Falconry, Lepers and the Angel

The medieval festival in the small Tuscan hill town of Montevettolini takes place in September for one day only. Montevettolini nestles in the hills about a half hour's drive from Lucca and dominates the hinterland a few miles south of Montecatini Terme. 

Signor Fruit and two veg

Wandering Troubadours

Some of the stalls with Tuscan hills in background

Montevettolini

This annual medieval experience is a crowd drawing event; being a fortified hilltop town there is only one road in and one road out and both of these are hardly wide enough for an ox-drawn cart. Consequently on the day of the Festa visitors' cars straddle the olive tree lined verges for miles in both directions. One needs to arrive relatively early to avoid a strenuous uphill climb to the town gate.

Local produce

In the narrow streets it's hard to avoid the importunate lepers

....and the elvish maidens

and sirens

faintly anachronistic

We do find parking and after a short walk to the town walls we wait in a queue for the door in the great heavy gate to open and when it does the fierce gatekeepers clad in studded leather cuirasses and fully armed with sword and lance bark unintelligible questions at us in Italian. As visiting emissaries from a far-off foreign land we are closely scrutinised and eventually allowed passage. We drop a generous voluntary stipend in the basket by the gate to appease them and proceed to cross a temporal boundary.

Milord and Lady

Stonecutter

The hat seller plies his wares

A deeply religious encounter

Another Acolyte is recruited

Once inside our twenty-first century world disappears and we are in the thirteenth century  jostled by jesters, pilgrims, crusaders, lepers, owl keepers, bee keepers, falconers and town dignitaries and merchants. All of Montevettolini participates in this richly concocted illusion accompanied by convincing actors and musicians who wander the streets with medieval instruments playing music not unlike that of Galicia or Brittany.

Mixing ancient dyes

The Seigneur (or Eddie Jordan?)

The wine flows "siphonically"

 The broad square adjacent to the town gate is flanked by medieval buildings. All modern signs have been concealed and evidence of our world is banished for the evening. In the main square there is a fascinating programme. As dusk descends we watch a falconry event as pigeons flee to safety in the tall church belfries when the hunting birds soar high. An Angel and one of his Apostles stalk the square accosting us innocents. Later as darkness falls town dignitaries gather for a grand candle-lit procession lead by an important crusading nobleman.

A Mage plays his devious tricks

Candlemakers

The Grain Seller

The pesky lepers are persistent

 Small events occur in open spaces by churches. The musicians play and a maiden waits to be ducked in a pond if only someone can toss a small ball into the bulls eye net. The narrow streets are full of stalls containing beautiful crafts, wine, breads , mushrooms, foods, costumes, posies, circlets of flowers, hats and demonstrations of candle making, carving and stone masonry. We turn into a street by the walls and are suddenly accosted by moans, wails, groans and begging from a colony of lepers who desperately grab our legs. Around another corner we encounter a collection of owls.

My new BF, Signor Fruity and Two Veg.

Narrowly avoiding decapitation by falconry perch

 As the sun sets over distant hills in an enormous fireball we eat in the common hall. Our fare is basic but a substantial, even, some might claim, luxurious plate of beef and beans accompanied by a generous flagon of red wine.

Medieval Times

It's a hill town

When we finally exit the gate at midnight there is still a queue gathering to beg entry. Patiently the gate keepers ask their questions and allow them through when they make satisfactory responses. 
We make our way back to Lucca wondering if Medieval life could really have been that much fun....

An Early Medieval Wardrobe

The Bayeux Tapestry and various manuscripts provide the writer of historical fiction with an insight into early medieval costume. For example the lavish wealth of this world is evident in Aelfric's Colloquy where a merchant sold purple silk and precious gems, coloured garments and dyes. Anglo-Saxon wills are another source of information as they reveal bequests of clothing.



Harold's Crowning at Westminster. The nobles were richly clad.



Unusual Garments

 Anglo-Saxon glosses often provide garment names that are fascinating. It is interesting to guess which are male, female or both or even what they are. Here are a few of my favourites:

A Gobweb- something made of precious cloth, frequently purple, usually silk, maybe shot silk or taffeta.
But what is a Gobweb? No one knows but if you have a suggestion perhaps you would share your knowledge.

Breast-lin -  a linen band for the breast, perhaps a garment, maybe something else, or could it be a wrap for a corpse?

A Breast-rocc- a garment covering the chest. Is it linen underwear?

Smoc- a shirt, undergarment, possibly embellished.

Slop- an upper garment that is loose and made of linen.

Under-sec - undershirt

Nihtwarn- nightwear worn by men, but what about women?

In cupboards, clothing chests and coffers one might discover an array of swiftlere -low slippers, feax-net-hairnets, gloves, mittens, belts, girdles, clasps, ornaments, amulets.

 

Contrasting bands of gold material and the circlet gold fillet



My Lady's Gown

At night a lady might hang her long-sleeved gown on a clothing pole. She would set aside her headdress, one designed to conceal the neckline. Circa 1066 her gown was tailored but she also had a sleeveless overgown which hung loose from her shoulders. Wide sleeves were in fashion and these flared into exaggerated points. The overgown was often brightly coloured and ankle length with a pronounced hem and sometimes this possessed a contrasting border. In a picture supposed to represent Judith of Flanders her tight belt is visible at the front of the gown to cinche the fabric and show off the waist.

 

Patterned fabric and hooded or veiled headdresses



 



My Lady's Undergarments

Sleeves belonging to an underdress visible at the wrist were of linen material. Occasionally the fabric was drawn together with needle and thread, soaked and stretched thus creating pleats. They were not permanent and could wash out!

Stripes of cloth wound around the legs from mid calf to the ankle can be seen in early medieval pictures of women on horseback.

A simpler dress and loose headdress but also hair showing on the forehead



My Lady's Headdresses

It is thought that young girls wore their hair long and loose over their shoulders but a band might keep it neat. Women covered their heads indoors and out. Head bands were worn with a cloth headdress to conceal both neck and shoulders. The Fillet, often mentioned in The Handfasted Wife, was considered a characteristic feature of the married woman's appearance. It was worn in conjunction with a headdress of fabric. Streamers ending in decorated tags emerge from the veil or hood at the back. The Fillet was a narrow piece of fabric embroidered, brocaded, possibly jewelled or it could be a circlet of silver worn outside a hood. It is thought that in the late eleventh century women wore their hair up. A plait or firm mound of hair was practical since it was all the easier for pinning a wimple, veil or hood onto it.

Bands for the head



My Lady's Shoe Collection

Elditha, the heroine of The Handfasted Wife, placed her shoes up on the rafters. She had ankle shoes that were flat-soled. They were plain with a strip running down the front of the foot. The toes have modest points. She had several pairs of low shoes or slippers and at least one pair of fine deerskin boots.

 

And shoes of course



Conquest

Anglo-Saxon textiles dazzled the Normans who often referred to them in writings. Their fabrics included imported silks often patterned, fabrics embroidered with gold, fabrics adorned with pearls and jewels and fur-trimmed robes. Matilda, the Conqueror's queen is known to have used English embroiderers. The world the Normans conquered was rich in art, literature, fabrics and jewels. Its noblemen and women were dressed extravagantly. So when Gytha, Harold's mother went into exile with a great treasure in 1068 she may well have carried with her many beautiful and valuable garments.

 

A Medieval Summer Picnic

The early medieval climate from circa the ninth century until the Norman Conquest was mild enough to allow the cultivation of vines in Hampshire. Bede remarks 'the land is rich in crops and trees, and has good pasturage for cattle and beasts of burden. It also produces vines in certain districts, and has plenty of both land-and waterfowl of various kinds. It is remarkable too for its rivers, which abound in fish, in particular salmon and eels, and for copious springs...'

The ingredients and possible location for a picnic are present in this tiny extract. Imagination and research fills in the gaps.

A selection of breads and pastries

The Location

This is easy to discover by skimming through the Domesday Book. There I found the Godwin Estate of Reredfelle which straddled the counties of Kent and Sussex. It had parkland and woods and small rivers. It is lost to us now and there is no trace of it.

The ladies ride out into the woods on Lammas Day, 1st August, to enjoy a picnic. Later, there will be feasting in the Saxon Hall.

The Picnic

The first wicker basket contains a flagon of Rhenish wine, a little sweet alcoholic mead, ale and beer derived from fermented fruits. In Aelfric's Colloquy it is written 'What do you drink?' the novice monk is asked 'Ale, if I have it, otherwise water if I don't have ale.' He tells us that wine is drunk by adults and wise ones and never by children and foolish people.

The Servants, or slaves even, carry out the trestles

The next basket contains bread, cakes and pastries. The Anglo-Saxons grew less wheat than their predecessors in Roman times had done and more of the barley which they had raised in their continental homelands. They grew maslin which was a mixture of wheat and rye. It acted as an insurance against the failure of wheat in a bad season. It became known as monk-corn. The Vitruvian water mill with its undershot wheel was in use before the eighth century ( one was mentioned in a Kent charter in AD 762). The Bread Oven was a feature found on the manor. In towns professional bakers began to appear too. The bread in the ladies' baskets is made from a fine grain of flour but the protagonist of my novel, The Handfasted Wife, will on her travels be thankful for ordinary wheaten bread made from coarsely sieved flour. For the picnic they have honey-dumplings and cakes a little like crumpets. These are seasoned with lavender and cinnamon, cloves and cardamon which have travelled from Rome and beyond. They have little pastries with meat and today they contain a little pepper and cumin. The sweet pastries contain fruit and a hint of liquorice and cloves.

The Medieval Kitchen Garden

The third wicker basket contains vegetables and fruits. St Benedict decreed in his rule that the chief meal of the day should consist of two cooked dishes, followed by a third of vegetables and fruit. Grafting was known. Verjuice was a medieval invention devised to make use of grapes which remained unripe until the end of the season. It was also made from sour fruits, particularly in Northern climates. The fruit basket contains a pottery jar of pickled fruits and small onions in verjuice. There are wild woodland strawberries and nuts. There is a dish filled with cherries. Sometimes they ate apples, pears, plums and quince which grew on trees planted deliberately on the edge of the woods. These fruits were more palatable when stewed with honey. Elditha grows cabbages, leeks and wyrts or herbs in her kitchen garden. Today they will eat a salad of tum-cerse ( garden cress) and tun-minta ( garden mint) and a little hint of tun-melde ( garden orache).

A Basket of Foods that we would have enjoyed in the Middle Ages

The Recovery

And finally if anyone leaves the picnic with a heaviness of the belly there is a remedy:

For heaviness in the belly: give to eat radish with salt, and vinegar to sip; soon his mood will lighten. (The Lacunga c. 1000).

This is probably the best text on the subject of Food & Drink

Resources

Food & Drink In Britain by C. Anne Wilson

Taste by Kate Colquhoun

Daily Life in Anglo-Saxon England by Sally Crawford

Primary Sources

Bede, The AS Chronicles, The Bayeux Tapestry, Aelfric's Colloquays and Anglo-Saxon Prose and Poetry.

All these are important primary sources for this period.

Medieval Travel, Trade, Pilgrimage, Maps and Journeys

Exactly one year ago I took to the pilgrim route from Ferrol to Santiago de Compostella. It was the one favoured by the English pilgrims who sailed to either Ferrol or A Coruna to begin their pilgrimage to the shrine of St  James.  This experience reminded me of how much travel went on throughout the Middle Ages. Pilgrim routes were of extreme importance in our past, a chance to get away from it all, visit foreign lands and, since God was the ever present and dominant aspect of medieval Christian existence, the medieval traveller might seek miraculous cures from illnesses or simply become absorbed by prayer and contemplation.

The Canterbury Pilgrims

Pilgrimage has been immortalised in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales where there appears a gallery of not so devout pilgrims. In Chaucer's work, characters from a variety of walks of medieval life are represented on pilgrimage to the tomb of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury and, famously, they tell stories as they travel. The Canterbury Tales is worth reading and re-reading over and over if only to find in it brilliant snap shots of fourteenth century existence, stories and journeying. It is not the only text that embraces medieval travel. For instance, Anglo-Saxon poetry is filled with wanderings and The Bayeux Tapestry depicts ships, horses, goods and waggons.

Making An English Embroidery for Bayeux

Travel in the Middle Ages was equally associated with trade. The occupant of the early seventh century ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk was buried with an array of artifacts that give an overt message of the wealth the controlling groups within Anglo-Saxon Society possessed. Settlements were reasonably self sufficient but industrial centres for mass produced pottery existed by the ninth century as for example at Ipswich in East Anglia. At this time the potter's wheel was introduced into England. Lead based glazes which produced orange, brown or yellow colours were produced at Stamford, Lincolnshire and at Winchester, Hampshire.

Anglo-Saxon Pottery for trade

Stamford ware has been found in Ireland and Scandinavia. Pottery travelled, as did metalwork and exquisite early English tapestry work, beautiful embroideries, and wool, too, became English exports throughout the Middle Ages. Then there is glass. In early Anglo-Saxon England the main source for glass was Ravenna in Italy. Cubes known as tessararae were traded throughout Europe for reworking into vessels or beads. But larger imported objects such as lava quernstones from Niedermendig in Germany found their way, too, into early Anglo-Saxon graves. Elephant ivory, whose origins lay in East Africa or India was, in fact, a surprisingly common artifact in early Anglo-Saxon England. It was particularly used in bags and pouches, and has, according to Sally Crawford, writing in Daily Life in Anglo-Saxon England, frequently been discovered as an incinerated artifact in cremation urns. 

And glassware from Anglo-Saxon England

The Viking influence, she writes, on Anglo-Saxon England cannot be underestimated. The Danish Vikings were traders as well as raiders and their settlement in England was rapidly followed by urbanisation. Excavations at York and in East Anglia have revealed the extent of manufacturing and production that took place from circa 866. Glass making furnaces were introduced and other crafts were established in York to include woodworking, stone sculpture, leatherworking and boneworking. Equally, the wealthier inhabitants of Viking Age York could buy Rhenish wine and lava quernstones, sharpening stones of Norwegian schist, amber and soapstone from Scandinavia and silk from Byzantium. Bald's Leechbook contains a number of remedies requiring exotic spices, including cumin, pepper and coriander and it is possible that the exotic ingredients included in Bald's recipes could be found in the markets of York and London. The merchant in Aelfric's Colloquy explains how he made his money by filling his ship with English goods which he sold on the Continent, then returned to England with continental luxuries such as precious metals and clothing, purple cloth and silks, elephant ivory and tin, sulphur and glass which he sold in English markets.

Image of the ship at Sutton Hoo

Most journeys in early medieval England were local and carried on foot and as most of the population was tied to the land access to travel was limited. In Kent a series of old droveways have been identified that connected manor estates to the forests of the Weald. Roads acted as boundary markers as well as being a corridor for movement. Roads were also places where kings showed and the major highways represented an aspect of the king's power. To travel on the road was to recognise the right of the king to control his people's travel. To travel off the road was prohibited and restricted by law. Harold's journey of 442 kilometres from Yorkshire to the South coast after the Battle of Stamford Bridge was impressive. It was accomplished in a fortnight. However, this journey was not unique to the Anglo-Saxon world. King Athelstan and his court only took eight days to travel from Winchester to Nottingham a distance of 248 kilometres.

Harold on the Bayeux Tapestry. It is recorded that he travelled to Rome on Pilgrimage as did his brothers

The Anglo-Saxon elite travelled overseas generally to Rome on pilgrimage. Churchmen travelled in large groups. Women were warned to be careful of their moral welfare in Italy. Pilgrim routes also existed across England to Glastonbury. People went to see saintly relics. The horses of the Anglo-Saxon elite often had decorated harnesses with spangles of tin or silver. Silver decorated stirrups have been found by the river Cherwell in Oxfordshire. Carts and waggons were used to carry people and goods and sometimes these were pulled by hand rather than by animals! Rivers were important routeways. The monks of Abingdon Abbey cut a large canal across one of their meadows to ease traffic of goods. Ships and seafaring are important in Anglo-Saxon life. Poems and other texts also give a picture of the hardships suffered by early medieval sailors. The Gaveney ship built around AD 900 was carrying a cargo of hops and may have been bound for Canterbury, Rochester or London when it sank.

An Anglo-Saxon Map

As for early maps, they mostly existed in the form of lists compiled by those who had travelled the route already and these lists referred to places based on the first-person experiences of others. As early as the fourth century there are reports of pilgrimages with an itinerary originating in Bordeaux that suggests the best route to follow to the Christian sites in Jerusalem. In the seventh century the bishop Adoman wrote a book on the holy places, based on the experiences of another bishop a few years earlier. It was illustrated with 'measured drawings' of the churches of the Ascension and Holy Sepulchre. Travellers generally did not make use of maps in the Middle Ages. They sought the advice of local guides or joined groups, such as the pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales. Later Medieval maps  were used by scholars, such as those wishing to interpret the Bible. Charts were used by administrators at home and were rarely taken to sea. However, features of medieval maps such as the inaccessible garden of Paradise and the peculiar hydrology of the four rivers flowing from it were difficult to hold to against the first-hand experiences of travellers. By the end of the fifteenth century the actual experience of sailing around the sphere that is the world became a transforming and perhaps disturbing discovery as old belief systems became challenged and new lands were discovered that were full of previously unknown nations.

A painted map showing Rome



Finally, back to Compostella. The twelfth century Pilgrim's guide to the route to Compostella describes the four common routes and the sights and dangers encountered along the way. This is an early medieval list and here is a medieval warning from the guide:
On leaving that country of Gascony, to be sure on the road of St James, there are two rivers that flow near the village of Saint-Jean-Sorde, one to the right and one to the left, and of which one is called brook and the other river. There is no way of crossing without a raft. May their ferryman be damned! Though each of the streams is quite narrow they have the habit of demanding one coin from each man, whether poor or rich, whom they ferry over, and for a horse they ignominiously exort by force four.

The Bayleaf Farmstead, a Late Medieval Building

The Bayleaf Farmstead, a Late Medieval Building, is an inspiration for anyone who loves timber-framed constructions. This building is a Wealden Hall house that was extended in two separate stages and has now been transported from Chiddinghurst in Kent to the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in West Sussex.

The Farmstead

The first phase has been dated to 1405-30 when it is suggested that the open hall and service end of the farmstead were attached to an earlier structure that may have originally resembled an eleventh century hall, such as Reredfelle, the hall that features in my work in progress, The Hand-fasted Wife.

In the medieval hall section of Bayleaf. The roof was actually very high here

One of the two service areas at the end of the hall

The height of the main hall is Cathedral-like, lending a sense of grandeur to the building. At one end the hall was floored during the late 16th century and in this period more space was created upstairs. Originally there was an open fire in the centre of the hall. There is a sense that on a damp day it could be smoky, though the smoke should escape through apertures formed in the ridge of the roof. However, most of the smoke seeped out through gaps between the roof tiles.

The fire place at the other end was sixteenth century, a home improvement

Above the service area accessed by a narrow staircase

The Solar

At one end there is a parlour and the solar, an upper chamber reached by a staircase, which was used as the family's private bed-sitting room. and it has, yes, a loo that hangs over the outside wall. Surely it was draughty. And, nothing was wasted! A jug strategically placed collected urine that was used as a mordant in dying cloth.  This privy may have emptied into an open cess-pit or there may even have been a covered conduit. Its contents would have been used as garden manure. Window shutters in the solar slide vertically in grooves cut into the timbers. Originally, beautiful textiles and cushions must have graced walls and benches lending comfort and a personal touch.

The medieval loo is in the solar

Comforts such as fabrics. This is behind the curtained bed.

If you look closely you can see how the shutters work

In the early sixteenth century a brick chimney stack was inserted at the hall's service end. These rooms were traditionally known as buttery and pantry. Some cooking took place over the fire but many houses of this status also had a kitchen detached from the house which was used for baking and brewing.  The following photographs were taken in the separate kitchen building.

This kitchen was late medieval.

 Such a kitchen comes from the parish of Sundridge in Kent. This is my favourite building. It is a superb example of late-medieval building and is alive with atmosphere and interest because of the small details of the period, the tallow candles, the smoky fire, the spits, the beautiful crockery, the hanging cheese, the bundles of herbs and authentic ingredients.  Two bays form a single room. One of these areas is open to the high roof rafters. As well as everyday cooking this kitchen was used for smoking, baking, brewing and washing. In the large room coffers called arks were used for storage.  A bake oven stood conveniently beside brewing apparatus. No one drank the water!

The storage Arks

Charlotte, who is exceptionally knowledgeable on the subject of late medieval cooking told us the history of food as we sampled a bowl of exotic stew that had been simmering all morning in a crock over the fire. It tasted delicious.The mutton was so tender it melted in your mouth and what flavour! In the late medieval and Tudor period cloves may have travelled from Kerala and the currants possibly originated in France. On this chill, drenching wet day, Charlotte conjured up maps (a list of landmarks that were well-travelled from the east spice routes and then through Europe) travel, trade, Dutch markets and English cooking practices. I now possess the recipe and intend trying it out for a twenty-first century dinner. She, then, showed us how to make butter in a bowl and then cheese in muslin bags.

Our mutton dish is simmering in the crock. Again this area had extremely high rafters.

Lunch

I have only touched on a fragment of what the Weald & Downland open-air museum offers. The whole museum seems to be snuggling naturally into its surrounding landscape so that each of the individually transported and transposed buildings appears appropriate and comfortable in their new rural set. It is a stage set that is so artfully composed you lose any sense of artifice. The many paths through the wooded site present an unromantic past but one brimming with energy. Charcoal burning at one turn, pigsties and barns at others and, of course, the beautiful buildings themselves nestling among the many trees that grace the site.

Charcoal Burning

Importantly, for a writer of historical fiction, the overall impression is that the past is a busy country, a foreign and yet familiar place.  Every building here- medieval hall, shop, mill, late eighteenth century house, toll booth, school, Edwardian corrugated-iron roofed church (so many more), possesses its own unique atmosphere seeping through its bones, and reaches out to our twenty-first century world, conjuring up the stories of people who once inhabited them, reminding us of how we once lived.

Cheese Making

So, of course, I am wondering, have you a favourite building that has pulled you out of today and headlong into another time?

In a later period garden at the Weald and Downland Museum . Planting faithfully follows the period a building represents.

 

 

Anglo-Saxon Food & Drink by Ann Hagen

DiscoveringTimber-Framed Buildings by Richard Harris

The English Housewife by Gervase Markam, edited by Michael R. Best.

The English Medieval Roof by John Walker

The Medieval Dress and Textile Society Magazine May 2011

Mothers, Mystics and Merry Makers by Sarah Hopper.

Weald and Downland Museum, Singleton, Chicester, West Sussex, PO18 OEU. Telephone 01243 811348. www.wealddown.co.uk.