How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #1
There on the river's low, tree-lined banks, stood our noble's house—Lord Furnival's manor—the grandest house I knew. It was where the steward had lived for many years in the absence of the knight.
With stone walls two levels high and small windows, the manor was to me like a castle, high, mighty, and impenetrable. (4.17-18)
While the manor is a much stronger dwelling than Crispin's cottage—we don't think two guys could just pull it down—it's not exactly as defensible as a castle, either. Why, then, does Crispin refer to it as one?
Quote #2
Everything—from the woods, the cottages, the manor house, the mill, the roads, the growing lands, the commons, even the church itself, to the tiny crofts behind our cottages used for planting herbs and roots—everything belonged to Lord Furnival, who held it in the king's name. (4.26)
Long before Karl Marx expressed the idea that power comes from control over the means of production, feudal lords understood that ownership, particularly of food, a basic human need, grants power.
Quote #3
The moment I did, his free hand shot out, and with a speed that belied his bulk, he grabbed me by the wrist and held me with the strength of stone. (16.44)
Physical strength is yet another type of power this book explores. Because Bear can physically overpower Crispin, he is able to claim his labor and become his master. In the Medieval era, a lot of power came from this very literal physical reality.