What did northern European peasants do all winter?
>>1108291
They probably still had work to do other than farming. Hunting, tending to domesticated animals, doing repairs, going to church etc.
>The peasant’s year was divided into two seasons: five months of labour, where 99% of the work was done and seven months of winter. As money was practically unknown in rural France until the late 19th century, there was little motivation to do anything other than conserve energy. It seems in many places, whole families just took to their beds, snug under their hayloft, with a supply of dried and preserved food and their animals in the next room to keep them warm. If anyone died, the corpse was stored on the roof and buried when the weather got warmer.
>There are no reports of British peasants taking to their beds all winter, but this may be a question of diet as much as tradition. Far from the rich provincial fare of cuisine maman that we now associate with rural France, the average French peasant was more to be pitied than envied by their British counterparts.
>>1108365
sounds comfy
>>1108365
>Seven months of vacation annually
Some things never change, I guess.
>>1108291
>What did northern European peasants do all winter?
Well from mid-serfdom onwards, and especially during reinfeudation they produced export crafts to pay their taxes to the church and landlord.
>>1108327
Sounds familiar..
>>1108291
pretty much - got drunk, slaughtered pigs, made kids and dealt with sporadic seasonal ailments
theres some farm work usualy done during winter but thats standard, and there was usualy some religious festivals, christmass for example
this is generaly how it still works in rural europe, except now we have flu shots and antibiotics
generaly it was a time to relax and have some fun, celebrate the passing of the year and then the eventual comming of spring, unless the harvest season was particularly bad or there was a war that fucked up agriculture, in which case kids and old people starved
>>1110034
>Sitting at home
>in duh winter
>fun
No....
Im glad as fuck I dont live in Ye olde northern europe sheesh.
Why not trek it to some tropical mountain village like in karate kid with that funky water fountain and the snake lady
DIE
>>1110177
i don't think medieval northern europe had an abundance of tropical mountain villages
>>1110289
I obviously mean go to another country.
>>1108291
They thrashed the corn
They brewed beer and made butter
They mended clothes and such
Animals still had to be tended to
Probably slept a lot because candles were expensive
>>1110360
I hope this is bait.
Truly.
>>1110360
i don't think medieval northern european peasants had the economic freedom to go to another country every winter
>>1108404
underratted
According to Varg they had high festivals year round
At least in Finland/Sweden they used to do a lot of trading during the winter. Transport over the Bothnian Gulf was a lot easier when it was frozen over (not that it was of any significant difficulty in the summer either).
A lot of our agriculture here consists of forestry, and most of the felling was usually done during winter, also because of easier transport.
>>1108365
I remember reading about a small French village where they still do this. It was described as a sort of "hibernation".
I doubt it's true though.
>>1110376
You just need to find food along the journey. You dont need money.
Pretty sure they just ate and fucked.
>>1108365
>money was practically unknown in rural France until the late 19th century
what a load of fucking bullshit
>>1110533
i don't think medieval northern europe had an abundance of food laying around the countryside in the middle of fucking winter
In Norway? They slept, freezed and did what little they could do. Everybody would tell you how old they were by how many winters they endured. Weak and old would often get sick and die, children who were born in winter likely didn't survive.
>>1108365
>As money was practically unknown in rural France until the late 19th century
> there was little motivation to do anything other than conserve energy
So stupid.
>>1108365
http://qi.com/infocloud/hibernation
What kind of retarded source is that?
Why do people like you post here?
>>1110599
Protip: Everything on this board works that way.
they were doing other jobs so they can focus on the rush to reap or sow during other times of the year
>>1110599
>http://qi.com/infocloud/hibernation
Damn, that French-English rivalry i never gonna disappear completely, is it?
>>1110542
>Pretty sure they just ate
Rye porridge
>and fucked
Hairy unkempt pussy that has pushed out five babies before she was 17.
Not so "comfy" now, is it?
They hide on their caves
>>1108291
Watch a docu like Tudor farm or look at books of hours.
Preserving foods
Maintaining fences, outhouses, buildings, barns
Ice skating
Domestic chores
Threshing grain
Wage labor or doing work at home
Celebrate TWELVE FUCKING DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
>>1110372
Depends, beeswax candles can be expensive, tallow candles not so much and rush lights were downright cheap. A fire provided some light at any time.
>>1110792
Porridge is foor poorfucks from rural Scotland and Finland
Northern European age of marriage was mid 20s so kids before 20-25 was an anomaly rather than a rule.
>>1110824
>this didn't change during literally one thousand years
>>1110832
Porridge for poor fucks or marriage?
>>1110832
Well, you didnt.
>>1110533
Also the streets werent that safe, you still could get robbed and killed
don't know what's up with these yuropoors giving up on life because its cold. in canada winters are the best season for trapping. you also had ice fishing and some game hunting. of course this is also the season to tap maple trees. before snowmobiles skis and snowshoes were often used for transportation through snowy terrain.
tea used to be a big deal in Canada during winters. people would often be drinking it all day to keep warm.
>>1110902
>don't know what's up with these yuropoors
>speaks about a time when the most canadians had been in the country for about a generation
>>1110916
I'm talking about the mid 1700s to early 20th century
>>1110425
Underrated post
>>1110902
its a question about pesants
trapping and game hunting got pesants executed
>>1111028
Hunting =/= poaching
>>1111300
dont know if the general population could realy do that, maybe just in certain areas or so, think you had to have some equivalent of a licence or family trade
unless you just knew your way around your wood and fuck the police
might be wrong
>>1111315
Sometimes paying was enough but it was mostly boar and deer that was protected and even then exceptions were made sometimes. Pests were encouraged to be hunted during some seasons.
>>1108365
>Seven months of winter
Vigorous shitposting.
I know, because it hasn't changed one bit since that time.
>>1110897
also walking to another country is a REALLY long walk
>>1111826
>ywn eat boiled vegetables and drink vodka with creepy old men in a foggy russian forest discussing feels and dostoevsky
why live
>>1111884
It's actually from Rehepapp, a film set in Estonia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4uDX-_b9n4
>>1110792
You do know that Victorian writers were really describing their own underclass when they were talking about medieval peasants, right?
>>1111028
Deer and boar yes, but I'm pretty sure the lord wouldn't mind if the peasants were catching squirrels and small birds
Many Norwegians worked in the forest. As was mentioned earlier, it was easier to transport during winter, you can just pull the logs on the snow, and there's less obstracles overall, and frozen water.
There was probably a lot of wool work too. People tend to undervalue that because it was something women did, but it's one of the most time consuming things that was done, and it took a lot of work.
On the coast, it was also common to go fishing for long periods of time to make some money.
