Medieval fast days and beaver meat

I was recently interviewed on the Newbie Writers podcast with hosts Damien Boath and Catharine Bramkamp. I had a fun time discussing various aspects about writing historical fantasy as well as the challenges of writing a sequel.

Catharine asked me about the urge to want to include information found during the research process, basically to incorporate what I learned into the narrative. I understood the urge, but told her that I resisted that temptation. Especially when I thought it might be confusing to the readers or yank them right out of the narrative.

As an example, I mentioned a bit of trivia that I came across several years ago regarding Medieval religious dietary restrictions on fast days when meat and other animal products from were not to be consumed. I mentioned the book Fast and Feast: Food in Medieval Society by Bridget Ann Henisch as the source of this information about Medieval fast days. It is a wonderful book and I recommend it for those interested in learning more about Medieval diets and religious customs.

There were periods such as Lent and Advent when fast days lasted for weeks, but there were also fast days every week: Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. To clarify, these fasts was not when no food was consumed, but rather that there was a deprivation of what could be eaten. The foods to abstain consisted of meats and poultry as well as other animal products such as milk, butter, cheeses, and eggs. 

That did not mean that people became vegetarians during this time, but instead they were allowed to eat fish because it was from the sea. Here's a quote from Henisch explaining the theological reasoning why fish was allowed to be eaten on fast days.

Fish, providentially, had escaped God's curse on the earth by living in the water. Water itself was an element of special sanctity, washing away the sins of the world in Noah's Flood, and the sins of the individual in baptism. Its creatures might be said to share something of its virtues. Once the choice had been justified, the rest was easy.  - page 33.

The part that I found so memorable about her discussion about what foods could and could not be consumed in Medieval times on fast days was the inclusion of beavers as food from the sea.

Beavers.

By Steve from washington, dc, usa (American Beaver) [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Yes, I didn't have my own picture of a beaver, so I found one from the Wikimedia Commons. Enjoy.

I knew when I read that people could eat beavers on fast days that it was something I could not bring up in my novel. My readers would be pulled right out of the narrative by laughter at the mere thought of eating a beaver.

Damien was especially amused at the inclusion of beaver meat in our chat. He inspired me to re-read the passage by Henisch describing the reasoning behind the acceptance of beavers on the Fast days menu.

The rule forbidding meat on a fast day was the one most strictly enforced and conscientiously obeyed, but some desperate ingenuity was applied to the definition of meat and fish. Reluctantly it had to be conceded that the beaver was a mammal, even though he spent so much of his life in the water, but his tail, being covered with scales, looked distinctly fishy. It was permissible, therefore, to brighten a fish menu with a dish of beaver tail. - page 47   

I believe that if I used either term "beaver tail" or "beaver meat" in a novel that it would cause my readers to laugh out loud and in an inappropriate manner.

That is why I chose not to include any mention of the consumption of any portion of the beaver, but it sure makes for an amusing anecdote.

Damien was so taken with the discussion of beavers that he entitled my episode "The Mythology of Beavers."

The podcast is the Newbie Writers Episode #117 and can be downloaded from iTunes

  or can be listened to on YouTube where it was streamed live and has the title "Greek Mythology and Fantasy with Linda McCabe."


Heck, if I knew he was going to give it a title regarding Greek mythology I would have talked more about that subject than just mentioning Athena and Hector of Troy in passing. Oh, well. It was a fun chat and I hope others might enjoy hearing the interview and my insights.

This Tuesday, January 28, 2014 is the 1200th anniversary of Charlemagne's death.

So to help celebrate that I am ending this post with a picture I took during my trip to Germany in 2011. This is a statue of Charlemagne outside the town hall of Aachen (the Rathaus) that was built where his palace once stood.

Twelve hundred years ago. That's a huge anniversary and this year there will be many celebrations in Aachen to mark the landmark anniversary. For those who might be interested in traveling to Aachen, here is a link to some of their plans for the year.


Please feel free to leave an example of weird Medieval trivia you may have come across over the years.

http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2014/01/medieval-fast-days-and-beaver-meat.html

The Ethics of Sport

My friend John Forenti alerted me to the heartwarming story of a college softball game where players on a competing team carried an injured athlete around the bases to save her over the fence home run, "because she earned it."

I blogged about it and sent him a notice so that he could see my post. We then exchanged a couple emails on the subject and each time he expanded his thoughts further on the matter. It was then that I offered to let him be a guest blogger on a subject he is passionate about. The added benefit of this guest post it will serve as a first draft of a speech he will be delivering a in a few months.

First, here is the video from ESPN and YouTube to serve as a reminder of the story of Sara Tucholsky.







John Forenti:

I currently am a member of the Josephson Institute of Ethics National Faculty. It has been, and continues to be, a most rewarding and fulfilling endeavor. I work primarily with educators and members of the community. However, I also work extensively with athletes and coaches.

One of the great pleasures I've experienced as a result of my work as an ethics practitioner is that I've met so many successful and significant athletes. One the people who I now count as a friend is Olympic swimmer and 4 time gold medalist at the Montreal Games in 1976, John Naber. John has wonderful Olympic stories and hardly any of them has anything to do with winning gold medals. He's incredibly genuine and not in the least impressed with himself.

He tells me the meaning of competition comes from the Latin word competere meaning "to seek together" (also to "strive together toward a common goal"). It would seem dreadfully shortsighted to think what competitive athletes are seeking, is simply to find who won. It would also do a terrible injustice to those who have sought valiantly and lost.

To add color to the above, it was the great sportswriter and novelist Grantland Rice who wrote:

"When the great scorekeeper in the sky comes to mark upon your name, he won't mark whether you won or lost...but how you played the game."

When working with coaches, who are often under what I consider unreasonable pressure to produce exemplary won/lost records, I remind them of the anecdote I heard the legendary basketball John Wooden cite. He was discussing what it meant to be a teacher/coach and to "teach" a game.

He recounted that Amos Alonzo Stagg, the great football coach at the University of Chicago, was once asked by a reporter after a particularly successful season from the won/loss perspective, "Coach, was this your most successful team?"

His reply for the ages was: "Well, I won't know that for another 20 or 30 years."

Not surprisingly, Coach Wooden always refers to his final game as "the last game I ever taught." I find that particularly insightful from a 97 year old man who won 10 NCAA Basketball Championships. By the way, John Wooden wasn't always a basketball coach. He started out as an English teacher. That's not surprising either.

The notion of the teacher/coach came only recently to me. I wish I would have had that notion 35 years ago when I first started coaching. All is not lost, however. I have a 9 year old grandson with whom I can "seek together." I also can "teach" him a game. That means a great deal to me, because......

"Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see."

--John W. Whitehead

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And thank you, John Forenti, for sharing your thoughts.

- Linda

Pot pourri of Blogs, Astrolabes, and Chivalry

Tess Gerritsen has returned to writing her blog.

I had become a fan of hers via her blog, and enjoyed reading her perspectives on writing, publishing as well as realities full time authors face. A few months ago, Tess quit blogging due to flak generated by some trolls who were not followers of her blog and were alerted to one of her posts. They did not understand her humor and they hounded her.

I unsubscribed from the offending blog community which was one that I read casually, but was disgusted at how they treated her. I do not wish to have anything further to do with them.

Anyway, I am glad Tess is back and I look forward to reading her posts once again as well as her future novels. By the way, her book The Bone Garden is now out in paperback and is ranked #11 on the New York Times Bestseller list. If you have not read any of Tess Gerritsen's work before, that is a wonderful place to start as it is a stand alone book.

It deals with the gruesome medical history of "resurrectionists" who trafficked in human cadavers for medical school students and the contributions of Oliver Wendell Holmes in treating the epidemic of puerperal fever. The book is a murder mystery/thriller/historical novel and I highly recommend it.

For some reason, Googlemort did not alert me right away when she began posting again. Instead my Google Reader for some reason kept those posts in a cache and then eleven unread posts appeared all at once making me think she went on a blogging spree.

For the medievalists who follow my blog, here is a link to a picture of Tess at Hadrian's wall.

Speaking of medievalists...I did not realize that medieval astrolabes were all that rare until I saw an article posted by the News for Medievalists blog which said in part:

A "calculator" used in the time of Geoffrey Chaucer and described as one of the most sophisticated such tools before the computer is to remain in London.

The Canterbury Astrolabe Quadrant is one of only eight instruments of this type known to have survived from the Middle Ages, the British Museum said. The museum tried to buy the object last year but was outbid at auction.

But it has now been able to acquire it for £350,000 due to a £125,000 grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, £50,000 from The Art Fund and £175,000 from British Museum Friends and other sources. It will go on display in the museum early next month.

Had I realized astrolabes were so important, I would have posted a picture of one in my write up about the Institut du Monde Arabe last year.

So here is a picture of a Carolingian era astrolabe in that beautiful museum.



And here is its label showing that it is of the Carolingian era, even though its origins are from Spain.


The term chivalry has come to mean many different things over the years, but to me it is a sense of fairness rather than the pervasive "win at all costs" mentality. This pre-occupation with winning has caused many to bemoan if there is any sense of sportmanship anymore and whether or not we would recognize it if we saw it.

A friend of mine, who is an ethics practitioner, is planning a speech entitled "The Ethics of Sport....Does Anybody Still Play Fair?" and offered a link to an amazing story of a college softball conference championship where fairness ruled the day over the attitude of wishing injuries to your opponents if that might lead to your side winning.

These women did the right thing, and the story warms my heart. It is truly the lesson of not whether or not you win or lose, but how you play the game that is important.



(Blogger created new gadgets, so I am experimenting to see if this is a better use than the embedded video. Please let me know if this is something you prefer. Also your thoughts on the chivalrous act done on behalf of an opposing player.)

Linda

Guédelon, constructing a 13th century castle in 21st century France

About an hour and a half south of Paris in rural Burgundy (Bourgogne) is an amazing construction site known as Guédelon. They are building a castle using the tools and technology that would have been used in the thirteenth century.

Finding Guédelon is not altogether easy because it is off the beaten path, although there are many iconic signs posted along the roads with arrows to help reassure travelers that they are nearing their destination.

I first heard of Guédelon via a blog post written by an American blogger married to a Frenchman and lives in France. I had been planning my travel itinerary and when I saw her post knew that I had to consider adding that as a stop. As luck would have it, my friend Cindy Pavlinac was planning her own trip to France several months in advance of my own and she would be only an hour or two away from Guédelon. After telling her about this place, she agreed to do some advance research for me and after she returned told me enthusiastically that it would be well worth my stop.

As I paid for our admission tickets, a woman asked if my husband and I would like a guided tour. I did my best to respond in the affirmative if it was in English. She then surprised me when she switched immediately to English and asked where I was from. I had her repeat the question and then stumbled as I said, “California.” She replied, “I’m from Colorado.”

At that point, I felt as if the sky opened and sunshine rained down on me. Julie left the admissions window for a few minutes to answer some questions and gave us an overview of the site, but she did not have the time to do a full tour. (There was another window for admission tickets that was open, so she was not abandoning her post.)

Julie was enthusiastic about the project as well as the history of castles as she had learned from being a part of this experimental archaeology. Between her discussion, the book Guédelon: Fanatics for a fortress and the DVD Guédelon: Ils bâtissent un château fort provide the sources of my information about Guédelon. (The book and DVD were purchased in their gift shop, but are either scarce or non-existent in the U.S. Be aware on the Amazon link for the book there are only two copies available and only one is in English.)

Guédelon is the brainchild of Michel Guyot who had restored castles, but had always dreamed of building one. The epiphany came to him one night over drinks with friends at his restored castle in Saint Fargeau. By morning he realized that it would be a works program that would employ people in the process and that admission tickets from the public would cover the costs of construction.

He quickly found a partner in Maryline Martin.

She is the project manager and whose energy and drive became an unstoppable force of nature which led to the first subsidy grant ever by the Canal+ Foundation. Their CEO, Pierre Lescure, is quoted as saying about Martin and Guyot, “They’re mad! They’re really mad.” [i]

Madness is another word for passion and that is what started and sustains Guédelon. The estimated length of construction for this project is twenty-five years and they are now in their eleventh year.

Strategic lines of sight for defensive purposes while an important consideration during the Middle Ages was not what determined their choice of sites to build. Nor was proximity to a major city or mass transportation a factor, because it is in a rural area where you can only get there by car or possibly chartered bus. Instead, they focused on finding land which would have all the necessary natural resources. The construction site near Treigny is designed to be self-sufficient and everything that they use is crafted there: stone, sand, lime, clay, a forest, and the stone is ferruginous so it provides the iron necessary to produce the tools.

Inspiration for the architectural designs for the site came from thirteenth century castles built during the reign of Philippe Auguste and the plans were drafted by Jacques Moulin, architect-in-chief of Historic Monuments.

Here is a scale model of what the castle will look like upon completion:

Florian Renucci started out as a stone cutter, but within two years he became Guédelon’s site manager and is involved in every aspect of construction. On the DVD, he refers to this project as cultural heritage embodied by stone.

Speaking of stone, here are stone cutters at work:

They select rock from the quarry and split the stones by focusing their hammers on the different colored grains in the stone which denote weak points. Watching their back breaking labor makes me truly appreciate how difficult all the stone buildings were to make prior to the invention of power tools.

It also reinforced the idea that I heard repeatedly in France that when stone buildings, ramparts, etc., entered into a state of ruin that the locals began re-using the stone and treating it as their private “stone quarry.” The medieval village of Carcassone was pillaged for its stone by the villagers who lived in the modern village.

In America we are only now beginning to discuss re-using material from old houses which are being torn down, but it is an age old concept for Europeans.

Here is a handcart that was crafted by the carpenters to transport some of the rock that was hewn by the stone cutters.

Large loads are placed in a cart and pulled by one of Guédelon’s two workhorses.

The rough hewn stones are brought to the stone masons who chisel the stone to fit the dimensions necessary. Certain specialized stones are carved for barrel arches, windows and doorways, while other stones are simply needed for the walls.

Here you can see the stone mason’s cottage where there are various forms hung above his head. On the left foreground you can see stone steps that will be a part of a circular staircase as well as stones that will be part of an archway. I thought it was interesting to notice that the flooring of the cottage needed repair, but it appears that the carpenters are too busy creating scaffolds than replacing floorboards.

Another marvel that was created by the stone cutters and stone masons was a single capstone used for the well. It is one large piece of stone and it will never be subjected to weakness or stress that is inherent with stones held together with mortar.

The finished stones are given marks by the stone masons and then transported to the work site itself and are laid in their proper place by the masons.

To lift the heavy loads up at the top of the construction site they use an old “human hamster wheel” whose design dates back to the time of the Romans.

The tools used are crafted by blacksmiths who repair several sets of tools from stone cutters and stone masons on a daily basis. It is said on the worksite that without the blacksmith there would be no tools.

The lead blacksmith is Thierry Darques who came to the job trained as a journalist. He jokes about the abrupt change in careers, but loves working with his hands. He was one of the first to join the project and apprenticed with master blacksmith Olivier Loiseau. He studies old manuscripts to see images of tools from the age and tries his best to copy them using the tools in his forge.[ii] The blacksmiths also forge the nails used in construction.

This bridge is made of wood from 57 oak trees and 670 hand forged nails.[iii]

They also do not use modern measuring equipment at the site. Instead they use the three tools found in a 13^th century book: a stick, their feet and a cord.

In the video Alain Louis demonstrates the six measurements on a stick. The first measure is of four fingers grasping the stick (without the thumb) and is known as the hand’s breadth. The second measure was of the fingers being extended (still without the thumb). The third measure was the span spread that included the thumb. The fourth measure is the length of his foot. The fifth measure was the “L” or the distance between the tips of your fingers to the end of your elbow, also known as a cubit. The sixth measure was the diameter of the stick should be the size of the width of your thumb.

He also did a nifty demonstration with the cord having thirteen regularly placed knots in it. As he shifted the cord around it, he showed the school children rudimentary mathematics.

The work site has other trained artisans including:

● wood cutters who fell the trees in the forest

● carpenters who fashion the wood for wagons, scaffolds, and create wood shingles

● the rope maker who takes raw hemp grown in the forest and processes the fiber into rope

● basket weavers who take willow and wicker to create baskets that carry small rocks as well as mortar

● the mortar makers

● the tile maker who takes clay and soaks it in water to remove all the trapped air, shapes it into either roof or floor tiles, (sometimes adding dye to color the tile), drying it and then firing it in a kiln

● the dye maker

Here is one of the diagrams used in the planning of the castle:

And here one of the completed vaulted ceilings:

Guédelon has several technical advisors who visit the site periodically to ensure that the methodology is being done in as authentic a manner as is possible, (especially when certain knowledge of techniques was never written down but passed down from master to apprentice and so it is a matter of supposition.)

One of the advisors is an art historian from Lyon University, Nicolas Reveryon. He mentioned in the DVD that he was skeptical about the project at first because he felt that there are plenty of castles in ruin in France and did not understand the need to build another. However, he and his colleague Anne Baud, who is an archaeologist have been convinced at Guédelon’s importance because it has allowed them to test some of their hypotheses and they have found some answers to their own questions about working procedures on a medieval site.

For example there is this quote:

Thanks to the Guédelon site, Nicolas Reveyron and his colleagues have been able to verify that manure is by far the best protection against rain and frost for the wall crests, and they finally have scientific certainty that the vertical black discontinuities found in cathedrals correspond to pauses in construction. To date, no written evidence existed to explain these construction details.[iv]

Here you can see the vertical lines in the walls, as well as moss. The previous vaulted ceiling also has readily visible lines. Later the castle will be plastered to properly seal the mortar as well as covering over the unsightly blemishes that came with construction over time.

Guédelon is now the biggest employer in the Yonne Department with fifty employees. The are also about sixty regular volunteers who help out whenever they can and an even larger number of occasional volunteers who spend a week or two of their summer holiday assisting in the construction.

The site opened to the public in 1998 and in its first year had 50,000 visitors. It now has upwards of a quarter million tourists each year and its receipts from admissions, concessions and merchandise allows it to be self-sustaining.

Julie told us that a month before our visit that Rick Steves and his camera crew had come to the site. I have not yet seen it on PBS, nor any mention of this on his website, but I predict once this episode is viewed by Americans who are planning on traveling to France that the attendance will skyrocket.

Oh and here’s a picture of Julie and myself.

The old “build it and they will come” mantra has proven to be correct. In fact, Guyot felt that seeing the construction of a castle would be more exciting for tourism than visiting a castle which had already been built.

Americans who are reading this post might be thinking something along the lines of “Why doesn’t someone do that here? We have all kinds of Renaissance Faires and chapters of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Surely there would be support for a castle building project in the U.S.”

In fact, there is a group who wants to do just that and it has been the subject of posts by medievalist bloggers such as Heroic Dreams, Richard Scott Nokes, and Matthew Gabriele. Medieval World, USA wants to build not only a castle, but an entire medieval village.

I spoke recently by phone to Roger Gomez and during our discussion I urged him to visit Guédelon and learn from their triumphs as well as their mistakes.

He then told me of their own board of advisors having the expertise of a professor of Medieval Literature from Colorado State University, an architect, and a CPA. They are a not for profit organization and are hoping soon to become recognized as a 501C3 non-profit organization. Unfortunately they have not found anyone like Maryline Martin to spearhead their effort. They need either a rainmaker or a sugardaddy/momma to fund buying land for their project as well as provide the start up capital necessary to begin construction.

Roger told me that he has four different business plans depending on how they achieve their capital. His preference is to follow Guédelon’s lead and use medieval construction techniques to create their vision of a medieval world. However, if they get corporate sponsorship that requires on rapid construction to complete the site on 21^st century timetables, he will still insist on the integrity of the site.

He wants visitors to not be able to tell where things have been constructed in a faux manner. He wanted the look and feel of authenticity for the time period. (But maybe not the smells.)

Roger referred to this as an assembled heritage landscape and compared it to living history sites such as Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia and Plimouth Plantation in Massachussetts.

I asked about getting financial support from the various Ren Faires that are held each year, but so far there has not been an organized effort on their behalf. He said that if one million people who love the Middle Ages donated just $20 then they would have the money they needed.

Think about that. Instead of squandering $20 on a cheesy souvenir T-shirt at the next Ren Faire you attend, you could help support the initial funding of an American version of Guédelon. All you have to do is donate here.

Or you could become mad like Maryline Martin and Michel Guyot, and make this project happen here by pouring your heart and soul into this dream as well.

Here are some links to articles about Guédelon that I came across as I was researching for this blog post.

Interesting thing of the day

San Diego Union Tribune

A New York Times article

Burgundy Today

You can also find montage videos of Guédelonon YouTube. Here is one that is nice.

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[i] Philippe Minard and François Folcher, Guédelon: Fanatics for a Fortress, (Geneva, Switzerland: Aubanel), 2003, p. 14.

[ii] Ibid., p. 98.

[iii] Ibid., p. 38.

[iv] Ibid., p. 134.

YouTube and Book Trailers: a Success Story

Yesterday, agent Lucienne Diver made a guest appearance on my friend Lee Lofland’s blog. Her topic was how writers can create buzz for their work and she brings up a lot of great ideas.

On the comment trail there was a question posed about book trailers and whether or not they were a valuable marketing tool for authors.

I replied to him, but thought this was a topic I could expand upon and make my own blog entry.

This past Sunday my writers club meeting had Kemble Scott as our guest speaker. He has the distinction of being the first author to use YouTube to launch a novel.

His novel SoMa is about the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco and it has subject matter that is sexually explicit in nature. He knew that it was going to be near impossible for his book to be reviewed in mainstream publications and so he was casting about for ideas as to how to publicize his book. One of his neighbors worked for YouTube and suggested that he make some short films.

Scott has had a career as a television journalist for years, but he was initially stumped at the suggestion. She then challenged him that with all his TV experience, he should be able to come up with something.

He decided on a series of short promos showing some of the locations mentioned in his book. Along with showing the locales, he uses suggestive language to reference some of the unusual behavior in those places which are represented in his book.

At first he had a professional help him with the filming, but when he viewed it he thought it looked too slick for YouTube. So he bought a $600 video camera and handed it to someone with no experience. He also changed it to black and white to give those short videos a grittier feel to match the tone of the book.

The video clips preceded the publication of his book and his novel appeared on the San Francisco Chronicle’s best seller list the first week it was released.

You can see him talking at Google’s corporate headquarters in the Authors@Google series. This video is about 42 minutes in total length, but he credits YouTube for the successful launch of his book at about 29:40 and he includes one of his videos as part of a demonstration.

Those video clips didn’t generate a million hits like the Drama Squirrel video, but they did help generate word of mouth which translated into sales. And because he made a major newspaper’s best seller list, his book has been sold in places he would never have expected including an airport in Singapore.

I finished reading his book, it is laugh out loud funny in parts, but it is blue. Very blue. It is not for those who are easily offended.

Please tell me if you know of other authors who have successfully used video clips to promote their books. I would love to see more of them to get ideas for my own future reference.