THE ICE PICK

Medieval Celebrations : How to Plan Holidays, Weddings, and Reenactments with Recipes, Customs, Costumes, Decorations, Songs, Dances, and Games, by Daniel Diehl and Mark Donnelly. Mechanicsburg, Pa., Stackpole Books, c2001. 149 p. $19.95. Includes illustrations, music, bibliography, filmography, and index. ISBN: 0-8117-2866-8.

Intended for those who enjoy reenacting the Middle Ages or who would just like to host a Medieval-style feast or party, this book is a nice resource for writers of Medieval fantasy, as well.

Because the authors need to explain everything in enough detail for people to actually perform or reenact, there is more than enough information here for writers to construct a scene.

In addition to presenting a brief calendar of Medieval holidays and explaining how to set up a feast, a twelfth-century Mass, a wedding, games, and dances, the book gives plenty of historical information about daily life in the Middle Ages, including details like the fact that people rarely traveled more than seven miles from their village because that was the farthest the average person could walk and return safely home by dark.

There are chapters on Medieval celebrations in general and one dedicated to Christmas alone. Another chapter explains how walls, windows, floors, tables, etc. were decorated and rooms lighted. In separate chapters, table manners are covered as well as menus, adapted recipes, drinks, rules for playing a number of indoor and outdoor Medieval games, and so forth.

The music and lyrics for thirteen songs are included along with a sample version of an entire mummers play about Robin Hood. And there is an entire chapter devoted to making clothing, the information from which can be used to dress your characters.

The authors define the Middle Ages as the period from 1066 to 1450 and use "an amalgam of styles, manners, and foods from this period" in the book.

For example, because few early recipes have survived, the menus and foods are "primarily from cookbooks of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries." And since they are of simpler design and easier for people to recreate, "the clothing styles and decorative motifs . . . are taken primarily from the fourteenth century." To add to the confusion, the music and dances have been chosen "from a variety of times and places throughout the Medieval period."

So if historical accuracy is important to your story, you will have to check the facts for your chosen time period carefully lest you introduce anachronisms into your work, but, even so, this book is a wonderful introduction to Medieval life and certainly gives you a place to start. And the bibliography can lead you to more information if your needs are more exacting.

Any book like this that covers nearly four hundred years of fashion changes and trends cannot present you a completely accurate view of any given time period within that span, but that is not its intention. And given that understanding, there is so much here that can be used by a Medieval fantasy writer, that I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, May 2003. Reprinted in Worlds of Wonder E-zine.}