Hello, it’s me, Roger of Wilberfoss. Did you know that many of the people in my home village look at me with suspicion? The priest in particular always freezes when he sees me and hastily reaches for the cross on his chest. He probably thinks that this helps him against the evil aura that surrounds me – and all because I’m left-handed.
You see, in my time, being left-handed is a sign that you are possessed by the devil or at least in league with him.
Even in ancient Greece and Rome we left-handers didn’t always have the best reputation. And now that the Christian faith has widely spread in England and the mainland, clerics like our priest in Wilberfoss make no secret of what they think of left-handers. Good, decent and pious people are right-handed. It’s not for nothing that Jesus sits on the right-hand side of God, while the devil, the fallen angel, who rebelled against God and strayed from the right – ha! – path, is plotting his next evil trick on the left.
But left-handed people like me are no better or worse than right-handers. The Bible knows that – my clever sister confirmed it to me. But the clergy keep their mouth shut. They fear and fight everything that is different. And we left-handers are different simply because there have always been fewer of us and as a result, our singularity stands out all the more. This otherness is enough for a leftie to lead a dangerous life.
Speaking of dangerous life, our master of arms considers all this hustle completely exaggerated and useless. As a warrior, you have to be able to carry weapons with both hands anyway, he says. If you’re left-handed like me, being able to fight with your right hand is especially important when you have to fight in a shield wall on foot or in line with other riders on horseback. If I used my left hand, the only weak spot in the line of defence would be me and that would be neither in my own interest nor in that of my brothers-in-arms and my liege lord.
The master of arms says there is also another very practical reason for the need to be able to fight equally well with both hands: How else can you fight if you lose your right arm or if it is so badly wounded that you can’t use it anymore? There’s only one hope left then, isn’t there?
Are you left-handed, too? Join the celebrations on 13 August, which is the official Left-handers’ Day.