Playing video games, driving around the US, listening to podcasts all the time, chatting with artificial intelligence: these are some of the modern pleasures that were not only unknown to medieval humanity, but unimaginable. But medieval people were human after all, and as Terence said, more than a thousand years before their time: Man is ignorant, I am an alien. It’s a common mistake for us moderns to view distant times through our own standards and expectations, which doesn’t allow us to truly understand how their listeners lived and thought, but we can probably start with quite a bit of common ground: Medieval people liked sex and alcohol, too.
These are the points that medieval historians emphasized. Eleanor Janega These episodes of History Hits look at time-honored pleasures enjoyed by people from ancient times to the present day. While our image of medieval Europe may be one of a church-dominated, pleasure-free society, Janega, a sexuality historian, Kate Lister She points out that although religious precepts were strict regarding sex and other matters, many ignored them (and while they may not have had access to hot showers every day, they certainly cared more about their body odor than we might imagine). In any case, procreation is one thing; courtly or commercial love is quite another.
Billy Crystal famously joked that “women need a reason to have sex; men just need a place.” In the Middle Ages, place was an issue for women as well as men, and for nobles and commoners alike (though some royals did hang curtains around their four-poster beds for privacy). Finding a place to have a drink seemed a lot easier. Janega’s alcohol storyIn it, she visits some of the best examples of “humble pubs” where even medieval English people, before the invention of beer, would go to drink ale and tell their stories. This custom is so ingrained in the culture that The Canterbury TalesAs the pub owner interviewed put it, even if Chaucer invented English literature as we know it, we should keep in mind that sex did not begin with The Wife of Bath.
Related content:
How to make mead in the Middle Ages: A 13th century recipe
An animated guide to medieval taverns: learn the history of the rough-and-tumble taverns that were the ancestors of modern pubs
Medieval people slept not once but twice a night: how this lost custom was rediscovered
What was sex like in the Middle Ages? Historians examine how people had sex in the Dark Ages
Toilet systems in ancient Rome and medieval England
Based in Seoul, Colin MaOnershall Writing and broadcastingHe has written papers on cities, languages, and cultures, and his projects include the Substack newsletter. Books about cities And books A city without a state: Walking through 21st-century Los Angeles. Follow us on Twitter CollinhamOnershall or Facebook.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
