Capons, Cocks and Hens: Keeping Chickens in Medieval England
Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Capons, Cocks and Hens: Keeping Chickens in Medieval England

If you were a chicken in medieval England, the worst thing you could be was male

We tend to picture the medieval farmyard as gently pastoral: hens scratching contentedly around the cottage, a cockerel crowing at dawn. That picture isn't wrong, exactly, it's just missing most of the story. Because from the moment a male chick hatched, the farmyard had already decided he was a problem to be solved: too many mouths, too much aggression, not enough usefulness. What happened to him next ranged from a quick death to a surgeon's knife to, for a smaller number, a fighting pit.

This is the story of the medieval chicken — hens, capons and cocks alike — but it's the males whose fate deserves the closer look.

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All Souls’ Day: Soul Cakes, Prayer and Memory
Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce

All Souls’ Day: Soul Cakes, Prayer and Memory

s the bells of All Saints’ Day fall silent, a gentler sound takes their place: the slow, measured knell for the departed.

2 November, All Souls’ Day, was the moment when the living turned their hearts toward those of the departed, the ordinary people, not the saints, who still journeyed through Purgatory.

The season of light ended not in mourning, but in the hope that love and prayer could reach beyond the grave.

Origins and Etymology

The word soul comes from Old English sawol, “the spiritual essence of a person.”

The “Mass of Souls,” or Soul Mass Day, was first proclaimed in 998 AD by Abbot Odilo of Cluny. He ordered that every monastery in his order should celebrate a Mass for “all the faithful departed.” From Cluny, the custom spread throughout Europe.

Yet its roots run deep into pagan soil.

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All Hallows’ Day: The Feast of All Saints
Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce

All Hallows’ Day: The Feast of All Saints

After the shadowed vigil of All Hallows’ Eve came the brightness of All Hallows’ Day—later called Hallowmas.
The name joins hallow (Old English hālga, “holy person”) and mass (from Latin missa, “Eucharistic service”).
It was the day when the Church lifted its gaze from the souls still journeying toward heaven to those who had already arrived.

Altars were dressed in white, bells rang across town and countryside, and processions wound through streets lit by candles. The message was clear: the darkness of death had been overcome by the light of sainthood.

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All Hallows’ Eve: The Vigil of the Departed
Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce

All Hallows’ Eve: The Vigil of the Departed

When twilight falls on 31 October, the Christian calendar and the old pagan year meet.
The Eve of All Hallows—from Old English hālga ǣfen (“holy evening”)—was the vigil before the Feast of All Saints.
Yet in spirit it still carried the echo of Samhain, the Celtic festival of endings and beginnings.

In pagan belief, this was the night when the barrier between worlds dissolved: the dead might revisit hearth and home, and the living could glimpse the Otherworld. Fires blazed, food was laid out for ancestors, and villagers disguised themselves to ward off or impersonate wandering spirits.

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Lanterns and Mischief: From Samhain Fires to Punkie Night
Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce

Lanterns and Mischief: From Samhain Fires to Punkie Night

In the ancient Celtic world, Samhain marked the moment when the year tipped into darkness. Bonfires blazed on hilltops, not as mere celebration but as protection—flames to cleanse, to guard livestock, and to guide wandering souls.

When Christianity spread, the bonfire’s symbolism endured. The Church kindled its own light—candles of vigil—burning in churchyards and windows on the eve of All Hallows’ Day, turning pagan flame into prayer.

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What Is Allhallowtide? The Three Days of the Dead…
Everyday Life, Religion Magic and Belief Rachel Elwiss Joyce Everyday Life, Religion Magic and Belief Rachel Elwiss Joyce

What Is Allhallowtide? The Three Days of the Dead…

As the last leaves fall and nights lengthen, the medieval calendar turns toward Allhallowtide—three days devoted to saints, souls, and the turning of the year.
The word comes from hallow (Old English hālga, “holy person”) and tīd (“time” or “season”).
For Christians of the Middle Ages, it was a sacred hinge between worlds: a time to honour the saints in heaven, pray for souls in Purgatory, and remember the dead on earth.

But these days did not arise from nowhere. Long before church bells rang, the Celts gathered at Samhain—literally “summer’s end.” The festival marked the boundary between the light and dark halves of the year, when harvest was over and the veil between living and dead grew thin.

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What Languages Did Jews Speak in Medieval England?
Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce Religion Magic and Belief, Everyday Life Rachel Elwiss Joyce

What Languages Did Jews Speak in Medieval England?

In twelfth-century England, Jewish communities lived in a world of many languages: Hebrew for prayer and scholarship, Anglo-Norman French for daily life and business, early Yiddish among German-origin Jews, and Middle English among their neighbours. Here’s how that multilingual world shaped the Jewish characters in Lady of the Castle.

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