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Author Topic: The NPC Miller in Medieval Times  (Read 1251 times)

SHARK

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The NPC Miller in Medieval Times
« on: May 15, 2021, 07:24:51 PM »
Greetings!

Yes, it's a minor thing, I know. However, in medieval times, the Miller was a very important and even a prominent member of society. Millers were the guys that ran Mills--the buildings and machinery that ground up wheat, cereals, flour, and so on for the local community--as well as supplying the basic food stuff and bread products for everyone from the poorest laborer to the local Church, and even to the local Noble Lord, and his household.

The Miller was highly skilled in using tools, and building and maintaining machinery, and the whole processes involved with the upkeep of the Mill. He knew quite a bit about carpentry, working with wood, metal, as well as stone. Millers were on a first-name basis with local carpenters, plasterers, lumber-mill operators, metalworkers, and blacksmiths. Not to mention wagon-makers and wheelwrights, too, and rope-makers.

When I was in college, I was doing some special courses for my Bachelor's Certificate in Medieval & Rennaissance Studies--a university program that comprised more than a Minor, but less than a Major. The program allowed me to jump into extensive studies of Medieval languages, culture, and art, as something of a more specialized course of study looking at topics beyond military, warfare, politics, and dynastic stuff.

From such study, I got a hold of some primary sources on a historical Italian Miller, living and working in Northern Italy at the time. The scope of ife and contacts he had was very broad, and he was a serious community leader, regularly meeting with the Nobility, Church leaders, Guild leaders, Militia Captains, and more. There wasn't much that went on in the local village or town that the Miller--and any assistant Millers that he was supervising--didn't know about. Millers were also quite prominent socially, but also financially. The local Nobility insured that the Miler's taxes were low, and that the Miller also received a nice percentage of coin and goods of the overall value of product that his mill produced quarterly--in addition to his standard usage and job fees.

From additional works consulted, as well as my professor, a specialist in Medieval Studies, evidently Millers enjoyed similar prominence and prestige, whether they worked in Italy, France, England, Germany, and beyond. Basically, everywhere, they were very important people with highly specialized training, knowledge, and skills. Fundamentally, as a *Commoner*--they were irreplaceable. Few if any, could quickly replace them. Obviously, other nearby Millers could not simply "stand in" for them, as they had backlogs of jobs and product on a regular schedule to fulfill. These experts were always busy, with full schedules that everyone in the local community absolutely relied upon.

Thus, in my own campaigns, I have always made it a point to detail local Millers alongside a blacksmith, nobleman, and an assortment of other characters as an important NPC. Millers occasionally were able to travel, assuming they had a team of assistants that could handle things temporarily--often of which was heavily dependent on the particular season, local growing conditions, and specific local crops. Chief Millers were able to sometimes go on long-distance pilgrimages, attend special schools or meetings in distant cities, and periodically participate in some unusual adventures. Some became involved with local politics, and various other activities. Millers were some very interesting characters!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK
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Aglondir

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Re: The NPC Miller in Medieval Times
« Reply #1 on: May 15, 2021, 09:44:49 PM »
Great post, Shark. I'm going to use that in my next game.

When I was on vacation in New England, I found a small town located on a river (more like a large creek) that had many abandoned mills from the late 1700's. The village encountered economic hardship, the population decreased, and many mills shut down as a result.

I used the idea in my last Ravenloft campaign, more of window dressing than anything else.

ScytheSong

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Re: The NPC Miller in Medieval Times
« Reply #2 on: May 15, 2021, 09:52:25 PM »
It is no coincidence that the two filthiest stories in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are the one about a miller and the one from the Miller.


SHARK

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Re: The NPC Miller in Medieval Times
« Reply #3 on: May 15, 2021, 10:12:40 PM »
Great post, Shark. I'm going to use that in my next game.

When I was on vacation in New England, I found a small town located on a river (more like a large creek) that had many abandoned mills from the late 1700's. The village encountered economic hardship, the population decreased, and many mills shut down as a result.

I used the idea in my last Ravenloft campaign, more of window dressing than anything else.

Greetings!

Thank you, Aglondir!

Yes, I highly recommend including Millers in your campaign's settlements. I was struck by the idea while gaming, of course, and in numerous modules, the local noble, a merchant, a priest, wizard, militia captain, the local blacksmith, of course--and maybe a carpenter, or herbalist are often included as NPC's and referenced throughout particular adventures. However, few, if any, have ever discussed or included a Miller. Inspired by my university studies, I was like, damn, MILLERS were important people, and it's easy to see why when you especially realize the particular knowledge and skills they possess. If the Miller dies, or is stopped from working, in maybe a week or so, everyone from the farmer to the noble lord are going to start going hungry fast. No bread, no porridge, no cereals, no noodles, none of that. Just meat and vegetables. It's a pretty huge hit to everyone's diet and standard of living. As well, even perhaps more critically, most of the lower classes and poor--unlike the elite and the nobles--don't tend to have as much access to meat like they do, so even more people of the lower classes would be experiencing problems fast. That of course means more problems for the Church--as the lower class people would look to them for help even more so--and also the local nobility. So, if say, a local Miller died suddenly, while the poor and lower classes would be in serious trouble relatively quickly, even the wealthy and the nobility would also be suffering, and becoming increasingly distraught. Everyone eats cereal, bread, porridge, or noodles after all. I was like, damn, these guys were critical specialists that were in many ways at the center of the entire medieval food chain! No wonder the local Lord made a personal interest in the Miller's and his family's happiness and security.

It definitely expanded my view of medieval life and society. I was surprised to learn all of the intricate relationships, socially, financially, politically, and even religiously, the local Miller's became involved in. For example, the precise attitude concerning religion that a Miller held became something of an important priority for both the local Lord, as well as the local Church leadership. Those folks always wanted to make sure that the local Miller was orthodox, conservative, and in good standing with the Church. Radicals, or other Millers that were religious or political dissidents got into HURRICANES of deep problems very fast. The medieval equivalent of swat teams arrived and hauled the Miller off into the dark night to be "counseled" vigorously. Considerable expenses were quickly put up to make arrangements to share a team of Millers with local communities until a new Miller could be found or trained. I recall reading about one Miller that was arrested and interrogated for heresy--and while that was going on--it caused a serious scandal and emergency for the local community.

Interesting stuff to consider in our campaigns!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK
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Hakdov

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Re: The NPC Miller in Medieval Times
« Reply #4 on: May 15, 2021, 11:17:39 PM »
In the Kingdom Come Deliverance crpg, millers are where you can fence stolen goods and are involved in a lot of crime. 

Quote
Milling is one of the oldest crafts in the Czech lands, the construction of water mills being well known since earliest times. Over the centuries the mechanism was perfected, and in the Middle Ages there was a mill in practically every village. There were also windmills or mills powered by oxen or horses. Milling was one of the so-called freelance professions. They conducted trade in the village, among other roles.

With the increasing number of water mills and other water-powered equipment, there was a need to settle relationships between the various millers. Already by the mid-14th century, an association of provincial millers – experts in the field of water rights, was set up, with powers to survey watercourses, stipulate the scale of mill earthworks, assess the technical condition of mills and so on. They also drew up a code of conduct for millers, so as to ensure their use of water for milling caused no loss to others.

Since the mills stood apart from the other village houses, millers were often the subject of gossip and were accused of earning money on the side in nefarious ways – from selling customers short on flour, to outright witchcraft, thievery and trafficking in stolen goods. The latter accusations in particular were certainly defamatory and without a grain of truth.

SHARK

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Re: The NPC Miller in Medieval Times
« Reply #5 on: May 15, 2021, 11:58:02 PM »
In the Kingdom Come Deliverance crpg, millers are where you can fence stolen goods and are involved in a lot of crime. 

Quote
Milling is one of the oldest crafts in the Czech lands, the construction of water mills being well known since earliest times. Over the centuries the mechanism was perfected, and in the Middle Ages there was a mill in practically every village. There were also windmills or mills powered by oxen or horses. Milling was one of the so-called freelance professions. They conducted trade in the village, among other roles.

With the increasing number of water mills and other water-powered equipment, there was a need to settle relationships between the various millers. Already by the mid-14th century, an association of provincial millers – experts in the field of water rights, was set up, with powers to survey watercourses, stipulate the scale of mill earthworks, assess the technical condition of mills and so on. They also drew up a code of conduct for millers, so as to ensure their use of water for milling caused no loss to others.

Since the mills stood apart from the other village houses, millers were often the subject of gossip and were accused of earning money on the side in nefarious ways – from selling customers short on flour, to outright witchcraft, thievery and trafficking in stolen goods. The latter accusations in particular were certainly defamatory and without a grain of truth.

Greetings!

Very interesting, Hakdov! Millers get into all kinds of situations! ;D

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK
"It is the Marine Corps that will strip away the façade so easily confused with self. It is the Corps that will offer the pain needed to buy the truth. And at last, each will own the privilege of looking inside himself  to discover what truly resides there. Comfort is an illusion. A false security b

jeff37923

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Re: The NPC Miller in Medieval Times
« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2021, 01:05:44 AM »
So what do the Millers do in the winter months? The grain has been collected in the fall and must be milled, but how long can the raw grain last before it becomes too bad to be milled into flour? Do they just mill grains into flour or do they use the millstones for making the mash for alcohol?
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Kyle Aaron

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Re: The NPC Miller in Medieval Times
« Reply #7 on: May 16, 2021, 01:18:46 AM »
I read in The Medieval Machine about how having a millstone was a special privilege. In one bishopric, the bishop was unhappy at the competition, and had his men go around and confiscate everyone's millstone so people could only grind their grain with him - and had the millstones used to pave his garden. He walked on them every day. After he died they came and dug them up and put them back in their mills.
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Ghostmaker

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Re: The NPC Miller in Medieval Times
« Reply #8 on: May 16, 2021, 08:54:44 AM »
I read in The Medieval Machine about how having a millstone was a special privilege. In one bishopric, the bishop was unhappy at the competition, and had his men go around and confiscate everyone's millstone so people could only grind their grain with him - and had the millstones used to pave his garden. He walked on them every day. After he died they came and dug them up and put them back in their mills.
He must've had some amazing security. This strikes me as a great way to have a 'terrible fire' at the church -- with the bishop inside. Yes, I know, religious figure, but still, fucking with someone's livelihood is a great way to make people hate you.

Kyle Aaron

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Re: The NPC Miller in Medieval Times
« Reply #9 on: May 16, 2021, 09:49:21 AM »
It's hard for people to grasp in these atheistic decadent days, but there was a time when the Catholic Church and its prelates were highly-respected - so much so that they could get away with all sorts of abuses. They had the position billionaires do today.
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Zalman

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Re: The NPC Miller in Medieval Times
« Reply #10 on: May 16, 2021, 10:24:00 AM »
I read in The Medieval Machine about how having a millstone was a special privilege. In one bishopric, the bishop was unhappy at the competition, and had his men go around and confiscate everyone's millstone so people could only grind their grain with him - and had the millstones used to pave his garden. He walked on them every day. After he died they came and dug them up and put them back in their mills.

This encouraged me to look up the size and weight of a typical millstone. The estimate I found was 50" diameter quartz at about 1500lbs.
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Ghostmaker

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Re: The NPC Miller in Medieval Times
« Reply #11 on: May 16, 2021, 10:37:42 AM »
It's hard for people to grasp in these atheistic decadent days, but there was a time when the Catholic Church and its prelates were highly-respected - so much so that they could get away with all sorts of abuses. They had the position billionaires do today.
I know, but still, that just strikes me as really dangerous. Was there a time period given? Supposedly around the time of Vincent de Paul, there was a French saying 'the best way to get to hell was to become a priest'.

robertliguori

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Re: The NPC Miller in Medieval Times
« Reply #12 on: May 16, 2021, 11:19:24 AM »
Of course, your milage may vary.  I do some fun stuff with nonhuman humanoid biologies and cultures in my games, and one of my reoccurring points is that humans are the only race with both the free space to grow and the digestive system to make use of wheat and other cereal grains, with elves and orcs being highly allergic to wheat gluten, gnomes being extremely susceptible to ergot fungus and thus shunning wheat culturally, and so on.  And so accordingly, humans are the only race that goes all-in on mills, as they need them to support their farms, which in turn drives general industrialization in general.

But I do strongly encourage people to look into deep bits of historical lore, because you need to know the rules before you can break them in a convincing way, and D&D is all about looking to the fun exceptions.

Thondor

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Re: The NPC Miller in Medieval Times
« Reply #13 on: May 16, 2021, 11:42:02 AM »
I've found "quern stones" to be fascinating. First came across them at a windmill in Burgh le Marsh, England. These are small millstones that can be powered by hand.

They are outlawed almost everywhere in medieval times, because this means that peasants and others wouldn't need to bring their grain to the miller, which is where taxes and other controls can be applied by the local authorities.

I've toyed with some races or societes making extensive use of quern stones (elves, beastmen) while others outlaw them and run mills (humans, gnomes). This hasn't feature in play in a meaningful way yet.

Thondor

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Re: The NPC Miller in Medieval Times
« Reply #14 on: May 16, 2021, 11:47:28 AM »
So what do the Millers do in the winter months? The grain has been collected in the fall and must be milled, but how long can the raw grain last before it becomes too bad to be milled into flour? Do they just mill grains into flour or do they use the millstones for making the mash for alcohol?
Isn't it easier to store grains than flour? I honestly don't know, it's just always been my assumption that you mostly wait to mill it until shortly before you need it.
Anyone know the answer to this?

They're are millstones a varying precision for different types of flour, which can vary for different grains.