On the drinking of Mead and the hunt for a Mazer

Between the legends of Mead, and the diverse patterns of mead there seems to be some interesting places to go in the how of drinking of mead.

The Viking horn to the right is truly a beautiful thing, and if I could source a reproduction I’d spend any money to drink mead from one. The listing reads thus:

Ceremonial Drinking Horn, 1817
Private Collection of Johan Paues, Stockholm
This silver-decorated drinking horn was given to famed Swedish poet Gustaf Geijer by his students. The decorations represent the tale of the divine origin of mead, an alcoholic drink made from honey, which was said to inspire poetry.
Photo: Christer Ahlin

So perhaps another spur to take up poetry.

Equally interesting is the medieval Mazer, which has inspired the Americans to name the mead making championships, the Mazer cup. Again an internet reference reads thus:

I chose a comfortable old coffee mug to drink from - it was to be my 'mazer'. Mazers, I'd discovered, were wooden bowls used by English mead drinkers during the Middle Ages. Wassail! In Mazers of Mead by G.R. Gayre is, as far as I know, the only English work extant on the history of mead. In his Introduction, written in 1948, Gayre deplored both the decline of mead making and the modern custom of drinking from long-stemmed wine glasses. He lamented the loss of the old days when chaps, especially wealthy ones, poured their mead into highly prized wooden mazers lined and decorated with silver and gold.

And this time I’ve found an English craftsman making Mazers, so its not beyond the realm of possibility that I could invite someone to buy me one for a Solstice gift / Birthday present. The originals are in the Museum of Canterbury, and at £160 I suspect one will be mine by the time the year is out.

Until then perhaps a trip to the British Museum and Canterbury to find out more, and to contemplate how to have the Mazer carved to my taste.