Midieval Deaf

The Medieval Festival.


Ever since I went to the Medieval Festival last Saturday I have been thinking about how difficult it would have been to interact with anyone in a busy village without hearing aids. I'm not sure what social convention required of women other than domestic chores and child bearing. Loud community gatherings at a faire with the neighbors would have been challenging. Even today, with hearing aids, I tend to avoid busy activities that require talking to lots of people.

Of the events I attended last Saturday, the play was the most difficult to follow because the actors all wore wooden masks over their faces making it impossible to see their mouths move. All the entertainment took place outside, so no walls offered acoustical sound enhancement. Magic, musical and jousting performances were delivered without the benefit of microphone equipment or sound systems. Many of the males wore beards obsuring their mouths-- a problem for those of us who read lips. I couldn't hear or understand anything-- EVEN WITH HEARING AIDS. I had to ask my family constantly what was going on. During a musical performance the musicians invited the crowd to sit closer, so I went. I enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere of sitting near the musicians. I could hear the music better, especially the drum and bagpipes; And being closer I could read their lips while they sang. But it turned out the words to their songs were in Gaelic, so it didn't much matter. Then a story-teller told a tale in English about a stolen pork chop and some monks, and a miracle performed by the Virgin Mary. I heard maybe 1/3 of it with my hearing aids, and realized I would have been deaf to it all without. A magician performed some impressive trickery with scarves and rings, then we all went to the Inn for potage and mead-- the highlight of my visit back in time.


I have wondered how common hearing loss was in 1376. I've read the average lifespan during medieval times was about age thirty. Many of us who are late-deafened may not have survived the diseases or conditions that deafened us if we had been alive in the middle-ages. For example, my hearing loss was theoretically caused when the measles damaged my cochleas as a little girl, which supposedly started an early progressive hearing loss. Without the benefit of aspirin to bring my high temperature down, would I have died? Statistically, one in three people over age sixty-five develops hearing loss today, but if so few people lived to age sixty-five in the 1300s, I wonder how many people developed the relatively common hearing loss associated with aging? I don't know the answer to this question, but I am beginning to speculate that maybe hearing loss was rare. I just don't know.

Near-sightedness, on the other hand, is common in young people today, since the average onset is about age ten. I assume many people would have been near-sighted during the middle-ages too. I cannot imagine my life without glasses! They are so much better at correcting vision than hearing aids are at correcting hearing. Medieval women spent hours each day laboring over needle work. I would choose glasses over hearing aids if I could pick only one, as I feel the ability to see would have been more necessary for survival. With both a seeing and hearing problem, I don't know how effective or useful I could have been.

Yikes--it's a scary thought! No wonder they drank so much mead and ale!