Was long-distance travel basically a matter of setting out the unknown

during the Middle Ages? B272003

In the Middle Ages, the act of travelling could easily be viewed as setting out into the

unknown as without the creation of geographically accurate maps or the benefit of concrete

already pre-established exploration, travellers had no information to guide them on their

journeys. Travellers would have to set out on the journey to their destinations with trust in

their abilities to navigate undiscovered land in what could have possibly been harsh terrain

and conditions in the different climates throughout places such as Asia and even some

European countries. However, it was not as simple as saying that travellers set out into the

unknown as this suggests that travellers had no knowledge of the journey, they planned on

making which is just not true at all as in the Middle Ages there was a multitude of different

reasons why people travelled and it wasn’t done without purpose. I believe that the act of

travel wasn’t perceived by travellers as setting out to the unknown as they would have a

distinct purpose for the trip they planned which in turn would act as motivation to embark on

their journey without the fear of travelling through unexplored land. The Middle Ages and

religion go hand in hand as it played a key part in the lives of almost everyone in this era of

history and it wasn’t uncommon for travellers to embark on journeys with the goal of

spreading religion across different countries or to reach sacred religious sites. This is one of

the multiple purposes that travellers would bring with them into long journeys or expeditions

in the Middle Ages by having a purpose for a journey its informal to say they were embarking

out into the unknown as they had some understanding of where and what they were getting

themselves into. In this essay I will look at the different reasons why people embarked on

long journeys and if they really were setting out into the unknown.
The first thing I want to highlight is the very important link between religion and travel as the

act of pilgrimage was not uncommon within the religious population in the Middle Ages as

many aspired to travel to strengthen their devotion to their religion by travelling to holy sites

or holy remains. We can use examples of religious pilgrimage as a key form of insight into

what it was like to travel in the Middle Ages as Kim Phillips highlighted that those who took

pilgrimages to holy Christian sites produced the highest amount of travel writings from the

Middle Ages.1 That being said Christians only make up a part of the world’s religious

population with Islamic and Judaic pilgrimage also providing further examples and insight

into travel in the Middle Ages. When a religious person decided to embark on a pilgrimage, I

don’t believe they would view their mission as setting out to the unknown as there was

definitely some guidance provided to Pilgrams for their journeys. The pilgrimage roads were

used by Pilgrams so that they could effectively travel to religious sites without getting lost

and monasteries and churches were often found on these roads which further provided

support to Pilgrams in their travels.2 One example of a place often used by Pilgrams was the

Church of Madeliene Vezelay on the pilgrimage roads of France which was a very common

stop for Pilgrams travelling to Jerusalem.3 I believe this highlights that travel was a matter of

entering the unknown is inaccurate as even through their were no detailed maps to guide

people there were clear guidelines in place to help those in travel. the pilgrimage roads

provide evidence that travellers were able to traverse long distances to these religious sites

often requiring months of travel relatively safely as they had a road to guide them on their

journey rather than traversing the continent without a fixed route to direct them which

disputes the idea that they were setting out to the unknown on these journeys.

1
Kim M. Phillips, 'Travel, writing, and the global Middle Ages', History Compass 14 (2016), 83
2
John Block Friedman, The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought (Syracuse: Syracuse
University Press, 2000), 76
3
John Block Friedman (2000), 77
However religious journeys are not just for pilgrimage as many religious people from the

Middle Ages also set out on expeditions to try and spread their religions to others by acting as

a missionary and by travelling around the world to those who hadn’t been reached by religion

yet. One of the best examples of this is William Rubrucks mission to Mongolia to spread

Christianity to the Mongols by meeting with a Mongol Prince who showed interest in

converting.4 In Williams writings he speaks of his first encounter with the Mongols and he

highlighted how shocked he was by their ignorance and barbaric nature which led him to

label them as inhuman.5 This displays an element of the questions argument as for someone

like Rubruck he is actually setting out into the unknown as he had the task of going into

hostile territory and interacting with Mongols who at the time had little no relation with

countries in Europe like France where William is from. This highlights that while there were

definitely guides to help those in travel like the pilgrimage roads there is still a distinct factor

of the unknown in areas like people and nature as most travellers wouldn’t have interacted

with those who live in other countries they may pass on their journey and it is unknown to the

traveller how these interactions would have played out.

Another purpose of many travellers was exploration, in the Middle Ages a lot of the planet

was unknown and it wasn’t uncommon for explorers to seek out the unknown in an effort to

learn more about the world and gain new information to better help other travellers and really

everyone in the future. Explorers would make an effort to mark out geographical locations

and any other beneficial information they found while exploring and often they would record

their findings in writing for travellers to read. For example, Isidore's Etymology was written

4
Extracts from The Journey of William of Rubruck: translation adapted from P. Jackson, The Mission
of Friar William of Rubruck: His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Mongke, 1253-
1255 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1990)
5
Shirin A. Khanmohamadi, In Light of Another's Word: European Ethnography in the Middle
Ages (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), esp. ch. 3 p.g 60
featuring information on animals, people, nature, geographical information and much more

which he learned on his travels whilst exploring.6 Another example that can be used is Ibn

Battuta who wrote one of the worlds most famous travel logs about his time exploring the

world in places like the middle east and Asia, he was also one of the first to highlight that the

climate along the equator was more extreme than other places which was a key geographical

advancement.7 Another example of geographically based research found exploring was the

Hereford map of Mundi which was an early attempt at a map which featured many Christian

religious sites with countries and continents marked on it Aswell which made it useful for

providing a visual representation of the world as people knew it which helped teach people

more about the different locations and countries around planet.8 This highlights that the act of

exploring actually does put travellers into the unknown but in doing this they learn new

things along their journey and when they record these things it no longer becomes the

unknown for the travellers who come after them. These explorers travel on the pursuit of

knowledge which they can then pass down to the travellers who come after them so they are

more prepared and knowledgeable about the journey they partake in which in turn means they

are not embarking on a journey into the unknown.

In conclusion, long distance travel without access to modern resources or accurate maps to

provide guidance may seem like venturing into the unknown. In reality it distinctly non-

factual to label long distance travel in the Middle Ages venturing into the unknown. Whilst

there were most definitely aspects of travel that was unknown to the traveller like meeting a

new culture of person to say that the whole journey was into the unknown is a complete

6
Marianne O'Doherty, The Indies and the Medieval West: Thought, Report, Imagination (Turnhout:
Brepols, 2013), esp. ch. 1 p.g 28
7
Preston E. James and Geoffrey L. Martin, All Possible Worlds: A History of Geographical Ideas (4th
edn., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), esp. ch. 3 p.g. 50
8
John Block Friedman (2000), 82 - 83
simplification of the reality. Which is that before a traveller embarked on a long journey,

whether exploring or travelling for a religious reason, there would have been a large amount

of preparation and planning involved. These journeys wouldn’t have been embarked on

without a distinct purpose and it would be peculiar for someone to embark on a long journey

without a preparing properly and planning their journey and instead just heading on an

expedition without a good idea of where they were going. Pilgrimages for example were not

just random unplanned expeditions, they were pre planned trips with plenty guidance

provided in the pilgrimage roads and the traveller would receive support on their journey

from other religious people and sites like the monasteries along the routes. Missionaries

would find themselves in unknown cultures and would interact with different people from

what they are used to, but these routes would be pre planned so they would have some idea

into what they were getting themselves into prior to these encounters. Whilst exploration did

focus on exploring the unknown, it was in the act of gathering knowledge and information so

that the travellers who came after didn’t have to enter the unknown and would rather be

prepared for their journeys. So, to say that long-distance travel was a matter of setting out the

unknown is just not factually accurate as long-distance travel wasn’t something you just

embarked on, it required lots of preparation and pre planning to make sure that everything

went well without anything going wrong.

WORD COUNT: 1700

Bibliography
 Marianne O'Doherty, The Indies and the Medieval West: Thought, Report,

Imagination (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013), esp. ch. 1

 John Block Friedman, The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought (Syracuse:

Syracuse University Press, 2000), 59-86

 Extracts from The Journey of William of Rubruck: translation adapted from P.

Jackson, The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck: His Journey to the Court of the

Great Khan Mongke, 1253-1255 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1990)

 Preston E. James and Geoffrey L. Martin, All Possible Worlds: A History of

Geographical Ideas (4th edn., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), esp. ch. 3

 Shirin A. Khanmohamadi, In Light of Another's Word: European Ethnography in the

Middle Ages (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), esp. ch. 3

 Kim M. Phillips, 'Travel, writing, and the global Middle Ages', History Compass 14

(2016), 81-92