LECTURE OUTLINE FOR HISTORY 203

                                                                           Prof. Martha Carlin

                                                                            Week 13: Tuesday
 

                                                                      DAILY LIFE AND WORK
 

Tripartite society ("the three orders"):
        Those who fought (aristocracy)
        Those who prayed (clergy)
        Those who worked (peasants and artisans)

Seasonal labors included:
        Winter months:      livestock slaughter, and meat-preservation
                                     candle- and soap-making
                                     wood-cutting
                                     combing, spinning and weaving wool and flax
                                     making and mending tools and clothing
                                     tending livestock and poultry

        Spring months:      plowing, fertilizing, harrowing, and sowing spring crops (barley, oats, peas, beans, lentils, flax)
                                    weeding and tending field crops
                                    pruning and staking grapevines
                                    caring for newborn animals
                                    butter- and cheese-making
                                    planting gardens
                                    tending livestock and poultry

        Summer months:   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
                                  
        Autumn months:    harvesting field crops
                                    picking fruits, nuts, and berries
                                    threshing and milling grain
                                    retting flax
                                    drying and dressing flax
                                    scutching flax
                                    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

  Artisanal crafts included:
    Metalwork: Carolingian sword (on left; 9th-10th cent.; Brussels, Royal Museum of the Army and Military History);
 Viking sword hilt (from Hedeby
           boat burial,  9th cent.); front cover and back cover of Lindau Gospels (c. 880; 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.)
    Textile production: strip of woolen braid and fragment of woolen fabric from the Oseberg ship burial of a Viking queen, 9th cent.;
       reconstruction of a Viking loom


                                                                                Thursday:

Demographic factors included:
        Famine
        Malnutrition
        Pestilence
        Abortion and infanticide
        Contraception (illegal) and sexual abstinence (required on many holy days)

Important primary source on early medieval sexuality:
        Penitentials

Marriage requirements:
        Betrothal
        Dower
        No consanguinity between spouses
        Public nuptials
        Morgengab ("morning-gift")

Furnishings included:
        Beds                Wooden and pottery dishes
        Benches         Pottery and metal cookware
        Stools              Cushions, curtains and wall-hangings
        Chairs            Pottery oil lamps (especially in S. Europe) or torches and tallow candles (especially in N. Europe)
        Chests              Miscellaneous tools and utensils (wood, stone, horn, metal, bone, etc.)
        Cradles
        Tables

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:
        Charles the Bald and his court (Frankish, later 9th cent.)   
        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 (English, c. 1000)
        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.)

Health practices included:
        Baths (click here to see a strigil), bleeding (phlebotomy and leeches), medicinal herbs, laxatives, emetics, diet, charms

Food and drink included:
        Bread, porridge, gruel
        Meat, poultry, fish
        Eggs, butter, cheese, milk, cream
        Legumes (beans, peas, lentils)
        Root vegetables (leeks, onions, parsnips)
        Fruits and nuts
        Wine, ale, mead, cider

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.)