SC - St Martha's Guild ROCKS!!
Seton1355@aol.com
Seton1355 at aol.com
Sun Apr 2 17:40:08 PDT 2000
In a message dated 4/2/00 10:17:46 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
owner-sca-cooks at ansteorra.org writes:
<< I don't know that the Norse, at least in their home countries, drank
wine or hippocras (spiced wine), though. I would think that beers and
meads would be much more likely. The wine would have to be imported
and hippocras often seems to have been made from the lower quality
wines. Why import low quality wines? >>
I'm not sure about Denmark, but Ireland was importing wine in great
quantities in the 12th C according to several sources;
>From the written account by Giraldas Cambrensis or Gerald of Wales, comes a
description of the riches of Ireland in 1187,
The island is rich in pastures and meadows, honey and milk, and also in wine,
although not in vineyards. Bede, indeed, among his other commendations of
Ireland, says, "that it does not lack vineyards"; while Solinus and Isidore
affirm, "that there are no bees." But with all respect for them, they might
have written just the contrary, that vineyards do not exist in the island,
but that bees are found there. Vines it never possessed, nor any cultivators
of them. Still, foreign commerce supplies it with wine in such plenty that
the want of the growth of vines, and their natural production, is scarcely
felt. Poitou, out of its superabundance, exports vast quantities of wine to
Ireland, which willingly gives in return its ox-hides and the skins of cattle
and wild beasts.
And;
Tolls charged in Dublin in 1233 by Henry the III, Lord of Ireland, for goods
describes a limited variety of items although it is suspected that the list
is incomplete. The list includes;wheat ,oats, horse or mare, ox or cow, hogs,
sheep, wine, grain, salt, fat, cheese, honey, butter, herrings , and salmon
amoung other merchandise.
Hauviette
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