medieval setting
Knights and castles
A medieval setting is a fictional or historical backdrop evoking the European Middle Ages—roughly the 5th to 15th centuries.
It typically features castles, knights, feudal hierarchies, and pre-industrial technology.
The term appears most often in fantasy literature, film, and games: The campaign takes place in a medieval setting with dragons and sorcery.
Such settings may be historically grounded or entirely imagined.
- castleFortified medieval residence
- great hallLarge central meeting room
- knightHonored mounted soldier
- coat of armsHereditary symbolic emblem
- jousting tournamentFormal mounted lance combat
windmill · stone bridge · dragon lore · holy grail · dark ages · feudalism · clergy · illuminated manuscript · barter system · blacksmith · village green · waterwheel · cathedral · serfdom · peasant revolt · alewife · town crier · vassal
- historical fictionhistorical fiction, historical novel, period drama, Victorian novel, historical mystery
- period dramaperiod costumes, costume drama, Victorian era, period piece, Edwardian era
- epicsIliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, epic poem, Beowulf
- Literary PragueFranz Kafka, The Trial, Metamorphosis, Kafkaesque, Milan Kundera
- Period SatireBlackadder, Monty Python, Holy Grail, Life of Brian, Blazing Saddles
- World of Darknesskindred, clans, Nosferatu, Toreador, Giovanni