Calendar. My interest in pre-1066 England was piqued by reading "Wulf the Saxon" by G.A. Henty, so this book was perfect for a first step into English history.
    • 3/5
      I finished a little nonfiction book I had laying around, The Year 1000.It's about ... well, you already figured that out, I'm sure. Anyhow, it uses an illustrated calendar from the era to talk about what daily life was like. This is the sort of thing that I tend to wonder about when I'm reading about history - it's all fine and good to know what life was like for the noblemen, but what about the ordinary people? And not just the obvious answer of "short, dirty, and difficult," but the actual logistics of how things were done.This was a very quick and easy read, and doesn't suffer too much from having been written in 1998 (a couple of references to the upcoming Y2K fears were the worst of it). It would be a perfect choice for someone who's moderately interested in times past, but not really into history.
    • 5/5
      This book brings to life just what it would be like to live in the year 1000. From daily life to religion, this work truly encapsulates the everyday life of the average human being in this time period. One of the most interesting tidbits for me was the mention of "Crazy Bread" a hallucinogenic bread that villagers would eat to stave off hunger before that year's harvest would come in. The visual image of an entire village hallucinating was very interesting (and humorous) to me. Another element that I found interesting were the distinct parallels between contemporary society and that of the year 1000. People still wanted to care for their families, take care of each other, and were naturally inquisitive about the world around them. Technology wasn't nearly as advanced by any stretch of the imagination, but many of the aspects of the human condition were the same.
    • 4/5
      A book about Anglo-Saxon England around the 1,000 AD. Um. Yes, I agree with you - I was surprised when found myself buying it as well. It does not seem to be something that one would pickup in an airport to read on a 10 hour flight. Also I generally read earlier or later history. Ancient or 16th centuary onwards. I don't read much in between. But may be that's the reason it attracted me?Not sure - but I am sure that I really enjoyed reading this book. Its easy reading, informative in a quirky and attention grabbing way - and ever so interesting. The book is more a themed discussion covering a particular period of time, with comparisions to other periods - than a "history book". An odd description I know - but if you read the book and forgive my poor description - you will know what I mean. There is a lot of history in this book - its just not laid out and tackled like a history book. This is not a text book - its a reading book that happens to be about the history a particular time. Well written and interesting - I very much enjoyed it and recommend it.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic work: a detailed, ground-level view of the world in the early medieval era.
    • 4/5
      Christ, there is a swarm of bees outside,Fly hither, my little cattle,In blest peace, in God's protection,Come home safe and sound!This book is about every-day life in Anglo-Saxon England around the year 1000 A.D. The annual round of agricultural tasks, as shown in the pages of a mediaeval manuscript known as the Julius Work Calendar, gives the book its structure.One of the things I found most interesting was about bees and the charms (both Christian and pagan) used to persuade a swarm of bees to build their nest on your land. Honey was the only form of sweetener in use at that time and it was a lucky day when a swarm of bees took up residence on your land, since there was good money to be made from honey, beeswax and a resin used as a building material by the bees. Maybe the charms are the precursor of the tradition that beekeepers should always tell their bees when anything important happens, such as a death in the family. Make the bees feel welcome and part of the family and they will hang around!
    • 3/5
      This book came out around the year 2000, describing what life was like, in England, at the turn of the millennium a millennium earlier. It was an easy read, and I did learn a few interesting tidbits. (The people who lived in 1000 generally had very healthy teeth, without cavities, as they didn't have sugar. One reason corporal punishment was so common was that with the available materials and technology, it was not possible to build prisons suitable for long-term stays, i.e., with stone walls and secure iron bars.) But most of it would not be new for anyone who paid some attention in high school.
    • 4/5
      A short, Anglo-centric look at life in the year 1000 or thereabouts. Broadly organized by months but the chapters really revolve about different aspects of life like religion, food, employment and the like. An interesting and easy read for those who would like to learn more.
    • 5/5
      In this interesting little volume, Lacey and Danziger take us into a medieval world which is at times both very alike and very different from our own. Using a contemporary calendar to guide the reader through the months of the year, and with doses of humor and trivia along the way, we are introduced to the daily life of royalty, churchmen and, more often, the ordinary man and woman. We learn how they worked, how they played, how they talked, and even how they ate. The Year 1000 is an accessible overview of the period and a surprisingly entertaining read.
    • 5/5
      This was an excellent, pithy and very accessible history about what common people's lives were like in England in 1000 A.D. I learned many interesting facts. I would recommend this to any history buff, especially Anglophiles.
    • 4/5
      I fouind this quite a fascinating little book. While I agree with other reviewers that it would have been even better with a good "further reading" resource, that was not really the intent. The authors are not actually historians, just intellectually curious individuals who talked to many historians. It was not an in-depth study, but did have lots of fascinating facts.
    • 4/5
      I'm one who prefers fiction (sci-fi or fantasy) but this book sparked my interest when I read the back cover. And it didn't disappoint me either I was quite fascinated by all the information gleaned from England 1000 years ago. I was interested in how much of the same human issues they dealt with back then that we are still dealing with now... especially the commotion over the 'end of the world' when the calendar turned over to 1000. Definitely worth the read.
    • 4/5
      "What life was like at the turn of the first millennium" in England. Following the year in the Julius Work Calendar, the authors give a popular account about matters small and large. While some things never change, the prospect of hunger and starvation as well as the general level of violence are perhaps the starkest difference to living today.A good appetizer that would have profited from a commented further reading guide.
    • 4/5
      This is simply an amazing history lesson in English medievel life. This book brings to life the little details about surviving and what it took to survive at the turn of the first millenium.
    • 4/5
      Totally approachable, easy, quick read about quotidian life in medieval England. Not an academic text, but a light and entertaining read.