Saturday, May 16, 2009
Mediaevalism - or not
(backposting) After all taking Jo to her ballet (and meeting another parent who had some possible job leads - that's networking for you), we had an early lunch and then headed off to Ickworth House, where they were having a Mediaeval Spectacular (though they decided to spell that "Medieval", shockingly). There was lots for the kids, and for the adults, too (I ended up going up through a variety of longbow weights - managed to draw a 150 pound bow about 26 inches, which apparently isn't bad for a beginner), with people being all sorts of authentic. Authentic food, authentic clothing, authentic tools, even authentic spectacles (and although the glass quality seemed better than expected, I was quite impressed with that). What I always feel, however, is that people just aren't authentic enough about the language. There's some cod mediaeval grammar, but no attempt at pre-Great Vowel Shift or Pre-Modal Shift speaking. Most, most disappointing. And not at all authentic (no matter that _almost_ none of the attendees would understand a word of it).Back home, playing in the garden, including learning to play "sardines", and then the kids to bed. We barbecued some steak and had a very healthy vegetable/noodle mix, which was very tasty, and watched the Eurovision Song Contest (which I twittered extensively, gaining a number of followers in the process - hope I don't disappoint them with my day-to-day tweets).
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