Three things should be said about Medival alcohol consumption: 1) their alcohol was nothing like modern alcohol, 2) alcohol was never a replacement for all water, but was a replacement for bad water (such as would be more common in urban areas where the water would be obviously bad through discoloration, smell, and other physical indications), and 3) medieval alcohol was almost always cut with water to make the water taste better, prevent drunkenness (but, of course, not the slight “buzz” that alcohol will produce), and make the alcohol last longer.

Also, in areas where grapes grew easier wine usually was preferred as a better beverage than beer. Outside those areas, beer was preferred because it lasted longer before it went bad (yes, the sugars in beer and wine rot). Many people felt that there were health benefits in certain kinds of alcoholic drinks, but very few Medieval sources state that alcoholic drinks were preferable to water. Hidelgard von Bingen says that beer is preferable to water pulled from wintery ground. Very few sources (out of the many, many sources that talk about beer and wine) discuss the benefits of wine or beer over that of clean water.

However, I’m grateful for the chance to give my all to the club in this way: I learned a lot about both web programming and about the needs and wants of the club. Basically, the club flows and ebbs. The club has always been surprisingly low-tech when it comes to using web technology, but the future may not be so. Anyways, we currently have this web page which is a whole bunch of free stuff thrown together. We’ll see how well it works, but, for now, I think it’ll work out alright with everyone not being too into the whole “web” aspect of the club.

You can rent Kiwanis Park which is across 9th and behind the Elementary School for $40 Bucks. This gets you access to their big covered pavilion and you can set stuff up in the park.

Pros: Covered place to do Plays should weather turn sour.

Can sell food with out BYU Catering in the way. Still need Food Handling permit though.

Lots of Space for Booths and you can invite Merchants to sell their goods there too.

Close to campus

No Fountain to turn off or grounds crew to worry about.

Visible and you could advertise in the community and Drum up Community support for the Club.

No need to hire Guest Services($10 Per Hour per person 3 necessary to take money and watch event)

No need to worry about Campus Scheduling

Cons: Unlikely we could charge admission as the park is rather open.

Weather could get bad of course this could happen anywhere.

Not as much ambience’s as the Courtyard but still you can decorate.

Anyway if we can do it off campus Myself and Heather we can come and sell some foods and stuff and give club a cut of the money.

More thoughts

The problem with not charging admission is that we have little other ways to make money at the event. I realize it would be great if we could do it all for free but the plays cost money even though we’ve been able to do them for less than you could expect them to.

I agree though we could find ways to lower the price some. However we cannot depend on Food to pull us through as you will remember food is the very reason that we could not do Feast a fund raiser.

I still think the event should be kept at the JFSB courtyard. I also suggest renting a PA system. This will help with sound and projection.

I like the idea of the Foreign Languages or the old languages. They give a flavor to the plays and the subtitle machine has worked well before.

Actually we did have the scheduling fine last year but it was the approval from the BYUSA that got us in trouble they kept pushing it back until we could not be sure when to do the event.

I thought he classes went well last year and perhaps we could have more. You could also reach out to the community to find local artisans such as the spinning shop who might want to demonstrate.

My other suggestion may be to move it off campus and use another site like the Castle I realize we would have to rent it but I think if we advertised to the community we could get better attendance. We could also legitimately involve other groups like the SCA or Arma or others.

(Careful though some of these groups don’t get along)

Also remember the festival is about Theatre not just medieval stuff .

Many of these ideas are great.

I have one final thought

Since our festival is not taking place during Corpus Christi perhaps we could call it a York Play Festival or York Cycle Festival instead that way it is not confusing. Just a thought.

Remember you can get the Grounds department to turn off the fountain.

Okay I just rambled a lot but take the ideas with a grain of salt.

Has anyone thought about a medieval history based game show for fun during down times?-could be very fun and educational:]. The wandering jesters (if there are any still alive) could do impressions of bear-baiting or cock-fighting (very period entertainment). Oh, and a canopy for the seats of the audience would be a very good idea this year!!!

And I believe that involving several other clubs (experimental theatre club, as well as the stock juggling, storytelling, chess, go, masque club-comedia del arte, even *gasp* HACKA ARMA OFFA, rebel swords, (do they still have the belly dancing club-a side workshop) or SCA guest preformers, etc.) would increase advertising and attendance.

Lowering the price or getting rid of the initial emission fee and only charge for certain activities (and the yummy food) would also help. The musicians guild could do an introduction to medieval instruments booth. There could also be an dance instruction booth. The cooking guild could have an introduction to medieval cooking booth (medieval cooking show/workshop) and sell very reasonably-priced cookbooks of our favorite recipes or make your own bread (they pay for the materials).

For banners I suggest buying paint, old colorful DI sheets, its MUCH MUCH cheaper and more noticeable (especially if they’re very long and hung from the cougareat courtyard area).

I’m just throwing ideas out, I realize what I say doesn’t have very much clout with most.

But if you guys ask me to do the obstacle course again this year, it will get done and done well.

1. This may be American (and Travis isn’t saying it is), but who cares? It’s not a stretch to place its source in period. (He also caught that I used the Wikipedia article as the base for my summary [I couldn't find my notes!])

2. The acronym could come from the 17th century [I still stand by my statements that the word is of Germanic origin, although it may have arrived in Britain via the Dutch around the 16th-17th Century, but I have reservations on this idea].

3. The reasons people bathed for didn’t include sanitation reasons, generally the difficulty in obtaining water precluded such activities, and we have precious little documentation on the average person’s view on bathing. Chances are they bathed less than I would indicate in my post.

4. As did some club members at a recent meeting, Travis pointed out that coin belts are derived from wearing one’s dowry [which I still distrust, and am waiting on my own personal research]. Also, he indicated (as I should have) that period pants very similar to poofy pants exist: Northern Viking pants and Dutch slops, for example.

5. Travis kindly provided a picture of 15th-Century plaids. Also, he rightly points out that Scotland’s economy was a strong economy, including wool from the many sheep; having enough fabric for a Great Kilt would not have been difficult (but, I would still add, it would have been expensive!).

7. Travis knows more about Medieval Spain (and Spain in general) than almost anyone I know (except for, perhaps, Melissa Anderson, but she’s been gone from BYU for years). So, if he has anything to say about Spain, I tend to listen (I still try to double-check, of course). Travis responded, “The Inquisition began post-Reconquista [after the Moors had been finally pushed beyond Gibraltar] and was primarily to weed out heretics. It rarely persecuted Jews or Moors–save if they had converted and were reneging on their new faith. In many ways the Inquisition was a hope to stop the spread of Protestants.”

8. Okay, I admit it — I REALLY should have put more work into how I worded this one. I probably should have limited it to discussing “prima nocturne”, but I guess I went too far. It is true that there were some Kings who were at the level of an absolute monarch, like Charlemagne and a few others. In that respect, this one kinda falls apart. I should have said, “generally” (which is a great hedge word, by the way) a monarch didn’t rule with absolute power. Were there leaders who ruled absolutely? Of course. Were there weak and vacillating rulers? Yes. But the “average” monarch (if there can actually be such a thing) probably shouldn’t be thought of as a monarch with absolute power to do whatever they wished (such as “prima nocturne”). I just think it’s in error to approach a king you don’t know much about and assume that he is an all-powerful monarch; I argue that they would generally be in a position dependent upon other politicians below and above them.

9. “Tom, the alcohol they drank in the time period was watered down for the very reason of sanitation. No, they did not drink it straight but, as you read in several works, they served wine with water and and watered it down so as not to get drunk at the feast. If they didn’t want to get drunk what did they want to get? This is where we get the title of the Small Beer which is a watered down brew. Yes, alcohol leads to dehydration that doesn’t mean that people don’t still drink it. Soda, milk, juice, and other modern liquids all lead to dehydration. In fact, most humans live in an incredibly dehydrated state. Yes, people drank water, even from nature, but not in the cities which had very little access to clean water. It was easier many times just to water the wine bother to improve the taste of the water and to tone down the wine.”

So there you have it. I still have reservations about some of the responses, but that just means I need to research more.

I also hope that people learn more than just the difference between an armchair historian and a real historian. This is one of the best ways to learn things–by debate and discussion. History is still alive as it gets constantly reshaped by those doing the researching.

Whatever the reason, it’s fun to have multiple names, despite the confusion it may cause (as with anybody, for example, who knows me both in and out of club).

-Snorri Thangbrand Reynardsson

P.S. I do think we should let ourselves be studied, though. Maybe they’d use psychiatric microscopes or something.

Across, the way, coming out of the library, a conservative young lady noticed the sound and remarked to her friend, “Oh no, it’s that guy with the sandals.” [implied sneer] Whereupon, as he just happened to be walking behind this young lady, a fellow clubby (Sir Ian the Strange) shrunk this spiteful violet by yelling out (As only our Sir Ian can) at the top of his lungs, “Hey Aedo! what’s up?!”

We have never heard from this young lady again.

Aedo- Actually Aedo’s Last name, and as a persona name is actually romanized as Eidoh

Bob- (I shan’t give his real name without his express permission)

Daisuke- Our newest spawnling. His name is abbreviated as D.J. and I think his real first name is David. He also answeres to Dai-chan or Wan-chan from the right people.