What did Edward the Martyr introduce to curb excessive drinking and which legendary saint supported him?

lanfranco

Well, this took forever to locate. However, according to this site, Edward (maybe) instituted the custom of a communal drinking tankard, with pins or nails fitted into it. One was not supposed to drink beyond a certain point, indicated by the pin or nail. Edward was apparently supported in this by St. Dunstan. You have to read well into this site to find the information. http://www.summits-online.com/EmailArchive/2000-09-18.txt May 01 05, 9:38 PM

peasypod

Well, he was pretty chummy with ol' St Dunstan I believe, and by all accounts Dunstan came up with the idea of measuring how much the Englishmen drank by pegging or 'pinning' their tankards. The old tankards were divided into eight equal parts, marked with a silver pin. Good fellowship rules said that a drinker was to stop at the pin, but as most guzzlers are, that became very difficult and most went onto the next one. Not sure how this was to curb excessive drinking though...should have just put a tax on it, isn't that the way things work? ;) [May 01 05 11:03 PM] peasypod writes: Suppose I'd better throw down my link, it's quite interesting stuff. But this drinking from the one Wassail cup sounds a little icky to me. http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5567/washist.html May 01 05, 9:44 PM

lanfranco

Oh, that's lovely, peasy. Many enjoyable drinking customs. Someone once suggested that "Wassail" was actually an inebriated contraction of "WHAT is in this ale?" May 01 05, 10:19 PM

gmackematix

Yay to Frankie (only just, Peasy). So that's the sort of thing Archbishop Dunstan was up to when he wasn't tonging the Devil's nose. Still, I imagine blacksmithing was thirsty work. May 02 05, 6:03 AM