Castle Entertainment

    In medieval times Normans had to make their own entertainment. Today inside we can have lots of fun with T.V. 's , games consoles, computers, electronic games etc.
Also outside we have many ways of having fun - some include sports,  activities including balls or skipping ropes etc. We can also go to music concerts, the cinema, watch firework displays and watch sporting events such as football, cricket, stock car racing - and many more. But of course even we today can make our own entertainment with just our imagination or board games such as chess. Chess is actually a good example as you might not have realised this but  they were created in Norman times and actually so were card games.  The Norman's were very fond of their entertainment and some of this has survived 700 years and is still with us today. When you think of the word "medieval" you think of knights, jousts, chivalry and crusades. And on this page discover what their real entertainment actually was.


Norman Entertainment - INSIDE

Normans had lots of different indoor activities as well as the more famous outdoor ones. The entertainment can be split into two groups :

Hired Performers

This group was mainly for the richer people of the castle and could sometimes even only be for the king himself. This group contains plays and puppet shows, travelling minstrels, musical instruments - harp, flute, drums and bagpipes, composed songs by the minstrels, dancing, storytellers, poets and jesters.

Entertainment were the people participate

This included board games, draughts, an early version of backgammon and chess - which was mainly played by the knights as it is a war game.

Norman Entertainment - the jester and the juggler

Both were very popular in the whole of the Medieval era but generally wouldn't have been brought to Norman castles a lot.But if you are interested then here is some information on them.

Medieval Jester

A Jester was usually hired for a special occasion by the king or a noble man. The jester did a range of story telling, reading poetry and often some acrobatics and juggling skills.  The equivalent of a modern day jester is what people call a "specialty act". It is basically a Comedian who joins his comedy with a certain act such as juggling or card magic and gets paid for it.

Medieval Juggler

A Medieval Juggler was a person who used humour alongside his juggling act. He was generally only an act for the public in market places but sometimes came to perform for the king if he was requested. 

Norman Entertainment - OUTSIDE

Outdoors they definitely entertained themselves.

Hunting
Hunting was done by knights and nobles and even sometimes the king himself came along. They hunted for 2 reasons - for fun and for food. Also they hunted in 2 different ways :

Hunting on Horseback
They hunted for deer, foxes, wolves, wild boar and even otters. No one else was allowed to hunt in the land they set aside for it.

Hunting with Birds(falconry) 
The birds were trained to hunt hares and rabbits and bring them back. this type of hunting had a strict code as to who was allowed to hunt which bird :

---

Bird                 

Gyrfalcons        -      
Peregrine falcon   -      
Sakers                    -      
Lanner falcons     -      
Merlins                     -       

Who was allowed to hunt it

   King
   Princes
   Knights
   Squires
   Ladies

Ball Games
Norman castle workers played a game called handyball. This was played with a large leather ball (like a football) and curved sticks. There was also a game similar to tennis only they used their hands to hit around a smaller ball. An interesting fact is that the Arabic word for palm of the hand is rakat and could be were the word racket comes from which we use today in tennis.