Pop stars are wearing chainmail and everybody’s reading Romantasy novels. This can only mean one thing – the Middle Ages are back.

Flames bellow intensely from behind iron gates as swordsmen in chainmail clash in the throes of battle. A full moon shines brightly from behind a castle’s shadowy turrets onto the epic unfolding below. But this isn’t a scene from the latest Game of Thrones. This is the stage for 2024’s bubblegum pop breakout star Chappel Roan, aka Roan of Arc, herself decked out in full suit of armour.

At first glance this picture of violent Mediaeval chaos might seem like a strange setting to perform a track called “Good Luck, Babe!”, but those watching closely this year will have noticed nods to the Middle Ages popping up throughout culture like shrews in a boggy marsh. 

Vice called it Enyacore, a nod to the velvet-clad first maiden of New Age-pop. Burberry’s new logo, which made news by replacing the identikit Modernist design last year, could’ve been lifted from the pages of an illuminated manuscript. Even Architectural Digest reported on Middle Ages Modern. 

Romantasy, an adult fiction sub genre often set in historic fantasy lands where dragons, magic and snogging rule, has taken over BookTok in recent years, clocking up 1.6 billion views. Top Romantasy author Sarah J Mass released her debut novel Throne of Glass in 2012, but it wasn’t until her stories became caught up in the Mediaeval-mania happening on TikTok that they catapulted into the mainstream. She has since sold 37 million books. 

We’ve been here before, further back than any of us will remember. Over 100 years ago, the Arts & Crafts design movement emerged in Britain following the industrial revolution, paying tribute to the ornamentation of bygone eras, when artists lived in synergy with the natural world, inspired by the accents and curves found in the flora and fauna around them. Arts & Crafts was as much a love letter to nature as a resistance to mass production, the lowering of creative standards and the portentous rise of the machines. 

It’s not difficult to see how our tech-anxious modern world could’ve produced a similar revival in folk aesthetics. William Morris, founder of Arts & Crafts, is himself enjoying a resurgence in design. Such is the power of creativity that we see the same ideas manifest at different times throughout the ages.

What does this tell us about culture? 

The longing for a pre-industrial age certainly speaks to an underlying anxiety about the future of AI. This becomes especially noticeable when contrasted with the tech-optimistic space-mania of the second half of the 20th century.

But while there’s an obvious layer of escapism here, we think simply theorising about dystopia misses the point. Recreating a bygone fantasy world of Pagans, castles and sword fighting is fun. Playing dress up is fun. This isn’t a cry for help. It’s a call to play. 

Mainstream design has become so functional, life so numbingly efficient, that playfulness for its own sake feels special, even comforting. To play is to live, which could be the rallying call we all need to hear at the dawn of the AI revolution. 

Thought starters for brands

• Escape velocity: play, games, and creativity have always been popular spaces of escape. We reimagine rules, norms, and entire worlds, and then can choose what we bring back to reality. What norms and symbols can your brand bring from the land of lore and Romantasy to the reality?
  
• Lore goes cross-cultural: we wrote about fantasy and lore earlier this year, and it continues to spread beyond gaming culture, reaching music, art, and now design too. How can you begin to act in a more playful manner with your brand and its history?
• Bakhtin’s carnival: this may be the most high-brow reference we’ve made yet on Discover, but early 19th century Russian philosopher, Mikhail Bakhtin, came up with an early concept of why humans love carnivals; put simply, we love to role play. Role play enables us to act out situations and ideas that we’re not comfortable with as our true selves, therefore giving us total freedom to play. Play is broadly seen as a critical component of creativity, so what is your brand doing to give people inside (or outside) of your business permission to play?

To unlock more art and design insights, email discover@culturelab.co 

^{(Sources: CultureLab CultureIndex, November 2024)}