School Programs:

Medieval Manners & Manors

Once upon a time, when people sought protection from noble knights, chanting priests, and thick castle walls, hope arrived with the wandering Troubadour. His songs and stories taught life lessons, spread news, and soothed souls.

Grades:

Sixth (may be tailored to cover the Renaissance.)

Program Length:

80 minutes (or a double period) up to two a day.

Summary:

Garbed in a period cotehardie, Jonathan the Troubadour visits your sixth graders to share medieval tales of woe and wonder. Students will listen to feudal tales, solve serf dilemmas, participate in medieval life skits, sing a 12th century song, practice feasting manners and speak words of medieval times. Teachers receive a ten page activity guide.

2008-2009 Costs:

$425. One show, $350. Additional for two in one day.

Learning Activities

Eighty active minutes immersed in medieval stories, skits, manners, and a song. Students help solve mystery tales. They encounter feudalism, guilds, outlaws, feasts, nobles, serfs, franklins, marriage. pilgrims, alchemists, & a unicorn. Donning quick costumes, some students help perform in troubadour guided skits, to show classmates life in the Middle Ages. Everyone practices feast table manners. “Bloweth not upon thy soupe! They speak some 13th century words. Forsoothe! Fare thee well! Fobbing puttock! All sing the chorus of that medieval hit “Sumer is Icumen in”. A four page student activity packet is provided. Plus, choose from seven skit starters!

Story Possibilities:

All tales are interactive, with a student “turn and talk”

  • From Serf to Storyteller - a tale within a tale, showing how Beavis the Swag Bellied help Jonathan the serf become a master troubadour.
  • The Three Dolls - Are they alike? A young king’s head depends on the right answer!The Poacher - a dilemma tale for students to solve. Who took the baron’s deer & why?
  • Who is Mightiest?, an ancient Russian fable of an arranged marriage turned around
  • The Loathly Lady, a Chaucerian tale adapted for sixth graders with a dramatic choice.
  • Ask about Sir Gawain and The Green Knight; a news account of Henry the Fifth’s defeat of the French at Agincort; the true murder intrigue The Master Mason of St. Ouen’s, the Celtic-Irish Finn McCool’s Hunt, or medieval faerie tales with rite of passage challenges!

Skit Possibilities:

Using simple costumes and props, 6-10 students are guided through two or three skits on medieval life. Possible skit topics: Knight a Squire, Join a Guild, Go on a Pilgrimage, Organize a Feast, Go A-Falconing, Crusade!, Catch a Unicorn, or request a skit! Each skit here is in the guide for teachers to do do as a fun follow up with their students.

Some Medieval Table Manners...Do Act Them Out!

Find a partner to be your Trencher-Mate. The Hall Marshall’s sounding the Dinner Horn. It’s time to act out a Medieval Nobles’ feast! Be sure you say and use the words in Italics!

Promenade into the Dining Hall

Wait for the Chair-Man to sit down at the head of the table. Sit on long benches at a long table with your mate.

May unwashed fingers be palsied!

A servant pours water on your hands from an Aquamanile, an animal shaped pitcher.

Trenchers are given out.

One big slab of bread serves as the plate. It is shared by two people called Trencher-Mates. Peasants eat them after!

Removes are courses of food.

Please announce them and praise them.
Here’s the fare or menu:

  • Porridge - chopped meat broth, leeks and spices. Use your spoon.
  • Potage - Stewed vegetables -Parsnips, carrots, onions, cabbage, spices
  • Humble Pie - Chopped roast Deer organs in a lard crust pie.
  • Eel Pie- Chopped roasted eels, almonds and strong spices.
  • Brawn - Roasted Pig’s Head. Jab & grab the eye and brains with your knife, but offer your trencher-mate the best piece!
  • Cockatrice- Roasted Rooster & Pig , sewed together, stuffed with birds.
  • Garbage - potage made of chicken guts stewed and heavily spiced.
  • Frumenty - a whipped egg, milk fig and ginger spiced pudding

Manners to Act Out:

  • If you can’t swallow a piece of food, turn round and discretely throw it behind you.
  • Do not be afraid to vomit. It is not vomiting but holding it in the throat that is most foul
  • Don’t blow on hot food.
  • A cultured person eats with three fingers. A commoner eats with five.
  • Refrain from lip smacking snorting like swine & spitting over the table.