Heroic Dreams - All Things Medieval

It looks like Peter Jackson and New Line Cineman have ironed out their difficulties and we all will be getting another trip to Middle Earth.

If you have been following the drama and the battle you know that Peter Jackson and New Line have been fighting over the making of a Hobbit movie for quite a while now and it seems that they have worked out a deal. Peter Jackson has committed to producing two movies based on Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”.

He won’t be directing them though, which is a shame. Anyway they are tentatively scheduled to be released in 2010 and 2011. And if you want to read more there is a press release here: The Making of the Hobbit

I have discussed this whole battle between Jackson and the studio in a previous post here if you want to read more: Hobbits, and the Golden Ring of Greed

I had a big weekend this past few days - not just watching patriots football but also working on my mead. I had a goal to get a nice batch completed by christmas so I could give them away as presents and they are done!

So what I have is a very nice batch of a dry mead that I made myself, labeled and even waxed. These are going to make a great present to my friends and family. It just goes beyond the buying of gifts because I spent a lot of time and brewed up this mead myself. It gives me a real sense of accomplishment and it is really something quite unique. Going to be a real conversation piece at some christmas parties.

Because it is for christmas I am adding mulling spice packages to the gifts so we can heat up the mead and mull it in some delicious holiday spices.

Anyhoo, it is way too late to make yourself some mead for this christmas but if you are interested in making mead which is a delicious wine made from honey rather than grapes you can check out my website on how to do it. Making Mead the easy and delicious way

As a side note: This has turned into so much fun for me that I am developing it into a small business. I have formed a legal partnership, gotten my tax id number and am moving forward with producing mead as a legitimate consumer project. Going to be a lot of fun and the name of the company is “Round Table Mead”.

It never cease to be amazed by how much of our modern culture is directly inherited from the interesting medieval culture of the middle ages and one of the places this can most strongly be seen is in our christmas and holiday traditions. Hundreds of years after the middle ages many of the traditions are still with us today.

Christmas and the holidays in modern times are an interesting amalgam from many different periods of time, religions and cultures as they met, clashed, intertwined and influenced each other. Among these cultures are the pagans, druids, christians, and romans.

Many of our holiday traditions are of course tied into christianity and christian beliefs but many of the traditions are also tied into the conditions of life in the middle ages and in particular the difficulties of life in winter and from this we get the christmas tree.

The Christmas Tree - Pagans, Druids and christians all held evergreen trees in very high esteem as something almost magical. This is probably due to the fact that during the deepest and coldest parts of winter it still held its green. It was a true display of life even in the difficult winter season. It was a strong symbol of life and a reminder that spring would come again.

Gift Giving - The actual roots of this tradition may be lost to history but it is widely believed that gift giving started out on the 12th night (Jan6) as a reminder and homage of the gifts that the Magi brought to the christ child.

Holiday Banquets and parties - It is natural to assume that big religious holidays were celebrated by meals and feasts and every year this probably grew. The earliest known big banquet was that of William the Conquerer in 1066. He threw an enormous celebration bash on christmas day, which was his coronation day.

 The Christmas season holidays have been around for a very long time and they are an amalgam of different cultures and very significant in that they were an way for people, families, and cultures to celebrate life and pick their spirits up during the difficult winter months.

I believe we have reasonable proof of the first Massive negative publicity campaign ever waged. It was waged sometime in the Middle ages and it persists to this day.

It is the campaign against the drink Mead.

Most people, if they ever even heard of Mead think of a bunch of vikings swilling down an almost unpalatable drink. It is thought of as being crude, frothy or even lumpy!

The new movie Beowulf even perpetuates this misconception. Most of the movie takes place in a mead hall and in the center of the hall is a big vat of a rather distasteful looking drink. The celebrants in the hall dip their mugs in and imbibe of the drink.

The truth of the matter is that mead is an extraordinary delicate and delicious wine that is brewed with honey rather than grapes. And this formula creates something very light, very sweet, and quite delicious.

If you have been following this blog you know that I have been brewing some mead and this past weekend I bottled up a nice batch. I have put them in a variety of different bottle colors and shapes so I could gauge their appearance and it seems to me that the clear bottles really show off the beautiful golden color.

So, seeing that this is such an amazing drink who would possibly want to launch a negative ad campaign against it? My first reaction would be to point a finger at the up and coming wine growers of the middle ages. They would be very motivated to tarnish the reputation of mead thus getting people to drink more grape based wine.

But, I don’t think this is the case! I think we can point the finger directly at the big producers and drinkers of mead themselves -yup the vikings themselves launched a campaign against their favorite drink and here is why they did it;

The Vikings used to adventure all around the Atlantic Ocean all the time and they had created plenty of maps. And the one big thing about their maps is a bit of trickery that they did in that they knew a land that was very lush and very green and yet they called it “Iceland”; while at the same time there was a whole land mass that was almost completely ice covered and they called it “Greenland”! This bit of trickery was to throw other explorers off course. Seeing the choice between greenland and iceland which would you want to explore? And in reality you were exploring the wrong one because iceland was very green and greenland was very icy! LOL -

Those vikings were a sneaky bunch and I think they did the same thing with their mead. It was a wonderful and delicious little secret and I think they threw people off course and made people not want to explore it or try it by creating the stigma that it was a nasty and horrible little drink! ROFL - Gotta hand it to them. Their Middle ages marketing campaign worked because hundreds of years later our maps are still marked wrong and we all still think of mead in the wrong way.

All I can say is take a look at this bottle of mead that I made. Isn’t it gorgeous, delicate, and beautiful? Get yourself a bottle and try it for yourself. It will bring a smile to your face just knowing that a bunch of vikings who lived hundreds of years ago had pulled the wool right over your eyes!

Anyhoo, if you want to learn more about mead I have a website where I go through the whole process of how to make it yourself here