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Welcome to Kildonan Times ezine! Kildonan Times is the occasional newsletter/ezine of the novel, Clovenstone, Stones Seven, and beyond to things medieval, Celtic, literary, and mythic. BACK ISSUES OF KILDONAN TIMES are published on the Kildonan Times website. If you wish to read or print any of the back issues, the Kildonan Times website can be accessed from pages on Clovenstone Chronicles or you can go directly to the website at Kildonan Times You can also subscribe to Kildonan Times at either site. KILDONAN TIMES
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MEDIEVAL FOODS CAUDLE (caudle cup) Caudle dates 'way back to early Medieval times as a staple drink for entertaining, warming oneself, or treating a cold or flu. Caudle is a comfort drink. It's also a good drink for the holidays. Often the phrase "caudle cup" is used to mean a drink of caudle. "She warmed herself before bed with with a caudle cup." In later years,cups were created just for caudle, and caudle cups from Jacobean and Victorian times can still be found in antique shops. This particular recipe for caudle comes from the website A Boke of Goode Cookery
This silver caudle cup was made in 1659 in London. It is in the Royal Ontario Museum. A caudle cup is double handled, and has a lid to keep the caudle hot. OLD ENGLISH 83. Caudell. Draw yolkes of eyron thorow a streynour with wyne or with ale, that hit be ryght rennyng; put therto sigure, safron, & no salt. Bet well togedyr; set hit on the fyre on clene colys. Stere welle the bottom & the sydys tyl hit be ynowghe scaldyng hote; thu shalle fele be the staffe when hit begynnys to com. Then take hit of and styre alwey fast, & yf be nede, aley hit up with som of the wyne; or yf hit com to hastyly, put hit in cold watyr to myd syd of the pot, & stere hit alwey fast; & serve hit forth.
* 5 egg yolks © by James L. Matterer
WORD CHASE Caudle is, to me, a rather odd word. So I looked it up to see where it came from. The Old English spelling in the recipe above is caudell. The Oxford Dictionary of the English Language lists seven other spelling variations. According to my venerable Thorndike-Barnhart dictionary, caudle came from Old North French caudel, which came from the Medieval Latin caudellum which came from the Latin caldum, meaning a hot drink. The Oxford dictionary agrees, but with much more scholarly detail added.
NOTES HOLLY.... The holly and the ivy, There are hundreds and hundreds of years of history behind this familiar Christmas carol. Holly was part of religions long before Christianity came to Britain. The Celts, in some of their religious customs, placed holly around in their homes during the winter so that the faeries could come inside and shelter in the holly to keep warm. Having the faeries there, of course, was also good luck. Others decorated their homes with holly, especially around the windows and doors, to keep out witches and demons. I have a line of holly bushes across the front of my house. I wonder if that demon business works? The Druids believed holly was created to keep the earth beautiful when other trees lost their leaves. They wore holly in their hair to witness the mistletoe gathering. You'll notice that I have at the bottom of each Kildonan Times a little emblem with mistletoe and holly on it. I got the pictures of the mistletoe and holly off a Christmas card, in which they circled a drawing of Santa Claus. Now there's a melding of cultures! I added the Celtic design to the emblem. The Romans used evergreens, including holly, as part of their Saturnalia celebrations. They, too, used holly to decorate their homes and public buildings.Saturnalia was the festival for the Roman god Saturn, held in December. It was a riotous, unrestrained party that lasted for days. In the very old days in Britain, before pub signs, a holly branch stuck in the ground next to the door of a house indicated that food and drink were available there. Instead of faeries, this holly offered hospitality to humans, though any good faeires were welcome too, I suppose. Even the holly and the ivy combination had earlier beginnings. There was the custom in very early times of dressing a boy in holly and a girl in ivy and parading them around the village as a symbol of nature's life even in the dead of winter, a promise that the land would be green again. In Celtic mythology, the Holly King ruled from summer solstice until the winter solstice (which will be on December 22 this year—Happy Birthday, King Arthur!), when the Oak King took over to rule the other half of the year from winter solstice to summer solstice. Many folks today welcome the solstice, the day when light returns, with candles, bonfires, and evergreens.It's a rather nice tradition. These two elements of the Nature god, King Holly and King Oak, were favorite characters in winter entertainments given by wandering players. King Holly was traditionally a huge man covered in holly and carrying a holly bush for a club. He may have been the inspiration for the Green Knight in the Celtic Arthurian legend, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Green Knight throws down a challenge at the Christmas celebration of the Knights of the Round Table: But the hue of his every feature No spear to thrust, no shield against the shock of battle, When Christianity came, it was easy to reinterpret the old customs of holly, ivy, and mistletoe into the new faith, and thus the customs are still followed today, in Christian and pagan worlds alike. So when you drape the Christmas holly over the window or hang the holly wreath on the door, think about those ancient Celts and the roots of this tradition.
If you would like to read more about the history and mythology of holly go to: http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/tfl.mythholly.html http://www.tartans.com/modules.php.srl.op+modload,name+EZCMS,file+index,print+1,page_id+29.html
HERBS In my discussions of herbs in all the issues of Kildonan Times, I present only general information. It is not intended to be a guide for the use of the herbs. If you wish to use any of the herbs described in Kildonan Times, consult an herbalist or a definitive guide book to using herbs. ************ saffron: While we were in Cornwall last month we indulged in traditional foods, including saffron buns.You can get them in any Cornish bakery, and we did almost every day. My husband Bob's family made saffron buns and bread, usually on holidays. It was always present at Christmas. When I married into this Cornish family, I made saffron bread and buns at Christmas for years, and still do occasionally. Saffron does have a faint taste, but the most telling feature is that foods made with saffron are bright yellow, which makes it a favorite for coloring rice and liqueurs. Saffron appears in many medieval recipes, like the caudle above. It's a universal spice, and you can find it in foods from Nogales to London to Bangkok. But it is very expensive, so substitutes such as tumeric (which I'll talk about in January) are often used and considered as acceptable as the real thing.Well, it may be all right for coloring rice, but doesn't do much in breads. Here in Florida we get a "Mexican saffron" that is much cheaper and very plentiful, and I have used it successfully in bread. Saffron is the stigmas of the flower of a crocus, Crocus saticus, that grows in Spain, France, and other warm climates. Why is it so expensive? It take 5,000 hand-picked little stigmas from 1,700 flowers to make just an ounce of saffron. Even though recipes call for only very small amounts of the spice, it is still expensive — if you can get it. I have had a hard time in recent years getting the true saffron. It comes as the dried little stigmas when you buy it, and you soak them in warm water to release the colors and flavor before putting it in your food. Saffron has some medicinal properties, but can be poisonous in large doses, though I can't imagine ever being able to get enough of it to poison yourself. However, the high cost of saffron and the availability of synthetic substitutes for medical needs pretty much precludes the use of real herb. It is, as you can imagine, also used as a dye. In Clovenstone and Stones Seven, the ship Evensong has saffron sails, bright yellow sails. Evensong, captained by the robust Krizia, saves the adventurers, weathers storms, and sails to magically hidden ports in the tales. “Shall we see if we know them?” called Talorg, already turning towards the ship. “It sort of has a familiar shape.” They hadn’t flown far when Fiona cried out, “You’re right! Saffron sails! Evensong! I’m sure of it!” Within minutes the yellow sails of Evensong were unmistakable, hanging almost slack in the slight morning breeze. Stones Seven Chapter 1 **********
A FEW THOUGHTS FROM THE EDITOR (me, Ruth) When you spend even just two months immersed in a foreign culture, as we just did in Britain, you have to go through a process to change back into a full American. We returned with a British accent, sort of, and I still catch myself using my fork in my left hand. The bed and breakfast lodging system in Britain is wonderful. Not only is it the least expensive way to travel, it allows you to get inside the homes of Britain and talk to the owners about their gardens and their towns. It's like being a continual house guest. Most of the other guests in a B&B are British, and the chat over a full English breakfast takes you right into the habits, customs, and attitudes of the Brits. It's an experience you can't get with a tour group or in a hotel. We travel by bus or train most of the time. Again, it throws us in with the local populace, and we meet some fascinating people. In a car, you're in your own little case, all shut up against the outside, occupied with remembering to drive on the left and struggling to read road maps. You don't touch the real Britain. We have had to rent a car to get to places inconvenient or impossible to reach by by bus, but there's very few of those places, and we always return the car as soon as possible. In the bus, every trip is an unguided tour. I can lean back, chew on a ham sandwich, and watch the scenery go by. Often locals on the bus are eager to tell you about what you are seeing, proud to explain their part of the world. The old saying is that Britain and the U.S. are two countries separated by a common language. We are also separated by totally different cultures, no matter how much they look the same on the surface. Bette Midlar put it in a nutshell. "When it's 3:00 in New York, it's still 1958 in London." That's why we go across the pond, not just to see Stonehenge, but also to drink pub beer, indulge in cream teas, read their newspapers and see how they hang their curtains. They come here to eat American hot dogs, read our newspapers, and see how we hang our curtains. Otherwise, why would anyone go? R
And, as always, tell your aunts, uncles, cousins and friends about the novels of Clovenstone Chronicles. Give them an adventure! Order your copy of Clovenstone or Stones Seven from: or your local bookstore.
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