HIST 203 Lecture Outline (Fall 2015 – Week 10)

Week 10: Tuesday

EARLY MEDIEVAL SOCIETY

Videos:

Plowing a field with oxen — Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts, 2009 (1:24 min.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuytRXRfyeI

How to make hay with a scythe (9:45 min.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs8qiucZZx0&feature=related

How to mow with a scythe (Wilson, Wisconsin, 2009; 3:36 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzdjOkLQw1s

Reaping wheat with a sickle (2011; 6:16 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXey-x3eCxc

Threshing with flails (0:21 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAmyKYPE3vo

Terms:

Village (Click for a photo of Midlem, a village in the Scottish Borders)

Manor (and another image)

Parish

Field (click for a photo of the fields of the deserted medieval village of Southdean, in the Scottish Borders)

Fallow

Meadow

Pasture

Demesne

2-field and 3-field crop rotation

Arable farming:
  • Cereals (“corn” in British English = “grain” in American English): wheat, rye, oats, barley
  • Legumes: peas, beans, lentils
Sowing seasons:

Pastoral farming: cattle, sheep, goats

Farming tools:
Farming activities:

Market

Fair

Money:

£1 (libra, livre, lira, pound) = 20 s. (solidus, sou or sol, soldo, shilling) = 240 d. (denarius, denier, denaro, penny)
12d. = 1s.
20s. =
£1
240d. = 20s. = £1

Week 10: Thursday:

FILM: Gisli the Outlaw (“Utlaginn;” also called “Viking Outlaw,” 1987, 100 minutes)

 

(For film addicts, click here to see Fordham University’s list of Medieval History in the Movies.)

Place: Viking Iceland

Read the plot synopsis

Main characters:

Gisli
Aud his wife (former lover of Thorgrim)

Vestein, Aud’s brother (former lover of Asgerd; murdered by Thorgrim?)

Thorkell, Gisli’s brother
Asgerd, his wife (former lover of Vestein)
Geirmund, Thorkell’s bondman (bondi)

Thordís, Gisli’s sister
Thorgrim, her husband (former lover of Aud; killed by Gisli)

Bork, Thorgrim’s brother

Eyjolf

Spy Helgi

A sorcerer, two bondmen, etc.