This is a significant new study of the festival culture of northern Europe in the later Middle Ages: more specifically of the German-speaking communities of the great cities of the eastern Baltic littoral in what was then called Livonia, corresponding roughly to the territories of present-day Estonia and Latvia. While subject to a degree of Scandinavian influence, the festival culture of Livonian cities such as Riga, Reval (Tallinn), and Dorpat (Tartu), which were members of the Hanseatic League, substantially overlapped with that of other German-speaking areas, not least the Hanseatic cities of northern Germany.
The major part of the book is devoted to the main annual festivals of the merchants' guilds: Christmas, Carnival, the popinjay shoot, and the May Count celebrations. There follows an analysis of specific aspects of the festivals: spatial contexts, finances, food and drink, entertainments (dances, jousts, games), customs and rituals. There is also a concluding glance at changes in festival culture after the Reformation. The study combines close scrutiny of local customs (made possible by the almost miraculous survival of uniquely detailed documentation), contextualization within the wider comparative context of festival culture in late-medieval Europe, and an alterness to significant recent scholarship in both English and German.
Author(s): Anu Mänd
Series: Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe, 8
Publisher: Brepols
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 400
City: Turnhout
Acknowledgements ix
List of Figures, Charts, and Tables xi
List of Abbreviations xv
Place-name Equivalents xix
Preface: Of Easterlings and their Festivals / Tom Pettitt xxi
Introduction: On the Study of Festival 1
1. Background to the Inquiry 15
1.1. Historiography 15
1.2. Sources and Methodology 19
2. Urban Associations 25
2.1. Social Structure in Livonian Cities: Guilds and Confraternities 25
2.2. Annual Festivals: The Summit of Social Life in Urban Associations 41
3. Christmas and Carnival 55
3.1. Duration of Christmas, Special Days, Activities 55
3.2. Duration of Carnival, Special Days, Activities 67
3.3. Participants and their Duties 89
3.4. Guests, Entertainers, and Dramatic Interludes 97
3.5. Festival Devils and the Problem of Disguise 108
4. The Popinjay Shoot and the May Count Festival 119
4.1. The Popinjay Shoot and the Associated Festivities 119
4.2. The May Count Festival 142
5. Minor Seasonal Feast Day Celebrations 161
5.1. Easter, Pentecost, Corpus Christi 161
5.2. The Feasts of St John, St Pantaleon, and the Assumption of the Virgin 169
5.3. Michaelmas, All Souls’ Day, Martinmas 175
6. Arrival of a Lord: Festive Entries of the Livonian Master 183
7. Essential Elements of Festivals 201
7.1. Financing the Festivals: Expenditure and Income 201
7.2. Food and Drink 207
7.3. Dances and Games 229
7.4. Jousts 238
7.5. Norms of Behaviour — Feasts and Misbehaviour 248
7.6. Ceremonies and Space 256
8. Continuity and Change after the Reformation 269
Conclusion 281
Appendices
1. The Instructions for Stewards of the Black Heads in Reval Concerning the 'drunke' at Christmas and Carnival (1513–14) 287
2. The Regulations for the Shooting Contest Issued by the City Council of Reval (c. 1550) 299
3. Prohibitions Against Masking and Carnival Activities from Riga, Reval, and Pernau 303
4. Sample Feast Accounts from Reval and Riga 307
5. Food and Drink Purchased for Festivals 317
6. Livonian Currency, Weights, and Measures 333
Bibliography 335
Index 359
