Puppets in the Middle Ages
Brief Background
Evidence of puppets in the Middle Ages is sparse. I am not talking about commentary, which does exist, but actual physical examples to study, recreate, and reproduce. So much about researching puppets is difficult, for this reason. All that I have found that can be interpreted as primary source material, including the objects and representations of actual puppets in this time period is here. It’s not much. A couple of illuminations in marginalia and a precious cache of rawhide shadow puppets discovered in Egypt in the 1900’s. Everything else is extrapolation. Archaeology may yet have some mysteries to reveal, but to my knowledge, this is it. “But Nidda, they had toys. They had dolls, and other small human-like sculptures, etc.” Indeed they did, and I have seen those sketches and read that evidence as well. But unlike clothing, bags, shoes, other artifacts, grave finds, what-have-you, the evidence of actual puppets as performance items and helpful information about actually making or using them is extremely limited. I don’t have portraiture of puppeteers performing. I don’t have puppets from that era preserved in museums. There are logical reasons for this. Here are some examples. Historically puppeteers were considered the lowest of the low in terms of performers. They were so insignificant that for much of the Middle Ages they were considered below the law. For example they were not worth the time it takes to write laws about them like they did for other types of performers. So it makes sense that they don’t have their diaries preserved in museums if they could even write them, or other items held in high esteem to save for posterity like a famous puppet. A wise man once said to me, “A broken puppet is firewood.”~Arion the Wanderer I have yet to find records of a famous puppeteer in the period. All the information is generalized. Accounts of people who attended this puppet show or that. Mentions of their presence at fairs. Overall, puppetry is not easy to research with the same credibility that other fields of study may have, nor does it have the same impassioned participants to debate and hypothesize and reenact their existence. Additionally, so few people want to take researching puppets in the Middle Ages seriously enough to go beyond a few projects. It’s fun for a while but then the interest wanes. I’m not complaining. I love doing puppetry. It makes people happy. It makes them smile. And then they go about their lives, perhaps casually mentioning it to someone, or writing a couple sentences in a diary. Continued below-- |
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What did you do? The early years
From about 2003 to the summer of 2007 I had been a camp mom. I had small children and I didn’t really leave the encampment or participate in the activities at events or even know what they were. I was there because my husband liked to fence and I liked to dress up. I figured we could save money if he went alone and it would be easier to watch my kids at home than to set up camp and have to watch them in a strange place and try to get them to sleep in an unfamiliar environment. I was at my last event, I thought. But at that event, I had a conversation with a woman from my local group who told me that she used to do things with puppets. That got my attention. “They had puppets?” I asked incredulously. I suppose I thought they were a modern invention. She assured me that they were a thing that existed and explained that I could do a performance with them.
In 2007, I started my very first ever research for the SCA. I was in way over my head, but I was excited and people were encouraging. I think that instinctively I knew I was going to do it wrong for what the SCA usually requires, so I started with the hardest thing first. I made a marionette. He was wooden, and pretty cute and I made him with power tools. I read as many books as I could and tried not to do anything overly modern looking. I didn’t know much about performing with puppets or how to write documentation about such things, so I sang a song that I knew was from the appropriate time period called “Weep weep, mine eyes” by John Wilbye. A madrigal. Because of course I did. The puppet did dramatic crying while I sang. He was a very special puppet named Knotte Hede. The knot in his forehead made a hole that I threaded his hand strings through so he could cover his face with his hands when I pulled those strings. It was very silly, but well received by the audience. It was not quite right for the judges.
So, that was baronial bardic competition in December which I followed up with a new performance at baronial A&S competition less than two months later with a new song, and a new puppet and a new stage. I took that same performance to the kingdom level competition about a month later. I was on a roll. This was where I learned many things. Got some positive and useful feedback. By that summer I had built this glorious dragon puppet with wings so that my puppets could do St. George and the Dragon, a most Medieval tale. This lead to another baronial competition with new marionettes and more kingdom entries as I attempted to make my own version of the glove puppet and stage set-up as seen in the above illuminations. I had still not managed to bring my audience a completely authentic performance. Learning to do research and then extrapolate and explain it in such a way as to convince others that it is accurate is very difficult.
I had switched from the completely hypothetical marionettes to the now more plausible glove puppet. This will be better. This will be easier, I thought. I continued to bank my experiences and build on what I was learning. I was making progress, and figuring out how to hone my research and abilities into something more authentic and accurate. I added the walking theater project into the mix. I was having fun, experimenting, getting to know my audience, building relationships with people and learning how to compete. I did some rounds of student judging so I could see the other side of the process. I watched how other people went about presenting their research. I got better. I learned.
By the end of 2011, I was ready to open the door to the first and only extant puppets (probably) that has been discovered yet in the world. Shadow puppets. Compared to what I had been doing this felt like such a relief. Not only were there resources that explained the look and conditions of shadow plays, but there were actual real puppets that I could see. I knew what to do. I had a plan, materials, a vision. One that could not be so easily dismissed as conjecture as my previous attempts had been. It felt good to have a template. A goal that was achievable and almost objective. And so I took these puppets to my kingdom level competition and I was successful. After four years of research and writing and building and scouring library after library, and Google books and internet searches with all manner of wording and phrasing I could come up with I had finally met my goal and brought a high quality, well documented, authentic performance to life.
From about 2003 to the summer of 2007 I had been a camp mom. I had small children and I didn’t really leave the encampment or participate in the activities at events or even know what they were. I was there because my husband liked to fence and I liked to dress up. I figured we could save money if he went alone and it would be easier to watch my kids at home than to set up camp and have to watch them in a strange place and try to get them to sleep in an unfamiliar environment. I was at my last event, I thought. But at that event, I had a conversation with a woman from my local group who told me that she used to do things with puppets. That got my attention. “They had puppets?” I asked incredulously. I suppose I thought they were a modern invention. She assured me that they were a thing that existed and explained that I could do a performance with them.
In 2007, I started my very first ever research for the SCA. I was in way over my head, but I was excited and people were encouraging. I think that instinctively I knew I was going to do it wrong for what the SCA usually requires, so I started with the hardest thing first. I made a marionette. He was wooden, and pretty cute and I made him with power tools. I read as many books as I could and tried not to do anything overly modern looking. I didn’t know much about performing with puppets or how to write documentation about such things, so I sang a song that I knew was from the appropriate time period called “Weep weep, mine eyes” by John Wilbye. A madrigal. Because of course I did. The puppet did dramatic crying while I sang. He was a very special puppet named Knotte Hede. The knot in his forehead made a hole that I threaded his hand strings through so he could cover his face with his hands when I pulled those strings. It was very silly, but well received by the audience. It was not quite right for the judges.
So, that was baronial bardic competition in December which I followed up with a new performance at baronial A&S competition less than two months later with a new song, and a new puppet and a new stage. I took that same performance to the kingdom level competition about a month later. I was on a roll. This was where I learned many things. Got some positive and useful feedback. By that summer I had built this glorious dragon puppet with wings so that my puppets could do St. George and the Dragon, a most Medieval tale. This lead to another baronial competition with new marionettes and more kingdom entries as I attempted to make my own version of the glove puppet and stage set-up as seen in the above illuminations. I had still not managed to bring my audience a completely authentic performance. Learning to do research and then extrapolate and explain it in such a way as to convince others that it is accurate is very difficult.
I had switched from the completely hypothetical marionettes to the now more plausible glove puppet. This will be better. This will be easier, I thought. I continued to bank my experiences and build on what I was learning. I was making progress, and figuring out how to hone my research and abilities into something more authentic and accurate. I added the walking theater project into the mix. I was having fun, experimenting, getting to know my audience, building relationships with people and learning how to compete. I did some rounds of student judging so I could see the other side of the process. I watched how other people went about presenting their research. I got better. I learned.
By the end of 2011, I was ready to open the door to the first and only extant puppets (probably) that has been discovered yet in the world. Shadow puppets. Compared to what I had been doing this felt like such a relief. Not only were there resources that explained the look and conditions of shadow plays, but there were actual real puppets that I could see. I knew what to do. I had a plan, materials, a vision. One that could not be so easily dismissed as conjecture as my previous attempts had been. It felt good to have a template. A goal that was achievable and almost objective. And so I took these puppets to my kingdom level competition and I was successful. After four years of research and writing and building and scouring library after library, and Google books and internet searches with all manner of wording and phrasing I could come up with I had finally met my goal and brought a high quality, well documented, authentic performance to life.