Much the Miller's Son. A Merry Man?

 Much The Miller’s Son. A Merry Man?

 

 

Picture from Medieval Occupations https://medievalbritain.com/type/medieval-life/occupations/medieval-miller/

 

Much, or Moche, or Midge, or even Nick, in various ballads of Robin Hood, is described as the Miller’s son and one of Robin’s company of Merry Men. ‘Midge’ suggests he was small and possibly harmless, but in one early  ballard (Robin Hood and the Monk) he is shown as being a killer, murdering a page boy and then taking the boy’s place in disguise.

 

This ambivalent attitude to Much also reflects medieval attitudes to millers. Because millers were responsible for turning people’s wheat, barley and other grains, even dried peas, into flour, they were often suspected of stealing part of the flour and giving light weight. Mills were often controlled by local land owners, and peasants resented having to use a mill where the gentry demanded a cut. Peasants were even forbidden from grinding their own wheat – although the discovery of quern stones at medieval sites shows that this law was frequently ignored. Chaucer, in his Canterbury Tales, portrays a miller as a bully and a show-off, Simpkin the Swagger. In medieval France, too, millers were seen as cheats, as the widespread saying calling millers, tailors, weavers and tax collectors thieves shows.

 

I have a water mill in my novel, “A Summer Bewitchment,” and show the hero Magnus and heroines Elfrida entering the mill in their quest to recover seven missing girls.

Excerpt

Dispirited, she slid off the bony bay and opened the mill door to a blistering fog of flour, a tumult of grinding mill-stones. She flung up an arm, clapping her hands over her ears as the ground shuddered under her feet. Magnus scowled, shouting something before hooking her up and carrying her through the mill into a narrow side chamber.

In this room she could hear again and the dusty flour was a little less thick, but it still formed a billowing cloud within the room. Dropped onto the dirt floor by her husband with no more ceremony than he might have released a bag of wheat, she coughed like a cat with a fur ball. Magnus smeared chaff from his eyes, cursing beneath his breath.

“How the miller stands this I do not know,” he said at length.       

“The money is good.” Mark detached himself from leaning against a beam and approached. “A fresh horse is tethered for you, sir, my lady.”

I am no lady. Elfrida bit down hard on that. She glanced at Magnus. “A message through Father Luke?”

“It seemed the easiest way. Have you brought the clothes?” he asked Mark.

Mark handed him a parcel. “Sir, I have two horses—”

“Go back, welcome Peter to the manor and tell him how things are when you get the chance. Keep a watch on Father Jerome and Tancred, especially Father Jerome. I do not want that priest getting word to the Lady Astrid.”

“Do you think he would try to or even want to?” Elfrida asked, thinking at once of Father Jerome’s pale, sunken look when he realized his lady had gone off without him.

Magnus shrugged. “Why should I care? Mark, I will take both your horses. We shall go faster with two, riding and guiding.”

Mark tugged on his red nose. “I ride Star?” He sounded horrified.

“He is smooth enough and steady.”

“And slow. What do I tell our reluctant guests?”

“Tell Tancred and that priest as little as possible. Let them think we have gone to my wife’s village.”

 

Short Blurb for “A Summer Bewitchment.”

Can a knight and his witch save seven kidnapped maidens? Sir Magnus and Elfrida strive to find the girls, but at what cost to their marriage?

A SUMMER BEWITCHMENT ( THE KNIGHT AND THE WITCH 2)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZTMNWZ9/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=lindsay+townsend&qid=1572605630&rs=154606011&s=digital-text&sr=1-1
Amazon Co Uk
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07ZTMNWZ9/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=a+summer+bewitchment&qid=1572606494&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

Lindsay Townsend