Like
a sparrow flying through a Mead Hall…
"...O
King...you sit a supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, with a
good fire in the midst, while the storms of rain and snow rage outside..."
The
Venerable Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English
Bede's Sparrow in the Hall
Winter
in the Dark Ages was a long, drawn-out affair. There was no magic light switch
you could flick on to banish the dark. Days were short. Nights were long. The
world was in hibernation. Food was scarce, and it was cold. Winter was hard,
and death from illness or starvation was a very real threat. It was no wonder
that the pagans wanted to celebrate Midwinter and New Years Day.
Interestingly,
it wasn't until the 4th Century when Church leaders in Rome embraced this pagan
holiday and made it their own. And over the centuries this pagan celebration
has been 'added' to, until we have the Christmas that we know and love today.
What
was Christmas like in Arthurian Britain?
I
need to make one thing clear before I begin — many of the stories that we know
of Arthur and his Knights are just that, stories. There is nothing substantial
to them. So a Christmas at Camelot would have been highly unlikely. The 12th
Century French Poets certainly gave Arthur a castle for himself and his
Knights, but Camelot itself didn't come about until the 15th Century when
Thomas Malory invented it in his great work, Le Morte d'Arthur. Which kinds of puts a whole dampener on
“Christmas in Camelot!”
Obviously,
our Dark Age ancestors celebrated Midwinter and New Year, but when we are
dealing with Arthur, we have to contend with a fictitious Christmas as well.
So
today I am going to explore the kind of food you might have found at King
Arthur's table at Christmas...
Pottage
— which was the staple diet for most, but at a feast, it would have been the
best pottage you ever tasted. The Rolls-Royse of Pottage!
Roasted
Goose and Partridge may have been on the menu.
Salmon.
Dry
cured hams.
A
boars head.
Venison.
Cheese.
Eggs
— preserved ones, because chickens tend to stop laying during the winter
months. It is only how chickens are farmed nowadays that ensures we have fresh
eggs throughout the year.
Pastries
The
only fresh vegetables would have been seasonal, but back in the Dark Ages and
the Middle Ages for that matter, it was not recommended to eat raw fruit and
veg, for fear of dysentery – one of the biggest killers of the time.
Of
course, they would also have had ale, mead, wine, and beer to wash it all down
with! There may well have been one or two rosy faces by the end of the feast!
War is
coming to Saxon Briton…
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