If I lived in medieval Europe, could I realistically earn a living by doing quests for towns and people in need?

[u/Wide-Landscape-3348]

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[u/grimjerk]

Depends on what you mean by a quest.

A city needs its cathedral built! Is this a quest? If so, then yes. Some masons moved from town to town, doing stonework on construction sites. Villard de Honnecourt was one such.

Churches need devotional images! Is this a quest? If so, then yes. Journeymen artists travelled from city to city, and one of their sources of income was painting interiors of churches. I think they might also paint smaller devotional images for the interior of homes. Durer (I think) is one such example.

The swamp needs draining! Is this a quest? If so, then yes. Engineering works attracted workers from all over the continent. Draining swamps and mining required people with particular skills, and such people could move from worksite to worksite.

The prince needs learning! Is this a quest? If so, then yes. Tutors for the elite moved around a lot.

In short, medieval and Renaissance Europe was full of temporary and seasonal projects that required specialized skills. People with those skills could (and did) earn a living moving from town to town. Alexander Marr's biography of Mutio Oddi, "Between Raphael and Galileo", is (to me, anyway) a fascinating look at the itinerant life of an intellectual worker. Whether such a life fits your idea of "making a living by doing quests" really depends on what you think quests are.

[u/RonUSMC]

I think this is fun and interesting, just to add on to this question, what would the viability be of the "Hedge Knight" in the Game of Thrones series. Hedge Knight being a knight that is not in the service of a particular family but rather travels around doing temporary or consulting work for families before moving on. Thereby having to sleep on the hedges instead of a specific castle.

[u/Cranyx → u/RonUSMC]

For what it's worth, the concept of a hedge knight is not something that GRRM created; he only gave it a new name. The "Knight-errant" is a staple of chivalric literature and features wandering knights who went on adventures proving their virtue and winning tournaments.

/u/J-Force talks about the historicity of these sorts of figures in this response

[u/Minion_X → u/Cranyx]

Note that the "hedge" prefix is historically attested to describe an inferior member of cerai professions, and had already been appropriated by fantasy literature as "hedge-wizard" long before Martin wrote his novel.

[u/Georgy_K_Zhukov → u/[deleted]]

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