HIST 203
SYLLABUS
LECTURE OUTLINES
Week 14: DAILY LIFE; HARDSHIPS
Tuesday
Videos:
Sheep-shearing with hand clippers (5:00 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L62EmEsacEY
Spinning wool into yarn with a drop spindle (Tibet, 1:03 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUodkNJ4lqI
Spinning wool into yarn with a distaff and spindle (Romania, 0.30 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShSIOF0o5js
Combing wool, spinning yarn, and weaving cloth the Anglo-Saxon way (5:14 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDxsg1YW620
Weaving on a warp-weighted (vertical) loom (Romania, 2012, 4:39 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOJcdmBhjBE
Weaving on a warp-weighted (vertical) loom (4:34 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WETCcjNE3UA
Viking women’s winter clothing (7:24 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdLfPP4tPK0
Readings:
Riché, pp. 47-56, 61-3 (demography, sex, and marriage), 159-77 (housing, clothing, hygiene, food)
Demographic factors included:
Famine
Malnutrition
Pestilence
Abortion and infanticide
Contraception (illegal) and sexual abstinence (required on many holy days)
(click here for Prof. James Brundage’s flow-chart on when it was licit to have sex, based on early-medieval penitential manuals)
Important primary source on early medieval sexuality:
Penitentials
Marriage requirements:
Betrothal
Dower
No consanguinity between spouses (click here for a table of consanguinity [Getty Museum: French, 1170s-1180s], and a modern table in English)
Public nuptials
Morgengab (“morning-gift”)
Furnishings included:
Beds
Benches
Stools
Chairs – including oak and ivory throne (“chair of St. Peter” or “cathedra Petri”) given by Charles the Bald to Pope John VIII in 875
Cradles
Tables
Cushions, curtains (see also the Harley Golden Gospels, early 9th cent.), and wall-hangings
Pottery, wooden, and metal dishes and cookware
Pottery oil lamps (especially in S. Europe) or torches and tallow candles (especially in N. Europe)
Miscellaneous tools and utensils (wood, stone, horn, metal, bone, etc.)
Male clothing:
Linen shirt and drawers, leggings or stockings, shoes, short belted tunic, trousers, mantle
Female clothing:
Linen shift (chemise, smock), stockings, shoes, long belted tunic, veil (if married), mantle
Some examples of clothing:
Monks presenting bible to Charles the Bald (“Vivian Bible,” Tours, 846)
Man, woman, and two fighters (English, 10th cent.?)
Warrior (English, 10th cent.?)
“Patience,” from the Psychomachia of Prudentius (English, late 10th cent.)
Adam and Eve (BL, Cott. MS Tib. A xiv, Caedmon MS, English, mid 700s-early 800s)
King Cnut and Queen Emma of England (Winchester, 1031)
Two women and a man, Biblical scene (English, 11th cent.)
Farmers digging and sowing seed (English, 11th cent.)
Steps in textile production:
Woolen cloth:
shearing sheep (usually in early summer); washing and sorting the wool
combing the wool and spinning it into woolen yarn
weaving the yarn into woolen cloth (compare the Viking loom with the classical Greek loom)
Linen cloth:
harvesting flax in ancient Egypt and in Ireland in 1948 (pulling it up by the roots to preserve ends)
retting flax in a gently-moving stream or river
drying and dressing flax in Dorset
scutching flax (breaking to remove woody center; click here for view of modern re-enactor scutching flax)
hackling flax (combing to separate fine linen fibers from coarse tow fibers)
combing the flax fibers and spinning them into linen thread
weaving the thread into linen cloth
embroidered linen chemise, possibly of St Bathild (7th cent. Merovingian queen)
Health practices included:
Baths (click here to see a strigil), bleeding (phlebotomy), medicinal herbs, laxatives, emetics, diet, charms
Food and drink included:
Bread, porridge, gruel
Meat, poultry, fish
Eggs
Dairy products (esp. in N. Europe): butter, cheese, milk, cream
Legumes (grown as field crops): peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas
Herbs and vegetables (grown in the garden) included: garlic, parsley, mint, sage, leeks, onions, parsnips, beets, cabbage, lettuce, melons, squash, celery, fennel
Fruits and nuts
Olives and olive oil (in S. Europe)
Wine, ale (in N. Europe), mead, cider
Thursday:
Videos:
Life in 1000 AD Britain (documentary, 47:59 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGUVcMYC6oY
Plowing a field with oxen — Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts, 2009 (1:24 min.)
https://web.archive.org/web/20191218173903/https://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 in Naklo, Slovenia (0:21 min.):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjJiG2Bfdvc
Winnowing wheat with a basket (0.52 min.):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGUxnh2plq8
Readings:
Riché, pp. 24-8 (landscape), 76-81 (war), 249-54 (hardships)
Aelfric, Colloquy (dialogue on laborers, extract), c. AD 1000
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/1000workers.asp
(for the full text of Aelfric’s Colloquy, click here)
Tripartite society (“the three orders”):
Those who fought (aristocracy)
Those who prayed (clergy)
Those who worked (peasants and artisans)
There were often sharp gender divisions between men’s work and women’s work.
Men worked away from the house: they worked in the fields; cared for livestock (also did slaughtering and butchering); went to market to buy/sell goods; did major home repairs.
Women worked in and around the house (including in the garden and farmyard): they looked after the house and the household; cared for babies and children; spun thread/yarn and wove linen/woolen cloth; made and mended clothing and bedding; preserved and prepared food; did laundry and household cleaning; took care of poultry and young animals; milked the cows/sheep/goats; made butter/cheese/soap/candles.
Men probably chopped the firewood; women probably fetched water (from well)
Seasonal labors included:
Winter months (from Carolingian “labors of the months,” c. 818, Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek; Codex 387, fol. 90):
livestock slaughter, and meat-preservation
candle- and soap-making
wood-cutting
combing, spinning and weaving wool and flax (compare the Viking loom with the classical Greek loom)
making and mending tools and clothing
tending livestock and poultry
plowing, fertilizing, harrowing and sowing spring crops (barley, oats, peas, beans, lentils, flax)
(photo of sowing and harrowing flax seed in 2006 at the Weald and Downland Museum in Singleton, Sussex)
weeding and tending field crops
pruning and staking grapevines
caring for newborn animals
butter- and cheese-making
planting gardens
tending livestock and poultry
haymaking
shearing sheep; washing and sorting wool
picking fruits and berries
gardening
weeding and tending field crops
butter- and cheese-making
tending livestock and poultry
harvesting field crops
picking fruits, nuts, and berries
threshing and milling grain
harvesting flax in ancient Egypt and in Ireland in 1948 (pulling it up by the roots to preserve ends)
retting flax in a gently-moving stream or river
drying and dressing flax in Dorset
scutching flax (breaking to remove woody center; click here for view of modern re-enactor scutching flax)
hackling flax (combing to separate fine linen fibers from coarse tow fibers)
harvesting grapes and wine-making
butter- and cheese-making
plowing, fertilizing, harrowing, and sowing winter crops (wheat, rye)
gardening
drying herbs and vegetables
wood-cutting
tending livestock and poultry
Walafrid Strabo (“squinty”), scholar, poet, and gardener, tutor to Charles the Bald, and abbot of Reichenau (d. 849), wrote a poem describing his garden; click here for a plan of his garden (in English; another version)
Artisanal crafts included:
Metalwork: Carolingian sword; Viking swords;
front cover and back cover of Lindau Gospels (c. 870; J. P. Morgan Library, New York City)
Building construction: Carolingian gatehouse at Lorsch, and a detail of the construction; carved wooden church portal(Norway, 11th cent.)
Forests and wild spaces dominated the landscape
Forest animals were game to aristocrats, but dangerous to others
Weather extremes (hot, cold, wet, dry) represented dangers and difficulties, e.g.:
damaged or destroyed the harvest
caused flood
made roads, fords, and bridges unusable
Warfare was constant; the victors looted, destroyed, massacred, and enslaved unrestrainedly
All free laymen (after 807, holders of c. 80 acres or more) were liable to army service each summer
Epidemics and plagues ravaged human and livestock populations
Beggars — many disabled, invalid, or elderly — were ubiquitous
Brigands infested the roads and were often protected by powerful landowners
Physical brutality was common (see, e.g., lists of mutilations covered by Germanic laws)
Important primary source on daily work:
Aelfric, Colloquy (“On Laborers”), c. AD 1000 (Aelfric, a monk, wrote this as a dialogue for teaching Latin. Click here to see part of a manuscript of Aelfric’s Latin grammar. British Library, Harley MS 107, fol. 63r, English, c. 1025-75.)
Click here to see a drawing of a medieval wheeled plow and a reconstruction of a Roman plow
