#twelfth century

[ardenrosegarden]

In December 1174, Henry signed the Treaty of Falaise with the humiliated William King of Scotland who had been captured at Alnwick. With Richard and Geoffrey witnesses to this treaty, he agreed that Henry was his feudal overlord. Geoffrey should have had more than a passing interest in this because William was his fiancee's uncle. Constance's mother Margaret, who had returned to England after Conan's death, had also been captured in 1174, and was imprisoned first at Portchester Castle, then at Rouen. Henry II must have wanted to keep her under his control by marrying her to one of his men, for in 1175, he married her to his constable Humphrey de Bohun. More than a decade later he would treat her daughter in the same way.

-Kathy Carter, Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, in History and Literature

[emmaklee]

Christ’s feet bleeding into a skull’s mouth

Alberto Sotio / 1187

[kill-your-poets]

Visiting the ruins of a XXIIth century Gothic abbey.

[vesseloftherevolution]

This reminds me of the Witches in Apuleius’ Metamorphosis or the Golden Ass

They transform into weasels and sneak into houses to eat the facial features of corpses for their magic power. It seems weasels are involved in the dark arts from the 2nd Century onwards. I’d have to check to see if necromantic weasels are a feature of Roman literature, or if it’s just Apuleius.

modern medieval fantasies don't have enough weasel-based necromancy

[coloursofunison]

Charters and Leofwine, Ealdorman of the Hwicce from c.993-1023. Re-sharing an old blog post about Leofwine I first wrote in 2014. It's a bit nerdy:)

Charters and Leofwine, Ealdorman of the Hwicce from c.993-1023. Re-sharing an old blog post about Leofwine I first wrote in 2014. It's a bit nerdy:)

I always think that the characters of Saxon England are a little too ethereal for people to really connect with.  I think it’s difficult to visualise life before the Norman Conquest, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. My current obsession, and victim of my historical fiction endeavours is Leofwine, Ealdorman of the Hwicce during the reign of Æthelred II, who I refuse to call ‘Unready’ because…

[werewolfetone]

Killing me actually that I've managed to get into a situation in my crusader kings game where northern ireland already exists

[williamedwardparry]

Twelfth-cake and riddles on HMS Erebus

A Twelfth Night celebration illustrated by Robert Seymour from The Book of Christmas (1836) by Thomas Kibble Hervey – note the cake in the left part of the picture and the cards in people's hands.

In his entry for January 6th, 1841 in his Antarctic-journal-slash-autobiography, Robert McCormick (who was surgeon on the Erebus on the Antarctic expedition) makes this reference to a Twelfth-cake eaten by the officers:

Wednesday, 6th. — Being Twelfth-night, all the officers took tea in the cabin with Captain Ross, and partook of a Twelfth-cake, which had been given him in a tin case, and was to have been opened on the 6th of January, 1840, but had been reserved for entering the ice. It was accompanied by the customary painted figures on paper and sugar, with enigmas to solve, which afforded us all some amusement and laughter; to aid which we had a glass of cherry brandy each.

(The age of the cake always surprised me a little, but apparently, according to the 19th century Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery, fruit cake “will improve with keeping – indeed, confectioners do not use their cakes until they have been made some months; and if a cake is cut into soon after it is made it will crumble.” (x))

I had no idea that “painted figures on paper and sugar” were a customary part of the Twelfth-cake tradition, so I had a poke around the web and was delighted to learn that Twelfth-cakes came with various figurines for decoration. They were made from moulded sugar paste, with some depicting people, some not.

In the Every-Day Book of William Hone (1827), Twelfth-cakes are described as decorated with “Stars, castles, kings, cottages, dragons, trees, fish, palaces, cats, dogs, churches, lions, milkmaids, knights, serpents, and innumerable other forms, in snow-white confectionery, painted with variegated colours”.

An advertisement for “well executed Twelfth-Night characters”, 1842 (The Australian). Queen Victoria’s Twelfth-cake, 1849 (ILN).

The Twelfth-cakes themselves were generally large, domed, and heavy, full of nuts, dried fruits, and spices. Hone, again, calls them “Dark with citron and plums and heavy as gold”. (A recipe from 1802 is available here, and one from 1830 here – the latter promises a cake 12-14 inches across.)

You could also buy sets of cards with Twelfth Night figures and riddles on them, which were sold in packs. In the late 18th century, it was customary for the party to draw lots with the cards – and whichever character a person was assigned, they would have to play until midnight.

An extant pack of Park's Twelfth-Night characters, 1843. (The Puzzle Museum)

The resolution on these is only just about legible, but here's a close-up of four of them and their solutions from the sheet:

Transcriptions: From left to right: SIR OLIVER OGLE. Why is a lover like a gooseberry? BETRICE BOUQUET. When is a cheese most like college? CHARLES CUTEMDOWN. Why are Jews at a feast like a brewer? PATTY PRIMROSE. Why is a dandy like a haunch of venison?

Solutions: He is easily made a fool of. / When it is eaten. [Eton] / He brews [Hebrews] drink here. / He is a bit of a buck.

———

Sources:

The Puzzle Museum https://www.puzzlemuseum.com/month/picm08/2008-04-parks.htm

The Dickens Museum blog https://dickensmuseum.com/blogs/charles-dickens-museum/dickens-and-the-spirit-of-twelfth-cake-past-by-pen-vogler

Elizabeth Gaskell House blog https://elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk/twelfth-night-cakes/

Sydney Living Museums blog https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/let-them-eat-fruit-cake/

Foods of England blog http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/twelfthcake.htm

Primary sources:

Hone, William, The Every-Day Book (1827) - Project Gutenberg

Kibble Hervey, Thomas, The Book of Christmas (1836) - Project Gutenberg

Kitchiner, William, The Cook's Oracle (1830) - Project Gutenberg

McCormick, Robert, Voyages of Discovery in the Arctic and Antarctic Seas (1884) - Hathi Trust

The Australian, January 8th, 1842 - Trove Newspaper Archive

Illustrated London News, 13th January 1849 - Hathi Trust

[suburbanbeatnik]

It's Christmas Eve, when King John was born in 1166. Happy birthday you magnificent bastard

Within his royal apartments, King John takes a moment to embrace his Welsh mistress, Helvie, after giving her a chaplet of roses. The next in the medieval series “The Disparaged Bride." 

[ardenrosegarden]

[feste-de-jester]

🃏 ⤷ Twelfth Night Characters, Lines and Scene Numbers

Thought this table was pretty cool, so I copied it up onto Google Sheets to post here! :)

(Sir Toby above everyone in BOTH his amount of lines and his amount of scenes...as he should be though to be fair, what a cool guy)

(also I linked the source I got it from in the ID! ✨)

[the-busy-ghost]

There are many reasons my interests are more geared towards mediaeval Scotland than mediaeval England, but at least one of them has to be the fact that I am completely incapable of Being Normal about the Lion in Winter and Shakespeare's second tetralogy.

[carpe-mamilia]

List 5 topics you can talk on for an hour without preparing any material.

I was tagged by @bunny-banana - thank you!

1. 19th century fashion. How it changed over time, the various layers and garments, how the industrial revolution changed manufacturing, the disappearance of regional fashions... God, Common Misconceptions alone would take more than an hour.

2. Detectorists. Beautiful, warm sitcom that explores friendship, disappointment, history, the relationship between people and landscapes. There's a very subtle mysticism all the way through and the music (by The Unthanks and Johnny Flynn) is glorious.

3. Sasha Regan's all-male Gilbert & Sullivan productions. They are SO GOOD OMG. Absolutely magical pieces of theatre: fluid, poignant, beautifully staged, very funny, very queer, gorgeously sung.

4. Fin-de-siècle gothic horror. Go on, ask me about invasion narratives, hypocrisy, and homosexuality in Dracula/ The Picture of Dorian Gray/ Jekyll & Hyde. I actually did an off-the-cuff mini lecture about queerness in Dracula once when we were doing a New Year's Eve party on zoom in 2020 as a forfeit. But I was pissed as a newt so I don't remember any of it.

5. Various poems by Philip Larkin - most specifically Church Going, An Arundel Tomb, and First Sight

Tagging @vinceaddams @mischieffoal @shimyereh @stoportotouch @hegodamask

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

i periodically test myself on the counties of ireland (just the names, not the locations, fuck remembering where offaly is) but there are always 2-3 i miss and it's a different 2-3 near enough every time. but today it's tyrone and carlow. why the fuck i can't remember those two specifically i dunno but hey

[coloursofunison]

Charters and Leofwine, Ealdorman of the Hwicce

I always think that the characters of Saxon England are a little too ethereal for people to really connect with.  I think it’s difficult to visualise life before the Norman Conquest, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. My current obsession, and victim of my historical fiction endeavours is Leofwine, Ealdorman of the Hwicce during the reign of Æthelred II, who I refuse to call ‘Unready’ because…

[ardenrosegarden]

This post is so funny.

[aq2003]

Do you mean it in the way that Malvolio is the most embarrassing character put in the most vulnerable position possible, and mr Tennant's gift for portraying naked vulnerability will make watching him do the part utterly unbearable, so that your teeth will ache and hair fall out from sheer record breaking amounts of believable cringefail? Then I agree.

yes anon i agree 100% like you know how tony baddingham makes you feel really bad for a second or seven because he's so unbelievably pathetic and he isn't loved back and people keep leaving him now imagine this but a million times worse because malvolio didn't really do anything that wrong but he is psychologically tortured for no reason anyways