Medieval Manors & Manners

What is "Medieval Manors & Manners? "

 

+ A double period highly interactive performance program immerses students the Middle Ages with energetic storytelling, skits, vocabulary, manners, and a song. 
+ Students will help solve mystery tales. They'll  understand how the feudal system worked, learn about guilds, Knights, outlaws, feasts, nobles, serfs, franklins, marriage, pilgrims, alchemists, & how to catch a unicorn. 
+ Donning quick costumes, some students help act out troubadour guided skits, to show classmates life in the Middle Ages.  
+ Everyone practices feast table manners.  “Bloweth not upon thy soupe!
+ Everyone learns some 13th-century words. "Forsooth" "Fobbing puttock" !!!
+ All sing the chorus of that medieval hit,  “Sumer is Icumen in”   
+ A four-page student activity packet is provided.  Plus, a ten-page guide for teachers!

+ Everyone learns and has fun. 

 

Story Possibilities:

 

From Serf to Storyteller - a tale within a tale, dramatizing the route, a young serf "owning nothing more than the hunger is his belly"  took to become a master troubadour. Students experience feudalism, learn what makes  "Franklin," and "Villain." They see what the Lord of a Manor must do to protect serfs from "parcels of rogues."  They'll encounter Saint Vitus's dance and solve a riddle. 
 

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.
 

Gawain and The Green Knight -  a classic Arthurian legend of adventure and honesty. 

 

Skit Possibilities:

 

Students may during the performance, or in workshop learn...

 

KNIGHTING-  a Squire knighted on the tournament field

 

GUILDS - from Apprentice to Journeyman to Master, plus they learn about betrothals.  

 

Go A-Falconing - Don't loose the lady's bird!  The punishment is gruesome. 

 

Crusades - Peter the Hermit and Richard the Lionhearted lead

 

Catch a Unicorn - with help from Alchemy and a princess

 

A Day in a Monastery - Students get to act out in rapid succession a monks or nuns day. 

 

COMMON CORE CURRICULAR STANDARDS: 

 

6.6 Mediterranean World: Feudal Western Europe Feudal Europe,  

 

Reading: 6 1 -3, & Integration of knowledge and Ideas, 11 Responding to texts and stories.

 

6.6a Overexpansion, corruption, invasions, civil wars, and discord led to the fall of Rome.

Feudalism developed in Western Europe in reaction to a need for order and to meet basic needs.
 

Students will examine reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire and the development

of feudalism in Western Europe, including efforts to restore the empire, the decentralization

of political authority, and the role of the Christian Church in providing some measure of central authority.

 

 

Part of "Jonathan the Troubadour's Guide for Students"

 

The Medieval Words to “Sumer is Icumen in”!  

 

What do you think it means? Sing it with your friends!

 

Sumer is icumen in, Lhude sing Cuccu!
Groweth sed, and bloweth med, and springeth wde nu.
Sing Cuccu!
Awe bleteth after lombe,
Lhouth after calve cu;
Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth
Murie sing Cuccu, Cuccu, Cuccu!
Wel singes thu Cuccu,
Ne swik thu never nu.

 

Medieval Words to Speak Forsooth

 

Greetings! Salutations!

My Lady,Lord= Hello Fare thee well,

God be with ye! = good bye! 
Anon(a-non) = At once

Zounds(zoons) = On my God! (By christ’s wounds.)

For soothe (for sooth) = really true Jape (jaype) = trick                                    

Rafte = Robbed thee = you , respectfully  Ye (ye) = you

Thy,Thyne, Thou  = your, yours, you Alas = Too bad                     

Liege (Liege (leej) = lord Leere = learn

Galle =  a Sore spot, upset                        

Loothly = Ugly Hath (hath) = has Nought =  for nothing                                            

Nay = No   Yea = Yes Quod(kwode) = Said                                                

Eek = also, or besides

God Spede Yow (God Speed Yew) = Good Bye and Good luck

Trowe = Believe, think                               

Prithee (pri-thee= pretty please (I pray of you)    

Pace = depart, go, leave

Telleth, Goeth, Prayeth = tells, goes, prays Helped,

Jumped = help-ed, jump-ed  say the “ed” in all these words  

Fie (fhy) = yeah, right!                    

Melancholy humour = bummed out, depressed,

Gramercy = Forgive, excuse me (grant me mercy)

Werk  (wark) = work

Merchant (mar-chent) = merchant

 

Insults & Curses

 

A pox upon ye! = I curse you!

A plague upon Ye! = I curse you more

Rump-fed ratsbane = Fat pain in the bottom

Clapper-claw = sharp-tongued

Mewling-Mammering-Moldwarp = whining wishy-washy mole

Fobbing puttock = cheating buzzard

Strumpet, giglet, wench, flirt-gill = crude,rude, lass or woman

Knave, Varlet, scut =  Cheater, nasty rascal, rabbit-rump, lad

 

 

 

Thou dankish, swag-bellied, Guts-gripping, dread-bolted, maggot-pie jolt-head,foot-licker,

clotpole, wet-humped,urchin, loutish, bum-bailey, fopdoddle, driggle-draggle, whiffle-whaffle!!

 

 

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!  Promenade into the Dining Hall.  

Wait for the Chair-Man to sit down at the head of the table.  

Sit on long benches ( you are "on-board!" ) at a long table to share food with your Trencher-Mate.

 

May unwashed fingers  be palsied! A servant pours water on your hands from an Aquamanile, an animal shaped pitcher. Trenchers A slab of bread are given out. Peasants eat them after!  

Removes are courses of food. 

 

Reach with fingers three for food! 

Swallow no under-cooked food, rather spit it on the floor. 

Bloweth not upon soup nor stew!

 

~~~~~

To Whom it May Concern,

         One of the best enrichment activities I have found in the area is Jonathan Kruk the storyteller.  His Medieval Manors and Manners presentation is captivating.  Students are enthralled from the moment he enters and refer back to his presentation throughout our study of the Middle Ages.  Jonathan manages to make the study of history come to life.      

The highly interactive nature of his presentation helps even the most reluctant learner develop an understanding of what life was really like during the time period.  Jonathan enters in character and it takes but a moment for all present to be transported to a land of knights and nobles, peasants and serfs.  Classroom instruction is valuable, but being immersed in an experience brings learning alive.  The energy in the room was highly charged and student’s imaginations were stimulated as the vocabulary they had been struggling with previously suddenly started making sense.  Jonathan enters singing a “Sumer is acumen in” a medieval song the students do not understand. When he sings it again in the end it all makes perfect sense to them.  I asked my students what they most enjoyed about the presentation they were excited to share their favorite memories.  “I liked being a Queen,” by middle school your average girl is long past playing dress-up and allowing her imagination to roam freely, especially in front of her peers, however who ever really outgrows the desire to feel like a Queen, even if only for a few moments.  “I loved dressing up, his wacky outfits made me want to pay attention,”  “The skits were really fun, and seeing all my friends dressed up made it really interesting.”  The kids could not hold back their enthusiastic critiques of Jonathan’s performance.  “He was so funny, I liked how he used all those words, but then stopped to make sure we really understood him, it made “all that stuff “ make sense.”  “I liked when Joe got arrested for selling rotten horsemeat!”  I think the most telling student comment of all was “He made me want to pay attention,” as a teacher it is a daily struggle to try and keep students engaged.  Jonathan made the study of the Middle Ages a joyful pleasure.  I highly recommend his performance to any teacher interested in bringing learning alive for their students.  I look forward to having Jonathan back year after year to help as many students as possible understand what daily life was like for all the different social classes in the Middle Ages.

Respectfully Yours,

Mary Eickler