Medieval Food

Resumo: Desde a Pré-Historia, tanto os alimentos quanto as bebidas tiveram uma profunda ligação com os rituais religiosos. Utilizadas como uma ponte para se alcançar outros mundos, para invocar os espíritos dos mortos, para comemorar e brindar as vitórias, pedir e, posteriormente agradecer as boas colheitas e a fertilidade constante da terra, das mulheres e dos animais concedidas pelos deuses, bem ser a fonte de inspiração para a criação artística, as bebidas alcoólicas sempre desempenharam um importante papel na esfera religiosa. Na Escandinávia Medieval o hidromel era fundamental em alguns rituais religiosos que envolviam vitórias bélicas e alianças político-militares e foi a bebida que inspirou a criação da poesia tornando-a assim, sagrada. Baseado em um corpus literário propomos uma análise de como essa bebida foi utilizada e como se dava o seu consumo ritualístico assim como as descrições de quem o servia e para quem. Palavras-Chaves: Bebidas sagradas; Rituais; Literatura Escandinava Medieval. The sacredness that comes from the cups: the use of drinks in myth and Norse Medieval Literature Abstract: From PreHistory , as much food as the drinks had a deep connection with religious rituals. Used as a bridge to reach other worlds, to invoke the spirits of the dead, to celebrate and toast the victories, ask and then thank the good harvests and the constant fertility of the land, women and animals granted by the gods as well be the source of inspiration for artistic creation, alcoholic beverages have always played an important role in the religious sphere. In Medieval Scandinavia mead it was critical in some religious rituals involving war victories and political-military alliances and was the drink that inspired the creation of poetry making it so sacred. Based on a literary corpus propose an analysis of how this drink was used and how was your ritualistic consumption as well as the descriptions of those who served and to whom.

This thesis unravels the deeper meanings attributed to ordinary objects, such as clothing and food, in thirteenth-century Icelandic literature and legal records. I argue that women weaponized these ordinary objects to circumvent their social and legal disadvantages by performing acts that medieval Icelandic society deemed masculine. By comparing various literary sources, however, I show that medieval Icelandic society gradually redefined and questioned the acceptability of that behavior, especially during the thirteenth-century. This is particularly evident in the late thirteenth-century Njal’s Saga, wherein a woman named Hallgerd has been villainized for stealing cheese from a troublesome neighbor. If Hallgerd were a man, this behavior would have been considered rán, which was a masculine act whereby men challenged one another to take things by force. As a woman, however, Hallgerd’s clever use of ordinary objects was unsettling to men; her act, although mirroring the masculine expectations of rán, has been condemned by the author. Thus, by emphasizing the anxieties of men regarding such behavior, it is evident that later male authors, particularly those writing from the late thirteenth century onwards, considered this behavior as preventing society’s progression away from extra-legal conflict resolution. In doing so, the author of Njal’s Saga demonstrated that both women and men were aware of the power that these ordinary objects had in the hands of ambitious women, as well as how potentially dangerous and harmful to society they could be.


A preserved account book for the Archbishop of Nidaros in Norway covering the years 1532 to 1538 gives a fascinating glimpse of the activities in his residences during he last years before the Reformation, the weekly menu of the workers, their pay in money and textiles, the geographical background of the workets etc.

The topos of spiritual joy and intoxication has its roots in a long tradition of mystical discourse on sweetness, as seen in Richard Rolle’s emphasis on dulcor as central for spiritual amelioration. The myriad references to God’s swetenesse in 'The Book of Margery Kempe' illustrate the sensual viscerality of Kempe’s spiritual experience. To evoke the swete sounds, smells, and tastes of rapture helps her to go some way toward describing the ineffable, since the metaphor of the sweetness of Christ holds deep, symbolic value. The meaning of swetenesse is at once sensory, emotive, and figurative. Bartholomaeus Anglicus noted that sweet flavors are pure “by kynde,” and beneficial for bodily health. Sweetness is also, then, therapeutic. The contents of the faded recipe, annotated at the end of British Library, Additional MS 61823 by a late fifteenth-century or early sixteenth-century reader of The Book of Margery Kempe, are revealed here—and are shown to be for medicinal sweets. The recipe’s redolence with such significations of confection, sweetness, and spiritual health resonate with Kempe’s trajectory toward divine love and eschatological perfection. Her “confection” with Christ is frequently described as a “swet dalyawnce.” The recipe’s inclusion in the manuscript gestures toward the curative nature of The Book, both for
Kempe, who lives the narrative, and for her readers, who are edified by the healing words of the text.

Can women narrate the Nation? Does woman have equal claim over
„historicity‟, and over „being historical‟? Moreover is she allowed the vocabulary to
express her desires for contesting for historicity? Or they are interpreted as not wanting
to be historical in the backdrops of historical events? Or are these denials camouflaged
under garbs of tradition, which is perpetually attributed to women? Or is it the
narrative‟s vocabulary, choice of expression and imagery that exalts and portrays man as
historical and public and the woman as personal and private and willingly hiding behind
constructed social and gendered roles? Or perhaps it is the norms which declare a man
as historical and are mostly attributed to his nationalistic or patriotic inclinations,
including his bravado in wars, revolutionary ideology etc. Could it not be that the
narrative of the history of creation of the Nation eclipses that of the Woman?

Cet article tente de saisir l’alimentation ordinaire, c'est-à-dire du plus grand nombre, à travers les sources écrites. Le dépouillement d’archives de types variés (actes notariés, cartulaires, règlements, comptes, registres de justice, traités d’économie rurale, mémoires, enquêtes…) a permis d’ouvrir trois problématiques : la différenciation sociale de la nourriture, les liens étroits entre travail et alimentation et enfin les circuits d’approvisionnement. Il apparait que les situations sont véritablement multiples et qu'il existe bien des moyens de se nourrir, moyens imbriqués dans une gamme de possibilité assez étendue : travailler pour les autres, travailler pour soi, échanger entre voisins, utiliser les circuits commerciaux officiels, jouer sur la qualité pour adapter les repas à ses revenus et même, en dernier ressort, voler ou braconner.

Hunting and eating hunt in Medieval Aragón:
local charters, regulations, cynegetic practices
and beliefs
ABSTRACT: The nutritional, economic and political
importance of hunting in medieval Aragón is revealed in the
Aragonese laws and municipal regulations of the 12th to 15th
centuries from different perspectives. Hunting in medieval
Aragon maybe did not reach the level of importance as agriculture,
livestock farming or commerce, but it developed
very diverse significances that affected social life. Economically,
it was a source of food and income, and permitted
underground economies and the privatisation of natural
exploitations. Judicially, hunting methods, areas and times
were regulated. Mentally and socially, hunting was impregnated
with connotations and changing values that created a
complex codification: the different modalities were associated
with the entertainment of the noble elite, with bourgeois
aspirations and the subsistence of anonymous people. The
hierarchisation of hunters, cynegetic practices, their objectives,
their areas and their prey only reinforced the socio-political
order instituted.
KEY WORDS: Medieval Hunting. Medieval diet.
Aragonese Charters. Municipal Regulations. Natural
resources. Middle Age. Aragón.
RESUMEN: La importancia dietética, económica y política
de la caza en el Aragón medieval queda reflejada en los
fueros y las normativas municipales de los siglos XII-XV
desde varias perspectivas. Quizá la caza no alcanzó en el
Aragón medieval la trascendencia de la agricultura, la
ganadería o el comercio, pero desarrolló significados muy
diversos que afectaron al conjunto social. Económicamente,
fue fuente de alimentación e ingresos, dio lugar a economías
sumergidas y a la privatización de aprovechamientos
naturales. Jurídicamente, se regularon los modos,
espacios y tiempos de su práctica. Mental y socialmente, la
caza estuvo impregnada de connotaciones y valores cambiantes
que crearon una compleja codificación. La jerarquización
de los cazadores, de las prácticas cinegéticas, de sus
objetivos, sus espacios y sus presas no hizo sino reforzar el
orden sociopolítico instituido.
PALABRAS CLAVE: Caza medieval. Alimentación
medieval. Fueros aragoneses. Ordenanzas municipales.
Recursos naturales. Edad Media. Aragón.