'Getting Pregnant the Medieval Way' by Karen Maitland

St Anne, with her daughter the Virgin Mary

and grandson, Jesus.

There’s been much discussion recently about whether certain expensive treatments sold by some private fertility treatment centres actually work. For centuries, women desperate to conceive have tried many different methods of getting pregnant, particularly on this day of the year – 8th December – because this was considered by the Medieval Church to be the day when a woman who wanted a baby was most likely to conceive.

8th December was the Feast Day on which the Church celebrated St Anne’s conception of her daughter, the Virgin Mary. Therefore, a woman praying at one of the important shrines to Mary, such as Rayne, near Braintree in Essex, stood a good chance of becoming pregnant.

But the 8th December was also the feast day of a 6th Century saint, St Budoc and his conception proved not quite as happy for his mother, Azenor. According to legend when she revealed that she was pregnant her husband accused her of adultery, stuffed her in barrel and threw it into the English Channel. Azenor gave birth to Budoc whilst floating in the sea, and the barrel containing mother and babe was eventually washed ashore in Ireland where Azenor provided for her son, the future saint, by becoming laundress at Beau Port monastery, near Waterford.

In the Medieval and Tudor period the inability of a noble woman to give her husband an heir could, as we know, result in him divorcing her, incarcerating her in a nunnery or even finding a way of killing her, so women of all classes often resorted to drastic methods to conceive.

In fishing communities, women were advised by their mothers to make love when the tide was coming in as that would wash a baby into the womb.

The powerful mandrake with the mad and dying dog

which had been used to pull it from the earth.

It was also a long-held belief that if a woman was having trouble conceiving, a friend should give her parsley seeds to plant. As the parsley grew, a child would grow inside her. Since parsley is very slow to germinate – ‘the seeds go down to the devil seven times before green rises above the earth’ – this may have been simply a way of helping the woman to ‘relax and give it time.’ However, on no account was the woman to eat the parsley as they also believed if it was eaten three times a day it would produce an abortion. Another widely used herb, for those who could afford it, was the very costly mandrake root which is mentioned as an aid to fertility as far back as the Book of Genesis.

Since ancient times fish have been associated with fertility. The salmon was a symbol of a woman's sexual organs. One medieval recipe for getting pregnant was to take a fish that had been found inside another fish and fry it with a hare’s liver until both were dried. Grind to powder with flour and drink in water. The hare was linked to the ancient goddesses of fertility, so many fertility remedies involved consuming parts of a hare, including drinking powders made from its dried skin or stomach. If the woman wanted to conceive a boy she should drink a powder made from “hare’s eggs” – the testicles of a male hare – before making love.

Some fertility aids sound decidedly unhygienic today. One calls for a woman to insert the brains of a male and female bird into her ‘womb’ before sleeping with her husband. Another to smear the fat and brains of a dove on her ‘privy parts’ for three days, or the brains and blood of a bat. One ‘cure’ was for a woman to sit or lie above a pot in which the lungs and liver of sheep were boiling in wine, so that the fumes entered her womb. Only when this had thoroughly ‘warmed her’, should her husband lie with her, and then only in a warm and draught-free room.

Women could buy amulets of herbs or charms from cunning women or they could make one themselves from a hen’s egg containing a live chick. The whole thing was burned and the ashes tied in bag bound with green and white thread and hung round the neck.

A number of communities also had stone-keepers. There were many sites which, from ancient times, had been places where women would make offerings to the old gods or spirits to help them conceive, these included figures of men and animals carved into the hillside, certain standing stones, some rocking stones and springs such as The Well of Fertility (Tobat an Torraidh) on the Isle of Sky, to which cattle were driven to drink to help them conceive and which women used for the same purpose. Many of these ancient pagan sites were destroyed or taken over by the Church during the medieval period, but small stones were carried away from these places and handed down through the generations to the stone-keepers. 

Photographer: Lisa Jarvis. 'The Maiden Stone, Traprain Law.'

Legend has it that if a woman walks naked through

the gap she will conceive.

If a woman wanted to conceive she went to the stone-keeper who allowed her to hold the stone and the spirit of the place from which the stone had been taken was believed to call a child into her womb. Even today, there is a male stone-keeper in Lincolnshire who has a stone which has been used for generations and is said to have originally come from Cahir, County Limerick, Ireland. Money never changed hand for this service, but the woman was usually required to leave some kind of offering which was personal to her such as a rag from a favourite dress.

Up until 1920’s the pillars of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London were believed to have been hewn from stone taken from an ancient fertility site and were regularly embraced by women who wanted to conceive, as was a granite block on a hill in Glenavon, Grampian.

Milking a reindeer.

Drinking milk of various animals or drying it and using it a pessary was also recommended by many medieval physicians because of the obvious link between lactation and pregnancy. Donkey milk, horse, deer and bear milk were among those thought be most effective in aiding conception. I wonder who volunteered to milk the bears!

But Christmas will soon be upon us with its bunches of mistletoe which have long been associated with fertility. A medieval woman who wanted to conceive would tie a sprig close to her belly or around her arm, so be very careful where you put your mistletoe this festive season!

The Lynx of Happiness by Karen Maitland

 As you may have read in the papers, we had some excitement in Devon recently when Flaviu the lynx, newly arrived at Dartmoor Zoo, escaped and ran wild for a few weeks. Farmers with lambs and householders with small pets were naturally anxious, but many people were quietly hoping lonely little Flaviu would stay free and even find a mate among the other big cats rumoured to live wild on Dartmoor.

In the Middle Ages, lynx were known as lincis, and thought to be akin to a wolf. The name comes from leuk meaning light, and it possible that the lynx was named for its eyes which, like most night-hunters, shine if caught by a light in the dark. Lynx eyes were thought to have magical powers. They could see through solid objects and deep into the earth to discover whatever might be hidden down there. They were also supposed to be to discover hidden truths and see into the future. Perhaps that’s why they unnerved man so much.

Legend had it that when they urinated, the liquid hardened into a precious stone after seven days, called Ligurius or lungurium, resembling a carbuncle gem. The lynx was said to hate people and having a ‘constitutional meanness’ would bury their urine as deep as they could, to stop humans taking the stone and using it a jewellery.

If the lynx hated people it was probably with good reason. for medieval farmers killed it whenever they could. The French called the lynx loup cervier, usually translated as deer-wolf, or chat loup meaning cat-wolf. Along with the wild cat they were disliked by the hunter, because they would quickly take to the trees when pursued, depriving the huntsmen of the long chase with hounds that boars and deer provided. There was little sport to be found in a treed-cat that could only be brought down by the skill of the bowman.

 But as for poor Flaviu, he has been recaptured and was apparently most annoyed about it. They are currently trying to find him a mate, so let’s hope he soon finds happiness.

And talking of happiness, did you know that today (8th August) is apparently Happiness Happens Day. It was instituted in 1999 by the little known Secret Society of Happy People who aim is to spread joy. Back in the Middle Ages, people certainly had occasions to be jolly – Christmas feasts, fairs, and what in Devon is known as ‘Crying the neck’ – an evening of drinking, feasting and dancing when the grain harvest was brought in. The neck was a specially bound sheaf of the best ears of wheat from the harvest which was honoured by being held in the centre of circle of farmhands, then lowered and raised three times, as those around bowed low and rose up with the neck.

Melancholy Thistle. Photo by Paul Chapman

 But what you could do if you were feeling a little blue the rest of the year, and with famine, pestilence, war there were certainly plenty of times when medieval folk needed cheering up. A 16th century proverb gave good advice –

He who would be happy for the day let him go to the barber; for a week, marry a wife; for a month, buy a new horse, for a year, build him a new house and for a lifetime, be an honest man.’

 But if you couldn’t afford a new house, those suffering from melancholia were advised to drink decoctions of one of several herbs in strong wine – Melancholy Thistle, Viper’s Bugloss, Motherwort, Burnet, or Dodder which had climbed up a Thyme plant. These were said to make you as ‘merry as cricket’, but of course, that might have been due to the wine.

Viper's Bugloss. Photo: Roger Griffith

Curiously, one of the medieval symbols of happiness was the mandrake, a hallucinogenic plant used by sorcerers which was believed to spring up from the sperm of hanged men at the foot of the gallows. Its scream, when dragged from the earth, was said to kill or drive men mad. So dogs were often tied to the plant and then thrown some meat, so they would run after it and tear the plant up.

Why would such a wicked little plant be the symbol of happiness? The reason is that if you could get hold of a genuine one it could bring you boundless wealth and grant you all your heart desired. And in a way it did for some people. Medieval forgers made a good living faking mandrakes out the bryony roots which they carved to look like manikins and buried in the ground with a few grains of wheat on top to resemble mandrake leaves and when the ‘leaves’ sprouted, they sold them for a fat purse to those who’d never seen the real thing.
But however you find your happiness today, don’t forget to pass it on – happiness is contagious.

A dog about to pull the screaming mandrake
from the earth.

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