History culture and authenticity

We spoke in one of the workshops about authenticity and how we want to portray the story, if we want it serious or comical etc. This is obviously something that will come to us throughout the rehearsal process but it is something I have been thinking about a lot.

I really like being authentic to the time and creating a scene that transports you into the world of the fiction in all sensory aspects. After the Gamelan workshop I looked into different ways of instrumental story telling and this prompted me upon finding out the story Beowulf to look into what instrumental entertainment would have been common at the time.

Pan-pipes and Wooden pipes are thought to be common instruments of the time with some being excavated in York in recent years.
Although we have no way of knowing what these would have sounded like at the time it is fair to suggest that these items would have been used for entertainment among other things.
There is also evidence that bugles/cow horns would have been used.
I found the following videos as examples of some of the sound effects or instruments that we could try and incorporate into the action.

                               
                                   

 
I really like the following video. Out the two this is my favourite because the sounds is so different from anything we are used to hearing today. We could maybe use this sort of traditional music as we lead the audience in or as background music in the mead hall or outside by the fire.

                      

As I have already touched on in a previous post storytelling was a big part of the culture and would take place around the evening meal. Ale and Mead were the main tipples, but wine could also be imported in from other countries. We could serve wine at the start of the performance as this is readily available and not too expensive!

I found this picture which shows the traditional setting of a feast or banquet. If we are going to recreate the mead hall we can take inspiration from set ups such as this. 

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As the main bulk of our story is dealing with battle I have begun to look into what health and medicine would have been like at the time. It appears that it was possible to live a long life in these times. I read that "Good health seemed to be an extension of good luck...and as such, chants and charms were used to encourage good fortune. 

I found this really interesting and thought we could use this aspect of the culture. We have already begun to look into the use of chants and possible group singing etc so it is something that we can definitely explore further. 

As well as magical remedies, the Norse culture also used herbal remedies made from local sourced herbs and ingredients. Poem's and literature from the time such as Eiríks saga rauða (Erik the red) 

mention the use of "healers" or though it appears the most common thing would have been to get help from local people of expertise.

As well as herbal remedies people would burn things like insence such as frankincense. I have ordered some online to bring in and burn so we can see if it is something we might like to use. It should be with me by next week and we can go from there!

 There were of course lots of disease such as small pox and dysentery etc. This could be useful to remember when we looking into makeup and body paint, as we could really play around and create some gruesome injuries etc.