The most crucial labor in August was harvesting and threshing the rye and winter wheat, which would have to sustain the community through many months to come. August 1st began the feast of Lammas, when the first grain of the new harvest was consecrated and made into bread for the Eucharist. There would be more harvest celebrations yet to come in September and October, but Lammas celebrated its beginning, and was as much a symbol of the spiritual harvest as it was the physical.
Wheat was cut down with a sickle; a short handled tool with a curved blade. Those reaping the wheat would grasp a handful of it, well below the heads of grain, and cut the stems. They would be bundled into small sheaves at first, then into larger ones called shocks that could be left standing in the sun to dry out. Once all of the grain had been harvested from the field, first the poor could come through and glean any fallen grain, then the livestock would be allowed to eat down the stalks and forage.
Long stretches of dry weather were extremely important for a good harvest. Too much damp weather could ruin the grain, or leave it tainted with ergot, a dangerous, toxic fungus that could do severe physical and neurological damage, causing hallucinations and paranoia. There has even been some speculation by historians correlating the most intense periods of witch hunting and inquisitions, with the worst outbreaks of ergot tainted food.
If grain could not be dried out in the sun, due to unseasonable weather or climates with damp or short growing seasons, grain dying kilns might be used. These were shaped much like regular medieval ovens, but larger, with well-constructed flues.
Once the grain stalks were dried out, the next task would be threshing and winnowing. This process separated the useful heads of grain, which could be made into flour, from the useless stalks and chaff that could not be eaten.
A flail was used to beat the wheat bundles, which shook loose the grain. If done outdoors, the chaff would naturally blow away on the wind—but it might also take some of the grain with it. Therefore, threshing was often done inside barns. This made it an activity that could continue through the fall, and even winter months if necessary.
I found this very short video that shows someone using a flail to separate grain from wheat stalks. There is even a portion of it where you can actually see the wind lifting away the chaff. The hand-crank machine he uses at the end is obviously not period, but everything before that is informative for those who want to see how this was done. Can you imagine doing this kind of labor for hours at a time, days on end? I would imagine it was a sweaty, back-breaking task in the August heat—with no possibility of a soothing shower at the end of the day!
Below that is the August video for Tales from the Green Valley. Sadly it’s their last month in the valley, but since I didn’t start with episode 1, I will keep posting them each month until I’ve gone through the entire year. They will stay in my Medieval Monday Index indefinitely, so those of you doing research can go back and find them at any time. In this episode they discuss cutting, drying, and bringing in the grain harvest, taking out the geese, making writing quills, duster brushes, and collecting goose down, making lights from rushes and animal tallow, and making a period goose meat pie.
Last week’s post was about the pleasure gardens of the wealthy. Another leisure activity enjoyed by the well-to-do in summer was hunting. Aside from the practical aspect of supplying food, it had a dual purpose of providing sport and keeping men trained and fit for warfare. Hunting was not a spontaneous activity, but a social event, carefully planned and organized by servants. The most significant hunts were those for stag, which took place during the summer when the beasts were in their prime.
“The heart, lungs, liver and windpipe were given to the hounds, while the right forefoot of the animal was presented to the most eminent person present, or to the lord of the hunt. Stags have a heart bone, a piece of hard red cartilage found in the heart which was considered to have medicinal properties; it was prized and often given to a pregnant woman. When the day’s hunting was over, the party would return in triumph, with the deer in a cart, for a great feast in the lord’s castle.”
The last couple of posts have been about summer activities in the Middle Ages, from the hard labor of harvesting crops, to the diversions of games. There was another summer pleasure for those in the upper classes of medieval society; recreational gardens. Not every garden was planted strictly for food or herbs, nor even for meditation as some of the monastic gardens were. Some were kept purely for pleasure, and they were designed “not for fruitfulness, but to delight the senses of sight and smell.”
When one grew tired of walking, or simply wanted to be still and immerse oneself in the surrounding beauty, there were plenty of places to sit. Marble, stone, or wooden benches were common, but turfed seats (excedra) were also a feature of pleasure gardens. They could be made entirely of sod, or as part of a raised flower bed, with outer walls made of wood, brick, or wattle. Tables for eating, or for playing games, would also be available as part of the garden. Eating outdoors in summer seems to have been a popular activity.
Most pleasure gardens also had at least one water feature; a fountain, stream, reflective pool, or a pond stocked with fish. Birds, rabbits, ducks, geese, and other types of animals would have roamed freely. Pleasure gardens sometimes had labyrinths, in which one walked a path in a set pattern, with one entrance and one exit. (This is different from a maze, in which one can get lost, with many paths meant to deceive.) A labyrinth might be laid with stone, cut turf, or have its edges defined by short to knee-high plants. It served not only as a pleasant diversion, but also helped take up a fair amount of space in a very large garden.
Look through manuscripts from the medieval period, and you will find plenty of poetry and lavish illuminations of lovers enjoying medieval pleasure gardens, which were often the setting for flirtatious games and mild horseplay between men and women.
I mentioned in a previous post that summer was not only a time for hard work, but also games and other enjoyable activities. Some of these we still recognize and play today, including chess, backgammon, and “draughts,” known to us as checkers. These could be set up on tables under the trees or played indoors. Other common table games were “knucklebones” (throwing dice), “fox & geese” (a strategy game), and “hazard” (a predecessor to craps). Skittles was the predecessor to bowling and was played either outdoors or indoors.
Stoolball was an early form of cricket, hurling (or shinty) was the medieval version of hockey, and shovelboard was much like the present day game of shuffleboard. There were a variety of competitive sporting competitions, including “gameball” (football), archery, and quarter-staff contests. There were games of stickball, throwing horseshoes, knives, hammers, axes, and stones, and using slingshots and catapults to hurl objects beyond a mark or at a target. These activities seem to have been enjoyed by adults as well as children.
Children still made their own amusements, not all of them good ones. French poet Froissart noted that he amused himself as a child by tying threads to captured butterflies so that he could control where they flew. Stealing fruit was a popular pastime, and the pits or seeds could be used as counters for games or as jacks. John Lydgate, a 15th Century monk and poet, admitted to such behavior in his youth. “I ran into gardens, where I stole apples; I spared neither hedge nor wall in gathering fruit. I was more ready to pick grapes from other people’s vines than to say Matins.” There were also a wide variety of communal children’s games. Unfortunately, the rules of how to play most of them have been lost to time. Floating objects down streams, swimming, and blowing soap bubbles were common summer activities for children.
Allison D. Reid 