I’ve just got back from living as a medieval person, AMA

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

First time in my life I’ve ever done anything worthy of an AMA!

Would you do it again? Would you try being a peasant next time?

Fabulous; thank you!

I did read somewhere that people used a hazel twig with a frayed end to clean their teeth in the medieval period but not sure?

I’m very interested in what you said about the paucity of vegetables at this time of year. There is a gap about now in the growing season isn’t there. Aside from sugared plums, were they preserving fruits or vegetables yet in jars yet? Or making jams?

How many plagues did you get

No, not even worms 😢

I promise to try harder next time on the parasite side of things.

I heard that these historical reenactment things can be a hotbed of lust! The costumes, the escapism..the mead(?!)

Is it true lots of people hook up at these events?

And have you done or seen anything quite wild?

Thank you in advance! X

No modern glasses allowed. Contact lenses were a personal choice.
i can only wear lenses a few hours a day so I thought it was going to be a problem as I am short sighted but actually distance vision isn’t really important for most of what I was doing and in the evenings we were all managing in semi darkness anyway.
interestingly at this period there were spectacles but only for close work.

For myself, the gold standard for this is :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_in_the_Past_(TV_series)

Well worth a watch if you can source it - plus the follow-ups where one couple built a porch with the wattle'n'daub they learned in the programmed.

Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_Monastery_Farm - different period

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_the_Green_Valley

I really can't emphasize how important I think our connections to the past are. Because they explain how we got here.

Massive respect to OP. You'll have a head start if the apocalypse comes .....

Did you enjoy it

As a keen brewer, tell me about the beer-making! What did you use? Barley? Was it malted? Any hops?

I have experienced similar at other re-enactments but not this one, I think because in the medieval period everyone is living very much on top of each other so it’s just impossible for an upstairs-downstairs dynamic to develop. Which is interesting in itself.

I actually play a gentlewoman at a lot of the re-enactments I do and playing a servant is more relaxing and fun in a lot of ways- the clothes are more comfortable and the people playing rich folk are generally grateful for what you do for them whereas when you are playing posh you have to devote quite a lot of mental energy to walking the line between behaving like an actual upper class person from history, and not being a dick. Obviously this has nothing to do with historical reality and is just an artefact of being a modern person pretending.

Sorry if you mentioned, when you say you did lots of washing up, what did you use ? Apart from water
(In place of modern scourers, brushes or washing up liquid)

I would love this - apart from the washing. Did your hair feel rank? What did you do for toilet roll?

What if it’s pitch dark and they’re all asleep?

Next time!

Yes. Following the natural rhythms of the year and going to bed early/getting up with the light instead of dragging the evening out with artificial light definitely made us all feel better. The lack of caffeine and fact we were active helped too.

I am not currently weighing myself so I don’t know if I lost weight but other people did.

Absolutely I am making changes: I am cutting down caffeine and phone use (no more doomscrolling) and have decided that if I want to go to bed early in the winter I will just do it instead of feeling like I ought to stay up till an arbitrary time.

Did you speak as you normally would do?

Wow what a great AMA. I had no idea re-enactment covered these sorts of things. When I was studying archaeology the only group of re-enactors I knew were blokes with swords.

It's a small world, I know Ian! Hope it went well!

How else would you speak ?

When you know it’s going to be dark by 4 (it seemed like it got dark early in the house) you don’t want to waste any daylight so you are busy all day with jobs and then you have lots of time to relax round the fire in the evening, mostly chatting with the odd story or joke or silly game.
I do find spinning relaxing though so that felt like recreation, even though it is also work.

Interested to know if you had any vegetarians or vegans doing this.
I know they probably weren’t around in mediaeval Britain but they are now.

You should look up experimental archaeology. It's a wonderful way of discovering how little we know about our ancestors. Several well documented cases where we have been totally and utterly unable to replicate manufacturing things we know they manufactured.

Another link for the curious - and the actual finished building is well worth a visit

It's worth it just for the scene where there is almost a brawl over a wheelbarrow 😀

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_Wasn%27t_Built_in_a_Day_(TV_series)

In the manner of a servant from the middle ages!

We (i.e. the masses) ate a lot less meat in the past.

Why on earth would you do that ?