… well, its closer to 22.000 when I write this, but it went so fast at the end there we didnt have time.
I never really thought that the blog would get this many clicks at all, even lesser in such a short time. But we said that if we got 20.000 hits we would do a video about something not very serious. And so we did.
So, here it is:
♦Ten ways to wear your hood!♦
Many of our readers are out and about in the woods themselves in your medieval gear. We all face the same problem eventually. How do I get all my my stuff with me?
I have said it before and I say it again. The medieval man was not the nature loving trekker we want her to be. You went into the wilds only when you had to. Even in Sweden, then a civilisation backwater, you had inns instated at least one day from each other. This was regulated by law. If this was not for some reason possible the villages where not that far-spread and you can often see one church from one parish to the other.
The hunt was probably mostly over the day, judging from the huntbook descriptions. Starting in the morning and finishing in the evening when you where back home, or possibly in a hunting lodge if it was a far removed hunting area. Most described hunts are from dawn to evening, when you return to your home. The woods where also home to trolls and werewolfs. Even if we scoff at these notions today, they where real fears for medieval man.
This means that they did not have the same need to lug a lot of gear around, and when they did it was often A LOT of it (meaning a sumpterhorse was needed). The reason I am addressing this is that many are translating their modern needs to a medieval environment. this usually means they want, or need, a rucksack or similar to carry their things in. This need was not as great for medieval man as her needs to carry a lot of stuff was not as big. Sleeping outdoors probably was very rare, and something that was avoided as much as possible. It is not unheard of though, but when its mentioned, for example in Decamerone, they just lay down on the ground. Henri de Ferriers is shown laying on some kind of straw-mat, but we don’t know if he is sleeping out or just resting.
Henri Ferrieres having a little laydown
So, the backpack, what about that?
Harvesting leeks in the 1390:ies
We can start by saying that a backpack is virtually unseen unless you are using it in work. For example people picking grapes use a wicker basket on their backs for the grapes. Quarry-workers also have similar, or people having a need to transport things on a workplace. These wicker-baskets are mostly seen when you are transporting different wares or when harvesting. Also, some do not use two straps, but one horisontal, carrying the bag with the chest more then the shoulders. Of course these COULD have been used to carry things further. For example if you have to carry things out into the wild, it is possible even if we have not seen this on pictures, and If there are these baskets around, you would use it. They seem to be a popular way to transport goods.
The Martebo sack.
On the church of Martebo on Gotland, Sweden, we see a woman carrying things as she is wandering. She probably utilises a double sack, one that has two compartments and an opening in the middle. It is possible, although not likely, that it is a regular sack-, but the lack of a visible closing makes the first option more probable. This sort of bag appears to be both rather simple and common as it is seen in many other places too. It can be carried over the shoulder or used for sumpterhorses.
I have been using this kind of bag for several years and it is quite possible to walk long distances with it loaded with the necessities needed. You might need to change shoulders now and then to distribute the burden. It is not as comfortable as a backpack, but its working and it is also easy to use with a horse.
The sack carried by me
the same sack, carried by a sumpterhorse
Of course, having a horse in medieval times is like having a car now. Most that actually where travelling around had a horse and they came as expensive as sin for a combat-trained stallion, destrier, or rather cheap for the lowest quality nag, one step away from the glue factory (or the dinner table if this was vikingtimes). Using a horse is a great way to get your stuff moved about, if you like to see the use of sumpterhorses I recommend this video of a medieval pilgrimage I did, where sumpterhorses was put to good use.
Another way to use this bag is seen on some pilgrims in 15:th Century. They have made a hole straight through the bag and thus are able to carry it more evenly distributed on the shoulders. You can also see bags carried around their waists. Thos probably is shoulder bags worn like this. Talking about that.. lets have a look at…
Shoulderbags
Shoulderbags are mostly seen on pilgrims. They are so much associated with pilgrims that they are a part of what identifies a pilgrim (the bag, and staff are often used as symbols for pilgrims). Pilgrims are of course the very example of medieval people that are travelling. But they are also in a way very non-representative for medieval travellers. Being a pilgrim means that you are supposed to rely on God and the kindness of others to get along. So all you needed was your bowl, spoon and a canteen of water.
So, did others use shoulderbags, the ones we also call pilgrimbags? There is scarce evidence of anyone else then pilgrims using them. Why this is is hard to know. Perhaps the need was not big as they did not have a lot of things with them. But we can almost be assured that they had something to eat on long walks. Perhaps some coldcuts to nibble on between the inns. But we don’t know in what they carried this. I can not in good conscious say that shoulderbags was in good use by all, but to me it seems plausible if you had things you needed to bring.
pilgrimsbag, leather
There is also a ongoing discussion (I can say this knowing that even if this article is read in two or three years from now, it will still be discussed…) if these bags are in leather or textile. If they are lined or not. No preserved pilgrimbags are known and in pictures they come in different colours. This can mean that it is textile, or that is dyed leather. I for one Think that they where common enough to probably have been made in both textile and leather. Lining of the bags is not easy to know. There are other bags and pouches that have linings, and using textile inserts in beltbags is not uncommon. Again, we do not know and both having and not having a lining seems plausible.
Bundle it up
You can also just fold everything into your blanket and tie it up nice and tight. This is sometimes seen when medieval man is packing up trade items. I guess there is nothing really stopping you from doing the same with your personal stuff.
Bundled up trade goods
final thoughts
So, we probably have more needs then medieval man had when we are out. Sleeping outdoors is something we can quite enjoy when it was something to avoid for them. If they had to they mostly probably just slept under a tree with the cloak for blanket. But hopefully you have gotten some ideas about how to lug around your gear in a probable medieval way.
I myself mostly use the double carry sack (Martebo sack) when I need a full overnight kit, as these seems to be the most common pack of people travelling in the 14:th century. I have been walking days with it and it is not that uncomfortable, once you get used to it.
For dayoutings a pilgrimbag is all that is needed. Sometimes I tie an extra cotte to the bagstrap if I think it might be needed. All I carry then is some cheese and wine and maybe a sausage for lunch. And a little bowl if I feel abit fancy.
Extra cotte strapped to the shoulder-strap of the bag
/Johan
We like to keep active the year around, and in Sweden we have the saying “there is no bad weather, just bad clothing”. To know how to dress in cold climate and what will keep you warm and why, that is the key. This article will be about HOW to keep warm, not just how the medieval people did it, but general tricks about how to be outdoorsy in medieval clothing. In the middle ages people where out and about in wintertime. These days we often think of winter as a troublesome time of year. But the medieval person did not really share this and in Sweden winter was a preferred time of travel.
Hålväg, Medieval road in Sweden. Eriksgata, Sandhem
The medieval ‘roads’ up here through the great forests where nothing more than tracks. Mostly orientated to the high ridges as to not become rivers in periods of heavy rain. Most modern hikingtracks are bigger then medieval roads. Keeping to high ground also meant that the meandering roads had alot of ups and downs. In wintertime the landscape was completely different. The frozen rivers and lakes became virtual highways. Flat, straight surfaces to use sleighs or to ski on and most places where situated along water and easy to get to. In old itineraries (descriptions of how to travel. the forerunners of maps) you often see two sets of descriptions, winter road and summer road. The winter road is always about one to two thirds faster. When the swedes themselves could choose, they also liked to wage war in winter. In winter the farmers was not needed to tend crops and where free to go to war in another way. (Swedish army was based on the levy of farmers. Well equipped and free men with regulated service to the crown).
What keeps you warm?
There is basically two things that makes you warm. Activity, making your body generate heat, and air, that insulate from the outside cold.
What makes you cold?
You mostly get cold from being wet. As the moist evaporates from your body it cools it. You also get cold from the wind blowing away the air that the body have heated.
Being rugged
Humans are capable of getting used to highly uncomfortable situations. Our threshold for what constitutes as to uncomfortable versus just abit annoying can be pushed and is all a matter of what you are used to (as everyone that has spent time in the military is aware of). I guess that living a simpler life more in tune with weather and nature would make you less whiny. It is possible medieval folks was willing to accept a little more discomfort than a normal modern city-dweller. In a way this article shows abit of what I mean
Being out and about in wintertime is actually not very cold in many ways. Walking in winter is making your body produce its own heat and generally it is enough wearing two cottes. The clothing should be airy, as it is the air that your body warms that will keep you warm, not the thickness of your garment. A airy garment that will ‘trap’ air will keep you warmer than a garment made just of thick cloth and slimmed around you. The outermost garment can be of a closer weave, or fullered as this will keep the wind out. The wind will blow “through” more open weaves and hence take all that cosy warmness with it. I usually have two or three cottes, depending on wind, cold, and the amount of work I think I will do. This brings us to…
Adjust the clothing to the activity
Actually one of the more common reasons people are getting cold is because they are wearing to much while being active. This makes them sweat and thus wet. When being active, that is walking, you need to regulate your clothes. Being to lazy to do this WILL punish you. When you get hot, remove clothing. As soon as you stop for longer than five to ten minutes, you will need to strengthen your clothing to preserve the heat generated. A coat or a cloak will be good for this. Many will feel to tired to root out a coat for what they think is a short break. Don’t be that person. Getting cold means loosing energy, so you will only get more tired the colder you get.
Don’t stand in the snow
branches is a good way to isolate from cold
Especially with medieval leathersoled shoes you need to insulate yourself from the groundcold. If you are standing in one place for a bit longer, kick the snow away, or compact it so your feet are not covered in snow. Use branches, fir preferably, and make a little heap to stand on. This will reduce the cold from the ground you are exposed to when standing still. (Also, to state the obvious, don’t sit in the snow.)
Your built in furnace
Heat is energy. To produce energy your body needs fuel. You need to eat regularly and drink more then you think. If your belly is full you will have fuel to burn. Technically it takes energy to heat and to cool food to body temperature so eating hot food is in a way a energyloss (lukewarm food and drink being the most efficient) but the psychological effect of having warmth spreading from inside is often more desired.
Cold feet but a hot head?
The body, as we now know produces heat. But it does so to keep you functioning. Thus it will prioritize keeping the parts of the body hot that is essential. This is firstly the head where your brain resides, and the torso, where your vital organs are. Extremities are not considered vital for your lifesupport. This will mean that if the head is not warm enough, the body will start to redirect heat (blood-flow mostly) from the extremities. Your feet first and then hands and working its way inwards progressively. Helping the head to keep warm will in essence help you to keep your feet warm. The body will not have to prioritize heating the head. So, you will feel cold in your feet, but not your head, because the head is getting the heat from your feet. Warming the head will let the feet keep their allotted warmth.
The little trick
The body have ventilation-points. The most used ones are located on your wrists, your neck, your temples and the jugulum (the hollow where the collarbones meet). As people in hot climates know, pressing cool clothes at these area will cool you down efficiently. The same goes with warmth. It is efficient to warm, that is cover, these and thus reducing the ventilation.
Get the snow off
Snow that falls on you, either from the clouds or from branches dumping their load, should be brushed off straight away. The snow in it self is cooling and it will also make you wet when it melts from your body heat. Help each other out and brush off snow that the other can not see. This is equally important with your shoes, pick out lumps of snow that has ventured inside them.
The materials
Materials in the clothing is a vital part. It all comes down to getting wet again. You will get wet, no matter how you act and how the materials in your clothes react when wet is vital.
double pair of wool hosen. I never needed more than this
You want to have wool. Wool have several features that makes it a very good material.It has a natural fat (these days often washed out, but it can be refatted) called lanolin. This makes it naturally water resistant. Wool is also able to soak up as much as 30 percent of its own weight in moisture without feeling wet. When it gets wet, it channels the wet to its lowpoints making the hems of the garment heavy with water, but the upper parts almost dry in comparison. Also, and this is the most awesome part, wool warms you when it is wet also (!). In comparison cotton is about 150 times more cooling when wet then when dry. Now, the most amazing part… Wool fibres are made up of cortical cells, and these cells are wrapped in cuticle. This scaly outer layer is then covered by yet another layer, the epicuticle — a filmy skin that helps to repel moisture. What’s more, the epicuticle also helps out in high humidity because it has tiny pores that draw in the moisture vapour to the centre of the fibre where it’s absorbed by a chemical process. The hydrogen bond of water, H2O, is actually broken, creating a chemical reaction with the wool fibre molecules to generate heat when it has taken on a lot of moisture. (taken from how stuff works). If wool is also fulled (hard felted), it repells water even better, but looses some of its ability to bind air. But this is countered by….
The use of layers
Emil showing Three cottes in layers
To trap air and keep warm, and also to be able to easily regulate your clothing to your activity (as covered above) you use layers of clothing. Ultimately you have a thinner closest to your body (I generally don’t use linen shirts at all in the wintertime as they just get wet and don’t have the moisture retaining quality of wool). Over this you have a more loosely woven woollen cotte, also loose in it’s cut, to trap air warmed by your body. Over this you use a fullered cotte to resist the weather and also to keep the wind out. When standing still you have a coat or a cape to reinforce the layers of trapped air. Another way of layering is….
*
*
Lining your garments
Furlined coat on Sofia, showing the typical medieval furpattern
Lining your garments allows you to combine two garments essentially. You can create a pocket between them making it two cottes in one, but you can also line with fur. Fur needs no closer explanation really.. It is vastly superior in binding air. Some fur even has hollow strands and will be very hot indeed (reindeer for example, has hollow hairs that allows you to sleep directly on ice on a fleece). In medieval times there are nothing in pictures pointing towards the wearing of fur with the hairs out. When this is seen on paintings it always shows heathens, or wild men. Those that are not part of the culture and the ones you define yourself as not being. Eva Andersson, dresshistorian with special edge towards medieval clothes, have seen some evidence of this in the north though. There are examples, both written and in pictures, of lining your clothes with fur. But as there is mentionings of bear it is possible that this was worn as a “fur outward” coat, as it is a fur that is very heavy, thick and hard to line a garment with. This might also apply to wolf (depending on witch part of the wolf is used). You had to be a bit careful though, as it was thought that you could emulate the characteristics of some animals via some kind of fashion osmosis. Lining with another layer of wool, or preferably, with fur is a very good and medieval way to keep warm. Note that this refers to cottes and hoods, I have yet to see evidence of furlined hosen or shoes.
What fur was used?
The aforementioned Eva Andersson have been looking at medieval testaments in regard to clothes. According to her squirrel is the most common but marten gains popularity in 15:th cent. amongst the burgers lamb/sheep was popular and also rabbit, ferret (polecat) otter, wolf, reindeer and bear are mentioned in some cases. (På svenska; ekorre, mård, lamm/får, kanin, iller, utter, varg, ren och björn.) Edward Of Norwich, in Master of game, say that wolf is good to use in cuffs, or pelisses. For this, especially ‘cuffs’ he also recommends fox.
Some need no extra fur
(Check out “Clothing and textile materials in medieval Sweden and Norway ” in Medieval clothing and textiles. Vol. 9 edited by Robin Netherton and Gale R. Owen-Crocker., pp. 97-120 for more extensive info here)
So, lets take a look on how medieval people might have tackled the above problems and solutions.
Cottes
As we already covered in the ‘layering’ part. you will get along splendidly with just some extra cottes. Two or three is usually enough up to -15C or even -20C . Just think about not having to tight clothing. And Wool. Always wool.
Hood
Furlined hood, your friend in the snow
The hood is very popular and is excellent in some ways. The collar of the hood keeps the bodyheat that raises from the body, and collects it. The hood in it self is covering the ventilationpoints in the temple, the neck and the jugulum. The hood also keeps the air warmed of the head in close proximity to the face, so the wind don’t blow it away. When worn with a cloak or coat, it seems that it is common to have the collar of the hood inside the coat.
Shoes
regular medieval shoes
So far I have seen no evidence of any special ‘wintershoes’. The thing that is needed by shoes in winter is that they are big enough to make room for socks and extra hosen. There is some evidence that higher boots might have been of this kind, that is bigger to allow the use of socks. There is no difference in the feet as opposed to the body in regards to what makes you freeze. Trap air and keep dry. if there is dry snow, as it is when its more then -2 C you can actually just use several socks, without a shoe. The key is not to cram socks into a shoe that is not made for it. This will only compress the sock and make the air it is able to hold less. It will also press on your foot and reduce the bloodflow thought it. This will also make the foot cold as bloodflow is vital to keep warm. A well greased up shoe will, of course, keep water out better (I usually make a shoefat of sheepstallow, beeswax and tar) but if it is wet out, the shoe will get wet sooner or later.
Shoestuffing
Stuffing materials into the shoes to isolate from the cold is also a method that was used. One of our readers, Nicolas Hofbauer, pointed us to a german poem from 13th century; “Meier Helmbrecht” where there are peasants mentioned “who dance so wildly that the straw comes flying out of their boots”. We also know of ‘bootstraw’ from later times. There is even a grass here in Sweden called ‘shoegrass’.
There are finds of wool thats seems to have been stuffed loosely into the shoes and then felted together in the shape of the shoe (they have found the felted wool).
Socks
Socks are in use for reinforcing the feet. These are made with naalbinding, knitting is not used in Europe at any bigger extent at this time. The knitted socks that are in existence seems to be very fine and for the very top classes of society. Naalbinding is a very old technique and seems to have been used throughout the viking- and medieval age. To get to know more about naalbinding you can follow this link. Also there is some suggestions of sewn socks that are shorter then normal hosen.
a Naalbound sock, probably medieval
Footwraps
The Bockstens man, one of few full medieval clothes ensable that have been found from 14th century, wore patches of cloth, footwraps, (fotlappar in Swedish) that was made from old used clothing and then cut into squares and wrapped around the foot. He used three to six wraps.
* Gloves
Naalbound glove, Lund, Oslostitch. Around 14:th cent
of all kinds was in use. Either five fingered or threefingered of thumbed. The threefinger glove seems to be more common on males then females. The materials are probably cloth, naalbinding and some in leather. The leathergloves are often interpreted as workgloves. There are some gloves that show signs of fur lining, but these are rare.
Threefinger gloves, one show signs of fur inside
Two gloves, one felted
Coats
Bigger coats are great for when you stop to rest. Testaments (wills) shows that these are inherited between sexes. This might show that men and women alike could use them, or just that they where deemed valuable. Many coats have a slit in the arms, allowing you to stick the arm out if it becomes to bulky. Coats are often better then cloaks as they don’t open themselves and let the air out when you move.
Heavily fullered coat lined with fur
Cloaks
Cloaked men from MSBod 264
Cloaks are maybe not as popular as coats in the 14:th Century. But they are used in rough and wet weather. Most common is to wear it buttoned on one shoulder and seldom longer than below the knee.
The shepherds hood
This hood is often shown on shepherds. it is a hood with a longer collar to it. almost as a short cape. They usually are as long as to go to the wrists of the hands. Our friend Vix have written an extensive article about these cloaks that you can read here.
Water
Although snow is water of a sort it is not always suitable for drinking. First of all, it cools you, and secondly its dry and don’t quench the thirst as good. For cooking, snow is excellent though, so there is no lack of water when in camp where there is snow. One problem that we have encountered is that the water in the leather canteens freeze. This results in that some of the canteens, that use a cork, was frozen shut and could not be opened at all. The one using a wooden plug could be pried open and the layer of ice that had formed inside hacked through with a dagger to get some drinking water. with modern bottles you usually carry them inside the clothes to keep them from freezing, but as almost no leathercosterel is safe from leaking, this is not recommended with them.
Picture by Sofia Stenler
This article builds heavily on years of experience. the theoretical parts comes mostly from survival-courses in the Swedish army, coupled with books on the subject by Lars Fält (founder of Swedish Army survival School and internationally recognised survival expert). For the reconstructing we do as always, look at period text and pictures and go from there (our methods can bee seen more in Four grey hunters and Can I wear this? ) To conclude this article though;
Also eat and drink and.. be happy. Its always easier if you have a cheerful attitude instead of starting a negative spiral. /Johan
It is now time to take a look on what tools was thought to be needed for handling the dogs during the middleages. This article will concern mostly late 14:th and early 15:th century, but some offshoots might occur to other times. Like always we lean heavily, or maybe all on, the tools used in the hunt. We will use archaeological finds, textual evidence, illuminations and sculptures to get into the nuts and bolts of the medieval doghandlingtools and how they where used. Words and meanings of expressions you can get an explanation to in the article about the medieval dog, here. The use of the words ‘dog’ and ‘hound’ is here used in the medieval way, where there was no bigger distinction between the two. The both meant rather the same back then.
Berners with lists of dognames to memorize, being instructed by Gaston Phoebus
The man handling the dogs where called a ‘berner’ or ‘Valet de chiens’. If he was the one using a limer he was reffered to as ‘lymerer’. The berner in charge of greyhounds was sometimes called a ‘feweter’ or ‘veltrahus’ in gallo-latin. Needless to say, doghandling was something that was though of as a craft. The doghandlers where supposed to memorise the names and characteristics of the dogs, hear in the way they bayed if they where on the track, had lost track, or where standing the game.
A copper ornament from Waterford, Ireland. A dogcollar from 12:th cent, probably riveted onto leather
The collars of the middleages where sometimes highly decorated. Showing the high value you put on the dog. The more run of the mill collars where simpler, but it seems that leather and textile are the most common. There are also special collars for different purposes.
♦ Regular collars
In illuminations (medieval book illustrations) most collars are red with golden studs. Some blue, black and one or two green also appears. Most probable these are made out of leather, but some might as well be textile. Most seem to be of the non choke kind, and uses one buckle to close it.
Other kinds of collars seems to use two buckles and a swivel for the leash between them. finds of the buckles and swivels are sometimes made. They can also be seen on illuminations and paintings.
double buckle with swivel. England
In Q. R. Wardrobe Ace. for 1400 is mentioned “2 collars for greyhounds (kverer) le tissue white and green with letters and silver turrets.” also, one of ” soy chekerey vert
et noir avec le tret (? turret) letters and bells of silver gin.” in Expanses of Queen Mary is also mentioned ” Dog collors of crymson vellat with vi lyhams of white leather.”
the Collar described in Queen Annes expenses interpreted by the author
♦ Wolfcollars
Wolfcollars are collars with big spikes protruding from them.
Wolfcollar of unknown date. resembles ones in illuminations.
The purpose of these are that the wolf should not be able to close its jaws over the throat/neck of the dog. The spikes do not have to be sharp for this, but many wolfcollars have very sharp spikes indeed. These collars was worn by dogs hunting wolf. Also, and maybe more common, they are worn by dogs guarding cattle or sheep against wolves.
Some common wolfcollar seems to have been made of linked metal-chains with spikes. These may, or may not have been backed by leather.
Collar from Vendel in sweden. Possibly a wolfcollar, the spikes have eroded somewhat. early vikingage
Others seems to have the spikes fastened on a leather or textile collar. I choose to make one of the leather versions, backed with several layers of canvas. To stop the spikes from being pushed backwards and chafing the neck the canvas was stitched in ‘compartments’ around the spikes. The spikes themselves are roughly forged on just an anvil and have large flat heads.
Boudica wearing a wolfcollar of the leathertype
Leathertype wolfcollar, livre de chasse
♦ Mail/scales collar?
There is some uncertainty around the use of mailcollars to protect the dogs. These would predominantly have been used in boarbaiting I am guessing. There are some pictorial evidence that might suggest mailcollars or collars of scales.
Alaunt with scale collar?
Possible mailcollar in the morgan library Livre de chasse
They are portrayed on alaunt and mastiff like hounds and therefore hounds that would have been used for boarbaiting. But I have not seen any mentioning of them in text. As all sorts of hounds could be used in boarhunting, my guess is all kinds of dogs could wear them.
Boudica wearing her mailcollar of riveted round rings
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leash hanging from horn
The need of holding on to the dog has been ever present. The leash was mostly of two kinds, the couple and the liam. When the leash was not in use it was commonly hung on the arm, or in some cases the huntinghorn, or tucked into the belt.
♦ Limes
A liam, lyome, or fyame, is an old Word for leash. It could be made of silk or leather, Edward of Norwich informs us that the best lyams are made of White (tanned with fat, tawed) horseleather. The ‘race’ lymer gets its name from being used on a lyme.
In ‘Expenses of Mary’ we read about of ” A lyame of White silk with collar of white vellat embrawdered with perles, the swivell of silver.” ” Dog collors of crymson vellat with vi lyhams of white leather.” ” A Heme of grene and white silke.” ” Three lyames and colors with tirrett of silver”
according to Master of Game: “and the rope of a limer three fathoms and a half, be he ever so wise a limer it sufficeth. The which rope should be made of leather of a horse
skin well tawed. “
A hound was said to carry his liam well when he just kept it at proper tension, not straining it.
♦ Couples
Sometimes the dogs where leashed together two by two.
Edward has some smart advice about how a couple should be fashioned: “And also he (the boy who cares for the dogs) should be taught to spin horse hair to make couples for the hounds, which should be made of a horse tail or a mare’s tail, for they are best and last longer than if they were of hemp or of wool. And the length of the hounds’ couples between the hounds should be a foot .” It seems this is mostly used on raches.
♦ Ropes
Ordinary ropes, or at least what looks like ropes, is seen quite alot in the illuminations.
While it is possible these are made of horsehair, silk and all the other suggestions and recommendations, I find it rather believable that some are of ordinary hemp. As Edwards say that hemp is not as good as the others, it is a indication towards hemprope being used. Linen might of course be used as well, but all that has used linen ropes know how hard a knot is to get loose if it gets wet….
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The use of leash and collar is similar to those use today, but there are some tricks of the trade they medieval berner used.
♦ Twisting around the arm
Hunter from Castello Buonconsiglio,1410, with the leash around his upper arm.
To have the use of the hands free it is common to see Berners twisting the leash around their upper arms a couple of turns, thus gaining the use of the hands to carry things in or handling things with. It keeps the dogs safely secured and even big dogs are rather easy to handle in this way. It is a smart way to keep the use of the hands free while having a leashed hound. This technique also seems popular when you double the leash up.
♦ Coupling up
Often you see dogs, especially Raches coupled up. this was done by putting a leash between two dogs. Coupled up dogs could be gathered up together in a hardle, consisting of 8 dogs. When set on the game they where then usually uncoupled, although one sees still coupled dogs running after prey in illuminations.
“And because a man cannot come nigh him with a lymer, it is good to uncouple the hounds, for the hounds will get nigh them quicker”
There is some thoughts about that a ‘firm’ older dog was coupled with a more inexperienced young dog, hence making a sort of Learning Couples.
♦ Removing the collar
Removing the collar when releasing the hounds seems to be fairly common. You see dogs released on the prey without collars, and also berners (doghandlers) with several collars hanging from their arm. Maybe this was done to lessen the risk of the dog getting caught in the under-brush.
removing collars on release
Berner with collars hanging from the arm
♦ Doubling the rope
Pulling the rope through the ring in the collar and then back to the hand, thus doubling is not that common, but it does exist and it is a very good way to hold a dog when you are about to slip it. It is harder to hold it firm when the dog pulls though as dropping one end of it will make it run trough and the dog bolting. Thus it is mostly used with tying one end to the arm.
A hunter from 1455, doubling up the rope to two dogs.
Veltrahus from Ucellos ‘the night hunt’ 1470, the leash tied to his arm and doubled through the collar.
a swivel to connect the rope to
When you have a leash, and a collar, there comes a point when you need to connect the two to each other. The most common way seems to be to a ring at the collar. This is often attached directly at the collar. Sometimes it is set in the space between the ends of the collar. But the way to connect the rope to this ring or swivel is not always that easy to figure out.
♦ The screw
Bells or screws?
There is some thoughts about the use of a kind of metalscrew. I have not seen any conclusive evidence on this, and I have read nothing about anything similar. There is, for example a picture in the Luttrel psalter that some say shows this screw-connection, but to be honest, it can just as well show bells on the dogs collars
I decided to make one anyway, just to try if it was actually any good. My experience is that it had a tendency to unscrew, leaving the dog all of a sudden plodding along on its own. This kind of undermines the whole business of leashing the hound. It is also often faster to just tie the rope or remove the collar.
♦ Permanent attachment
Limer with leash that is not tied
Limer with what seems like a leash ending in a ring that connects to the collars ring
There are some illuminations that seems to show that the leash is just permanently attached to the collar. There is no need to actually be able to untie for example a lymer, if it is always held on a leash when out. Also, as it seems fairly common to remove the collar on release the need to remove the leash is little in those cases to.
♦ Tying
Probably the most common, and also the one I found works best. It could be a bit of a bother to get off fast, but if that is not really needed, then it works well. This is the solution I mostly use myself.
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Study, early 15:th cent
Lovely study of a muzzle 1420-1450, italian, Antonio di Puccio
These seems to be of the same type mostly, they all consists of leather straps holding the snout closed. I have seen none that uses a basket over the mouth.
Evidently mostly dogs that might have a tendency to bite had these, alaunts being treated to a muzzled more often.
The berner is often shown carrying a stick. Sometimes you are also advised to cut a stick or a switch. This was a stick used to punish and chaste the dog. You beat the dog if it did wrong, or if it did something you wanted it to stop with, for example if you wanted it to stop biting/eating the prey after catch. In Tristan and Isolde they also say they beat the dogs on the paws with hazelswitches to get them excited before the hunt.
Beating the dog is a brutal and not very efficient way of training dogs that Exploring the medieval hunt does not condone. It is a savage custom that unfortunately still is used by some. In the medieval days it was an accepted practice though, and even beating the young boys who where serving at the kennels was recommended.
Do not beat your dogs.
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The dogs in armour always provoke the imagination of us modern people to run wild. There is little written proof of the armoured dogs, in the most common huntbooks it is not mentioned at all. There are pictures of it though. We see dogs hunting boars in Spain wearing them and also on tapesteries hunting bear. The use of armour would be when hunting prey that would be dangerous to the dogs, mainly bear and boar. Technically the antlers of a hart would be just as, of not more fatal, but it seems one did not use armour here. This is probably because of the speed-reduction it would impede on the dog during the chase. Boars and bears are not as fast and therefore one could afford swapping speed for protection.
Dogs hunting boar in Armour, Liberia de Monteria
Dog hunting a bear, in the Devonshire hunting tapestry. Possibly in textile armour? Judging from the lines that gives a gambeson like look
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Taymouth hours
The use of bells on the collars for the dogs might have been purely decoration, or it had the purpose of making the movements of the dog easier to follow when it is running around.
The bell seems to have been attached either on the collar, or at the end, on the strapend.
This article have been browsing the tools of the doghandler. It is our hope it will awaken your slumbering researchspirits and make you throw yourself out into the world looking att stuff. We hope it has pointed out some things one can look at, and maybe help you interpret what you see on pictures and in artefacts on museums.
Even if this article has had quite alot of pictures, there are still more collected in our FB-album. If you like to see more pictures of dogs and doghandling tools, I recommend that. You find it here
If you like to see recreated dogcollars we made, you can find them in our other FB-album; here
/Johan
Yesterday I woke up to a snow white landscape. I knew it would be one of those precious winter outings, my favourite. All seasons in the woods have their charm and beauty, but I have come to especially like cold weather because of how snow and ice really puts my kit and my skills to the test. I like to use my gear in different weather conditions to see if my craft and gear hold water, sometimes quite literally.
This was not only our first outing in snow for a long good while and Basilards first one ever. It was also première for our new grey kirtles, the winter clothing for hunters as recommended by Gaston Phoebus.
We had a heavy snowfall the day before but it was not very cold, just about -5°C/23°F. That means cold enough for nice dry snow, but not so cold it hurts if you dress accordingly. Dry snow is lovely to be out in, but wet snow can be difficult. Thaw is soon absorbed by our thin leather shoes and becomes freezing water. It makes your hose soggy and your feet hurt with cold until they numb. After some time walking in this state of misery, the damp permanently damages the shoes as well.
Dry feet in dry snow.
You can never know if the weather will change when you are out, so I always grease my boots the day before a planned outing and it helps a little. As long as you keep moving it is usually alright, but even in dry snow our shoes absorb some water after a while. The thin leather sole is then half frozen, constantly warmed by the foot and cooled by contact with the ground. This gives you a better grip than you might expect if you are used to walking in rubber soled shoes on ice.
Boots with many buckles like mine are not the most common ones in period pictures. When they appear they seem to be worn only by the most wealthy in society. I had mine made for me three years ago after archaeological findings of shoes from 14th century Stockholm. I too feel that they are a bit luxurious, but usually I’m very happy with them.
Before.
After!
However, on previous winter outings I’ve sometimes had trouble with snow getting trapped in the shaft and slowly melting there to my discomfort. It happens when the shaft is too low or not tight enough around the ankle. Recently I had a friend who is a really good shoemaker help me put on an extra pair of buckles to solve the problem. It worked out very well, kept the snow at bay and I think it looks great. Thank you Sofia!
I had been looking forward to this outing for some time, longing for snow. Now I plunged my way through it with childish delight and Basilard seemed to enjoy it as well. He was on his best behaivour all day, but I doubt he has ever seen so much snow. This was really good training for him and I’m glad that he goes so well together with Johans Boudica.
The forest was so heavy with snow on some places that young trees arched down over the track just like the ceiling in a gothic cathedral. Stunningly beautiful, but also treacherous as the forest dropped little icy surprices over us when you expect it the least…
Fur lined hood makes one happy hunter.
Both Johan and I had put on our hoods lined with rabbit fur for this occasion and agreed that it is the best winter garment you can get. It is easy to regulate the warmth by pulling the hood up or down and it protects your neck from snow dropping from the trees. The fur gives you that instant warm fuzzy feeling that makes you all glad when your ears are nippy.
Except for my hood for warmth I also wore fur lined mittens and three layers of wool kyrtils. The most thin and soft one closest to the skin to keep me dry and then increasingly more thick and coarse fabrics on top to keep the snow out. The new grey kirtle got heavily felted when I dyed it and turned out almost water-proof. The massive width makes it drape nicely and the folds of the fabric make little pockets of air, soon warmed by the body. I didn’t freeze one bit.
Johan was happy with the extra long sleeves on his new kirtle. Gloves and mittens are sometimes a bother when you are out and about, holding horns and spears and dogs and whatnot. But folded down, the sleeves keep the warmth around the hands even without gloves, and you will not likely loose them in the snow.
We stopped for a light meal as usual, but this time we skipped making
a fire. We were both warm enough anyway and most wood was deep frozen. If there had been a need for it, we could probably have found usable branches up under firtrees, but we didn’t feel the need to scavenge half an hour for it. Instead we gave the sausages meant for cooking to two very happy dogs and just had the wine and cheese for ourselves.
The tracks we saw told us that we were alone in the woods that day, apart from its inhabitants of wild boar, hare and roe deer. All in all, it was a lovely day out.
Want to see more? Check out our FB-album.
/ Emil
As soon as you talk about dogs or hounds whit someone that has an ‘old breed’ you will hear that it goes back into medieval times or longer.
This might very well be true, or not true at all. Dogbreeds as we see them is a relatively new thing, they hail mostly from the 19:th century, with some breeds getting bred in a ‘modern way’ already in 18:th cent. Earlier, and especially in medieval times, they had a much wider definition of ‘breeds’ if you could even call it breeds, they are more a family of dogs, with some subfamilies, maybe.
Dogs where breed for a purpose mostly. The thought of connecting a certain look to that purpose is a not new one in breeding though. Breeding for purpose will give a certain look of course. But just because there was a ‘mountainregion X sheephound’ and there is a dog breed called the same now, doesn’t mean it is the same looking breed as 700 years ago. It just means a shepherdsdog that is in use in the region.
So, what DO we know about the medieval dog?
Les très riches heures du Duc de Berry, Lymer, raches and greyhounds at the curre
They are described in the huntbooks and there is quite a lot of dogs depicted in art and literature. Most look like a middle-range dog with floppy ears, a bit like a golden or labrador maybe. Most are short-hairs and they have a wide range of colours.
The dogs where often handled by doghandlers, valet de chiens, or berners, as they where commonly called.
This article will just deal with the types of dogs, the relation between dog and man, the actual doghandling and the Equipment around the dog will have to wait until a later article.
Lymers
The lymer was a scent-hound that was used to locate the prey. They where trained to be silent and was held on a leash, lyme. One could maybe compare these with the more modern bloodhound. When the game was moved the raches was released after it and the job of the lymer was essentially done. But it was advised to let the lymer run along after the pack. If the pack lost the track of the game the lymer could be brought up to help recover it.
The Lymer was to be rewarded with the head of the animal at the curré, the fleshing of the hounds when they got rewarded after the hunt. The lymer was not considered a ‘breed’ as such, but some breeds would produce better limers then others (probobly Greyhounds did not become good limers…)
Raches
The name raches probably comes from the old norse word ‘racki’, a word for dog. It is still in use but these days more used derogatory like ‘mutt’.
Phoebus ranks the running hound highest as he saw them as having unique qualities. These are the hounds of the pack. They are released after the prey and chase it by scent and sight. They are often a driving dog that drives and exhaust the game with barks. They where preferable set out in packs of twelve or twenty-four. “the more hounds, the merrier the music they make” as Edward so eloquently puts it. They where often leashed together two and two, coupled up, or released completely. when let loose it seems common to take the collars of altogether. One often see the berner with several collars hanging over his arm. Possibly this was done so the hounds would not catch in the vegetation and get stuck. The raches was not allowed to change game during the hunt but was made to keep to the one that was appointed as prey.
These hounds are almost always shown as smaller to mid-size dogs with hanging ear, spotted or plain with short hair coats.
There are some subgroups mentioned here such as ‘kennets’, smaller dogs, Harthounds, that excelled in hunting harts, and so on….
Edward of Norwichs description of them is:
“…well grown of body, and should have great nostrils and open, and a long snout, but not small, and great lips and well hanging down, and great eyes red or black, and a great forehead and great head, and large ears, well long and well hanging down, broad 
and near the head, a great neck, and a great breast and great shoulders, and great legs and strong, and not too long, and great feet, round and great claws, and the foot a little low, small flanks and long sides, a little pintel not long, small hanging ballocks and well trussed together, a good chine bone and great back, good thighs, and great hind legs and the hocks straight and not bowed, the tail great and high, and not cromping up on the back, but straight and a little cromping upward. Nevertheless’ I have seen some running hounds with great hairy tails the which were very good. “
The Talbot
The Talbot, known through heraldry was originally a common name to name the dogs. After a while it was becoming synonymous with bigger slower hounds. A ‘real’ Talbot was supposed to be white.
Greyhounds
‘Greyhound’ is a broad term in the 14:th Century, denoting all sight-hounds, from small Italian Greyhounds to big Irish wolfhound like hounds (in French the big greyhounds was nominated: Levrier d’attache, the small nervous ones petits levrierpour lievre. Greyhound was Levrier) . The Greyhound was valued and was often kept in the castle instead of out in the kennels. A nobleman was said to be recognized by “his hawk, his horse and his greyhound”. They where used in relays of three (usually in three relays) and was set loose on the game as the raches drove it past them. They where often the ones pulling the game down, and the one finalling the hunt by doing this was called ‘parafiteur’ .
Emil and Basilard
In the pictures short-hair, and often spotted Greyhounds are mostly depicted. But Edward describes them to have “full hair under the cheeks, like a lion” witch rhymes better with a longhaired sighthound, like a wolfhound.
The berner in charge of greyhounds seems to sometimes be referred to as a ‘veltrahus’, a word that goes back on gallo-latin. In English they where refered to as a Fewterer.
Edwards full description of the good Greyhound is thus:
“The good greyhound should be of middle size, neither too big nor too little, and then he is good for all beasts. If he were too big he is nought for small beasts, and if he were too little he were nought for the great beasts. Nevertheless whoso can maintain both, it is good that he have both of the great and of the small, and of the middle size. A greyhound should have a long head and somewhat large made, resembling the making of a bace (pike). A good large mouth and good seizers the one against the other, so that the
nether jaw pass not the upper,nor that the upper pass not the nether. Their eyes are red or black as those of a sparrow hawk, the ears small and high in the manner of a serpent, the neck great and long bowed like a swan’s neck, his chest great and open, the hair under his chyn hanging down
in the manner of a lion. His shoulders as a roebuck, the forelegs straight and great enough and not too high in the legs, the feet straight and round as a cat, great claws, long head as a cow hanging down. The bones and the joints of the chine great and hard like the chine of a hart. And if his chine be a little high it is better than if it were fla
t. A little pintel and little ballocks, and well trussed near the ars, small womb, the hocks straight and not bent as of an ox, a cat’s tail making a ring at the end and not too high, the two bones of the chine behind broad of a large palm’s breadth or more. Also there are many good greyhounds with long tails right swift. A good greyhound should go so fast that if he be well slipped he should overtake any beast ”
Spaniels
The spaniel was a bird-dog. It was so called spaniel because its breed originated in Spain.
They where used to flush out birds from bushes, mostly quail and partridge. Phoebus complained that spaniels lacked discipline, barked too much, and had so many other faults that he used them only when he had the goshawk, falcon, or sparrow hawk on his fist. Edward also has nothing good to say about these dogs, but that might be due to him not being a big fan of falconry. He say that they are probably good dogs but share to many characteristics with their landsmen (in his words – not ours). He does say that they may make good berclettis (berclettis are shooting-dogs, dog you use when your hunting alone with bow).
A spaniel in le roi modus et le reine ratio.
The spaniel is mostly shown with curly hair and long ears, much like they look today.
The description of the Spaniel in the master of game is:
“Also a fair hound for the hawk should have a great head, a great body and be of fair hue, white or tawny, for they be the fairest, and of such hue they be commonly best. A good spaniel should not be too rough, but his tail should be rough.”
Other then this he mostly talks about how they behave (or more on how they misbehave…)
Mastiffs
The mastiff was a mixbreed (Mestiff), called a mongrel, and it was not considered a good dog for hunting. “They be of a churlish nature and ugly shape”. The French matins
were generally big, hardy dogs, somewhat light in the body, with long heads, pointed muzzles, flattened forehead, and semi-pendant ears ; some were rough and others
smooth coated.
Edward Thinks it might be a good dog for those that just hunt meat for the household. In some ways they seem to share characteristics with the alaunt, but have more guard-instinct in them.
Bullen the boarbaiter, ready to let loose his frenzy.
We also know that noblemen have used mastiffs in war, bringing them onto the field of battle with them. It appears that the ‘mastiff’ of the 14:th cent was an aggressive yard-dog, kept mostly for its guarding virtues. “The mastiff’s
nature and his office is to keep his master’s beasts and his master’s house, and it is a good kind of hound, for they keep and defend with all their power all their master’s goods”
They do not have to be as big as the mastiffs of modern age, although some was. But smaller ones, like Staffordshire terrier would also have been grouped in here, or possibly in alaunts.
Alaunts
A strong, ferocious dog, supposed to have been brought to Western Europe by a Caucasian tribe called Alains or Alani. This tribe invaded Gaul in the fourth century, settling there awhile, and then continued their wanderings and overran Spain. It is from this country that the best alans were obtained during the Middle Ages, and dogs that are used for bull- or bear-baiting there are still called Alanos. Gaston de Foix, living on the borders of this country, was in the best position to obtain such dogs, and to know all about them. His description, which we have here, tallies exactly with that written in a Spanish book, Libra de la Monteria, on hunting of the fourteenth century, written by Alphonso XL
Sir Justin, with the alaunt Apollo from Eslite d’ Corps
Alaunts are generally seen as big dogs. But when looking at medieval Pictures and Reading the descriptions one does not get the feeling that was always the case. What denotes the Alaunt seems to be that it is a biting and holding dog. It grabs the prey and holds it until its master comes. They where used in the hunt but notoriously hard to handle due to their aggressiveness “Alauntes will run gladly and bite the horse. Also
they run at oxen and sheep, and swine, and at all other beasts, or at men or at other hounds. For men have seen alauntes slay their masters. In all manner of ways alauntes are treacherous and evil understanding, and more foolish and more harebrained than any other kind of hound.” They are said to be very good at holding game, but need the assistance of Greyhounds to catch it. The are refereed to as ‘Mastiffs’ also and it seems they share many of these dogs characteristics.
“..should be made and shaped as a greyhound, even of all things save of the head, the which should be great and short. And though there be alauntes of all hues, the true hue of a good alaunte, and that which is most common should be white with black spots about the ears, small eyes and white standing ears and sharp above” ” …but they be (heavy) and foul (ugly). … ” “…great lips and great ears..”
They bring to mind something like a great dane.
Edward advises that these might be send in after boars that have taken to hiding in thickets “…if they be slain by the wild boar or by the bull, it is not very great loss”.
It seems that the alaunt is a breed that if they are good was very good, but was a hard breed find good examples in. Contrary to Greyhounds that seems to have been thought to be generally good.
Lapdogs
Lapdogs are small dogs that are mostly held for companionship. a medieval classifiaction was ‘a dog that a man can encircle its neck with one hand’. there is a plenitude of dogs here the most famous being Van Eyucks little fellow in The Wedding of Arnolfini.
One might think that these small dogs where not held in high regard in this age of hunting and maschisomo, but in the law of Sörmland (county in Sweden) the fine for killing a lapdog was the highest. Even higher than for Greyhounds, but in Östergötland (another of the counties) only if the owner could prove that it had never bitten anyone. It is said that the wife of Bo Jonsson, the wealthiest man in the history of Sweden, is said to have been saved from bad men just because of her lapdogs inscessive barking. A dog she allegedly had in her sleeve.
The Scandinavian Bärsaracki
Bärsaracki just means ‘huntingdog’ (bärsa means hunt, and racki is the same word as Rache=dog). These could have been any kind of dog, looking any witch way.
Ivan and Ullr, typical scandinavian hunter
But in some areas, like Sweden and Norway (Finland is also Sweden in medieval times), spitze dogs have always been popular and you can trace their bones back to bronze-age in these parts (Norwegian elkhound, jämthund, Finish spitze, or similar kind of dogs are very old breeds) . They keep being a common find in archeological evidence throughout the middle ages, and still are very popular as huntingdogs here. These are probobly just called Bärsaracki (huntingdog) here but thinking about how they are as a dog it sounds probably they where mostly used as berclettis (dogs you use when hunting alone, with bow ). The big hunts might not have been as popular here as on the continent, and most laws concern hunting with traps.
The value of the hound
As I expect you all are curious about what the aforementioned law of Södermanland say about the values of the dogs, and also in one way tells us what ‘breeds’ they counted in Sweden in early 14:th century
Kövärne (lapdog) ————————————— 24 ören
Mjöhund (greyhound) ———————————-12 ören
Bärsaracki (Rache)————————————-12ören
vallhund(sheepdog)————————————-12ören
Gårdsvar(mastiff, yard dog)—————————3 ören
The dog reenacted?
Olivia and Foxie
If the dog is part of your reenacting, you might like to have a ‘medieval dog’. What you want here is of course not a set thing. The dog is a living thing and should not only be bought because it is ‘right’, you need have a dog that fits your purposes, so that the dog can be happy. If you are planning to do actual medieval hunting, you dog should of course be able to do that while looking the part. If you are not doing actual hunting, then it will only have to look the part. A labrador or a Golden retriver for example, looks rather much like a rache, but thier job does not though. As you did not shoot birds but used falcons, retriving dogs was not needed. If you only want a dog that hangs around you that dont look modern, then they will be fine.
Medieval foxie?
Medieval dogs can look..just about like anything. Most modern dogs (except some of the more odd ones maybe) could pass for medieval if you go by the looks. Although the dogs above are the only ones mentioned in the huntbooks, it do not mean they where the only ones around. The books, after all, is about hunting (lapdogs are not mentioned in the huntbooks)
As a finale to this article, I bid you a picture of a dachshund, with a wolfcollar. From 15:th century.
We thank sir Justin and Eslite d’ Corps for the use of the picture of Apollo, and Ivan Merl and Ullr for posing for the nordic bärsaracki. They are all members of St: Huberts Rangers
Also in the Article, Oliva and foxie, Helena and Bullen, and Emil and Basilard
/Johan
The Point of research
As we find new information, it is time to implement it. When we found that Gaston say you use grey clothes in winterhunting, as we wrote about here, we had better make ourself some grey clothing. For us this is what reenacting is about. When you find new information you need to upgrade your kit to reflect this. Otherwise…. what is the point of research?
This article is about the use of research and the first one literally written by both of us together. We wanted to share an example of how you can go about to interpret the material you have, how to think around your sources to reconstruct a believable garment. You will never be spot on, so it is always good to know HOW you think as you do and WHY.
For us the interpretation is often based on how the garment falls around the body in the picture. This will give some clues to what kind of textile, how it is cut and what seams that are used. Many people look at the pictures, but don’t really see them. They have a illustration of a person from the age, but they do not see things that they do not already ‘know’ they wore. Another common thing is to explain everything that don’t fit into your picture of the age is to call it ‘artistic freedom’ on the illuminators part, even if it appears in several pictures and from different artists.
Another trend in reecreating is going fancy. Sure, you like to have the tight cottehardi with fifty-eleven buttons. Sure, they where high fashion at the time. But what is the type of character you are actually wearing? Many have very simple cottes, especially when doing manual labour. Not to say that the manybuttoned cottes are not used here also, but how many reenactors dare to make the simple cotte today? Or to renounce from wearing all the nice stuff they have accumulated over the years? We are the same here, we like to use the nice things also. But we feel in our hearts that we should show the simple and common as well.
We scoured our homes after fitting textile, and the books after fitting clothing. Granted, the climate in the books might not be the same as we have. The books are written in France, and Gaston himself lived in Occitania. I don’t really know how winter down there is, but there might be a difference from Scandinavian winters in cold and snow-depth. The cloth is not very thick though, as we see the garments mostly as a over-garment for functionality. The layer principle is at work here, and our experience tells us that you don’t need thick clothing when moving around in the winter forest.
Emils kyrtil
My kyrtil is partly inspired by two pictures of boarhunters from Livre de chasse, the Morgan library version, folio 83 and folio 84. 
On both pictures, most hunters wear greyish clothing, so I assume it is a winter hunt. Both kyrtils are of calf length and very wide, loose-fitting.
F 83 (left) has a delicately cut S-curved shoulder seam, almost like a grand assiette. It features a puffy sleeve, seemingly cut at an angle by the elbow, possibly also with a narrow cuff making it tighter over the wrist (it doesn’t really show but is an assumption based on my interpretation of how the fabric falls when the hunter is aiming with his crossbow). If F 84 (right) was thought to depict a garment of a similar cut is hard to know, it looks a little simpler, without the grand assiette and it could have another type of baggy sleeve with less fabric in it. Still, they are much alike and on both pictures I notice that the grey fabric folds and drapes very nicely against the belt. That makes me think of an ingenious cut that I’ve seen on preserved 14th century kirtles from Herlofsnes, Greenland.
As none of the pictures show the front of the garment or the cut of it in detail, I decided to combine them with an archaeological find in my interpretation. From Herjolfsnes there is a wide kirtle known as Norlund 63. I think it appears to be much similar in cut and drape to those depicted in Livre de chasse and it is also contemporary with them. 
Norlund 63 is characterised by its loose fit and baggy S-cut uppe
r sleeves with a narrow cuff over the wrist. The most obvious difference to the kirtles of Livre de chasse is that this one has a small standing collar and that it buttons down front with 16 cloth buttons. I went for just a handful of buttons as I don’t need more. In Livre de chasse it is more common to have just a few, rather than a full button row down the front. I really like the collar and as collars appear on other kyrtils from the same manuscript, I decided to keep it.
All in all, my winter kirtle is far more based on the archaeological find rather than the pictures from Livre de chasse, but I think it is a fair interpretation as they all are contemporary and of a similar cut.
the inspiration for Johans kyrtil
Johans kyrtil
I found a loose garment in the same book (Folio 83v.), a jaunty loiterer mostly chewing the fat with the other hunters down in the corner. As the cloth I found at home was double-sided, grey and light brown, it seemed like a nice fitting garment. The scene is a boarhunt at winter and all hunters wear shades of grey. I thought the garment was probably very simple and loose. The arms looked straight and I could see no collar. While it was possible it had an opening at the front, I did not think it had one, based on the thought of the simple garment. To get width over the 
torso but not over the shoulders, I extended the gores in the sides up to the arm-opening. Based on most cottes construction at the time, I used grand (or grandish..) assietes for the armholes. This is also for the freedom of movement. Grand assietes is superior in matters of movement in a garment. The seam of the arm was left on the underside of the arm though, not on the back as is more common. Perhaps a rear-centred seam would have been a better choice, but I choose the underarm variant to stay with the thought of the simple construction. The edges was left raw.
Using it
As the weather was not really on our side we thought we’d just snap some photos of the
kyrtils to get this article running. We found a grey tangle of brush, to show why grey might have been a smart move during the defoliage season. Most woods up where we live are evergreen fir, juniper and pine so green might work just as well at wintertime really… But staying true to the huntbooks we took our grey kyrtils out and posed up!
Johan had a basic cotte under and another more loose on top. The grey came up ontop of that. It kept the warmth rather nice, don’t let the absence of snow fool you, it was a very chilly day. Judging from the picture the arms are longer then the arms of the man wearing it, and then turned up. This was a rather good feature as turning them down kept the warmth over the hands well enough.
Emil had double layers of wool with his thin summer-cotte under the new heavy grey one. The generous cut of the new kirtle made the garment drape just like in the pictures. All the draping and folds of the fabric made little pockets of air, soon warmed by the body. When needing to regulate the warmth, it is easy to just undo a button or two.
Conculsions
So, after we found out that wintertime you wear grey, there wasnt really much you could do but make some grey clothing. These hands on instrutions are rare in reecreating. Most have to make guesses and read between the lines in recreating a certain type of person. When you also see the text mirrored in the pictures showing wintertime hunting (mostly boar) we felt we did not have any choice but to make a set of ‘greys’
By Johan and Emil.
We often refer to “the huntbooks” when we write our texts. These are books about hunting written in the middle ages. In the 14:th Century there is mainly three books that concern us, they are also the most well known of all the medieval huntbooks. There are other prominent huntbooks from other centuries, the most important here being The Art of Venery,1327, by the Anglo-French Master of game, Twiti (Twici). Many of the later books draws on this and it is probably the basis of the ones we use the most. Sadly it has yet been unobtainable for us.
The books we use the most are instead;
Les livres du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio (1354–1376), attributed to Henri de Ferrières
Livre de Chasse (1387–1389), Gaston III (Phėbus) Phoebus, Count of Foix. Various copies with excellent illustrations. Also known as Book of The Hunt.
The Master of Game, Edward, Duke of York
Lets take a closer look at them and how they relate to each other….
Les livres du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio
Les livres du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio (1354–1376)
Les livres du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio or, the book of king method and Queen Theory. This book is attributed to Henri de Ferrieres and it is said that after the big plague in the 50:ies people where concerned that so many had died that knowledge would have died with them. Therefore they set the art of the hunt to text. The second part of the book also contains ‘the dream of the pestilence’. It is written as an allegory where King Modus or Queen Ratio answers questions posed to them. There is also a fair amount of moral and musings about the religious thinking concerning the hunt.
Henri de Ferrieres
The probable author of Les livres du roi Modus
Henri Ferrieres sleeping on a strawmat in the woods
et de la reine Ratio is Henri de Ferrieres. There are some possible persons this might be. The most probable was born in the first decades of the 14:th century. in 1347 there is a note about a Henri de Ferrieres being a captive of the English. In 1369 a Henri de Ferrieres is reported as being commander of the fortress Pont de l’ Arche. The Ferrieres owned the Breteuil forest north of Paris, a forest mentioned in the book. The author also say he saw Charles IV hunt as a child. So it seems he was a man that was an active part of the hundred years war. A thing that is verified in some parts of the book (the dream of pestilence is insightful and refers to tactical situations in 1374)
King of pratice
This book is one of our favourites since it is very good at explaining things. There are several copies (21 copies is known) ranging from 1380 to 1486. This means that the book was popular and recopied for a long time. The copies we use is mostly Paris 1 for pictures, the oldest existing copy. We also use the Copenhagen ex as this is translated into Swedish and interpreted by Gunnar Tilliander, considered one of the best in Medieval French of his time. It has very nice illuminations showing a wide range of hunting.
Livre de chasse
Musée national du Moyen Âge, Musée de Cluny copy 1407-10
Livre de chasse is possibly the most well known of all huntbooks. No small part of this is that some of the copies sports beautiful, detailed, illuminations (illustrations). It is written in 1387-89 and exists in 46 known copies. The most well known and used are the copy in Musée national du Moyen Âge, Musée de Cluny from 1407-10 (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris Ms. fr. 616) and the Morgan library copy, also from 1407.
Gaston Phoebus
Livre de chasse is written by Gaston III/X of Foix-Béarn. He is more known as Gaston ‘Phoebus’, Phoebus being another name for the Greek god Apollon, and Gaston being known for being a very handsome
Gaston ‘phoebus’
man which earned him this nickname. He recorded the three “special delights” of his life as “arms, love and hunting”. Jean Froissart, the author of “Chronicles de France” visited his Court in Pau and was impressed with its splendour. Gaston was born 30 of April in 1331 and died while washing his hands after a bearhunt in 1391. He had a son, but he stabbed him to death in a quarrel after the son had tried to poison him. Another of his sons, illegitimate, was one of the poor souls that died in the infamous Bal des ardent
Gaston was widely acclaimed to be a great hunter and
A reindeer from livre de chasse
even travelled to the far Sweden to hunt reindeers, possibly in connection to when he was fighting pagans in Prussia. He also fought in the Hundred years war, so it is quite possible he met Henri de Ferriers in person.
Book of the hunt
Livre de chasse is an excellent book, but hard to get hold of a copy as it only exists in French and that is a language I am regrettably bad in. The pictures are very good though and very informative. As the Livre de chasse follows King modus in its layout many of the pictures can get explained in other versions. Also, the Morgan library has some nice informative text abstracts. We use the Morgan library and the French one mostly.
The master of game
The master of game is a English translation of Livre de chasse made in between 1406 and 1413 of Edward of Norwich. He also added some new chapters of his own and edited it for English hunters (for example he skipped Gastons descriptions of reindeers as he did not think it had any relevance for an English audience)
Edward of Norwich
Edward Langely of Norwich, Duke of York
Edward of Norwich was born 1373 and is also known as Edward of Langley. He was the second Duke of York. He took a prominent part in the hundred years war and served there under both king Henry IV and Henry V. He also took part in some important emissaries to the French Court, amongst one in negotiating the wedding between Henry V and Catherine of Valois. When he was there Gaston Phoebus was already dead, so the chance that they met might have been slim. Edward was only 18 when Gaston kicked the bucket (presumably, as he was washing his hands at the time of his demise). Edward partook at the siege of Harfleur and commanded the right wing at the Battle of Azincourt. At Azincourt he became the highest ranking casualty when he met his fate on St. Crispins day.
Has also was, and this is more to our point, the master of harthounds for Henry IV.
The book
The master of game is a good book, but it is abit more amateurish in appearance then Livre de Chasse and King modus. It is written in a straightforward and matter of factly way. Even if there is some passages that are somewhat rambling in nature. Some parts (the ones Edward was not interested in) is put forward to others (he directs the hunting of otters to the kings otterhunter). For example he does not go into the disembowling of the animal as he say this is more of a woodsmans discipline then a hunters. It has some translation errors from Gastons original, but I think it deserves to be judged as a book of its own. It is after all written by a master of harthounds and therefore an experienced hunter. He would not put anything in there that he did not agree with (indeed there is some alterations to fit English hunters). There is a edition of this book with a foreword by Ted Roosevelt from 1909 that holds a high class. The appendix in the book is a very good read to get started with the medieval hunt. It exists in a on-line version here. I have not seen any pictures from this book.
The books amongst themselves
As we can see the Les livres du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio is the first and the one that sets the trend in what a huntbook should contain. Gastons book follow the same pattern, but is more direct in its tone and the Master of hunt is, of course, like Livre de chasse. But all books are written by active and highly valued hunters. We can be fairly sure that what they write is things they agree with and condole the practise of. Edward writes in some places about how things are done, and that he does not think it is good. This shows that he knows what he is talking about (or at least thinks so). Many medieval books are written by clerics that do not always have the practical experience of what they are writing about and therefore might not show a correct description of the actual practise used in the middle ages.
Books of the middle ages where copied by hand. This meant that errors was made. When a copy was copied the error was duplicated, and more errors might occur. This results in that often the book closest to the original is the most accurate. It is good to know what copy it is you are working from, and preferable to know how far removed from the original it is.
How we use manuscript sources.
WE use the manuscripts both as written sources detailing how they where thinking about the hunt and how it was conducted.
We also use the illuminations (pictures) as a source for equipment. These hands on books are very good in a interpretation viewpoint. We don’t have to guess what the pictures show and if it is allegorical or not. The text is explaining the pictures (and the pictures the texts). When you do not have the text available, you can often use the text from another book. As they deal with mostly the same you can identify the stages of the hunt as long as you know the other texts. Correlation between the texts can be done to see changes in the hunting equipment. It is harder to see changes in tactics as you do not know if these show individual preferences or a common overall change. Pictures can be used right as they are, to ensure you get an outfit of a hunter consisting of clothes that was actually worn together. Not to easy to know for modern people and could result in what would be in modern day someone wearing shorts and tuxedo. 
In conclusion
The huntbooks are very fun to read. They are hands on and often rather funny. If one is interested in the hunt it is often a revelation to read them. Getting explanations to odd looking pictures one have gleaned on the wide interwebz. With such good books, and easily obtained, on a subject I would say that it is very hard to try and reenact the hunt without reading at least the master of game or looking at the excellent illuminations of the Morgans copy of Livre de chasse. If you read those you might even be able to base a whole blog on them….
/Johan
A hunter clad in green, with his pointed hat jauntly cocked on his head. That is the common perception of the medieval hunter, but does it hold sway?
I used to say that “a hunter wore what was in fashion in its day”, referring to all the gaudily coloured hunters I have seen in the huntbooks in their red, blue, yellow and pink clothing. But in the same books there are also hunters wearing all green, in a way that suggests they have a reason for it – in some pictures all hunters are clad in green. But of course, hunters wear different clothes in different style of hunts…
Clothes that fit the purpose
Hunters afoot
As I look abit closer on the issue of clothing in research of this article I see that it is not really mentioned in “Master of game”. “Les Livres du roy Modus et de la royne Ratio” does not dwell on it, but in a summary of a text I find that Gaston Pheobus declares that hunters should wear green, and in winter grey.
Now, on a fastpace hunt, with dogs barking and horses running, the aim to chase the prey until exhaustion, the colours of the clothes matters little. In this case the animal is supposed to see you and run from you. Also the relays on the sides serves to herd the animal into the desired path. Clothes of colour also helps the other hunters to locate each other. One could compare it to the modern hunters orange if one likes. Most pictures in a huntbook concerns this kind of hunt.
stalking deer, clad in green
When stalking prey and trying to get within bowrange we have a whole other situation. Here it is desirable that the deer does not see you, and hunters are advised to wear green. When standing in wait for deer driven to you, it is also advised that the hunters should wear green in “Les livres du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio”. Even Gaston Phoebus advices the use of green. Gaston Phoebus allegedly even advocates painting the bow green. When looking more closely, you see that when hunting deer, notoriously skittish animals, they usually wear green. Edward of Norwich also advocates that the best hunting horns is waxed green. He say this is for the better sound in them, but as he has misunderstood a couple of things in his translation of Gaston Phoebus, he might also have missed the point of why they where green.
Camouflage
Green and dagged clothes on hunters in Livre de Chasse
As seen above the reason to wear green is to melt into the woods better, or at least to be less visible to the animals. But did the medieval hunter use camouflage? As in camouflage in a modern sense?
Well, yes, and no.
The use of green is a camouflage in it self, it melts into the environment. Also Phoebus stated that, when hunting a boar in winter, grey, not green, was to be worn. But there is no proof of use of mottled or patterned clothing in order to break up silhouettes. There might be some use of dagges to look more….. bushy. (“Dagges” are decoratively cut hemlines, in shapes of tounges, leafes, roundels, points and so on). At the least in ‘Livre de chasse’ there is alot of dagged open garments, but this might also just reflect the fashion of the time.
this hunter uses branches on his head
The use of branches and greenery is advised though.”Les livres du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio” advices you to ‘Wear a branch between your teeth to hide your face” when stalking deer. The use of branches on a wagon to hide its occupants is a clever trick from King Modus, and it appears in “Livre de chasse” also. As seen to the right, evidently one could cammouflage your head in such way to
Shoes, and the lack thereof
Hunters are shown wearing a variety of shoes. The ankle-high being in prominent use. Most show no buckles.
Many riders sports a high boot. They seem to be of the fold closure sort and fastened with hooks and eyelets. These are very good in protecting the leg from burrs and twigs catching in the hose and ripping them while chasing through the woods. They appear to be above the knee.
Some high boots from “Livre de chasse”
Even hunters afoot could use this, judging from these pictures in “Livre de chasse“, Sporting a leash hanging on his horn and therefore one of the berners, doghandlers. The second shows a rider and a lymer, a doghandler handling the scenthound. The third showing a regular venator, hunter. There are several more pictures of high boots in the book.
Hunter in socks
Another thing that seems prominent amongst hunters are the habit of using no shoes. Strikingly often we see hunters plodding along in just hosen. This happy fellow seems to be out and about in just his naalbound socks.
There is a possibility that they are using ‘soled hoses’, hosen with a leather sole on, but there is no way of really knowing. I have used soled hoses and I have been walking around in hoses with ordinary soles. I can say that soled hoses works rather well in a dry forest. Regular hoses is very dependant on what kind of wool they are made off, but in general they do tend to make you abit more vulnerable to pebbles and pinecones.
a few of all the pictures of hunters not using shoes
There is no reason stated in the huntbooks or anywhere else that I have seen, as to why they scamper about shoeless. My own experience shows that it a little easier to sneak in hosen as you get more ground-feeling. Possibly you also get abit more grip with a wool soles then you get with a leather one. especially in wet grass. These are mostly speculations.
Of course, there are pictures of non-hunters not wearing shoes also, but looking at the average, it sure looks like hunters liked being shoeless for some reason.
The bycocket, a hat for a hunter?
The robinhood hat, hunters cap or as we jokingly call it the “unicorn” (threepointed hat=tricorn, twopointed=bicorn… onepointed=unicorn) is possibly called a ‘bycocket’ during 14:th Century (or they mean something totally different…. the sources are abit shady here).
This hat seems to be favoured by hunters. Its is featured on them frequently in 14:th Century. It is also a hat that seems to be used by both men and woman, possibly this strengthens its position as associated with the hunt and not gender (few other head wear is not gendercoded). When seen on other nobles in outside hunt situations it is a theory I have that these are fellows that has their interest in hunting as personifying their character. As some hunters these days wear their camouflage and old hat to the supermarket to show that they hunt. But this is only my personal musings on the subject.
There is no bad weather
In Sweden we say “there is no bad weather, only bad clothing”.
Now and then the question about bad weather clothing, and especially rain clothes comes up in the reenacting community. Even though this might not fit in this post, I thought I would address it here, in wait for a post later on on how to 
reenact outdoorsy type things.
In medieval times they don’t seem to have the same obsession about being dry all the time. One can perhaps understand this as being dry is an utopia when being active in the woods. If you don’t get wet from the outside, marshes, dew, rain or moss, you get wet from the inside (commonly known as sweating). One might Think that they had a mindset that tolerated a higher degree of uncomfort before they started feeling downcast. Living a life where starvation, plague, and untimely death was never far away, a little wet was possibly not much to be concerned about. As a rule people are not made out of salt and hence do not dissolve from water.
What is problematic when getting wet is getting cold. Its the cold that is dangerous and what makes up most of the discomfort. Wool is naturally fat unless it is washed. If it is also fullered it withstands rain quite well. Wool is also a material that warms even when wet (as opposed to cotton that cools 150 times better when wet). Using wool clothing and keeping away from cotton undergarments (I usually keep away from linen as well, going all wool) will keep you warm even when wet.
The most common garment for protection against the weather is therefore …. Another tunic, possibly fullered
In conclusion, and some speculations
As I already had a nagging feeling would be the case, I was both right and wrong. Hunters did dress as fashion dictated, but there where several times where green was the preferred colour. There is also nothing stating you can not wear green on other hunts so I am guessing that many wore their ‘hunting clothes’ on hunts, and that these often where green , as they where supposed to be that on some of the more popular hunts. Also, green is not all that common amongst other people. Sure it exists, but it is not THAT popular if one looks at its percentual representation with other colours. It might surely be that green was a colour connected with hunters. In Canterbury tales the yeoman is described as having a hood and jacket of green, and that he was indeed a woodsman. This also could point towards the colour green being connected to people of the woods.
So… a hunter in green, with his bycocket jauntly on his head. Yes. It is not a faulty perception of the medieval hunter. Sometimes the middleages are so cliché. 
/Johan
As followers of our Facebook-page already know, our pack has been reinforced with another hunter. Our new companions name is Basilard, he is a one and a half year old Irish wolfhound and was adopted by Emil.
Basilard trying out his new medieval-style collar.
Basilard is not fully grown and much thinner than we want him, but already a big boy with his 56 kilos. Just like Johans Boudica and most other sighthounds, he is a bit reserved towards strangers at first. But as soon as he gets to know someone, he wants to get close and cuddle up, offers a big tummy to rub or a wet kiss – he is possibly the biggest lap dog in the world!
Basilard was “rescued” from a home where he did not get the love and care he should have had. Because of that, he came to Emil as a youngster and has a lot to learn. A calm, brave and warm personality, he is eager to please. When he spots a hare, you can tell Basilard wants to be a great hunter, but he is yet to early in his training to be allowed to run free.
Currently Basilard is busy making friends with Boudica and getting used to his new family, but he is settling in just fine and we have great hopes for him.
/ Emil
About the name – a basilard is a medieval type of dagger, almost a short sword characterized by its wide blade and H-shaped handle. It is both a good tool and a powerful weapon of some status, but one you keep close to you. I guess I’ll have to make one for myself now, for reference.
Exploring the medieval hunt 