Granted, one fresh grave when our heroes arrive at...a 14th century Alpine monastery. But then, the first murder victim is: the only black man in the movie! Shame is, he looks like Peter from DOTD!
share[deleted]
[Were] there even black people in Europe in the middle ages?
No, that's an anachronism in the film. Thomas Edison invented black people in 1922.
And this is guy is also a scholar?
Venantius is a scholar, yes. Specifically, a translator.
----
Lazy + smart = efficient.
[deleted]
I doubt that a medieval black man would have been more than a simple slave.
Then you'd be wrong. Perhaps you've heard of the Moors, for example?
----
Lazy + smart = efficient.
[deleted]
"Moor" isn't an ethnic or racial designation. The Moors included Arabs, but also Berbers and -- relevantly here -- black Africans. And they were all over the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages.
----
Lazy + smart = efficient.
[deleted]
Look at flemish paintings from the era. There were black people in Europe
shareThere were definitely black people in Europe then. Not as many as today of course, but the Mediterranean world was interconnected and people went from place to place. The Muslim world in particular served as a bridge between Africa and Europe. Black people, both slave and free, lived in Sudan and Egypt and across North Africa and the Middle East, and of course with Iberia being brought into the Muslim world via the Moorish conquest, many would have gone there. And some of those black people would be Christians, or some would be Muslim but might convert to Christian at some point. Also Ethiopia was part of the Christian world and had relations with Europe.
share
Was the first victim (after the main characters arrive) in the book also a black monk?
Or was it a white monk in the book and did they change this in the movie to join the "black guy dies first" club?
Perhaps this movie is one of the oldest members of this club?