Project Ideas

Feudalism

• Create a post that explains the structure of feudalism.
• Create a post the compares social standing in feudalism to modern-day society.
• Create a post that compares social standing in feudalism to Heritage Middle School. Principal Kacsandi is KING! 🙂

Crime and Punishment

We need a page about crime and punishment in the Middle Ages. I think it would be fun if someone created a character who ever week was caught an punished for a different crime. You could include a very prejudicial Baron as his overlord, perhaps an incompetent sheriff. There are lots of fun things you could include. A little ol’ English would be delightful as well.

If multiple people wanted to do this assignment, we could create a page for each, then create a post with a weekly pole to see which story is the best each week.

I would certainly be open to the idea of someone creating a weekly comic strip about the crime and punishment in the Middle Ages as well.

Random videos and puppet shows could be made about crime and punishment in the Middle Ages as well.

Fairest and Biased News

News page that is a spoof of FOX News “Fair and Balanced.” This page should represent the news from the perspective of the nobility (“biased”)–and needs to be told by a noble lady (the “fairest”)

E! Feudalism

• Create an page that documents the best and worst dressed lords and ladies.
• Breaking News! Create a film clip that documents a monumental breakup between a lord and a lady.

HGTV in Medieval Europe

• Create an episode about what you get for the money comparing different parts of Europe. This would provide a great opportunity to discuss the geography of Europe, and the influence that it played on the different areas of Europe.
• Create a House Hunters episode. It could be a peasant looking at a bunch of different shacks. It could be a lord and lady looking for a castle or tudor mansion (depending on the year). It could even be an evil witch looking for a tower to put her kidnapped princess (just make sure some factual architectual styles and details are included).

Fairy Tales

• Write and illustrate fairly tale. (One person could write it, and another could illustrate it,  and even another could write a review.)
• Evaluate or summarize different fairy tales set in the Middle Ages.
• Create a list of the top 10 fairy tales set in the Middle Ages.
• Create a puppet show or film that is a fairy tale.
• Re-tell a different fairy tale and make it set in the Middle Ages, best yet in a specific town/city in the Middle Ages.

Medieval Fighting

• Create armor, swords, lances etc. from whatever materials you can find. Take photos of said itmes and provide the name and description of each. Be sure in your descriptions to include the type of injury it was supposed to inflict.
• Watch an episode of “Deadliest Warrior” that contains some form of medieval fighter. Evaluate it.
• Watch a documentary about medieval fighting/weoponry/seiges and evaluate it.
• Watch a movie set in the Middle Ages, then write an evaluation of how realistic its representation was of the times. (Please feel free to also include humor in your evaluation.)
• Create an instructional video on how to use a sword.
• Create a puppet show of knights jousting.

Medieval Poetry

• Post and cite great medieval poetry.
• Attempt to write poetry in the style.
• Write a spoof of that style. For example, write an “Ode to Twinkies.” Bonus: “Ode to Indoor Plumbing.”

The Plague 

• Create a beauty advice column to hide the symptoms of the Bubonic Plague.
• Create a music video about the plague.
• Draw an person with the plague. Label the image and all of the symptoms. Scan the labeled illustration into the computer and upload it to either a page or a post on the blog.
• Compare the plague to other diseases.
• Research artists who painted/made wood-carvings about the plague. Create an informative page about “Art and the Plague.” Feel free to come up with a creative and witty name for the page.
• Watch a documentary on the plague, and then write a review for it. If you are feeling bold, imbed a photo of the DVD cover into the post/page.
• Create an advertisement for Plague Barbie. Use your imagination!
• Create a page about famous people who died from the plague. Include paintings and photos if you can. If you can’t find a painting, insert random cartoon character’s images that you think fit that person from history.
• Create a puppet show about the plague.

Movies, TV Shows, Video Games and the Middle Ages

Posts can be created to review movies, TV shows, video games, etc. set in the Middle Ages. Please include images for these reviews. The idea being that you should evaluate them on entertainment value, quality of graphics, accuracy of information, writing, acting, etc. You should also recommend it.

Depending on how you write the review, you may need to include a SPOILER ALERT!

Please ask you parents for permission before watching any of these films (unless it’s something like Shrek). I personally have not seen all of these, and some may contain adult content. Also, ask permission before playing any of the video games. Once again, I have literally NO knowledge about any of the video games.

Anything set in the middle ages or involving the crusades would be appropriate.

TV Ideas:

Merlin (British Series), Robin Hood, Knights of Mayhem, Camelot (British), The Mists of Avalon (mini-series), etc.

Movies (taken from Wikipedia):

• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949), a musical film adaptation of Twain’s novel, with Bing Crosby as the time-traveling Yankee and Cedric Hardwicke as Arthur.
• Knights of the Round Table (1953), based on Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory, with Robert Taylor as Lancelot, Ava Gardner as Guinevere, and Mel Ferrer in the role of Arthur.
• Sword of Lancelot a.k.a. Lancelot and Guinevere (1963), a film directed by Cornel Wilde and starring Mr. Wilde as Lancelot, Jean Wallace as Guinevere, and Brian Aherne as Arthur.
• The Sword in the Stone, a 1963 Disney animated film about Arthur’s childhood, loosely adapted from T.H. White’s take on the legend.
• Camelot, a 1967 film adaptation of the successful 1960 Broadway musical of the same name, in turn heavily based on the last three of T.H.White’s quartet of novels. It starred Richard Harris as Arthur, Vanessa Redgrave as Guenevere, and Franco Nero as Lancelot.
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a comedic parody of the traditional King Arthur legend. It was later adapted into a successful Broadway musical called Spamalot. Arthur was played by Graham Chapman in the film.
• John Boorman‘s 1981 film Excalibur, based largely on Malory and probably the highest rated serious Arthurian film. It features Nicol Williamson as Merlin and Helen Mirren as Morgan Le Fay.
• First Knight, a 1995 movie based on the abduction of Guinevere by the knight Malagant. It featured Sean Connery as Arthur, Richard Gere as Lancelot, and Julia Ormond as Guinevere.
• Quest for Camelot is a 1998 animated feature with King Arthur ruling over a besieged Camelot.
• King Arthur and the Knights of The Round Table is a 1999 animated feature following King Arthur life from birth to death.
• King Arthur, a motion picture released on July 7, 2004, claiming (despite being heavily criticised for its historical inaccuracies) to be more historically accurate about the legend of Arthur as a 5th century, British-born, Roman commander, with respect to new archaeological findings; similar in story line to Jack Whyte’s books.
• Merlin and the Book of Beasts 2009 Laura Harris plays the daughter of Guenevere and Arthur. She must defeat Mordred her half brother and his book of beasts.

Video Games (also taken from Wikipedia, none of which I have played):

• King Arthur: The Role-playing Wargame a real time strategy and role-playing game by Neocore Games from 2009
• King Arthur by Krome Studios is based on the 2004 film of the same name.
• King Arthur & the Knights of Justice by Enix is based on the cartoon series of the same name.
• Stronghold Legends by Firefly Studios campaign includes King Arthur’s legend
• Conquests of Camelot by Sierra Entertainment centers around the quest for the Holy Grail.
• Knights Of The Round by Capcom is a light-hearted take on the Arthurian legend in a sword fighting beat-em-up similar to the video game Final Fight.
• Tomb Raider: Legend by Crystal Dynamics revolves around the King Arthur legend resembling those of other cultures around the world; pieces of artifacts are forms of Excalibur.
• Arthurian mythology is a prevalet element in Namco Bandai‘s Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, including elements such as Excalibur, Avalon and the Round Table, amidst other things.
• In Final Fantasy VII, the final and most powerful summon materia is Knights of the Round which has 12 knights striking an enemy with the last knight obviously being King Arthur through his extended entrance and grander appearance.
• The visual novel/eroge and anime Fate/stay night features a young female knight called Saberwhose true name is Arturia. She became King by pulling free the sword from the stone. Knowing that armies wouldn’t follow a woman, she renamed herself King Arthur and used Merlin’s magic to hide her gender.
• The prequel Fate/Zero features not only the above King Arthur/Saber, but also Lancelot as a Black Knight under the class Berserker. The spinoff game Fate/extra features Gawain as an enemy-exclusive Saber-class character.
• In the MMORPG RuneScape, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are portrayed as having settled in the game’s fictional world while awaiting Britain’s ‘time of greatest need’.
• The MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot takes place after King Arthur’s death.
• Namco‘s Soul series features Arthur as a samurai. He wields a katana named Gassan.
• The Wii game Sonic and the Black Knight features the main protagonist, Sonic the Hedgehog saving the city Camelot from King Arthur after he becomes corrupt and calls himself the Black Knight. After defeating the Black Knight/King Arthur, Merlin’s granddaughter Merlina reveals to Sonic & the Knight of the Roundtable that the King Arthur they knew was a fake created by her grandfather. In the end, Sonic was revealed to be King Arthur himself, as Caliburn (actually Excalibur) said he was the one who decides who is worthy of the crown.
• Sir Lancelot is used as character in a 1984 platform / arcade game for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
• The tactical JRPG Fire Emblem: Fūin no Tsurugi contains many characters whose names allude to the King Arthur legend. Although there is no Arthur, characters include: Guinevere, Igraine, Gorlois, Lance, Percival, Uther, Lot, Bors, Merlinus, Niime and Nacien. The game’s prequel, Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken, introduces Ninian, but on the whole this game draws more from medieval French mythology than British and Arthurian.
• The Facebookbased game Kingdoms of Camelot is a medieval sim whose premise is based on King Arthur making them a Lord or Lady of Camelot and granting them a tract of land on which they build a city. Players grow their cities, build further cities and control armies that conquer wildernesses and battle other players to grow might. Merlin also features as a prominent character, and there are mentions of Guenevere and Morgan Le Fay as well as various knights.