Surviving the Winter: Medieval-Style

[The Lawspeaker]

Surviving the Winter: Medieval-Style

There is a Middle English aphorism that says, ‘Winter all eats / That summer begets’. Living alongside 24-hour supermarkets, it is easy to forget the once vital preoccupation with preserving the autumn harvest and stocking our larders to the brim. As we approach the sign of Aquarius, long nights and short days will persist until mid-March when the sun enters Aries, and we spare a thought for our medieval forebears in the most barren and cold of seasons. Depictions of wintry concerns and activities from the medieval era are frequently featured in the calendars which preface many Books of Hours and Psalters (for a discussion of calendars, see the post from January 2011).


Detail from an October calendar showing the fattening of hogs, from the Breviary of Queen Isabella of Castile, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c. 1497, Add MS 18851, f. 6r



A February calendar with a bas-de-page scene of men chopping wood and a woman gathering it, from a Book of Hours, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c. 1500, King’s MS 9, f. 3v
Surviving a medieval winter was the result of forethought and hard labour. The calendar page for October shows two men knocking acorns from trees to fatten their hogs in readiness for winter, while the calendar page for February depicts two men with curved knives cutting wood to be gathered and bundled, in this case, by a woman.



Detail from a February calendar of a man drying his shoe by the fire, from a Psalter, France (Paris), c. 1250, Royal MS 2 B II, f. 1v



A February calendar with roundels showing of a man warming his feet by the fire (top) and the sign of Pisces (below), from a Psalter, England (Oxford), c. 1200–c. 1225, Arundel MS 157, f. 13v


Little agrarian activity could take place in winter and miniatures of Labours of the Month for December, January and February show mostly indoor scenes. The practical discomforts of winter are illustrated in the February calendars of two contemporary Psalters, one made in Oxford and the other in Paris, both showing a man attempting to dry his shoe or warm his feet over the fire.



Detail from a January calendar of warming by the fire and feasting, from a Book of Hours (the ‘Hours of Joanna I of Castile’), Southern Netherlands (Bruges), 1486–1506, Add MS 18852, f. 1v


A January calendar with a bas-de-page scene of feasting by an open fire, from King’s MS 9, f. 2v

The standard activity featured in the January calendar is one of feasting and warming oneself by the fire. These miniatures were produced in Bruges around 1500, and both show men sitting to a rich feast attended by a woman. The dominant ‘humour’ of the winter season was thought to be phlegm, and one contemporary text, the Secretum Secretorum, recommended combatting its injurious effects through a modification of the diet. It prescribes figs, grapes, ‘fine red wine’ and ‘hot meats’ such as mutton or pigeon, while warning that the somewhat odd assortment of laxatives, bloodletting and lovemaking are to be avoided. Overindulgence in general is very bad, according to our source, but better to do so in the winter season when the body’s natural heat is drawn inwards, resulting in good digestion. This is good to know in the season which includes Christmas.


Detail of activities on a frozen river, from Add MS 18852, f. 2r



Detail from a November calendar of a boar being snared, from a Book of Hours, Germany (?Worms), c. 1475–c. 1485, from Egerton MS 1146, f. 12v


Snow sports of many varieties are another feature of January calendars, such as the skating, sledging and ball games taking place on the frozen river above. An activity which combined sport and the acquisition of food was boar-hunting, the principal quarry of noblemen in the winter. Above, a boar is chased through a gallows-like-structure in a snowy landscape, becoming ensnared in the noose and speared by a knight. Another good ‘hot meat’ to combat the phlegm.

- Holly James-Maddocks

[The Lawspeaker]

Medieval Winter


I recently acquired a book entitled A Medieval Book of Season. Can you tell what it is about? While reading the Chapter entitled “Winter,” I thought it would be very a propos to write a something on the way winter would have beenlived if we lived in Northern Europe about 700-800 years ago. This is all from A Medieval Book of Seasons by Marie Collins and Virginia Davis (1), with a little bit of supplemental information from Daily Life in Medieval Times by Francis and Joseph Gies (2). Enjoy!

A lot has changed in the past half a dozen or so centuries. We here in Chicago have heating and food aplenty for one. We no longer rely on the seasons to give us one produce over another or to keep us warm. Technology has launched us into a time where we (as Americans and not even all Americans for that) are not subject to the ill-wills of winter. One thing that has not changed, however, is the season’s effects on our mind. For all of our technological advances it is still cold, the trees are still bereft of leaves, and it is still dark at 5pm. Depressing! There is Middle English lyric that highlights the winter blues we find ourselves so often succumbing to. It goes:

“Winter awakens all my sorrow, now that the leafy branches are growing bare; often I sigh and sorrowfully mourn when I consider how all this world’s joy comes to nothing.”

From Medieval Seasons, pg 124. British Library, London.

Back then there was no heating and drafty stone castles were not a huge improvement over mud and daub houses. Winter was not a great time for anyone, but it was especially bad for the poor (as it is now). Proper clothing and enough fuel would be important concerns, but none were so important as food. “Pottage” was the main staple for the poor, a mixture of whatever veggies and herbs were at hand, including onions, peas, beans, leeks, colewort, lentils and plenty of herbs. Parsley was a particularly important herb in pottage. These peasants would have gotten these from a garden that everyone would keep year round to supplement grains and relatively scarce meats, much like our garden here at Loyola! Apart from that, anyone’s winter diet would be heavily salted, as that was the only way to preserve meat, cheese, and butter, which would be present in the house of a lord or a well to do peasant. It was also a time of feasts. The celebration of Christmas emphasized the rich and poor celebrating together. The lord would often provide a feast for his subjects, the poor making off with as much food as their status prescribed. Some well to do peasants would get a full meal with no strings attached, whereas lower status peasants would have to provide their own fuel, clothe, and utensils for their more limited meal. The book Secretum Secretorum (the Secret of Secrets), a translation of a 10^th century Arabic text on all sorts of topics including medicine, advised to switch to hot foods in winter, to counteract the "phlegmy humour” of winter. The foods the Secretum prescribes include “pigeons, mutton, and other roasts, fatty foods, figs, nuts, fine red wines, and hot potions.” That doesn’t sound so bad!

Medieval Seasons, pg 131. Walter Art Gallery, Baltimore.

Yes, fun, what about fun? While this was probably the closest people would come to death all year, it would also include the longest holiday of the year… Christmas! Christmas lasted 12 days and no one worked at all, even villeins (serfs bound to work a set number of days on their lords’ lands) were exempt from work. Yes that is right, medieval serfs had a longer vacation than we do, from Christmas Eve to Epiphany (January 6^th). At this point,it was considered too cold to till the earth for quite some time, but there was still plenty of work to be done on the serf’s own land and on that of his lord, but Christmas time was an exception. It was a time of great merriment, like today, and houses would be decorated with greenery to remind themselves of the coming resurgence life of the New Year and gifts would be exchanged. Winter activities included ice skating, which enjoyed by both adults and children using pieces of bone or polished wood, the playing of backgammon and chess, two very old and very popular games, hunting boar (for nobility only), as well as the timeless fun of pelting your best pal in the face with packed snow. In fact, people might have had a little too much fun back then, as according to Joseph and Francis Gies, lords would actually hire extra watchmen during the Christmas season! The holiday that marked the end of this period in the medieval calendar was Candlemas (February 2), when it was presumed to be warm enough to begin tilling again. Thus the medieval claendar year ended and began again.

Medieval Seasons, pg. 125.

Medieval Seasons, book jacket. British Library, London.

I hope that this was informative and helpful. Please post any questions or comments you might have to add to or improve on my blog! Stay tuned for future updates on the Loyola’s yellow Labyrinth and a special sneak peek into the work of my intern colleague on a surprising addition to the garden. Stay warm!

(1) Marie Collins and Virginia Davis. A Medieval Book of Seasons. United Kingdom: Harper Collins Publishers, 1992.
(2) Francis and Joseph Gies. Daily Life in Medieval Times. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1990.

[The Lawspeaker]

How did medieval people keep warm?

How did medieval people keep warm? The short answer might be they didn’t, but that’s only half an answer. Certainly, in medieval Wales like in modern Wales, people didn’t have to deal with extreme temperatures of say–Minnesota–but they did have to deal with snow and cold in the winter, and occasional heat waves in the summer.
How did they protect themselves against the cold? Houses, certainly, weren’t kept very warm. Cloaks, scarves, boots, and gloves were worn indoors. Especially with the inefficient and smoky heating system (see my post on chimneys), the cold inside could approximate the cold inside.

Medieval people had gloves, for example: http://medievalgloves.blogspot.com/2...of-gloves.html

“For the peasant, the garb was basic and simple. The outer clothing was commonly made of wool with undergarments of linen. As one would expect, the wool garments were hot, heavy and itchy, but fortunately, the linen undergarments made the wool a bit more comfortable. The undergarments were laundered, but it was rare to wash the outer garments. While one might think this would serve to create a rather pungent society, such was not necessarily the case. Though the peasants worked very hard, frequently at manual labor, they also spent a great deal of time around open fires and smoke. The smoke permeated their clothes and acted as a natural deodorant reducing the odors.

In the winter and colder months, cloaks, mittens and woolen hats were worn as protection from the elements. Shoes were worn, but were often a luxury. Leather boots could be found among the peasants, but it was not uncommon for peasants to go without shoes. Along with their woolen dresses, women often wore simple caps.” http://www.medieval-period.com/medievalclothing.html

BBC did a feature on what Robin Hood might have worn in Sherwood Forest to keep warm in winter: “In the medieval era, clothes would be made of wool with a next-to-body material generally of linen. Both materials – worn in layers – are excellent to keep you warm. Perspiration reduces this effectiveness, so if you couldn’t avoid sweating for some reason and you became hot through physical exertion the correct thing to do would be to take a layer or two off until you cooled down, then put the layers back on again.
Medieval men wore a linen shirt and underclothes, a woollen coat with a hood over a coif – a tight fitting cap – on the head and also covering the shoulders and upper arms. Gloves were known – by comparison to our modern five-fingered gloves medieval winter gloves had two ‘fingers and a thumb’ only or more likely looked like mittens, made from wool or padded / lined leather.

Even soaking wet wool provides a modicum of warmth. Our medieval outlaws couldn’t wear anything else anyway, as fibres such as polyester, lycra and nylon weren’t invented and silk was both rare and too expensive for a common man when seen at market (Silk is a recommended next-to-body material for keeping warm, but rare in England for many years to come. Being an outlaw, if you couldn’t afford any silk you could always steal some).

Wool if clean and maintained is waterproof up to a point, but would not resist a downpour and shelter have to be sought. Wool can be waterproofed, but this affects the warmth it provides.

A far better and a more common waterproof for wintertime would be leather – a fatty skin taken from an animal such as a deer or a pig or a skin treated and tanned into leather and fashioned into a cloak, perhaps including a hood.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/feat...al_guide.shtml