Working title: Donar's Mountain

Research Tour - 1st Day - Rockenhausen

Yesterday, I've started the history novel research tour at the museum of local history at Rockenhausen, Germany. Unfortunately the visit wasn't as successful as I was hoping for. The book index is digitized by now, but not available to the public. So I do depend on the museums Curator, which is very friendly but also a volunteer without deeper knowledge about research work. Additionally, her time is very limited due to her responsibilities as Grandma of an extended family.
It is a bit difficult for me to describe her what I need to know, instead of researching the book index directly.

On the plus side. As limited as my time at the museums library was, I was able to spend some time to take some pictures of historical places at Rockenhausen.

The first signs of civilization on Rockenhausen's ground is dating back to the Romans. Some archeological recoverings are displayed in public parks. So take the tour:

At the Roman well. Rockenhausen, Germany

....

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Writer at Work

Right now I'm preparing my next week's field trip, to some important places of my novel. Here you can see bit of my preparation process.

The places I want to visit for on-site research, marked on a foldable hiking-map.

I won't be able to visit all the places this time, cause I don't own a car. But my bike will take me to some of the places, the train to some others. Places on top of the Donnersberg I'll spare for another field trip.

Places I will visit this time:

Castle Hohenfels

The Hohenfels outlook post "Eiserner Mann"

A mine called "Weiße Grube"

A place called "Langental"

The local history museum

Central Question

As written in my first posting, I chose the destruction of Castle Hohenfels as the central event for my novel. Prior to the slighting of Castle Hohenfels, the castle was a few month under siege. This siege was prepared and executed by an army, organized and led by the cities, Speyer and Worms and the counties Sponheim and Bolanden.

But, the years around 1350 were difficult and dominated as well by the outbreak of the black death in Central Europe, Flagellant processions and mass murder of the Jews.
Not a good time to gather your soldiers to let them siege a small castle in a shire in the back of the beyond.

So, the central question for me as an author is:

Why did two really big and powerful cities (for medieval criteria) declare war on the small shire Hohenfels in the middle of the black death area? Just because the Hohenfels Clan was of danger to the next trade road? Is this enough? What about some unknown political linkage?

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Research Chaos

After nearly 6 month of research I'm running into some difficulties of how to organize the material.
The digital information is perfectly ordered.

A private wiki serves as a knowledgebase in which I have categorized any bit of information. A small database is meant to store important dates and I'm using Zotero to keep a searchable index of online resources. I'm able to access this information via the internet, even when not at home.

The digital part isn't bothering me. It is the paper-based information that is driving me crazy. I have a couple of cheap display books to store some copies and a ring binder with medieval terms and definitions. Additionally, I'm taking Cornell-style notes about the texts I read. These notes fill about half a dozend excercise books.

Guess what? Every time I leave my home to work in the park, the café or the library I'm carrying the wrong part of my research papers with me.

So, how do you organize your research? How can I keep my papers together and well in order?

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Castle Falkenstein I

Some images I took while visiting Castle Falkenstein with my hubby some years ago.

Castle Falkenstein was built 1135 A.D. and destroyed 1794 A.D.

Remains of Castle Falkenstein

Unfortunately modern handrails and doors are spread all over the place to keep tourists safe.

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The Beginning

I'm born in the German region called North Palatine. The area is very rural and a bit backwards, but also beautiful. Today, North Palatine shows a lack of industry, choice of employment and a lack of public transportation. Even back in medieval history, North Palatine wasn't exactly the center of big political events.

Nevertheless, you cannot visit a single town or village there without coming across history dating back to ancient times.

At the Donnersberg, you can find (reconstructed) Celtic remains. The village Winnweiler, where I attended both elementary school and the "Gymnasium" (german highschool), is built on an old roman settlement and some buildings of an Early Modern Period palace still remain.

To my luck, my elementary school teacher Mr. Schader was deeply in love with the local history and especially with the myths and legends around those distant events. He shared this love with his pupils, and maybe he is the person to take the credit for lightening the flame.

He took us along on field days to the remains of the castle Falkenstein and the castle Hohenfels. He showed us the "Iron Man" and the "Hochsteiner Kreuz" and he told us about the old legends.

The legend about the Hohenfels' robber knights and their outlook - the "Iron Man" - was the one I liked the most.

So, my novel is based on this legend and the last years of Castle Hohenfels until its destruction in 1351.

Please be my guest and follow my footsteps while researching distant events and visiting medieval remains. Now and then, I will show you places of history, or tell you stories not directly connected to my research. I hope you will enjoy them, too.

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