In 2022, we see the daily life in Europe in the late Middle Ages as very scary. Would people living in that period see it the same? What would be the regular, "daily" level of fear be like?

by droim

I guess this question could be made for any pre-modern or pre-industrial society on Earth, but I choose to focus on late middle Ages Europe because it seems to have been particularly miserable, plus there is an abundance of historical sources that is not necessarily replicated in other pre-modern societies.

Food supply was not nearly as secure as it is today and massive scale famines were a semi regular occurrence, with the Great Famine of 1315 being one of the most prominent. Medicine was in its infant stages and even a simple fall, cut or viral infection could result in early death in the healthiest individual; the general population got regularly decimated by supranational-scale epidemics (the Black Death being the most obvious one) that could wipe out entire villages and cities, and surviving to adult age was essentially a matter of money, genetics and sheer luck. Violence and conflicts were commonplace, with many towns being either fortified or built on higher grounds to prepare for outside attacks. Life was restricted to very limited circles in space and time, as transportation was slow, roads were rocky and underdeveloped, there was no electricity and the land between two towns largely consisted of dark forests with an unknown amount of danger.

This, for us watching from our cosy 2022 life, is extremely scary. But did the people from that period view their world the same as we view it? Did they see it as scary? Were they afraid on a regular basis? Was fear a key component of their lives? Or were they mostly just "meh" about it because it was the only world they knew about and could imagine?

ps. it has nothing to do with "dance", no idea why it got flaired as such.

mikedash

There will be a good deal more to say, certainly with reference to your points about fear of famine and illness (and what remedies, spiritual ones mostly, were available to address them), but I addressed one aspect of this broader question here a while ago with regard to a query about the levels of violence experienced by medieval populations. This turned out to be quite an itneresting and counter-intuitive exploration, and you might like to review that answer while you wait for fresh responses to your query:

This article in The Atlantic mentions that the murder rate in the Medieval period was 12%. That seems absurdly high. Is there any truth to it?