[ANON POST] Medieval Winter Travel
Part of the plot in my story revolves around the fact that my characters really need to travel to a specific place - but they live in a very snowy, northern climate, and when the story opens winter is already closing in. To make matters worse, there's a mountain range between them and their intended destination, which they can theoretically travel
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Some breeds of horses do better in deep snow than others. The Mongols with their outrageously-tough steppe ponies could campaign in the winter - why not? They lived their whole lives outdoors in all weathers anyway, and in winter the rivers are conveniently frozen.
"Jebe's ride across the mountains at the head of an army of 30,000 men into unknown territory makes Hannibal's crossing of the Alps pale in comparison. The Mongol column entered the cleft between the Pamir and the Tien Shan mountains in the dead of winter, often riding through snow five and six feet deep." (Source)
. Our modern Western horses could never survive that. (For that matter, our modern Western soldiers probably couldn't either.)
The Finns, Lapps and Sami were the Ski People. They were also the Reindeer People, and reindeer are a lot better adapted to pulling sleighs in deep snow than horses are. The people of the circumpolar North have always used dog-sleds, because dogs are a lot easier to feed in winter than horses are. The Norse used wheeled goat-carts, so presumably they also used goat-sledges in winter.
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pole outside it-this was the sign-board used at that time by inns-and once or twice on the open ground, all huddled together for warmth between their grazing chargers."
Medieval warm period indeed!
I should have thought to look into the Mongols, and now I will. For whatever reason I am kind of tickled at the idea of goat-sledges. Thanks!
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Horses have to graze, even in the high mountains in mid-winter. Some fodder can be packed as a supplement, but not enough to live on exclusively, and the great Horse Cultures - the Mongols, the Lakota - have been nomads, not farmers. No doubt they gathered the wild grasses, but they weren't systematically haying. (The Once And Future King has a good bit about medieval haying too.)
Since the last Ice Age, England hasn't ever been all that frigid, surrounded by sea as it is. I should think there would almost always be grass to be found in sheltered spots - not the choicest grass, perhaps, but good enough to get by on - as long as the sheep hadn't gotten there first. Sheep are highly destructive to pasture because they yank the grass up by the roots rather than nipping it off above-ground - that's the main reason for the eternal war between cowboys and shepherds.
BTW, goats are browsers, like deer, rather than grazers like sheep, cows and horses. Browsers will graze and grazers will browse if they must (or if there's 'candy' like clover or apple blossom) but goats can live quite happily on plants that horses won't touch.
It seems counter-intuitive, but a mild winter can be deadlier than a frigid one. When it's far below freezing, the air is very dry, and dry air doesn't conduct heat that well; as long as one keeps the wind out and doesn't break a sweat, one can stay warm. But when it's just above freezing, every molecule of water vapor on the breeze is a little vampire, sucking warmth away. Get soaked through, or even just soak your shoes, and hypothermia may kill you, when you'd have been okay if the temp had been ten degrees lower.
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Really interesting info about grazers and browsers, thanks.
It doesn't seem counter-intuitive at all, but then I'm from a place that sees a lot of winter both wet and dry, and have done a lot of mountain hiking in the snow.
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