Maybe...
I might have figured out what is wrong with my uploading.  I don't think it's my service provider, but my modem.  So I should have a new one next week.  Unfortunately it will be after I need to upload the podcast, but this will be fixed.  I've just been hesitant, as we'll be leaving Germany in August and have to buy a new modem when we get to the States, as our European one won't transfer easily.  Hopefully this will fix the problem.

Episode 6 - Pompeii & Herculaneum
Now Playing: Empeza by Tim Raybourn on Quadim at Magnatune.com

This week’s episode was suggested by Mara from Galeta, California and is about Pompeii.  Most people, who have at least heard of Pompeii, can tell you it was a Roman city that was destroyed by the volcano, Mount Vesuvius.  They can possibly even tell you the year, 79AD.  It was rediscovered in the 1730s and became an archaeologists dream site in the 1860s.  Due to the volcano’s ash, the entire city was covered and everything preserved.  This is true as well for the nearby city of Herculaneum.

 

Pompeii didn’t fall under Roman rule until 80BC.  Before that, Greeks, Etruscans and Samnites all had a part in the city’s history and development.  All of these cultures ruled the region for a period of time.

 

The town is only five miles to the south of Mt. Vesuvius and was an average sized city with an estimated population of twenty thousand inhabitants.  A decent sized town by today’s standards.  Pompeii was a merchant and port town.  Located on the Sarno River, fish sauce and wine were its major exports.  In ancient times, much like today, graffiti was very popular and helps give an insight to what people thought.  In the case of business in Pompeii, an inscription found on a cloth merchant’s wall says “Salve Lucrum”, or “Hello Wealth”.  The Pompeiians liked to make money too.  Beachfront property was also popular.  If you lived in the middle of town, you were in the midst of hustle and bustle and it could get very hot and crowded.  On the coast you had the breeze and hopefully some extra room.

 

About 10 miles northwest of Pompeii, lay Herculaneum.  Herculaneum was a smaller town and the population is figured at about five thousand.  However, there was not the same level of commerce as in Pompeii and most of the citizens were fishermen, artisans and craftsmen.  Herculaneum had a small beach area and considered a more scenic retreat and attracted some more affluent citizens as well.

 

Politics were a big part of life and the graffiti reflects this.  Every March, the top officials, the duoviri and aediles were elected.  Throughout Pompeii, there are numerous writings urging the election of different candidates.  Guilds had their say, “The goldsmiths unanimously urge the election of Gaius Cuspius Pansa as aedile.”  Some people had what would equate to signs on your front lawn today, painted on the side of their house.  “If upright living is considered any recommendations, Lucretius Fronto is well worthy of the office.”  Even women had their say.  While women wer not allowed to run for office, they still gave their opinion, as wall on a wine shop said, “Caprasia along with Nymphius – her neighbors too – ask you to vote for Aulus Vettius Firmus for the aedileship; he is worthy of the office.”  Of course, like today’s political campaigns, there was mudslinging and snide comments, “Claudius’ little girl-friend is working for his election as duovir.”

 

Graffiti didn’t just cater to politics, but it also showed a bit of daily life.  There are instances were people figured accounts, advertised and available groceries.  This is much like advertising today, except the signs couldn’t just be replaced, but had to be repainted first.  In the case of listing accounts, a tavern could publicly record a patron’s running tab so that it could not be easily disputed later.  After all, if the whole town knows what you owe, the tavern owner can’t get a better witness.

 

There was a large amphitheater at Pompeii and saw much activity.  In 59AD, a riot broke out with fans from a neighboring community.  An advertisement from 79AD states the next program.  Basically it states, thirty pairs of gladiators will fight between April eighth and twelfth.  There would be standard fights as well as wild beast combats.

 

As a possible deterrent for thieves and as decoration, there is a famous mosaic at the entrance of one house that displays a dog and says, “Cave Canem” or “Beware of the Dog”.

 Around one o’clock, August twenty-fourth, 79AD, Mt. Vesuvius exploded.  A column of ash and pumice was sent about twelve miles into the sky.  There wasn’t any lava yet, but after half an hour, debris rained down and pumice and ash fell at a rate of about six inches per hour.  After eleven hours of this, the column of the volcano collapsed.  Herculaneum was spared the ash and pumice due to winds, so many may have remained, thinking conditions looked worse than they were.  Yet once the volcano’s cone collapsed, “surge clouds” of gases and debris, over two hundred and twelve degrees Fahrenheit, came down, along with the lava that was over seven hundred degrees Fahrenheit at speeds between sixty and one hundred and ninety miles per hour.  Herculaneum was only four miles from the volcano, so it was only a matter of minutes before the town was completely destroyed.  Herculaneum was buried sixty-five to one hundred feet below the volcano’s wrath.  An hour later, Pompeii was hit by a surge of lava and whatever remained there was completely obliterated.

There are two famous Romans, Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger who were affected by Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption.  At this time, Pliny the Younger and his mother were living with her brother, Pliny the Elder, at Misenum, about twenty miles across the bay from Mt. Vesuvius.  Pliny the Elder is famous for his “Naturalis Historia” or Natural History, which delved into all aspects, such as botany, mineralogy and anthropology, among other subjects.  This word was written only two years before, in 77AD.  His nephew, Pliny the Younger is famous as an orator and statesman.  His letters survive in the “Epistulae”.

 

Pliny the Younger wrote to his friend Tacitus what happened on that fateful day.  His mother first saw the cloud erupting from Mt. Vesuvius and Pliny the Elder climbed to a point where he could see better.  Curious, the Elder called for a small ship so he could get closer to the action.  As he was leaving the house, he received a letter from a woman living at the foot of the mountain and realized all that was happening.  As commander of the local fleet, the Elder ordered the fleet to begin rescue operations and boarded one to join his men.  Meanwhile, the younger and his mother remained in Misenum and waited for the Elder.  After waiting through the night, they were finally encouraged by a friend to flee.  They made it just in time.  The Younger’s accounts have them running with the crowds to escape the ash and debris.  At one point, while they rested, “We had scarcely sat down to rest when darkness fell, not the dark of a moonless or cloudy night, but as if the lamp had been put out in a closed room.  You could hear the shrieks of women, the wailing of infants, and the shouting of men; some were calling their parents, others their children or their wives, trying to recognize them by their voices.  People bewailed their own fate or that of their relatives, and there were some who prayed for death in their terror of dying.” (Kebric 156)

 

After a night away from home, the earthquakes and eruptions subsided and the Younger and his mother returned to Misenum to find the town buried under drifts of ash.  There they remained until they heard news of the Elder.

 

The Elder had gone to his friend’s house and calmed them, yet they did not immediately leave.  In the early morning hours, the Elder finally realized they should leave, but it was too late.  Again the Younger writes, “They debated whether to stay indoors or take their chances in the open, for the buildings were now shaking with violent shocks and seemed to be swaying to and fro as if they were torn from their foundation.  Outside on the other hand, there was the danger of falling pumice-stones, even though they were light and porous; however, after comparing the risks they chose the latter.  […]  As a protection against falling objects they put pillows on their heads tied down with cloths.

 

Elsewhere there was daylight by this time, but they were still in darkness, blacker and denser than any ordinary night, which they relieved by lighting torches and various kinds of lamp.  My uncle decided to go down to the shore and investigate on the spot the possibility of any escape by sea, but he found the waves still wild and dangerous.  A sheet was spread on the ground for him to lie down, and he repeatedly asked for cold water to drink.  Then the flames and smell of sulphur which gave warning of the approaching fire drove the others to take flight and roused him to stand up.  He stood leaning on two slaves and then suddenly collapsed, I imagine because the dense fumes choked his breathing by blocking his windpipe which was constitutionally weak and narrow and often inflamed.  When daylight returned on the 26^th – two days after the last day he had seen – his body was found intact and uninjured, still fully clothes and looking more like sleep than death.”  (Kebric 157)

 

Pliny the Younger’s account is a very vivid one and shows just how terrible the event was.  After the town was rediscovered and archaeology began in 1860, voids were found in the layer of ash, where bodies had fallen and eventually decomposed.  The archaeologist, Guiseppe Fiorelli, filled in these voids with plaster and once again, people viewed the horror and can see what Pliny the Younger began to describe.

 

Today, visitors can go to Pompeii and see the remains of the town.  Because of the layers of ash and lava, the town has been preserved, even down to the grains and breads.  There are still sections that aren’t fully excevated, but most of the town is and while not all of it is open to the public, visitors can see the “Cave Canem” mural, homes and businesses.

 

Kebric, Robert. Roman People, London: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1997

Sorry...

I have been having a bit of trouble with my blog.  Every time I've tried to post the text of the show, it doesn't do anything.  nothing at all.  i finally figured out why.  It seems I cannot add too much new text at once.  If I paste a little bit of text and keep adding a little more through editing, I can finally get the whole text up.  So this delay shouldn't be an issue in the future.

As for the podcast's delay of availability on iTunes... I'm still working on that.  I think it's the time of night I'm uploading.  I think it's just too busy on the Internet at that hour, so this next week I will try to upload at an odd hour.  Hopefully that will fix the problem.  Again, sorry folks.

Episode 5 - Medieval Recipes 1

The music you heard is track number 17, When the Nichtegale Singes on the album Lenten is Come, by Briddes Roune.  And it is available at Magnatune.com

 

So what did people eat during the Middle Ages?  I have come across a few perceptions and they weren’t positive.  Some figured that gruel was the cuisine of the day.  Some more generous people thought the nobles had meat, but it was very plain and dull, not much better than the peasants’ gruel.  There are also some misconceptions about what foods were available in the Middle Ages.  Potatoes are strongly associated with the Irish thanks to the 19^th century potato famine.  Tomatoes are strongly associated with Italians for pasta and pizza.  Yet both of these ingredients are from the “New World” and would not have been available in the Middle Ages, to Europeans.  At the same time, some people I’ve asked thought oranges and honey are from the “New World” and would not have been available to Europeans.  In fact, these two ingredients were available.  Oranges were grown in Middle Eastern regions and here in Germany they still often import their oranges from Turkey, not Florida.  Honey was a staple ingredient instead of sugar.  Sugar was available after a while in the Middle Ages, though it was a different type and very expensive.  So honey was the sweetener of the day.  Also, honey was a little different than now.  First, our bees in America use the pollen from different weeds and flowers and they are a different breed.  The early European breed of bees produced less honey.  But for our purposes this week, it’s still honey.

 

So this week I’m trying something a little different for our listeners.  How would you like to try some food from the Middle Ages and decide for yourself if it was at a low status with gruel, or if it was somewhat tasty?  Now it isn’t possible for me to stop by everyone’s house and cook, nor am I about to make enough and send some to the over one thousand listeners.  The hours of work would be insane.  I just made candied orange rinds for about 90 people and that took a long time.  Instead, I am going to give you two Medieval recipes that are simple enough to make and taste really good for those with a bit of a sweet tooth.  So you don’t worry about transcribing the recipes and directions, they will be available on the blog, and hopefully a few pictures as well.

 

Here’s a quick background and advertisement for what I do in my spare time.  I’m a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism.  It’s a worldwide group that tries to recreate the Middle Ages.  People pick a time anywhere between 600 and 1600 and try to learn as much as possible about their “persona”.  We picked the early 800s, as we love to read about Charlemagne and his time.  So I’ve studied up on the clothes and sew up outfits for us.  I’m working on all sorts of needlework as well.  We are interested in learning to sword fight, though I’ve been doing it and not my husband at this point.  So we’ve researched armour and weaponry of the time as well.  I currently have a set of leather scale armour I made and fight in.  Or more I should say get pummeled in.  I’ve only been fighting for a year, against men who have been fighting for over ten years.

 

There are also events that are put together where people can dress up, show off their arts and sciences projects and have feasts.  Some feasts are set up by a few individuals and others are potluck, though you are supposed to bring Medieval dishes, not macaroni and cheese.  Thus I have embarked on a learning experience of food.  Since I love to bake and make sweets, that’s what I usually prepare, though I made a nice mushroom pie a few times.

 

For anyone who is interested in checking out the group, the webpage is www.sca.org.  Check it out and find your local kingdom.  It’s lots of fun.  So, that brings me to some recipes.

 

The first recipe is Nucato, or Spiced Honey Nut Crunch.  This is a very easy recipe and only takes a little bit of time.  The recipe I have is a rather large one, so I will scale it down for our listeners, so it’s good for a family snack.  You need…

 

1½ cups honey

1 pound shelled almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts

1 lemon for spreading the mixture

 

Spice Mixture

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 pinch freshly ground pepper

1 rounded teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 teaspoon ground cloves

 

Boil the honey and skim off any scum that rises up.  Coarsely chop the nuts and add them to the honey.  To the side, you should have the spice mixture and you need to add 1 teaspoon of it to the honey and nuts.  Cook over low heat and stir constantly for 30-45 minutes.  When the nuts make a slight popping sound from the honey, take the pan off the heat.  Make sure not to burn the nuts, or they will be bitter.  Now mix in the rest of the spice mixture.  Pour the nucato onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and spread it with the cut half of a lemon.  Let it cool and then enjoy.

 

The original recipe says to spread the nuts with your bare hand, but this is NOT advised, as you will probably get burned and not enjoy the snack as much.  I’ve made the recipe with walnuts and made quite a lot of it.  It was for forty people and my husband swore I made too much of it.  It turns out many people in our SCA group LOVED nucato and the bowl was empty at the end of the night.

 

In this recipe you can also see what spices were commonly used.  Although cinnamon is a more eastern spice, it was traded commonly enough to be used in recipes.  This was an Italian recipe from the 14^th century and Italy was often the port of trading between the Western and Eastern world.  There is a good book about the spice trade routes and I will go through it for another episode.

 

The second recipe is a bit more time consuming, but I feel, even better than the nucato.  From a French manuscript, we get Candied Orange Rinds.  You need…

 

2 organically grown, pesticide free, thick skinned oranges, navel oranges are good.

1 ¾ cups honey

ground ginger

 

The recipe is simple, you just have to wait a while.  I cut the oranges into four parts, though the original recipe said five.  Keeping the quarters of the oranges intact, slowly peel off and if you need to, dig out the meat of the orange.  The part you normally eat.  Do whatever you like with that part, including eating it right there.  The part you need for the recipe is the rind.  Take a vegetable peeler and remove the pith, or the white part of the rind.  So you want to keep the orange part intact.  If you accidentally scrape through and make a hole in the orange peel, it’s fine.  Actually, I didn’t use the peeler in the normal way.  Looking at the peeler, it should make a “u” shape, with the sharp part on the curve.  I turned the peeler upside-down and used the two outside edges and scraped back and forth vigorously to get all the pith off.  This shouldn’t take too long for two oranges.  I actually did it with two sacks of oranges and spread the work out over the course of a week.  That was tiring to the arm.

 

The next part and long one, is you place the orange rinds in a small bowl of water and let them soak.  Then tomorrow you change the water and let them soak again.  Changing the water every day, you let them soak for a whole week or seven days.  This makes the rinds very tender.  Please make sure to change the water every day.  Even after just one day, the water gets a little cloudy and scummy looking.  I know it probably sounds like the oranges won’t be edible after a week like this, I was nervous about that, but they are fine.

 

After you patiently waited that week out, boil a quart of water.  Dump the rinds in and let the water come to a boil again.  Then immediately take the rinds out and dry them off with some paper towels.  Once they are dry, cut them into strips.  I just used my kitchen scissors and literally cut them, as opposed to slicing them with a knife.  Now place them in a saucepan and cover them with the honey.  The honey should completely cover the orange strips.  Bring it to a boil over medium-low heat and then put the heat to low and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

 

The recipe says you should put the strips on a rack and let them dry for a few hours.  Unfortunately I didn’t have the time for that when I made them.  It didn’t affect the taste though, so it’s up to you.  Either after you let them dry, or if you can’t wait, sprinkle some ground ginger over the strips and enjoy.  The recipe suggests letting them sit in an air-tight container in a cool place for a month before eating.  Again, I didn’t have that kind of time.  It’s up to you if you wait.  The difference isn’t so much in the taste, but the texture.  Since I was in a bit of a rush for the event, my rinds were still a bit goopy.  If you dry them out and even wait a month, they should be more like a soft candy.  Even still, they taste just fine, goopy.

 

I will have a few photos up on the webpage in the next few hours.  For the most part, if you just read the instructions, it’s pretty simple.  The pictures are intended to show you what the final product looks like.

 

I’m curious to hear what people think about this episode.  It’s more “hands-on” and instructional, than historical.  Yet I tried to give a little background as well.  Plus, these are historical recipes.  If anyone tries these recipes, please tell me what you think. If I get some positive feedback on the episode, I’ll try to have a “hands-on” episode about every 6-8 weeks.  This will include simple clothing and accessories as well.  In the case of clothing, there would be more information on the fashion of the time period talked about with instructions for a simple article of clothing on the blog.  And it wouldn’t be just Medieval.  We have a handful of daily life resources for Ancient history as well, including a cookbook from about 60BC.

 

Ed. Kritzman, Lawrence D. Food: A Culinary History. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

Redon, Odile, Sabban, Francoise & Serventi, Silvano. The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Episode 4 - Beowulf

Before I start this week’s episode, I must explain something about history.  While facts and figures are great, they don’t give us the personality of our ancestors.  They simply state when and where an event happened and possibly how many people were involved in it.  I feel that literature is very important to history.  While scholars, clergy and politicians wrote plenty of texts, these were usually written in a more restrained and proper tone.  Fiction took more liberties and was able to show what the common man was like, he, who was not able to normally record his ideas like an educated man.  Fiction could also show how people spoke.  Throughout the Middle Ages, Latin was usually used by the clergy to write.  Yet most people spoke some variation of English.  I look at Charles Dickens’ writings and I can almost hear the London street urchin as I pick through the cockney.  I read Chaucer and I can see the Wife of Bath in all her attitude.  Literature is very important to our history. (Soapbox)

 

This week’s episode deals with the Old English epic, Beowulf.  The tale is believed to have been written any time between the middle of the seventh century and the end of the tenth century.  Only one manuscript has survived, as far as scholars today are aware.  This was discovered in the eighteenth century after it barely survived a fire.  Even now, there a few pieces of the tale missing and the edge of some of the pages are charred.  Yet even though Beowulf is a fairly newly discovered text, it has become one of the most important standards for English scholars.

 

J.R.R. Tolkien who wrote the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books was a professor of English language and is one of the many figures to translate and study Beowulf.  In fact, there are a few elements of Beowulf that probably influenced Tolkien when he wrote his novels, such as the wyrm Beowulf fought and the phrase “Middle-Earth”.

 

The tale is a great epic that contains many battles and heroic deeds.  There are feasts and rewards and feats of massive strength.  There are even stories within the story.  The main character, Beowulf, is a Geat from a northern Scandinavian country.  He hears of the plight of the Danes and sails to aid them.  For twelve years, the Danes have been attacked by the monster Grendel.  The king Hrothgar is worn and at his wits end when Beowulf arrives.  It’s not entirely clear what exactly Grendel is, but there is a line, “Grendel was the name of this grim demon haunting the marches, marauding round the heath and the desolate fens; he had dwelt for a time in misery among the banished monsters, Cain’s clan, whom the Creator had outlawed and condemned as outcasts.” (Heaney 9)  This line actually tells the reader two things.  First, many scholars believe it implies Grendel was of Cain’s lineage.  Yes, the very same Cain from the Bible who slew his brother Abel.  It also shows there are strong Christian references in the tale.

 

Beowulf was certainly an oral tale long before it was written down.  There were also still fairly strong pagan beliefs among the Anglo-Saxons when the tale was created.  Some scholars believe the Christian elements that we read now, were not always present.  When the tale was finally recorded, Christian symbols were probably put in to give the epic some acceptance among the clergy.  If it strictly promoted paganism, it would never have been accepted and it may well have never survived the centuries, but destroyed as heathen literature.

 

Beowulf tells Hrothgar he will rid the Danes of the creature Grendel and one night, when Grendel attacks, the two fight to the death.  Of course, as befitting an epic, Beowulf is earlier described as “[…] the mightiest man on earth, high-born and powerful.” (Heaney 15)  Not only is he the strongest man in the world, but he’s also of good birth.  At this point, most characters in tales were not the common man, but the nobles.  Commoners could be loyal and aid a nobleman, but they were not the focus of the tale and certainly not the hero.

 

Just after Beowulf swears he will defeat Grendel, Unferth challenges him and tells of a swimming contest Beowulf once lost.  Beowulf turns around and explains that while he may not have crossed the sea before his opponent, Breca, he fought a greater battle.  When Beowulf swam against Breca, he was the stronger swimmer.  But after five nights of swimming while holding a sword and wearing chain-mail for protection, a sea monster came up and dragged him to the bottom of the sea.  While he was under the sea for a night, he proceeded to kill nine sea monsters and then drifted back to shore.

 

As you can see, Beowulf is not your ordinary human.  He was able to swim for five days, not float, but swim a race for those five days.  Then even after he exerted himself so much, he killed nine fierce sea monsters while completely under water for a night.  There’s not too many people that I know of, who can stay under water for more than a few minutes, without oxygen tanks, let alone hold their breath a whole night and exert themselves further.

 

Beowulf again demonstrates his amazing ability to hold his breath under water when he fights Grendel’s mother.  Counting on his mighty strength, Beowulf swears not to use his sword against Grendel, but fight him in hand-to-hand combat.  After their fight, Grendel was wounded and tried to get away, but Beowulf would not let go.  He held on so tightly, that Grendel’s arm ripped off at the shoulder.  Grendel escaped to die in his lair under the waters.

 

Grendel’s mother later comes to avenge her son and Beowulf follows her into her lair in the swamp.  His sword would not penetrate her flesh, so he eventually had to fight her hand-to-hand as he did her son.  When he came upon a strange sword in the lair, he found that would cut through Grendel’s mother and hurried to end the battle.  He then goes on to decapitate the monster and brought her head to Hrothgar as a trophy.  The whole battle under water lasted nine hours.  Again, an amazing example of breath-holding.

 

All of this is just the first half of the epic.  It is an action packed adventure that can capture the imagination of any child and adult.  The second half of the epic has Beowulf as the new king of the Geats and back in his homeland.  There he goes on to fight a wyrm, or dragon that is guarding a magnificent treasure.  It is also the last battle for this great man.  He is now old, but able to save his people in one final and amazing show of strength.

 

Aside from the wonderful battles and heroism, there are also a few lessons to be learned about honor.  The warrior Unferth, who challenged Beowulf’s boasts earlier, is quickly shown to be a dishonorable man.  Beowulf explains how Unferth only boasts, but never has the courage to fight with honor.  In fact, he killed some of his own kin and will be judged in the afterlife for it.  Later when Beowulf goes to fight the wyrm, the warriors that accompany him get scared and run off, leaving him on his own.  Only one person remains by his side.  A boy, who is not a great warrior, named Wiglaf.  For his loyalty and honor, Wiglaf is named Beowulf’s successor and goes on to be the next king of the Geats.  This is an example of how honor can pay off in the end.

 

At times throughout the tale, other tales are told.  When Beowulf and Hrothgar are feasting, a poet tells the tale of Sigemund and how he slew the dragon.  This is another heroic tale.  I am not too familiar with the Scandinavian version, but will use the Germanic version for this discussion.  Siegfried or Sigemund slew the dragon that guarded the Nibelungen hoard.  Beowulf is contrasted with King Hermod in this tale, who is a man past him prime and angry that others are mightier than him.  He is not a rock for his people like Sigemund and Beowulf are.

 

This sub-tale can also be used to foresee Beowulf’s future.  He, like Sigemund, goes on to defeat a dragon and return a great treasure to his people.  If you follow the story of Sigemund, you will learn that the treasure is actually cursed.  The same could be said for the treasure Beowulf uncovers.  It was originally found by a peasant and he stole a cup, which brought the dragon’s wrath down upon Beowulf’s people.  The treasure was a catalyst and the death of Beowulf was the outcome.

 

I am getting a little too into Sigemund’s tale, as that can easily be an episode in itself, so I will stop here.  But the point is, to the listener of Beowulf, seating in the feast hall back in the so called “Dark Ages”, he is hearing a new tale about this warrior Beowulf.  Yet he is also hearing an old tale of Sigemund.  The poet is connecting Beowulf with other great heroes in some of the lessons to be learned and also some of the feats he manages.

 

One of the reasons why Beowulf is a staple of early English studies, is for the language it brings.  This is pretty much the largest tale written in Old English.  While there are histories that are longer, this is the longest piece of fiction.  At over three thousand lines, it is an excellent resource for learning the language.  Even to the casual reader it can be an interesting etymological study.  I am not well versed in the language and thus will not attempt to slaughter it by reading a few lines.  But I have had professors who have read passages and it’s a very lyrical language.  It doesn’t flow as well as the Romance languages, such as French or Italian, but is a little more guttural like German.  Even still, it has a wonderful rhythm and can be a joy to listen to.

 

You can also see the beginnings of our modern language in some of the words.  I looked at my Old English grammar book and learned that the letters c g pronounced together made the “dg” sound.  Then I looked at the word, spelled “brycg”.  All of a sudden it clicked.  Using the pronunciation guide, I realized “brycg” was bridge.  Even after more than one thousand years, some of our words are the same, only spelled a little different.  There are also words that while they have changed in English, German uses the old English version, such as “bett”, which is “bed”.

 

I apologize, I cannot provide a traveler’s note for this episode, as I have not been able to travel to any place in Scandinavia.  But I can still suggest a book.  There are many translations of Beowulf, such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s, as mentioned before.  Yet the one that many reviewers are praising right now is a newer version, translated by Seamus Heaney.  First published in 2000, Heaney uses a lyrical style based on Irish storytelling his family used to do.  The book itself is split.  On the left-hand pages, the Old English is written out, with the modern English translation on the right.  It’s a relatively easy read and quite enjoyable.  There is also a little family tree in the back of the book, which shows Beowulf and Hrothgar’s lineage.

  

Heaney, Seamus. Beowulf. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000

Mitchell, Bruce. A Guide to Old English. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2003

HUMPH!

Well, it seems at this point in time, it is not possible to make an enhanced podcast for iTunes on a PC.  As I am not interested in any way shape of form of going out and purchasing a Mac, I am currently unable to make an enhanced podcast.  This rather stinks, as I've always been a hands-on person and would love to add some visuals for our listeners.  So, as I am currently unable to add them to the podcast, I will just have to add them to the transcripts.

I am looking at a few series that are more hands-on for the listener.  One will be a recipe series.  Every now and again, I'd like to talk about food from a certain period and include a recipe or two.  Many of the recipes in earlier history are actually quite tasty.  I just made candied orange rind with honey and they were good.  Time consuming, but very delicious.  I'm also looking at a series on Fashion.  Maybe one of these series episodes will occur once a month.  I'll have to see what everyone thinks.

Episode 3 - Hammurabi and His Code

This week, episode three will focus on Hammurabi.  You may have heard of the code of Hammurabi, whether in school or reading.  Even if you never heard the name Hammurabi, you may still have a vague idea of his code.  Yet not too much is known about the man.  I’ll tell you what little we do know of this ancient ruler and then move on to his code of laws.

 

“Mesopotamia, meaning “the land between the rivers,” owed its name to the Greeks.  The rivers in question here were the Euphrates and the Tigris, the two great inland waterways between the Nile and the Indus. […] The cultural area associated with Mesopotamia in fact extended well beyond the rivers themselves, forming a broad triangle with its base along the foothills of the northern mountains and its apex at the head of the Gulf.  To the east it was bounded by the Zagros mountain chain, while on the west the fertile land quickly gave way to the desert that separated the Crescent’s two arms.” (Woolf 60)

 

This is the long way of saying Mesopotamia covered what is now Modern Iraq, eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and Southwest Iran.  Mesopotamia was not so much a country, but a region and was comprised of a number of people, including the Assyrians, Babylonians and Sumerians.

 

“Hammurabi was descended from an ancient line of nomadic desert sheiks and claimed that he could trace his ancestry back over 24 generation.” (Hunt 68)  Unlike the Greeks and the Romans, Hammurabi was lost to the world until the 1860s when information was first published about him.  At first it was thought that he came to power in 2342 BC, gradually moving up in date, until the year of accession finally settled at 1795 BC.

 

While originally only the king of Babylon, Hammurabi was an excellent military strategist and eventually conquered most of Mesopotamia.  At the start of his reign, Babylonia only covered about 55 miles of terrain, but at the end of his reign in 1750 BC, the Babylonians ruled over all of Sumer and most of Assyria.  While his conquest would only last for about another 200 years, at the time of his death, his nation was the most powerful of the area.

 

Hammurabi didn’t leave archaeological evidence of grand palaces and lavish artifacts, at least not that has been discovered up until now, but there is evidence of public works, such as the building of canals. (Hunt 68)  What Hammurabi is best known for, was his code of laws.

 

Discovered in 1901, “the stele containing the Code is an obelisk-like block of black diorite measuring […]” (Catholic Encyclopedia) just over seven feet tall and a little over six feet in circumference at the base.  “With the exception of a large carving in relief on the upper end, it was once entirely covered with forty-four columns (over 3800 lines) of text in old Babylonian wedge-writing.” (Catholic Encyclopedia)

 

The stele starts out with the following as message from Hammurabi to his people in way of explanation of his laws.  I apologize in advance for any mispronunciation.  My language skills are focused more on Western Europe, such as French, German and Latin, with a dabbling in Korean.  While I’d love to eventually study the truly ancient languages, I have yet to and thus have had no lessons in pronunciation.

 

“When Anu the Sublime, King of the Anunaki, and Bel, the lord of Heaven and earth, who decreed the fate of the land, assigned to Marduk, the over-ruling son of Ea, God of righteousness, dominion over earthly man, and made him great among the Igigi, they called Babylon by his illustrious name, made it great on earth, and founded an everlasting kingdom in it, whose foundations are laid so solidly as those of heaven and earth; then Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak; so that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind.

When Marduk sent me to rule over men, to give the protection of right to the land, I did right and righteousness in . . . , and brought about the well-being of the oppressed.” (King)

These laws were very strict and most crimes were punishable by death, with few exceptions.  Hammurabi’s Code also set the precedent for the Hebrew’s “eye for an eye” laws.  Rule 196 states that “If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.”  Rule 197 states that “If a man break another man’s bone, his bone shall be broken.”  Rule 229 states that “If a builder build a house for some one, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then the builder shall be put to death.”  Rule 230 states that “If it kill the son of the owner, the son of that builder shall be put to death.”  This is a common theme throughout the code and very much promotes that what is lost to one by another’s hand, shall be also lost to the perpetrator.  While today’s human rights groups would never allow such laws in America, it is a very basic and fair set of rules.  There are a number of rather harsh rules though.  While crimes often have to be proven, there are a few exceptions.  Rule 127 states that “If the “finger is pointed” at a man’s wife about another man, but she is not caught sleeping with the other man, she shall jump into the river for her husband.”  This is very harsh, as it says the woman is guilty no matter what.  In this case, she wasn’t proven guilty, so she won’t be killed, instead it is her duty to kill herself.  In rules where the man and woman are found together, they are both killed in a variety of ways, depending on how they are found.

 

There are also rules that take in extenuating circumstances and are in the favor of the woman.  Rule 136 states that “If any one leave his house, run away, and then his wife go to another house, if then he return, and wishes to take his wife back: because he fled from his home and ran away, the wife of this runaway shall not return to her husband.”  Rule 144 states that “If a man take a wife and this woman giver her husband a maid-servant, and she bear him children, but this man wishes to take another wife, this shall not be permitted to him; he shall not take a second wife.”  Rule 148 states that “If a man take a wife, and she be seized by disease, if he then desire to take a second wife he shall not put his wife away, who has been attacked by disease, but he shall keep her in the house which he had built and support her so long as she lives.”

 

Now on to this week’s traveler’s note.  You can see the Code of Hammurabi in the Louvre in Paris.  While it is obviously worn with age, the inscriptions are in excellent condition and the carving of Hammurabi receiving the laws from Shamash is very clear.  Even though cannot read Old Babylonian, looking closely at the writing we merely appreciated it for its even hand and historical value.  The Code is very accessible, merely roped off in a small square area in a relatively large room.  Also, this area in usually lower in traffic, as everyone crowds and pushes to see the Mona Lisa, Nike and Venus de Milo.  It seems not too many people are interested in the truly ancient cultures like Mesopotamia.  When we visited the Louvre, I didn’t know the Code of Hammurabi was there, but when I looked over the floor plans, my heart skipped a beat and we made a beeline for the stele.

 

One nice book we have, that I used for this podcast, is the Historical Atlas of Ancient Mesopotamia by Norman Bancroft Hunt.  It’s not a very hefty tome, weighing in only around 190 pages.  Yet it has some nice maps and gives a good overview of Mesopotamian for those who just want to peruse the history.  It also has quite a number of photos of artifacts that are fascinating in their own right.

  

Hunt, Norman Bancroft. Historical Atlas of Ancient Mesopotamia. New York: Thalamus Publishing, 2004.

Tr. King, L.W. Code of Hammurabi. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/hamcode.html>

Ed. Woolf, Greg. Ancient Civilizations: The Illustrated Guide to Belief, Mythology, and Art. San Diego: Thunder Bay Press, 2005

Catholic Encyclopedia Hammurabi <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07125a.htm>

 

Sorry, but WOW!

Well, it seems I cannot yet do "Tripping in the Middle Ages".  My library doesn't have enough information to make a full show, so it will have to wait.  I do have a friend checking her medical books for info though.  So hopefully soon I'll have something.  In the meantime, I'll do a few ancient history topics.  After all, this is the ANCIENT & Medieval History podcast.  Right now I'm compiling and recording Hammurabi and his code, for Monday's podcast.  Hope everyone enjoys.

Also, I just received my first response.  It contained very nice words and I was very encouraged.  I hope everyone else enjoys the show as well.

Also, I didn't think it possible for a while, but after a little more than a week, our show has passed the 200 mark for subscribers.  I am VERY surprised.  Especially since I looked yesterday and Feed Burner said 151 and today said 247.  That means in one day it jumped almost 100.  WOW!  Okay, so I need to lay off playing Neverwinter Nights 2 and make sure I keep a good quality show. :-)

Episode 2 - Charlemagne: The First Holy Roman Emperor

Today’s program is an introduction to the First Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne.  Whether you know him by his French name, Charlemagne, his English name, Charles the Great, or his German name, Karl der Grosse, he was an influential figure in Medieval history.  So what do we know about this great king?  Well, there are very few primary source texts on Charles.  Our main source is from his biographer, Einhard.  While Einhard knew Charles personally and worked for him, his writing wasn’t necessarily the most accurate.  According to author Alessandro Barbero, “he plundered Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars” (Barbero 116).    So while we now have an idea of the personal man Charles was, we do have to take everything with a grain of salt, as Einhard was inclined to embellish to show how great his ruler was.  But that doesn’t tell you much about Charles.  So let me quote Einhard’s writing instead…

“He was heavily built, sturdy, and of considerable stature, although not exceptionally so, given that he stood seven feet tall.  He had a round head, large and lively eyes, a slightly larger nose than usual, white but still attractive hair, a bright and cheerful expression, a short and fat neck, and a slightly protruding stomach.  His voice was clear, but a little higher than one would have expected for a man of his build.  He enjoyed good health, except for the fevers that affected him in the last few years of his life.  Toward the end he dragged one leg.  Even then, he stubbornly did what he wanted and refused to listen to doctors, indeed he detested them, because they wanted to persuade him to stop eating roast meat, as was his wont, and to be content with boiled meat.” (Einhard)

This is an interesting description of the man and rather impressive.  Although many of the Germanic tribes produced larger people, seven feet tall is still quite large.  As out of shape and look as Charles does sound in Einhard’s description, one must keep in mind, that Einhard knew the king and Holy Roman Emperor.  He never knew the youth and prince.  So these are the best descriptions we have.  There are coins that have survived, which have a similar image as Einhard described.  All other physical images or portraits of the Emperor are from a later time period and are often idealized depictions of the man.

We do not know exactly when Charles was born.  We know he died in 814 and Einhard wrote that was “in the seventy-second year of his life and the forty-seventh of his reign.”  So his estimated year of birth was 742.  Other sources say he was in about his seventy-first year or he was simply a septuagenarius, which means he could have been anywhere from seventy to seventy-nine years old.  He was born the first son and child of Pepin the Short and his wife Bertrada.  His grandfather, Charles “the Hammer” Martel had just died and thus he was named in honor of his grandfather.

When Pepin died, he divided his lands between Charles and his other son, Carloman.  Relations between the brothers were strained and when Carloman died after an illness in 771, Charles made certain he was immediately crowned the sole king, even though Carloman had two sons that could have succeeded him.  Once he took the throne, Charles dealt with insubordinate kingdoms that were beholden to him or fought with other nations right up to his death.  Yet even with the constant fighting and conquering, Charles helped bring education and enlightenment to his people.

One thing we must remember is there was a massive societal gap between the nobles and the peasants.  So when we say the advantages Charles brought to his people, it refers primarily to the nobles.  While not a highly educated man himself, Charles did understand the value of a good education.  He could neither read nor write, though he did work hard at it, like Einhard tells us.  Yet Charles surrounded himself with a circle of learned men and set up education opportunities for his people.  The language of the day was Latin, in terms of reading and writing.  The Germanic vernacular was not recorded.  While Latin was the language of the educated, Charles was worried about the disappearance of his native tongue and had a grammar written to record the language and keep it alive.

As far as the family man is concerned, Charles did his part and had quite a family.  He wed five times, had about six concubines and fathered about twenty children; ten boys and ten girls.  The first wife, Himiltrude, Einhard did not name in his biography.  Doing like those before him, Charles wed her outside of the Church and without a formal agreement.  However, the church became stronger while Charles ruled and a secular marriage was deemed unacceptable.  It was also bad politics.  When Charles made an alliance with the Lombards, he discarded his first wife and married the daughter of the Lombard king in a public and Church sanctioned ceremony.  Due to either death or politics, Charles later went on to marry Hildegard, Fastrada and Liudgard.  These four later wives, Einhard did acknowledge and name.  In fact, Himiltrude was written off as merely a concubine, although their son, Pepin, later called Pepin the Hunchback by historians, remained number one in line for the throne.

Einhard also wrote of Charles’ paternal feelings, in that the Emperor refused to let his daughters leave his palace.  Although they never married, they did have lovers and eventually children.  This showed that Charles was more than willing to turn a blind eye in order to keep those he was most attached to, close by.

Until the year 800, Charles was merely the king of the Franks.  When Empress Irene took sole control of Byzantium.  According to Barbero, Pope Leo III was disturbed by a woman in control of the Empire and decided it was time to move the position from an Eastern ruler to a Western one.

Einhard wrote about Charles’ coronation and placed Charles in a modest light.  According to Einhard, Charles did not want to become Holy Roman Emperor and had to be tricked into the position.  After refusing a few times, Charles was in Rome, on his knees praying, when Pope Leo III came up and crowned him Holy Roman Emperor.  However, Barbero points out that it was probably not the position that irritated Charles, but the power it would give to the Church.  When Pope Leo III crowned Charles, he in action, “claimed the supremacy of papal authority over imperial authority.” (Barbero 93)

            Charles died on January 28^th, 814 in Aachen, from what scholars deemed pneumonia.  Aachen is the city which Charles chose as his seat of power.  In French, the city is named Aix-la-Chappelle.  Today, Aachen is near the border of the Netherlands and France, in the north-west corner of Germany.

            I have not gone into Charles’ military conquests, but will save that for another time, as that could easily take a whole show in itself to touch upon.  I would like to add a traveler’s note at this point.  Since we do currently live in Germany, we’ve had the opportunity to visit a few places in Europe.  Not as many as we’d like, but we’ll take some lovely memories with us when we eventually move back to the States.

We had the opportunity to visit Charles’ cathedral in Aachen and were pleased to tour the building and treasury.  The cathedral was immense and the architecture was magnificent.  We also saw where Charles’ remains are supposedly held, in a sarcophagus over the alter area.  One thing we found disturbing was the reliquary in the treasury.  A popular image of Charlemagne in books and on the Internet is a gold bust.  This is actually a reliquary.  For those who don’t know, a reliquary is a container, which usually holds a piece of a saint of Jesus.  It can be a scrap of cloth the person wore, or usually, is a bone from the person.  In this case, the bust of Charlemagne holds a piece of the Emperor’s cranium.  While we find any pieces of people on display, somewhat disturbing, in this case it was more.

            Charles was a man who kept a separation of Church and State.  While he was a devote Christian and gave much to the Church, he did not want to give the Church power over his domain, or secular rule.  The Church had their areas to govern and he had his.  They were not higher than the king, but in a sense the rulers of the ecclesiastic world.  Yet here is evidence that the Church forced a mixture of Church and State.  They took a piece of Charles and placed it in a religious oriented vessel, thus combining the two.  Just a side thought.

            A very good book I would like to suggest is Charlemagne Father of a Continent by Alessandro Barbero.  While we have most of our information about Charles from Einhard’s writings, we have to understand that Einhard worked for the Emperor and had to keep in his good graces to hold his position.  So much of Einhard’s writing puts Charles in a very good light and avoids any criticism of the man.  Barbero’s book looks beyond paying lip service and actually thinks about the negative side of Charles.  One paragraph questions why he kept all his daughters living at home with him.  We have also wondered about that.  If you look beyond basic paternal affection, it could show Charles was very domineering and did not want any of his daughters beyond his influence, as they would have been if they moved to other kingdoms.

            There were also instances of Charles having a fit of temper and striking out at those who insulted him or his family and those who irked him at the moment.  Hardly the saintly picture Einhard painted.  I won’t go into more detail, but let you read the book and decide for yourself if Charles was a saint, like Einhard portrayed him, or just a regular person with good points and bad points, like you and me.

            Next week, if I can find enough information, I’d like to discuss “tripping in the Middle Ages”.  There were problems with food storage that often led to interesting lives for the citizens at this time and may be interesting to you as well.

 

Barbero, Alessandro. Charlemagne: Father of a Continent. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.

Tr. Turner, Samuel Epes. Einhard: The Life of Charlemagne. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1880.

Episode 1 - Dating Robyn Hode

            The modern reader is familiar with the Robin Hood story’s setting in Sherwood Forest around the year 1190, while King Richard I was king, but away in the Crusades.  Back in England, the villainous Prince John ravages the land and the noble, betrayed nobleman, Robin Hood, fights to protect the poor from injustice and keep England safe for the day King Richard returns home.  Not one of these themes or settings is in the early tales and that brings up the question of what was the setting for the tales and when were they created?  Not only is it difficult to date the earliest written tales; many manuscripts have been destroyed over the centuries.  It is also difficult to date the creation of the tales, as many early ballads were passed along through minstrels and oral tradition, long before they were physically recorded.

The first recorded mention of Robin Hood, of which we currently know, was in William Langland’s Piers Plowman.  Piers Plowman was estimated to been written between 1370 and 1385:

“I kan noght parfitly my Paternoster as the preest it syngeth,

But I ken rymes of Robyn hood and Randolf Erl of Chestre.” (5.395-5.396)

As early as the fourteenth century we have evidence of the knowledge of the Robin Hood poems.  Yet even with this early written acknowledgement of Robin Hood, it is very difficult to figure out just how old the tales are.

            The earliest recorded tale of Robin Hood is Robin Hood and the Monk, which is estimated to been written between 1450 and 1460.  There is no king mentioned in the story, so it is difficult to place based on the politics of the time.  In A Gest of Robyn Hode (Gest) however, a king finally is mentioned.  Originally the tale assumed written around 1400 or even earlier, yet it was eventually decided that it was written some time after 1450.  In line 1412 there is the first instance of a king, named, in a Robin Hood tale, “Of Edwarde, our comly kynge.”  Again, this doesn’t fully date the actual tale; in England between 1272 and 1377 there were three King Edwards.  Stephen Knight explains the difficulty of deciphering which King Edward, “though a king appears several times, he is named only in one early text and only as Edward, without any defining number. […] the best candidate is Edward III, who reigned from 1327 to 1377.” (Knight 2)  Based on the fact that a number was not used to determine which king, it is probably safer to assume that the king was Edward I, as he would not have a number after his name until a successor followed with the same name.  Subsequent Edwards would already have distinguishing numerals in their title.

            In 1852, antiquarian Joseph Hunter surmised that the ruler in Gest was Edward II.  As J.C. Holt reveals:

“Hunter established, first, that the circuit of ‘Edwards our comely king’ through the royal forests of Yorkshire and Lancashire and thence to Nottingham, as described in Gest, fitted only one known royal progress, namely that made by Edward II between April and November 1323; secondly, that subsequently to this journey, between 24 March and 22 November 1324, a Robyn or Robert Hood appeared in royal service as one of the porters of the Chamber; and thirdly, that a Robert Hood with his wife Matilda figured in the court rolls of the manor Wakefield in 1316 and 1317.” (Holt 45-46)

It is interesting to note that Hunter connected the listed name of a “Robyn or Robert Hood,” in service to the crown, to back up his claim that the king in Gest was Edward II.  It is not uncommon for scholars to search for men with the same name as the legendary hero and date the tales in that fashion.  However, Robert is and was a common name and cannot support such claims alone.  The coincidence that the aforementioned Robyn’s surname was also Hood is also not strong enough to support Hunter’s connection.

            If the tales were already in circulation long enough, it is very possible that a person could change their name to associate themselves with the hero.  Such is the case proposed by David Crook in his article.  Crook states other scholars cited historical Robin Hoods in the thirteenth century as possible influences for the tales.  One such man was a Gilbert Robynhod who appeared on the rolls in 1296. (Crook 530)  This shows that long before Hunter’s Robyn Hood, the name was combined as a surname and not so rare as to only belong to one or two possible candidates.

David Crook also points out that Dr. J.R. Maddicott suggested the tales first came about in the 1330s, “a generation or so before the unequivocal reference to ‘rymes of Robin hood’ in the B-text of Piers Plowman in 1377.” (Crook 530)  This assumes that the tales could not have been popular much before their first recorded mention of them.  This also presumes that the earliest mention of the tales still survives.  What Maddicott does not take into consideration is that many of the early ballads and texts of the Middle Ages did not survive time and there could easily have been earlier references.

Maddicott also attempted to associate real authority figures with those mentioned in Gest.  He connected the character of the Abbott of St. Mary’s with Thomas de Multon, who was the abbot of St. Mary’s York from 1332 to 1359.  The chief justice he said was Geoffrey le Scrope, who was chief justice from 1324 to 1338 and John de Oxenford was the sheriff of Nottingham from 1334-1339.  To place all three real men in their respective roles as mentioned in Gest, the tale must have been dated between 1334 and 1339, further confirming his belief that the tales originated in the 1330s. (Holt 59-60)

The idea is too speculative though.  Oxenford was a corrupt sheriff, but the theme of a corrupt sheriff, whether true or not could easily fit into any time period, even if the current sheriff was incredibly honest.  Positions of power are usually scorned, as many people feel those in charge are not doing enough for them or taking advantage of their position.  Even those who do wrong may not see their actions as crimes and will scorn the law for punishing them.  So once again, this connection to actual persons and dates is very difficult to prove, it only works in idealistic theory.

There is also the fact that law books in 1331 showed just how ingrained the Robin Hood myth already was.  According to Holt in his article, The Origins and Audience of the Ballads of Robin Hood, “In the fourteenth century, indeed, rogues and thieves were sometimes colloquially described as “Robert’s men.”  In 1331 the phrase was incorporated in an Act of Parliament […] (Holt 93)  If such a phrase was already in the laws at this point, the myth of Robin Hood had to have already been around for a while, for it to be incorporated in the common vernacular.

            Andrew McCall suggested a span of years in The Medieval Underworld, “[…] at some point between de Montfort’s rebellion in 1265 and the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381. (McCall 100)  The idea is that between the two rebellions, the poor had a hero that would provide them succor when they most needed it.  According to Norman Cantor, the Peasant’s Revolt came about due to the Plague.  In 1349 the Plague caused a shortage in labor and the peasant’s were in the position to demand the abolition of serfdom and the laws that fixed wages (ed. Cantor 418).  After the Revolt and Plague, the peasants gained a voice and a character like Robin Hood would enable them to form a band to stand up for their assumed rights.            The mention of the Plague brings up another chance to narrow the tales.  In the early stories, not once is the Plague mentioned.  This makes it difficult to believe that the tales came about after the epidemics hit.  The knight in Gest, whom Robin aids talks of the Crusades, yet does not mention thousands of deaths from an unknown black plague.  The eight major Crusades were the most important in history and were dated, between 1095 and 1270.

            The final clue in narrowing down the time period of the early Robin Hood tales is again, the mention of the Crusades.  The last major Crusade was in 1270, led by St. Louis IX of France. (Cantor 140)  Edward I returned from a Crusade when Henry III died and ascended the throne in 1272 (Grant 142)  Therefore, in theory, the stories couldn’t have originated much later than the 1270s, otherwise the memories of the Crusades would not have been as strong to play as big a part in Gest.

            In Gest, line 179 also talks of Robin’s visitor being a knight by force, “I trowe thou warte made a knight of force,” (179 Knight & Ohlgren 95)  This refers to the practice put into effect by Henry III in 1224, “knight of force refers to the practice of “distraint of arms,” that is, “requiring military tenants who held £20 per annum to receive knighthoods or pay a compensation […]”  After Henry III, Edward I continued this practice and ordered that those who either held lands that were worth twenty pounds a year, or held a knight’s fee of twenty pounds a year, were to become knights by Christmas 1278. (Knight and Ohlgren 152)  This again helps narrow down the time period of Gest and the Robin Hood tales.  More than likely, they came about between 1278 and 1370.  While they may have originated earlier, the popularity of an Edward as king would have been odd.

          In a desperate attempt, Holt discusses one scholar who went so far as to invent a complete pedigree for the outlaw.  In 1746, Dr. William Stukeley, a Lincolnshire antiquary took random information out of William Dugdale’s Baronage, compiled in 1675.  With the names Stukeley created false marriages, added false relatives and changed the land holdings of established families.  He even changed the date of Robin Hood’s death to 1274, to suit his timeline. (Holt 42-43)  This was all later proved fanciful, but by that time there was a blind following of Stukeley that had to be convinced.

           All of this shows just how difficult it was to date the Robyn Hode tales, as there were numerous areas they could have originated from.  Between the pastoral poem of Robyn and Marion from France, to the English tales of Gandelyn and Hereward the Wake, there were a variety of inspirations from different times and places.

Ed. Cantor, Norman. The Pimlico Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. London: Pimlico, 1999.

Crook, David. “Some Further Evidence Concerning the Dating of the Origins of the Robin Hood Legend” English Historical Review. 99 (1984): 530-534Grant,

Neil. Kings & Queens. Glasgow: Harper Collins Publishers, 1999.Holt, J.C. “The Origins and Audience of the Ballads of Robin Hood” Past and Present. 18 (1960): 89-110

Holt, J.C. Robin Hood. London: Thames and Hudson, 1989.

Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003.

Knight, Stephen, ed. Robin Hood: An Anthology of Scholarship and Criticism. Cambridge: Brewer, 1999.

Ed. Knight, Stephen and Ohlgren, Thomas H.. Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2000.