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Beds during early middle ages

Bearman1

Scribe
Hi All,

I have a character waking up in an inn during my WIP. I want to give a brief description of how poor the room.

The world is set in the equivalent of about the 11th century AD.

I thought a good way to do this would be to describe the materials of the bed and how low quality they are.

Only thing is .. I don't know what materials would be used for a bed. I am inclined to think wool for the sheet, and straw in the mattress. But honestly I have no idea what a bed consisted off during this time period.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
 

Fyle

Inkling
I'm no expert but

- wood frame
- blankets
- straw/hay
- a pillow if you weren't completely poor

Wiki it, "beds medieval times" or something
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Poor would mean a pallet on the floor. That's it. An actual bed would be stepping up in the world. Also, not to get too pedantic, the 11thc is not early MA, it's high MA. Or central MA, depending on one's preferences.
 

Shreddies

Troubadour
Straw on a wooden frame with rope suspension. That is where the "sleep tight" comes in. You regularly had to tighten up the ropes of the bed.

I was going to use something like that for my world. Do you know which era they were being widely used in?
 

Bearman1

Scribe
Wow! Thanks for all the info guys!

I hadn't even heard of a rope bed before, so you have all been really insightful.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Not to pound a point, but the beds in those illustrations were for wealthy people. Also, 16thc (though those illos were more like 17thc or later). OP asked about 11thc.

He did specify an inn. Few of those in 11thc, but given one, those beds were still awfully fancy. Much more common were pallets or piles or piles of straw, and multiple people crammed into the same room.
 
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