A FENCING OUTFIT FOR SUMMER

I don’t handle heat well at all these days but I still want to look appropriately dressed. I was gifted some very light weight wool in raspberry and grey that I made into a doublet and slops. For the patterns I used The Tudor Tailor pages 99 and 103. They are about 90% hand sewn. I did trade a friend some fabric to make the buttonholes for me because mine are always sloppy. For the shirt I used the pattern from The Tudor Tailor page 54. I sewed that piece about 50% by machine and 50% by hand.

photo credit: Heather Parchen

Photo credit: Heather Parchen

The pants fabric is thin so I reinforced the seams with twill tape to hopefully avoid seam blow-out.

A decoction of elderberry

I had a bumper crop of blue elderberry this year so I made a huge batch of decoction of elderberry. Look at that purple color! Blue elderberry is a North American subspecies of the black elderberry that is native to Europe. Dioscorides has this to say about elderberry:

“A decoction (taken as a drink) helps those bitten by vipers. Boiled with water for bathing it softens the womb and opens the vagina, and sets to rights any disorders around it. A decoction of the fruit (taken as a drink with wine) does the same things, and rubbed on it darkens the hair.”

Maybe I will try using it as a hair dye.

Treating an unfortunate injury

I have always had weak ankles that tend to roll and I managed to roll both of mine a few weeks ago and fracture both fibulas. The orthopedic doctor says I’m going to heal just fine so this is a golden opportunity to explore period treatments! Guy de Chauliac (published 1363) gives this advice for fractured fibulae:

“The tibia may be fractured alone or with the fibula… When the fibula alone is fractured it can be displaced forward or inward… Both Albucasis and Halyabbas treated the fractures as they did fractures of the forearm bones, except that here they placed two splints between the bones, the full length of the leg, and they used a cradle.” p. 421

I went to the ER and they splinted both legs so step 1 accomplished.

“These medicines may be used as washes, plasters, or ointments. Avicenna explained their purposes; most important is the reduction of swelling and to relieve pain. Also, they may promote the union by toughening the callus, and they may comfort the limb… The medicines to reduce the swelling are refigerants and repercussives, such as egg white, rosat oil, and myrtle oil applied early in the course.

These toughen the callus and reduce its bulk, and support the fracture until the callus has fulfilled its purpose. The Simples are wheat-mill dust, wheaten flour, sangdragon, frankincense, mastic, sarcocolla, and egg whites.” p. 625

I have frankincense and mastic in the house, I chose to use mastic mixed in olive oil to massage the area. I will do so every day for a few days then report back.

Source: Guy, Rosenman, L. D., & Nicaise, E. (2007). The major surgery of Guy de Chauliac: Surgeon and master in medicine of the University of Montpelier: Written in 1363, here re-edited and collated from Latin and French editions and complemented with illustrations, supplemented with notes and an historical introduction about the Middle Ages and the life and the works of Guy de Chauliac. Xlibris Corporation.

Viking Tooth Filing

Aesthetic tooth filing is a practice that has only been used by a few cultures in history. In Europe it only showed up in the late Viking era, almost entirely in and around Gottland. While many skulls have been found with the tooth alteration, written evidence is almost non-existent (there may be brief mentions in the sagas but I have not yet come across anything I thought could plausibly refer to it). Here is my paper from Kingdom Arts and Sciences 2024:

VIKING FILINGDownload

When I got feedback on my presentation I realized that I had not effectively explained why I didn’t demonstrate on human upper front teeth. The reasons are:

  • The exact shape of the tooth effects the filing pattern so I needed to demonstrate on something approximately the shape of a human upper incisor
  • Real human incisors are nearly impossible to source ethically, unlike human molars

I have since acquired plastic teeth in a full mouth model to practice on and I’m going to reach out to some local butchers to see what animal teeth I can procure that may be somewhat similar in shape to human.

My next step is to branch out to Central American tooth decorations which involved gluing semiprecious stones to teeth, and Filipino decorations in gold.