Chivalry Lives! Extreme Makeover: Medieval Edition
On Sunday, February 15, ABC aired and exceptionally moving episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The home of the Girard Family of Voluntown, Connecticut was destroyed by fire; and soon after, they lost the father and one son in a tragic drowning. In homage to the father who once embrace3d medieval chivalric codes, the Girard Family's new home would be a castle—literally!
Days of Wine and Olive Oil: The Templars and Their Viticulture
The Knights Templar and legendary for their fighting prowess as knights and their money-making skills as bankers, but no less important to the survival of the Order were their activities as farmer-monks.
Islamic Spain: Protector of Classical Greek Learning
Whe the Roman Empire collapsed in Europe, the writings of Plato, Aristole, and other major thinkers of classical Greece nearly vanished. With the Pax Romana no longer protecting scholars and priests, the literature of Europe's past became far less important than the day-to-day struggle for survival...
The Sterling Renaissance Festival
Beyond "Huzzah!"—Speaking Middle English
Your codpiece is firmly in place an you proudly parade your manly figure past the wenches and varlets and cast your gaze upon the denizens of the faire. A man approaches you and says, "milord" as he touches his forelock. You incline your head in lordly grace. You say little, for you can think of nothing beyond the occasional "huzzah" or a well-timed "come hither, wench." Perhaps it is time to move beyond "huzzah" and introduce some authentic Middle English or Elizabethan English into your speech.
Sordidous Scumme: Quackery in the Time of the Tudors
No Tudor market or fairground would be complete without its complement of quacks, those itinerant healers and performers who blended outrageous medical claims with madcap physical and verbal comedy. The seeds of the advertising, entertainment, and medical industries found fertile ground among what Elizabethan commentator John Oberndorf termed, "[these] abject and sordidous scumme and refuse of the people...slow-bellied monks, toothless and tattling old wives, chattering char-women, long-tongued mid-wives, dog leeches and such like baggage." |
