Originally published in 1904, Famous Men of the Middle Ages is a book of heroes and villains (or maybe you'd say "villeins", heh heh, small Middle Ages unit study joke there), myths and legends, history and drama.

After the Introduction, which serves to acquaint the reader with Teutonic gods and myths, we begin with names that must have struck fear into the hearts of civilized citizens of the Roman Empire: Visigoths, Huns, Vandals, Ostrogoths. I like the way the dates are listed in the Table of Contents and at the start of each chapter; very helpful for keeping up our timeline. The first dated entry is for Alaric the Visigoth, king of the Visigoths from 394 - 410 A.D., and the reader forges a steady progress through stories of thirty-one well-known figures from history up until the time of Gutenberg and his printing press, and Warwick the King-Maker who lived from 1428-1471 A.D.

I say "well known" because they are, to me, anyhow: My father was a natural storyteller with a passion for history, and I cut my teeth on tales of the fall of Rome under the onslaught of the barbarian hordes, Charlemagne, El Cid, William the Conquerer, Robert the Bruce, Marco Polo, William Tell and Joan of Arc. (Funny that history in school was so dry and boring, all names and dusty dates.)

Some of the other names became familiar in the past few years of homeschooling as we discovered the joys and thrills of Living Books. Two of these books, for example, would be The Little Duke, whose forefather was the Rollo the Viking whose tale is one of those told in Famous Men of the Middle Ages, and G.A. Henty's The Dragon and the Raven, which introduced us to King Alfred (although, I know we have read in the past somewhere else about the fleeing King burning the poor woman's dinner and receiving a thorough scolding for his ineptitude). How exciting it is to run across names we know, and to be able to place them in context in reading through Famous Men of the Middle Ages, with its chronological ordering of the stories.

The text is written in fairly simple, straightforward, story-telling language, a recitation of fact, for the most part leaving judgment and interpretation to the reader. Some of the names and terms are introduced with a guide to pronunciation inserted into the text (Vikings: vi'-kings, Charlemagne: shar-le-main'). The stories are suitable for reading aloud, or for older elementary students to read themselves. The narrative holds enough interest that our children are easily able to narrate the material. The chapters are short, about two to four pages, and broken into smaller sections. Black and white illustrations, evidently taken from famous artwork (I recognized a couple), add interest; though I wish that the publisher had included references to the original artwork so that we could look it up and find full-color versions on the internet or in art books.

The last few pages of the book are taken up by a "Glossary of People and Places." This is a chapter-by-chapter listing of names of people and places, just like it says, and brief explanations to put them in context. (A few examples: Valens: Emperor of Rome in the East [364-378]. Thrace: Region of southeastern Balkan peninsula. Busenato: Small river in south Italy; Alaric ordered his men to bury his body under the river, for which the river was temporarily diverted.)

I have to say I'm prejudiced. I would much rather read history in the form found in Famous Men of the Middle Ages than in any modern-day history textbook. I seem to have passed that feeling on to our children. We have a bookshelf of textbooks that we bought for reference, and that's about all they ever get taken off the shelf for: reference - and usually by Mom or Dad. The children never voluntarily grab one of these for a rainy day's reading. On the other hand, I have had a number of requests for re-visits to chapters in our Famous Men books. I'd say that's a pretty good testimonial.

Combine reading Famous Men of the Middle Ages with narration, mapwork, a timeline and appropriate "enrichment" activities - our public library has a lot of activity books based on periods of history - and you could make a memorable study of the Middle Ages.