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Eastern European Booze
Jun. 28th, 2005 02:28 pmThe merchant Wulfstan's account of his travels, given at the court of Alfred of England (ninth century) includes this information about Estland (or Witland), East of the Vistula (Wisle) river:
-- Two Voyagers at the Court of King Alfred: the ventures of OHTHERE and WULFSTAN together with the Description of Northern Europe from the OLD ENGLISH OROSIUS. Edited by Neils Lund, trans. by Christine Fell. (York, England: William Sessions Limited, 1984)
Sounds like kumiss for the rich and mead for the lower classes, but the use of mead may have been exaggerated to the traveller for effect.
"This Estland is very large and has many fortified settlements, and in each there is a king. There is a great deal of honey and fishing. The king and the most powerful men drink mare's milk, the poor men and the slaves drink mead... There is no ale brewed among them."
-- Two Voyagers at the Court of King Alfred: the ventures of OHTHERE and WULFSTAN together with the Description of Northern Europe from the OLD ENGLISH OROSIUS. Edited by Neils Lund, trans. by Christine Fell. (York, England: William Sessions Limited, 1984)
Sounds like kumiss for the rich and mead for the lower classes, but the use of mead may have been exaggerated to the traveller for effect.
