MEDIEVAL MISCONCEPTIONS: torches and candles

[Music] chronicles of ever fall shadow of the Conqueror a novel by greetings I'm shad and welcome back to medieval misconceptions now in this episode I want to address kind of you know topic that somewhat understood yet deserves more attention more detail it's the idea of the internal lights of a medieval period okay how do they get light when it's dark and outside in the medieval period and address some of the big misconceptions about torches okay and this of course is not only good to understand from a historical perspective but it's also good to understand if you're adapting it into medieval settings in fantasy for role-playing games which books and other things like that even in artwork because that's actually kind of a big thing as well because when people trying to picked medieval period like the interiors of castles and stuff like that and it's nighttime well one of the go-to defaults that seems to be around and is just in general medieval everything and this is in historical adaptations and fantasy that they just use torches okay and a torches eye a bit of wood or flame on the end stuck on all the walls now I've already kind of lightly addressed this in many other videos saying no no okay too many torches on the inside they use candles well I'm gonna do a bit of a deep dive and actually break apart some of the mechanics as to why it's so impractical to use torches inside what they did use and not only inside but also outside okay if you're going outside what type of lighting would use because torches were use that's that's you know we hope that we don't swing too far in the opposite direction and we're trying to correct misconceptions because when I say candles are used inside that is not to say that torches weren't used at all okay the torch is a practical lighting implement in certain specific circumstances and I'm going to try and share what they are so the only way people could get white in the medieval period when a stock is with fire so all these lighting methods that we'll be talking about in this video is applications of fire essentially and of course the most basic one being a torch just a stick that's on fire on the end all right a problem if you just use a stick by itself as it'll go out pretty quickly so they generally needed to wrap the end in some type of linen or cloth and that linen was soaked in either fat oil and sometimes even more creative mixtures between water lime and sulfur okay so something that would burn quicker so there's a couple of different fuels that they're able to use and it's of course extends the burn time of a torch considerably than if it was just fire but these are all kind of elaborate applications there are other ways that you can make a basic torch quite effectively bundle up a whole heap of sticks doesn't need to be sticks and be dried grass Reed's or rushes all bundled together they'll burn pretty regularly one of the things that all these torches have in common though is that they won't burn for ages okay we're looking at maybe ten minutes to Ike it's gonna rain Joyce between ten minutes and at the most like half an hour an hour if there's a lot of fuel and everything but think about this okay if the medieval person is going to stay up for how many hours after the Sun sets and you know if I we compare it to nowadays we've got to spend maybe four hours and I know modern you know sleeping habits are very different the medieval period they were woken when the Sun rise and the idea that they go to sleep when the Sun sets no okay maybe four people there same as us all right same biological beings and we can expect that they would be able to survive on the same length of sleep as we do so that can be between six and eight hours on average that means there is a decent portion of their waking time that will be spent when the Sun is not out and so you're gonna need a lighting source that will be out to sustain itself for up to four hours or more and a torch is a fairly big thing that consumes a fairly large amount of material and so that's the first impracticality of using torches not to say that they weren't used I will get to the point the applications where they were using where they were coming more effectively but a bigger problem with torches on the inside is the fact that they're burning a lot of material what happens to the material now of course a lot of it is converted into carbon dioxide you know smoke in the air but then you got all the ashes and flakes and stuff that drop onto the ground so the idea that you have a torch and you put it in a sconce on a wall to just burn to give lighting on the inside means it'll create a horrible mess on the floor and it's also a huge fire hazard the flame on the end of these torches can get pretty high and if they start to lick against the wall or even reach the roof and if there are hot ashes or embers flicking away from the torch that falls on the ground you could set your whole house on fire and you might be thinking well if it's in a stone castle it's not really gonna be set on fire there's a lot of you know timber elements inside stone particularly the roof and the floor and even if it won't set things on fire which it's always a risk you got this horrible mess on the ground you gonna have to clean up every single day this is a horribly impractical lighting implement for inside so what did they use to light the inside of their homes both castles and cottages or of course candles now candles can be a little bit misunderstood because I've had some people say and now horribly expensive in the medieval period and so people say no and of course the answer is the candle is not just one single thing I mean not all candles are expensive you have expensive candles and you have cheap candles all right one of the most common types of candles used in the medieval period was something called a rush light I prefer to call them rush candles because that's exactly what they are you get the dried kind of stem of a rush all right and they get soaked in either fat or oil okay which is plentiful and you can get fat very easily if you got any type of animal that you're butchering all right if you get all the you know the fatty bits and even the skin though you'd want to probably tear the skin into some type of usable leather but that you have to scrape off a lot of material and the inside of the skin is kind of fatty membrane there and even the bones and stuff and you put it into a pot and just boil it the fat will rise to the surface okay and then you just scoop out the fat and you have the fat that will be kind of a mixture of other you know bits of junk in there as well it'd be a bit of a mess betting I'm mostly fat all right and then what you do get this rush you soak it in all this fat and any demo even the poorest peasant is able to do this a circuit and you can get like our huge amount of rushes soak em all all right and then when they dry you have what's called a rush light you usually rest them on some other thing they even like specific permanent iron fixtures were made to hold rushlight specifically alright and they you set them alight now the quality of Russian to our sites can actually vary some can burn up to a full hour which is and so for how cheap and small it is and to get a steady consistent light pretty good and in actual fact there's accounts saying that rush lights sometimes provided better light than certain tallow candles that you could buy so these were really effective really cheap now some would only last for like say ten minutes if something was weird and just burnt through the oil a fact really quickly saw that so there was variance but as soon as it burnt out you just replace it it's that easy and if you're wondering how these you know rush lights will lit and how they just produce fire in the medieval period basic flint and steel okay a fire striker and so there are different types that existed for many years and they have kind of a flat ish surface that's a surface you're striking against the Flint it could also be quartz to produce Sparks and use that to light small you know tinder that can catch a light easily then you have a full fire and that and then you'll probably like these rush candles on the fire good to go and then I'd say have one candle you can like the next and that's not a problem now rush candles are used for a very long time there's even a story focused around the rush light in Aesop's fables and the exact date of the origin of Aesop's fables has had you know pin down it's generally around 500 BC or something but anyway rush candles been around for ages and if you're looking for the standard most commonly used lighting source in medieval period even before then alright rush candles gonna be the most prominent one next one normal candles of course in whatever type of chandeliers wall-mounted sconces would hold these candles as well handheld candelabras and all that I came candles and of course lanterns lanterns that either have a candle inside or are fueled by an oiled wick and by the way oil lamps as well all good effective methods for laughing on the inside that lasts a long while so this is the lighting source on the inside of homes covered fairly comprehensively but what about outside okay because a small rush candle isn't going to be nearly as effective outside as inside one of the big problems is wind doesn't take much of a breeze to blow that thing out now there are ways that you can protect it and we'll get there because this is where the shielded lantern of course comes in but the other problem about using say something like a rush light is the amount of light they produce it can generally be enough okay because flames of that size were used inside lanterns okay and in terms of the types of medieval lanterns that you'll find glass did exist in the medieval period but the quality was very different okay I wasn't completely smooth or completely clear it definitely would have been adequate enough to make some of the facings on certain lanterns but you didn't need to use glass to protect you know this small little flame from the wind there are also full metal in casings that have holes punched all the way through check out this picture here that will let the light through and also protect the flame on the inside and the flame can be produced by a candle and so maybe a rush light candle but generally you need something that's easier to put inside so a more traditional candle would be what I would say was use more predominantly and of course something like an oiled wick but could everyone afford a lantern like this no there were poor people so hold the poor person who doesn't have access to all antic news and it's really come back to torches torches are a very effective outside lighting implement all right because of the size of the flame you generally don't need to worry too much about them getting blown out I'm sure it could happen in some instances in a strong wind but in most cases they would serve adequately enough one of the things we need to take into account is the length of the burn because torches they have you know heard people have tested this and they generally say anywhere between ten to thirty minutes these are not long-term lighting implements that will last hours but actually these are generally only on tests done on the traditional cliche handheld torch this is where a lot of people actually don't and they miss something okay because clearly all right if you need a larger source of light outside and the torch is one of the best options you can pick because generally a torch will produce more light than a lantern what would they do if it's not burning long enough they would make it in a way to burn longer actual medieval torches that were meant to be used over a longer period of time looked somewhat different to the cliche kind of medieval torts that people show around and I know you don't hold in front of face you just hold it up to the side okay you don't really know hold it behind you just up go really find that'll do the job you don't like by yourself but anyway okay torch is meant to be used for a longer period of time check out these references here look at the length of these torches and what's interesting about these you know medieval torches okay they're divided that you see a much meteor head with a stick that's actually held only these are almost like stars and what these really look like is all this meat up here is actually material that the torch can burn down upon for a much longer burn period because medieval people weren't stupid if the torch isn't lasting long enough the conclusion isn't to say well they never use torches outside which I have heard some people say that the medieval torches of misconceptions no no they made a torch that actually did the job that they needed now we're all medieval torches like this no course there would be smaller ones larger ones whatever suited at the purpose or intent that they were needed for there is another element that needs to be considered when are looking at the flame torch and it's related to its own inconvenience actually leads to something that creates a larger misconception it's kind of the one that we started in the beginning in this video the idea of torches sitting in sconces lining walls lighting up castles inside and outside and it's the fact that torches are very inconvenient when you need to put them down alright they're very difficult for it to rest on the ground now for the longer really large ones you can just drive them into the ground or if there's just a hole pre-made that you just slip it into in the ground they'll stand free not a problem but if they're small and you could kind of do that but then they'd low the flame is you know where you might run into a just impracticality and stuff and so this is where of course the sconce comes in the sconce as far as I've been out of research was never intended as a permanent lighting fixture but a convenient tool to place the torch when you needed to put it down now it could be used to like the outside of certain buildings where you have a torch on a sconce it doesn't matter that the you know junk is falling on the ground and there's nothing for the open flame to set alight alright so that could provide a measure of light for the outside but smaller torches like this they don't last very long as we've already mentioned and larger torches well they're they're really long they won't fit in a sconce they're too high and so you just stick you probably I suppose you gonna have really long ones sticking out of the wall that sorry if you're using a torch regularly if your ass late at night you need to go outside to get some more firewood to do some whatever thing you hear a noise and you want to go outside and check what's going on and you needed more light than what is produced by land and the torch is one of the better options you can pick and you're not going outside very long so again torch perfectly adequate and you're going outside you might have an unlit torch in a sconce next to the outside of your home ward or ready to just grab go inside you send a light or you have a candle that you set a light there put the camera down and you light your torch you hold around you do your job and when you're coming back you might need it for a bit later if you're going out again or or not but it might just make sense to put it out chuck it back in the sconce ready to be used again and outside torch feel it's turned on and off as you need and so perhaps the idea of the torch sitting in a sconce on a wall for a long periods of time it was actually a practical functional thing where it was there ready to be used but it wasn't intended to be lit in the sponsz to provide light for long periods of time if you want light on the outside of your home or building for a longer period of time you'd be much better to hang a lantern or either some type of oil lamp on the inside they'll burn for longer providing regular light for whoever's going outside now there are some instances where torches were used inside so I don't want to you know have the pendulum swing too far in the opposite direction for instance during feasts where they wanted more light these longer burning torches look to have been brought into the feast to revive more light for the partygoers and stuff like that we have the references right here but it certainly seems far more so that torches are used outside as a source of light than inside because of those problems that I've previously mentioned so now let's take all the things that we've talked about and try and apply it a bit to the fantasy setting because you have this classic idea of the adventurer you know searching out ruins or a dungeon holding a torch above his head and especially like video games torches they just seem to last forever well of course torches like this could be a perfectly adequate tool depending on the length of the journey or the exploration of the dungeon 'el ruins or whatever if it's gonna be a several hours long endeavour carrying all these torches with you I like it one torch burns out your light and I wonder if there's there and yeah have you time heaps with you to cover the length of time you need completely impractical all right a far more practical solution it would of course be a lantern that or a torch that is made to burn for a much longer period of time like the torch as we see in medieval artwork something much longer so it's interesting the classic fantasy torches the adventurer holding through there you know ruins and dungeon stuff like that should look completely different the smaller ones impractical they don't really work well and if I want more light than just a small lantern can produce something big like that here we go and this brings us to the end of this video on medieval Whiting sigh thank you very much for watching I hope you've enjoyed and of course I hope to see you again so until that time [Music]

Channel: Shadiversity

Views: 1,132,740

Keywords: torch, torches, medieval, history, historical, candle, candles, light, lights, fire, middle ages, fantasy, medieval fantasy, adventurer, adventuring, dnd, dungeons and dragons, d&d, game of thrones, minecraft, nightime, darkness, life, what was life like, rushlight, rush light, rush candle, lantern, oil lamp, sconce, medieval sconce, candlabra, flint and steel, back in time

Id: KsBNHbWGdbY

Length: 16min 33sec (993 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 25 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Wow man that guy can waffle. How did you sit through al of that.

[u/tonyinvegas]

16 mins? Nah

[u/po8]

tl;dr?