21 of the Weirdest Things That Were Normal in Medieval Times

‘Using stale bread as plates’
21 of the Weirdest Things That Were Normal in Medieval Times

Medieval times were, like, really weird. For entertainment, they watched guys with metal suits stab other guys on horses. Everyone ate giant turkey legs. Pepsi was served in brilliantly decorated mugs. Wait, no. We’re describing the theme restaurant Medieval Times.

But the historical era was probably a wild ride, too. No TikTok, no Target, no Popeyes. What did people even do? They went completely out of their everlovin’ minds, that’s what. When user sinoxx_the_maymayer asked r/AskReddit, “What is something that was normal in medieval times, but would be weird today?,” the history buffs of Reddit proved that in spades.

AldasS1 4y ago Fight instead of divorce Why waste time on courts and child support? In medieval Germany, if a husband and wife reached a dead end on some important issue, they entered the ring. The rules, of course, equalized the forces of men and women. In the ring, the man was in a hole, one hand was tied behind his back, so that he could strike with only one hand. And the wife was given a bag of coal, with which she struck. Whoever wins the fight (inflicts serious injury or the defeated one asks for mercy) is, therefore,
Piratesfan02 4y ago Edited 4y ago Duels over a bride at a wedding.
Djinn42 4y ago Wearing a codpiece.
epluribusanus4 4y ago Dying of dehydration from diarrhea would be pretty strange to most people these days.
Vexonte 4y ago Donating your urine to a Dyer.
lord_skum 4y ago using stale bread as plates
nachorykaart . 4y ago Not as crazy as a lot of these, but cleaning your dishes with grass and ash. Sounds nasty by todays standards, but actually worked really well!
OutlawJoseyMeow 4y ago Putting live birds in meat pies for more dramatic effect upon slicing into said pies.
trailsurgeon 4y ago Perpetual soup. Basically a large pot would always be simmering and food would be tossed in before spoiling. So it was just a large vat of everything simmering nonstop
4y ago Having rules about what colors and what type of clothing and hats you could wear, based on your occupation or social level.
CrYpTiC316 4y ago The hue and cry. Literally shouting that someone stole something and having the whole village chase after them
4y ago Males playing females parts in plays because women weren't allowed to act professionally. I imagine it made the Shakespeare plays where characters were men pretending to be women then pretending to be men even more ridiculous.
Thatweasel 4y ago Displays of affection between men. lirc hugging, platonic kissing etc were the normal displays of affection between male friends and wouldn't have drawn attention in public
I_hate_traveling 4y ago The concepts of paying a bride price or a dowry (they're the exact opposite). Back then you had to pay to get married; now you just pay after you're married.
Witty-Message-2852 4y ago . Edited 4y ago Sleeping with your entire family in one bed. Or if you are a king, sleeping in the same bed with a rival king to cement your friendship and respect for each other, as brothers. Privacy was just not really a thing in the middle ages!
Unicormfarts 4y ago Women plucking their hairline to make their forehead bigger. In the C13th, there was this whole European aesthetic about women's sexy, sexy foreheads. So women would pluck their hair to make the forehead bigger and sexier. Whenever I tell my classes about this they go ew but they are all manscaping and waxing other body parts.
4y ago Gruesome executions that took a while to actually kill someone. Seriously medieval people WTF is it with sentencing people to be burned at the stake or crucified or drawn-and-quartered? A swift beheading was the most benevolent way to kill someone in the old days but not widely practiced as it turns out.
FeatsOfStrength 4y ago I read a book from the 1930's about life in Medieval England, one of the thing that really stuck out was the level of animal cruelty, and I don't just mean beasts of burden and what not. In one section on the types of games played at fairs there was one for example which involved tying a Rooster to a peg and then the contestants took turns throwing stones at it, whoever killed it was the winner. Bear baiting, bull baiting and baiting just about any kind of animal, usually ending in it being killed was the
Icy_Noob 4y ago Animal Courts. By far the most serial offenders were pigs, accused and convicted of chewing off body parts and even eating children. Most were found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging or being burned at the stake. In 1386, a convicted pig was dressed in a waistcoat, gloves, drawers and a human mask for its execution.
MrLuxarina 4y ago Public baths. Not on the same scale as they were in Rome, but it was still pretty common to have a bathhouse in medieval Germany and surrounding places to bathe in a group in a large tub of hot, fragrant water, called a Zuberbad in German. Now everyone's all hung up nudity. even among friends, so it's way less common (although you can still enjoy a public Zuber bath at medieval markets and renaissance fairs in Germanic countries).
Kaleb1134 4y ago Wearing cloaks I don't understand why cloaks are amazing we should bring cloaks back

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