European Cultural History of the Middle Ages Series: Medieval Games and Culture

Foreword

The series explores the cultural history of the European medieval and early modern period. It presents the development of cultural history as a field, the theoretical framework, methodology, different schools of thought, input from other humanities like cultural anthropology, ethnography, linguistics, literary studies, and sociology, and introduces the crucial names associated with the discipline. Specific instalments provide a glimpse into the significant themes covered by renowned cultural historians, like LeGoff, Huizinga, Duby, and others whose capital works covered medieval and early modern history. Through the coverage of subjects like the body, imagination, private space, magical practices, power, and games, the readers will gain a deeper knowledge of the lived experiences, mental structures, mentalities, and concepts of medieval Europeans. They will broaden their perspective of the past,  understand the significance of the interdisciplinary approach in humanities and identify the challenges and issues plaguing contemporary studies of the past eras, particularly regarding sources and interpretations.

The series contains the following six chapters:

1. European Cultural History of the Middle Ages Series: Introduction to Cultural History

2. European Cultural History of the Middle Ages Series: Medieval Imagination

3. European Cultural History of the Middle Ages Series: The Body in the Middle Ages

4. European Cultural History of the Middle Ages Series: Medieval and Early Modern Magic

5. European Cultural History of the Middle Ages Series: Private Living Concept

6. European Cultural History of the Middle Ages Series: Medieval Games and Culture

Introduction

Medieval life was imbued with games and playfulness. Communities indulged in folk festivals with forgotten pre-Christian elements. Nobility organised knightly tournaments, lavished with heraldry and other paraphernalia of status. Wars were conceptualised as meaningful and holy, and poetry created elaborated word mazes, often structured in the form of competition (Huizinga, 1938/1949, pp. 164.165). In his book Homo Ludens. In A Study of the Play Element in Culture, the cultural historian Johann Huizinga focuses on how cultural practices themselves possess the character of a game (Huizinga, 1938/1949). He delves into rich literary sources from different time periods, and references multiple ethnographic and anthropological methodologies and findings to support his perspective. Many cultural historians are criticised for being selective in their choice of sources, and Huizinga is no exception. His capital work The Autumn of the Middle Ages argues that the extreme level of formality at the late medieval court was a shield against the growing violence of the general society (Huizinga, 1919/1964). The author draws the connection between the excessive traditionalism of feudal governance and the overabundant presence of religious rites and beliefs in everyday life, which resulted in the corrosion of the conventional medieval system and opened a door for humanism to develop. Despite his argument being intriguing and relying on literary and artistic sources, it was accused of completely ignoring the influence of the Black Death and overly relying on the specific case of the Burgundian court (Burke, 2005/2006). However, in Homo ludens, the author showcases self-awareness. He acknowledges that his literary sources mostly do not deal with the reality of medieval phenomena they depict, like wars, tournaments, or others, but propose an idealised cultural concept and value. The structure of a game behind the cultural practices thus serves to position playfulness as an intermediary between the physical and the higher reality of the mind, constituting and embodying culture. What follows will regard the game-like elements at the core of prominent medieval cultural practices, including tournaments, wars, poetry, and carnival, to illuminate the process of cultural creation and the consolidation of social values, concepts, ideals, and the overall social order. The article will also link the surviving medieval concepts to modern literary examples to showcase continuity of influence, help readers understand the process of culture-making through ritual and playful activities, and illustrate how human playlike behaviour is beyond mere entertainment. It is at the core of identity and ideology production.

Game and Culture

Games, Huizinga claims, precede culture since they are found among animals as well. Every particular game is heavy with meaning. “Through play, we get to know the spirit, whether we like it or not. Because playing is not material. Even in the animal world, it reveals the limits of physical existence“ (Huizinga,1938/1949, p. 11). The author positions play outside of mere reason and argues that its existence confirms the supra-reasonable significance of human position in the cosmos. The nature of the game is to move from the real world into the realm of the mind. Various segments of culture follow this mould: wordplay, poetry, rituals, and myths. Significant portions of cultural life derive from the mythical, particularly through the role of ritual. Through rites, cultural values are both created and maintained (Eller, 2007, p. 108). And ritual itself often functions as a theatrical play, providing distinct roles for the participants and clear sets of rules.

Figure 1: Bruegel, P. (16th century). Children's Games. Garage.

The idea of all existence being modelled after a game, precisely, a theatre show, was immortalised by Shakespeare in the early modern period. The poet famously equated the world to a stage and people to actors who simply play their roles. This statement openly acknowledged the significance of play in culture, not just as an additional, entertaining element, but as a core structure behind how humans organise social life (Huizinga, 1938/1949, p. 12). This idea is at the core of European cultures even linguistically. After all, the word person, which today refers to a human individual characterized by certain distinguishable traits, comes from the Latin word persona, or Etruscan phersu, which signified the mask actors wore while performing (Smarthistory, 2020).  Although modern people equate a person to a perceived authentic expression of self, the ancient concept is more linked to a role someone plays rather than who he or she is. 

Rites as a Show

Cultic worship tends to be performative and theatrical. During festivals, communities celebrate either the life cycles of nature or significant cultural stories. The show's role is to solidify reality and maintain world order. The whole process represents the mystical and unknowable experience of cosmic appearances, which is moulded and made real through the play (Huizinga, 1938/1949, p. 21). Huizinga refers to ethnologists who studied “primitive“ communities and noticed how the participants somehow knew the ceremony was not real but was still pivotal in the construction of reality. He provides an example in which the initiated men were not afraid of the supposed spirits that circled them throughout the ceremony and at the pinnacle of the ritual they all appeared together (Huizinga, 1938/1949, p. 23). Although the rite of passage ritual was taken seriously and was meant to signify an important cultural and social role confirmation, the participants were aware of the game-like features of the ceremony. At the same time, it was real and it was a pretence. Ancient life was based on antagonistic and antithetic social order. Communities were divided into dualistic groups, differentiated by totems, and accompanied by a myriad of duties, customs, and taboos. Different groups would simultaneously compete and cooperate. The common public life of a tribe was an endless row of formalised festivities and ceremonies that followed strict rules (Huizinga, 1938/1949, p. 53). The reliance on ethnographic sources helped Huizinga view medieval play-like activities through a similar lens.

Sometimes, conceptualising how culture is produced through ritual is a challenging subject. A valuable insight into clarifying the somewhat esoteric phenomenon is offered by the interdisciplinary study of ritual, particularly the perspectives based on performativity as the core element. Oral genres such as myths only exist in performance, which makes it difficult to study. Therefore, scholars focused on the content, characters, and events to achieve any deduction (Eller, 2007, p. 98). Even if a myth has a written version, the process of writing it down already represents a loss of segments, such as qualities of speech and sometimes context. Also, what ethnographers report derives from leftovers rather than lived versions of the myths (Eller, 2007, p. 98). A structural approach to myth, legend, or ritual deems any written version sufficient since it focuses on the grammar of the myth rather than the content. However, a performance-based approach, as the one advocated by the sociolinguist and folklorist Dell Hymes, criticises structuralist and linguistics theory perspectives for privileging rules and knowledge over production. In other words, the underlying regularities of language rather than actual speech (Hymes, Eller, 2007, p. 99). According to Hymes, an actual speech performance, like a myth recital, has patterns and dynamics, not reducible to rules with two significant elements: stylistic components and social context (Hymes, Eller, 2007, p. 99). Clearly, ethnographers who study living societies can have some access to ritual performance parts that do not leave traces in the mere structure, even if it is known or written down. But when one's subjects are the performing elements of rituals from the past, something, perhaps, as Hymes claims, even the point to it all, will be forever lost (Hymes, Eller, 2007, p. 99). The fear of being merely expressionistic interpretation is a plague that haunts cultural history as a discipline and still remains unsolved (Burke, 2005/2006). 

Figure 2: Rite of passage in Malawi. (n.d.). Wikipedia.

Due to the awareness regarding performative qualities of ceremonial or religious speech, a subfield called ethnography of speaking was developed (Eller, 2001, p. 100). According to anthropologists Clifford Geertz and Bronislaw Malinowski, religious language not only portrays the world but produces it (Malinowski, Geertz, Eller, 2007, p. 107). In many religious traditions, the language does not even have to be understood in order to work (Eller, 2007, p. 107). The mere listening to chants or prayers could have desired results for the community. This attitude was prevalent in pre-reformation medieval Europe. The physical words of the Qur'an and the Bible were considered objects of power to be consumed, literally and metaphorically. For instance, some customs included wearing amulets of Qur'an verses or writing them down on wooden slates, washed off with water and given to people to drink (Eller, 2007, p. 107). The way religious talk provides a model for thought and the organisation of society is comparable to how the structure of a game lies at the bottom of culture production (Eller, 2007, p. 108). Religious rituals are perceived as performances, acting shows, and games. Communities "play reality" through them.

The Games of Honour, Virtue, and Horror

Specific tournaments in praise and scolding appear in ancient and medieval culture. In the old English epic Beowulf, the main protagonist is challenged in court to account for his heroic deeds. In medieval literary sources, the said ceremonial practice often serves as an introduction to combat or a part of a feast (Huizinga, 1938/1949, p. 54). Another famous literary hero who engages in the same wordplay is Roland, the knight of Charles the Great, during his stay at Emperor Constantin's court (Huizinga, 1938/1949, p. 55). During the height of the popularity of knightly tournaments, the practice has become the task of the herald rather than the participant knights themselves. The French word used for it, gaber, acquired the meaning of a social game during the 16th century (Huizinga, 1938/1949, p. 69). The structure of a trial also followed the same mode since it manifested through the word and evidence conflict between the prosecutor and the defending party (Huizinga, 1938/1949, p. 75). The execution of punishment was also framed as a show. In Theatre of Horror: Crime and Punishment in Early Modern Germany,  the historian Richard van Dulmen argued that public executions and torture were far from mere mass hysteria. Instead, it represented a systematic exhibition of political and religious symbolism in service of social control. (van Dulmen, 1985). These social dramas, as the anthropologist Victor Turner names them, were spectacles with specific social goals in mind. Turner defined his term as “public, symbolic scenes in which the conflicts or disharmonies of society are played out: they might also be scenes in which the harmonies or essential relationships and truths of society are played out.” (Turner, 1974, Eller, 2007, p. 129). Medieval oral competitions, trials, and public executions all resemble performances and support Huizinga’s major argument regarding the ritualistic, performative, play-like structures underlying social practices in order to promote social values and make sure the participants follow the rules by maintaining their place and role.

Figure 3: Phersu and his victim. (n.d.). Salvatore Puglia.v

The Competitive Significance of Ancient War

War, conceptualised as a game, happens to determine whose claim is holy and justified. The confirmation is the result of the conflict. Victory or defeat. Ordeal by weapons was utilised in the medieval period to manifest God's will (Huizinga, 1938/1949, p. 85). The last trial by battle happened before the Court of Common Pleas in 1571. This practice was used to prove or disprove a person’s innocence in a trial and highlights the idea that physical violence, in the form of combat, practised by a knight, is a valid vehicle for God to manifest his favour or judgement. However, when it comes to war, it is difficult to determine to which extent the concepts of divine will or other cultural ideas affected real warfare. Everything known of ancient battles is usually through literary sources that elevate the ideal of knighthood, and emphasise honour and virtue (Huizinga, 1938/ 1949, p. 89). The game-like nature of war is also supported by practices such as generosity towards the enemy. Sending of gifts or praise to the opponent often found in literary works, highlights the playful significance of the custom (Huizinga, 1938/1949, p. 91). Medieval war, at least in its conceptual presentation, could be a justified method of God inflicting his will on the world. 

The Heroic Life

Competitions as reflections of one’s significance are found particularly among medieval aristocracy. The knightly ideal could hardly manifest in real warfare, cruel and horrendous as it was, but had to find an outlet in esthetic and social fiction (Huizinga, 1938/1949, p. 95). Cultural ideals as social fiction present an intriguing concept of the nature of game and culture in its totality. Through a ceremonial game, the real world, even its atrocities, can participate in the realm of the mind, virtue, and beauty. According to Huizinga, this concept achieved its most extreme form in medieval Japan. Medieval ideas rooted in heroic violence have affected how war was seen for many centuries to come, overestimating its cultural value (Huizinga, 1938/1949, p. 97). The ideal of knightly courage and loyalty can be traced to the modern gentleman and literary fantasies of a just war have survived to modern literature, finding one of its finest expressions in works like J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Classical anglophone fantasy of the early 20th century often depicts a war that is unlike anything from reality: an inevitable violence motivated by ethics and justice. 

Figure 4: Medieval tournament. (n.d.). The Tapestry House.

Games and Knowledge-Poetic Riddles

In many ancient and medieval stories, knowledge is gained by competitions with poetic riddles. In Old Norse Edda, a compilation of pre-Christian legends and myths of Scandinavia, combat with questions that can lead to death for the losing party, is a constant motif (Huizinga, 1938/1949, p. 103). The character of the poet, in early medieval literature, is a symbol of wisdom and a well of all answers. He is often mingled with the archetype of a medium, a prophet or a sorcerer. Ancient Greek poets had a social function of moulding the masses and Old Norse literature was no different. Thyle, the Anglosaxon poet, warlock, and an orator of liturgic formulas in a sacred play, or a jester, is a linguistic example of the entanglements of these different roles (Huizinga, 1938/1949, p. 111). He is the guardian of poetic and mythic legacy, the knower of history and tradition and he often competes with riddles, and facts, or engages in wordplay. This character’s features manifest in the practices around medieval universities, as well as the intriguing figure of the court jester, who occupied a liminal and unique position regarding what was and wasn’t allowed to be said in medieval society.

Universities and Combat by Words

The twelfth century signifies the beginning of the rise of Universities. Medieval education blossoms around isolated monasteries and their writers leave a documentation containing word competitions, particularly in scolding, slander, and cunning. Discussions and debates were common practices, appearing mostly as ceremonial competitions. Erasmo of Rotterdam complained about the tendency of the practice to contain mainly previously thought ideas, even during opinion combats, emphasising the ritualised, play-like nature of the scholarly debates rather than actual interest in innovation (Erasmo, Huizinga, 1938/1949, p. 143). The concept of a university as a gamelike, isolated society, more interested in competition of skills and powers of persuasion survives in contemporary literature. One of the famous examples is Herman Hesse’s novel  Das Glasperlenspiel, where an intellectual, monastery-like elite governs the world. The play is even accentuated in the title: what they do is play with glass pearls (Hesse, 1943). 

Figure 5: Medieval University. (n.d.). American Affairs.

Jester and the Carnival-A Topsy Turvy World

A prominent role of medieval playfulness belongs to the character of the jester. This individual was often present at feasts and celebrations to perform acrobatics, juggle, and serve as a comedian. Another famous feature of the jester included direct honesty (Maitland, 2017). The medieval world was carefully staged. Everyone was meant to know their specific role in society and not to speak out of terms. In a way, honesty, although praised as a Christian value, was not recommendable. An honest conversation between members of different social strata was strictly forbidden, however, the jester was a transgressive figure who was allowed to criticise and even insult individuals and institutions. Jugglers and street performers came from poverty, and, as public entertainers and wanderers, often held a bad reputation, due to the fact that late medieval society grew suspicious of non-sedentary lifestyles and jugglers were often vagabonds. In A History of Private Life, historians Phillipe Aries and Georges Duby elaborate on how feudalism as a system represented the complete privatization of power and heavily limited public life (Aries, Duby, 1985/2020, p. 21). The demonization of nomadic practices was a direct result of the complex interplay between the medieval concept of privacy, feudal control and Church ideology regarding vice and sin. However, sympathy for the juggler did exist among medieval writers. A famous legend, The Juggler of Notre Dame has been featured in many books, plays, and an opera (Lewbel, 2002). The basic premise tells the tale of a poor juggler who performs his act before the statue of the Virgin Mary since he has nothing else to offer to the holy figures. His honest gift results in a miracle, making the statue come to life and either smile at him or catch one of the balls. This story, in its many variants, showcases the street performer in a sympathetic light. Even though society may judge him, God grants his approval. 

The role of the jester was sometimes occupied by otherwise ostracised individuals, like dwarfs or people with disabilities. The natural fool, or a person with learning disabilities could gain safety and reputation in elite societies, which was often the case at the Tudor court. The individuals were praised for their direct, honest communication and comedic abilities, which provided a role for them in otherwise unforgiving medieval society (Lipscomb, n.d.). The liminal, outsider, sometimes carnivalesque appearance of the jester turned him or her into a figure who did not belong to the proper world and, therefore, was given allowance to speak what others would not dare. Their long-lasting legacy is still present in modern fiction, one example being Patchface, the mysterious jester from George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series, whose puzzling riddle-like songs could offer answers to some of the plot’s major questions. 

Figure 6: Detti, C.A. (cca. Late 19th century). The Court Jester. China Oil Painting Gallery.

Carnival as a public festival occupied a significant role in medieval entertainment but also in its transgressive ability to transform the world, if for a short while (Kluth, n.d.). During the carnival, the rules were abolished and certain behaviours that would otherwise be ill-advised were openly practised. The carnival also dismantled the hierarchy and order by establishing temporary equality among the medieval classes and offered the merging of the carefully separated realms of medieval reality. The Church conceptualised the carnival as sin-made flesh, as the visualisation of the forbidden. If the carnival exemplified remoteness from God, it was followed by Ash Wednesday and a period for contemplation, confession and repentance. The topsy-turvy world was not a rejection of the order, a rebellion, but a stage in the bigger structure. The cyclical nature of religious ceremonies was meant to manifest various stages from the soul’s journey and that included a period of distancing from God and the world’s proper values (Kluth, n.d.). After fasting was abolished by the Reformation, the purpose of the carnival was lost. Later modernity, particularly the Enlightenment period, branded the carnival as an archaic relic of barbaric antiquity and a danger to public order, which resulted in the ban of the practice in southern German lands between 1809 and 1810 (Kluth, n.d.). 

The Power of the Marginal as an Actor in the Performance

In the performative reality of medieval and early modern times, the marginal figure played a significant role that was granted an irrational amount of conceptual power. However, the strength of the marginal figure was not in wealth, status, or safety. It was in the inherent ability to unmask the cultural enchantment of the ideal order. It was for this power they were often persecuted. The medieval marginals were poor, disabled, or otherwise marked as different, not fitting in, and not occupying their role properly. In a way, not playing the game properly, and therefore, need to be removed from it. They were victims of the system but were often victimised by the alleged unnatural power they supposedly possessed, the figure of a witch being the best example. Even though their power was not real in a material or social position sense, it presented a threat to the collective game. The medieval God was just. Therefore, disability, misfortune, and poverty had to be his will and the individual’s own divine right, merit or sentence (Scarborough, 2015). To question this would have to mean facing the idea that God either did not exist or was not just. That social positions or circumstances of birth were accidental and not a result of a divine system. The marginal figure could undermine the order, therefore, their role was to be removed from the game through a punishment performance. A great literary example from the Romantic period that illustrates this is Victor Hugo’s Esmeralda, the heroine of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Hugo, 1831). As a nomadic, poor street performer, she is preyed upon by powerful men in a way a proper medieval lady could only be within her family, in the private sphere. Esmeralda needs to be executed because she unmasks two major medieval authority figures: the man of the church, Claude Frollo, and the knight Febus. Both are meant to represent honour, virtue, and protection, but instead offer corruption and a threat. 

Figure 7: Bruegel, P. (1559). The Fight Between Carnival and Lent. Wikipedia.

Ludification Today

The “ludification of culture” is a phenomenon prominent in the contemporary world. Since the 1960s, the word itself became popular in Europe and the United States and has permeated every segment of life, from leisure time, activities like shopping, watching television or Internet use, to the concept that used to denote seriousness, like work, which is now meant to be fun (Frissen, Lammes, de Lange, de Mul, Raessens, 2015). In ludic culture, sociologist Zygmunt Bauman argues, playfulness is no longer restricted to childhood, but has become a lifelong attitude: “The mark of postmodern adulthood is the willingness to embrace the game whole-heartedly.” (Bauman, Frissen, Lammes, de Lange, de Mul, Raessens, 2015). In other words, the postmodern cultural identity has become completely soaked in playfulness. Postmodernity’s link to the medieval period is heavily expressed through literary fiction. From Umberto Eco to Jorge Luis Borges, the medieval is an intellectual riddle, a bizarre maze of symbols and meanings, and a playful field of the modern creator, continuing the saga of homo ludens, the silly rather than sapient man and illuminating the colourful threads that still connect the medieval world and today.

Conclusion

The playful aspect of medieval times, as studied by Huizinga, does not refer to the mere games people occupied their time with or the types of fun they had. Instead, the author offers a perspective of the performative activities, including rituals, both religious and profane, whose structure was moulded after games. Knightly tournaments presented an aesthetic version of medieval warfare and violence, public executions and religious rites served to produce the cultural reality and confirm the social order, and competition in words, poetry, and skill not only boosted individuals' deeds and reputations but provided a cultural link between pre-Christian and Christian medieval traditions. Even seemingly subversive shows, like the carnival, represented a stage in the larger game of the soul’s journey and was an inevitable step in it. Participation in the activities modelled after games strengthened the sense of communal identity and existed as the tissue between actual reality and social fiction, bringing forth the cultural concepts and ideals from the invisible into the material sphere, revealing that through play and performance, the cultural reality is produced, negotiated and sometimes challenged.

Bibliography

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Burke, P. (2006). Što je kulturalna povijest? Izdanja Antibarbarus. Zagreb.

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Kluth, R. (n.d.). Carnival – A Short History of Organized Merriment. Deutches Historiches Museum Blog. Date Retrieved, October 17, 2024. https://www.dhm.de/blog/2018/02/08/carnival/

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Lipscomb, S. (n.d.). The King's Fools - Disability in the Tudor Court. Historic England. Date Retrieved, October 17, 2024. https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/disability-history/1485-1660/disability-in-the-tudor-court/

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Smarthistory. (2020, November 09). Phersu Game, Tomb of the Augurs, Tarquinia. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/13081/phersu-game-tomb-of-the-augurs-tarquinia/

Visual sources

Figure 1: Bruegel, P. (16th century). Children's Games Garage. https://garagemca.org/en/event/lecture-by-andrey-velikanov-homo-faber-homo-ludens-the-working-man-the-playing-man-creative-revolution

Figure 2: Rite of passage in Malawi. (n.d.). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rite_of_passage

Figure 3: Phersu and his victim. (n.d.). Salvatore Puglia. https://salvatorepuglia.info/2022/04/nemoz/phersu/

Figure 4: Medieval tournament. (n.d.). The Tapestry House. https://www.thetapestryhouse.com/tapestries/view/63/the-tournament

Figure 5: Medieval University. (n.d.). American Affairs. https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2022/05/americas-medieval-universities/

Figure 6: Detti, C.A. (cca. Late 19th century). The Court Jester. China Oil Painting Gallery. https://www.chinaoilpaintinggallery.com/c-cesare-auguste-detti-c-58_69_532/the-court-jester-p-16846

Figure 7: Bruegel, P. (1559). The Fight Between Carnival and Lent. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fight_Between_Carnival_and_Lent