The Medieval Chronicle: October 2009

entecost ~ Whitsuntide in England

Pentecost is the day on which the Holy Spirit is said to have entered Jesus’ disciples as described in Acts in the New Testament. Like many things in Christianity, the day is bound up in Jewish tradition, in this case occurring on the same day as Shauvot, the Jewish harvest festival that commemorates the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai fifty days after the Exodus.

Considered the birthday of the Christian Church by early Christians, they included the holiday not just in celebration but in their architecture as well. Most Medieval cathedrals and great churches include a Holy Ghost hole–a small circular opening in the church roof that symbolizes the entrance of the Holy Spirit into the church. These holes were used on Pentecost, either decorated with flowers or, if they were big enough, allowing a mock dove to be lowered through it into the church while the priests in their red vestments–the color symbolizing both joy and the fire of the Holy Spirit–read the story of the day. It was from these holes that Italian parishioners showered red rose petals on the congregation below. In Germany it was more likely to see a dove descend from a hole decorated with Birch branches.

Doves_pic These holes also exist in English cathedrals, including Canterbury, even though the holiday in England is known as Whitsuntide. Why Whitsuntide, or White Sunday, in England? Most likely because in England by the time Pentecost came around it was warm enough to celebrate baptisms and those being baptized wore white garments. The English also had another unique tradition for Whitsuntide: the Whitsun ales.

In this context an Ale is a festival at which a special ale has been brewed and is being sold by festival organizers to raise money for some cause, usually to raise money for the upkeep of the local church. It’s not necessarily an annual event, but the timing of Whitsun is perfect for staging such a festival: winter’s over, the spring crop is in the ground, and most of the farm animals have given birth. Both town and country folk were more than ready to get out and have a great time.

In Woodstock, a Whitsun Ale was held every seven years. It started on the Thursday before Whitsun, when the maypole was set up, then continued for seven days. On that first day the lord and lady were chosen and given “‘maces’, which were short sticks stuck into small squares of board; from the four corners of which semicircular hoops crossed diagonally, the whole being covered with ribbons.” Next, two men were elected to carry the wooden horse which had long poles extending from it so the men could rest it on their shoulders. Finishing out this noble entourage was a band of Morris Dancers.

Once elected, the lord and lady had to make a procession through the town. Before they started, they each put a Whit Cake in the center of their maces. As they walked, they’d offer people in the crowd a taste of the cake for a small fee. If someone wanted more than just a taste, he could buy a whole cake from a man at the end of the entourage.

As for the special ale, it was consumed at the drinking booth which consisted of a shed about fifty feet long with benches on both sides. The booth, called The Bowery, was decorated with evergreens. Cages containing an owl and a hawk hung at its front between two threshing flails which, in Woodstock, were called ‘The Lady's Parrot’ and ‘The Lady's Nut-crackers’. If a drinker was asked to name the flails and couldn’t he’d have to pay a shilling or be on the wooden horse around the may pole. More than a few people made the mistake just to ride the horse.

At other Ales, the horse riding was done on breathing animals on a race track. Of course, with all the drinking, betting and general frivolity, fights often occurred. Even though the Catholic Church, and later the Puritans, did their best to encourage other means of fundraising for church repairs, Whitsun and the Whitsun Ale remained a cherished holiday in the English year.

Any underlined word or phrase

takes you to a link. Enjoy!

t. Audrey ~ June 23rd

Saint Audrey, or Ethelreda in Old English, is one of the most popular Anglo-Saxon women saints. She starts out life as an English princess (such as there were princesses in the mid-600s AD), but is fated from the get-go for sainthood. It runs in the family. Her sisters are Sts Ethelburga, Erconwald, Sexburga and Withaburga.

How, one might ask, can so many saints come out of one family? My opinion is that women had to be saints to live with, or rather escape their serial monogamistic husbands. What’s a serial monogamist? A man who marries one wife, puts her away in a nunnery when she either doesn’t produce or is too much trouble, then marries anew. But that’s off the subject. Back to Audrey.

Audrey refuses to consummate her first marriage with the Scotsman Tonbert, head of a tribe in the highlands, and is still a virgin when he dies three years later. At this point she retreats to Coldingham Abbey where she becomes a nun under St. Ebba. A few years later she moves south again and founds what will become the great abbey at Ely. There, she lives an austere life. (Monks really like it when women who have been rich go on to live austere lives.) After many peaceful years at the abbey, Audrey develops a tumor on her neck which she gratefully accepts as Divine retribution for all the necklaces she wore in her early years.

She dies in 679 and her body remains uncorrupted, thus securing her sainthood. Her head is preserved in Ely and in religious art she is depicted as an abbess, holding either a crozier, book, rod, or lily.

There is, however, another much more dramatic story about Audrey. In this one her father marries her off to a new man even though she’s already a nun. I suppose the justification is that if a man can send his wife to a convent so he can remarry, then a father should be able to extract said woman from a convent so he can marry her off again. If this is the case, then Audrey’s dad must have really needed a daughter to marry off. He no doubt knew the sort of trouble this would cause.

St_Audrey_pic

St. Audrey

or Ethelreda in Old English

At any rate, Audrey isn’t willing to give up her vow of virginity and holds her frustrated husband off at arm’s length. He, on the other hand, is no doubt desperate to have a child to secure the bargain with Audrey’s dad. He eventually even tries bribing (Saint) Wilfred, Abbot of York, to release Audrey from her vows. Wilfred isn’t going for it. Instead, he helps Audrey escape and they flee to the south with her irate husband on their heels. When they reach Colbert’s Head, a promontory on the coastline, God intervenes, sending a seven day high tide that prevents Audrey’s husband from reaching her or Wilfred.

Sensing that the cards are against him, he wisely retreats and marries someone more willing. The story proceeds from there as above, with Audrey as abbess at Ely.

This story has a neat little twist at the end, though. During the reign of Henry I, the abbey at Ely was granted the right to hold a fair which began three days before Saint Audrey’s day and continued for seven days. For the most part, the fair participants sold cheap, trifling objects to the pilgrims visiting Audrey’s shrine, especially neckerchiefs, which is either very ironic or because the neckerchiefs were “blessed” to ward off growths of the neck. The result of this poor workmanship is the development of the word tawdry, a corruption of the words Saint Audrey.

Denise Domning's first medieval romance, Winter's Heat, received the Romantic Times award for Best First Historical Novel in 1994. Spring's Fury, Autumn's Flame, A Love for All Seasons were respectively nominated by Romantic Times for Best Medieval Novel in 1995, 1996 and 1997. Her first Elizabethan novel, Lady in Waiting, was recommended by Publisher's Weekly as well written and researched, with an accurate portrayal of Elizabeth I. Denise is currently co-authoring an autobiography with Monica Sarli about her life entitled No Regrets. Denise's website is www.DeniseDomning.com.

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