economics of brooding

[marycatelli]

So while the hero is brooding in the mountain fastness, what is he eating?

Especially since he has other needs. Clothes. Books, perhaps. All the more when he acquires some company that needs education, but he rather wants some education himself, and his own was cut off by external forces.

To be sure it's the mountain fastness of a reclusive wizard that he laid claim to as abandoned. He could make use of the means the wizard used. Possibly even his money. The library might be a bit of a problem despite its extent.

And he can do odd jobs for minor expenses.

Then there's the question of where he can shop. He's wanted by the law, and he's not accustomed to black markets.

Comments

[eugine_nier]

I've always wondered about how Hermits solve this problem.

[marycatelli]

Generally by not being as isolated as popular imagination makes them. Not only could they raise food in gardens, they could make and sell things.

Then they could go out in the morning to sell them, perhaps. I've read about a modern-day diocesean hermit (one who does not live with an order), a widow, whose rule let her run errands in the morning and receive visitors in the afternoon.

And traditionally many hermits live as members of a religious community, either having a cell at a monastery or living in a community of hermits who would meet to have a meal.