just to be clear yall the blacksmith in this video got INCREDIBLY lucky
The video overlooks some important aspects of medieval blacksmith apprenticeships. While it’s true that being an apprentice was physically demanding, with long hours and tough labor, apprentices were actually well cared for. They often lived with their master’s family, becoming almost like an extension of the household. In exchange for their work, they received room and board, and many guilds provided additional support, such as food, clothing, and even medical care. Medieval society itself was highly communal—people looked after each other, and guilds were key in fostering that sense of support for craftsmen. After completing their 5-7 years of training, apprentices did became journeymen. Only these weren't beginners—they were skilled workers with years of experience. Journeymen had opportunities for work through the guilds, which regulated fair wages, working conditions, and job opportunities. The idea that beginning journeymen struggled in extreme poverty isn’t accurate, since there was always demand for tools, nails, horseshoes, hinges and repair work. Becoming a master blacksmith took years of dedication and hard work, but it wasn’t as bleak as this video suggests.
This video is literally just the authors head-cannon based on essentially nothing.
"subscribe for more historical content" Almost nothing about this was historical. This was a short fantasy story that bent medieval stereotypes into a place even Hollywood wouldn't go.
Me waiting for yet another animated video explaining why being a pirate during the golden age of piracy was bad
What are your sources for this video? A lot of what you’ve said is quite contrary to the scholarly sources I’ve read about 12th century life in England.
Get through the bad times and being a Smith sounds pretty damn good, from a street urchin to a benchmark of society, what a life.
This is actually disgusting the amount of hyperbole and misinformation just to try to make an "infoslop" trending video. Peasants had meat as well as pretty good lives for back then. The immediate noble of the land that the peasants directly served was likely a Baron. It would be his castle, or maybe just a large manor, surrounded by 10-20 peasant families and they all knew and cared for each other. The Baron had an incentive to take care of his peasants because it is far easier to deal with a family you and yours has known for generations than some new group if you have to replace them. Their houses often were NOT small since the family would live in the same house on the same land for generations. The house would get expanded over time when times were good. Peasants ate meat and milk all the time. They would all have a few farm animals like chickens for eggs and 3-5 cows with one butchered each year. I could go on but I'm already bored. Everything this dude said about blacksmiths was wrong too. They were not rich.
I mean, compared to the options of dying an unnamed peasant, being a number to the "soldiers killed in battle," dying as a poor farmer, and other things, this one doesn't seem as bad. It's really bad no doubt, but not as bad.
This video could have been great if the author wasn't so ignorant of the topic. Might as well have had dragons in this story, wouldn't have changed the accuracy much.
Why it sucked to be a blacksmith? This video makes it sound awesome lol
I would like to know where you got all this information this is a very dubious presentation
Peasants actually ate much better than what was described
This is like a children's story.
Lol by Medieval standards this sounds absolutely incredible. He did and accomplished everything he wanted to do in life.
0:30 Owning a House? So even a medieval peasant was filthy rich, compared with Gen-Z these days...
Henry's life if Skalitz was never invaded!
No sources in the description? No mention of what century or which country this story is based on? I'm sure most of these details were true somewhere at some point, but I'm going to need a little more than that if I'm going to take everything that you say in this video as fact.
Blacksmith here. Yes, it can be hell at times: the inferno that's the forge (imagine dry heat of the summer 2ft/.6m away from you), the weight of the hammer (i swing a 4lb/1800g hammer as a daily hammer), the stench and filth of burning coal, the black of charcoal, the filth of filing metal, the noise of a grinder, sparks, dust, flame. Yes, I have to make my own charcoal at times. Why? Some processes demand charcoal, because it burns cleaner than coal. I'm not getting into having to manage a bit of steel that as bright as the sun using a thing that may or may not fail or slip, causing the steel to go flying up and landing anywhere in the shop. Now all that while figures out how to make this bit of stock into the shape you want as efficiency possible so to not waste fuel. And you need to do all your wood work: break a handle? It's your butt fixing it. Want a box? You're making it. Want a workbench? Your cross to carry. It's a mix of hard work, memorization, philosophy, history, art, a delicate hand, and magic.
@StickTory