The second in a series of sonic papers about medieval Britain.

'Cammock Tongue' focuses on the English language, specifically Middle English, and the ordinary people who spoke it.


‘Fallowlands’ contains a reading of the medieval agricultural calendar, highlighting the endless toil of the feudal serf, whose only promise of relief was a better life in heaven. This social system was based on abstract concepts of fealty, homage and loyalty to the monarch; the only true owner of any land. At the bottom of this sad pyramid, familiar to many from school history lessons, were the serfs, or ‘villeins’. Obligated to work the land of their lord without pay, many lived on the edge of starvation and often had to accept a further downgrade of social status when times were hard. ‘Fallowlands’ celebrates the serf, often forgotten by the popular imagination in favour of a romanticised class narrative, which questionably elevates Kings and Knights to heroic status.


‘Daunce, Brothers’. Despite facing condemnation and prohibition from religious authorities throughout the medieval period, dancing was both a popular pastime and a form of devotion, especially in the early church. However, as Christianity sought to distance itself from its pagan forebears, dancing gradually accrued a negative connotation. That said, some liturgical sources (such as Sicard of Cremona) remind us that, ‘thus it is in the cloisters of certain churches even Bishops enjoy the December Freedom with their clerics, even to descend to the game of the circular dance…’ (from Mitrale 6.15). This composition encompasses both the powerful resonance of the dance, and its eventual decline into alleged ‘heresy’.

‘The Machabre’ is the first of two readings from John Lydgate's 'The Dance of Death*'. In this section (lines 40-48), the author reminds his readers that Death comes for us all, both those of high and low rank. The poem itself moves through the different groups in society, from King, through Knight and Abbot, down to those most put-upon by the inequalities of medieval society...

‘Death Speaks to the Laborer’, the second excerpt from Lydgate (lines 544-560), here Death personified enters into a dialogue with the downtrodden labourer, who reflects that 'in this worlde here, ther is reste none.'

>See below for full texts to both tracks<

‘The Shepherd's Needle’, or Scandix Pecten-venerix, is known variously in different parts of the British Isles as Venus’ Comb, Adam's Needle, the Witch's Needle and even Demon’s Spike Grass. Such names speak of pre-Christian, and even pre-Saxon, traditions of associating edible plants (such as the Scandix, but also corn) with female deities or spirits. The sinister connotations attached to the plant, suggests HR Ellis Davidson, come from ideas of mischievous spirits running through the fields, causing the plants to sway.

‘The Great Vowel Shift (in the North of England’), although beginning predominantly in the south of England, the Great Vowel Shift came to affect almost all dialects of English, and not only the vowels (despite the name). From around 1300, the sound of English began to change, with vowel sounds moving ‘up’ in how they were articulated. Accordingly, spelling as well as pronunciation was altered by this shift (which took place gradually, and not in a geographically even manner).

Because the South of England was more economically prosperous and active, there was a greater mixing of dialects due to trade and travel from the countryside into urban areas. The vowels of the North, however, appear to have both undergone an earlier change in articulation, as well as been impervious to the southern developments; greater contact with Nordic countries meant that the Northern vowels may have already shifted to reflect this influence, and so resisted further change.

‘Mildreth’s Textus’ explores the peculiar talismanic role that the physical gospel books (‘textus’) played in superstition and faith. The reading of liturgical texts was an intense sensory experience for many: the imposing visuals of the church, incense, the vast reverberations of the voices reading in rhythmic monotony, all contributed to make the ‘act’ of gospel reading a profound one for many in the medieval period. In addition, the object of the textus itself was often imbued with a special significance by layfolk and found its way into folkloric superstition. The textus of St Mildreth was said to have caused a dishonest man to miraculously lose his sight, according to Thomas of Elham.

‘Deerhurst’, a town in Gloucestershire, is a 12km walk from the market town of Tewkesbury. In this recording, made in 1955 by Stanley Ellis, Jim Roberts (b. 1878), a retired farm labourer, recounts past floods in the area. Thanks to the British Library for the sensitive and respectful preservation of these important recordings.

Appendix:

The Machabre (from The Dance of Death, lines 40-48, The A Version)

Verba Auctoris (Words of the author)
O creatures ye that ben resonable
The liif desiring wiche is eternal,
Ye may se here doctrine ful notable,
Youre lif to lede wich that is mortal,
Therby to lerne in especial
Howe ye shul trace the Daunce of Machabre,
To man and womman yliche natural,
For deth ne spareth hy ne lowe degré.

Death Speaks with the Labourer (from The Dance of Death, lines 544-560, The A Version)

>>Deeth to the Laborer
Thou, laborer, wich in sorwe and peine
Hast lad thi life in ful greet travail,
Thou moste eke dauce and therefore not disdeyne,
For if thou do, it may thee not avail.
And cause why that I thee assaile,
Is oonly this: from thee to dissevere
The fals worlde that can so folke faile.
He is a fool that weneth to lyve evere.

>>The Laborer answerith
I have wisshed aftir Deeth ful ofte,
Al be that I wolde have fled hym now -
I had levere to have leyn unsofte,
In winde and reyn and have gone at plow,
With spade and pikoys and labourid for my prow,
Dolve and ditched and at the carte goon.
For I may seie and telle pleinl howe,
In this world her ther is reste none.

(Very special thanks to both Elizaveta Strakhov and Megan Cook for their recordings, permission to quote their text and general assistance)
From Lydgate's Dance of Death and Related Works, Ed. Megan L. Cook and Elizaveta Strakhov (Medieval Institute Publications, Michigan, 2019).

Bibliography

Approaching the Bible in Medieval England, Poleg, Eyal (Manchester University Press, 2016)

Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, by HR Ellis Davidson (Penguin, 1965).

Gregorian Chant for Church and School, Sister Mary Antonine Goodchild, O.P. (Illinois, Ginn & Company, 1944).

John Lydgate’s Dance of Death and Related Works, Ed. Megan L. Cook and Elizaveta Strakhov (Medieval Institute Publications, Michigan, 2019).

John the Blind Audelay: Poems and Carols, Ed. Susanna Fein (Medieval Institute Publications, Michigan, 2009).

Liturgists and Dance in the Twelfth Century: The Witness of John Beleth and Sicard of Cremona. Mews, C. (Church History, 2009).

Make We Merry More and Less: An Anthology of Medieval English Popular Literature, Selected and Introduced by Douglas Gray, Ed. Jane Bliss (Cambridge, UK, Open Book Publishers, 2019).

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, Ed. and Trans. Michael Swanton (Phoenix Press, London, 2000).