Good morning!
Excuse me?
How are you?
We’re fine. However, you sound confused.
Ugh, that’s huge on TikTok.
Is there some sort of medieval trend there by any chance?
Correct! It’s called barcore.
And to take part, you have to talk like a medieval squire?
Partly, but the main emphasis is musical.
We see ourselves as amateur researchers of the Middle Ages and also like traditional music.
The Hot Wench Summer videos features a young woman hopping around in medieval attire with the caption “It’s 1452 and you’ve just had your monthly river bath so you’re going to the tavern to seduce a lord.”
This is more modern music reinterpreted for the Middle Ages.
Please don’t say you hear Taylor Swift on the harp.
No, I’m not, but I can’t get enough of Bonnie Tyler.
Are we talking about the music?
Yes, and the lyrics have also been reinterpreted. This is the best. Bonnie’s Holding Out for a Hero is one of my favorites.
Is there a chance you won’t sing it?
none.
Then go.
Where have the worthy gone? Oh, where is the beautiful Gawain? Where shall the brave Galahad take the reins?
Very touching.
Thank you very much. I’m surprised you’re not into bardcore.
Amazing, isn’t it?
You may know it by its other name, “tavernwave”.
No.
If you want to hear more, there are entire YouTube channels dedicated to this topic.
To medieval history? Yes, we recently saw an interesting lecture on Thomas Aquinas.
The popularity of jerkins, corsets, lace-up corsets and even armor pieces recently led iD magazine to state that “fashion is going medieval”.
I’m thinking more of Hildegard from Blingin’.
WHO?
The YouTuber best known for her “bardcore for the demanding clergyman, nobleman, or dung-collecting peasant.”
Right. Presumably this is the same person responsible for medieval Bonnie Tyler.
That is her. she is a genius If Bonnie Tyler isn’t your thing, try Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” (9.1 million views), Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” (5.5 million), and Radiohead’s “Creep” (4.7 million).
Let us continue. They said this trend is also big on TikTok.
In fact, #bardcore videos have 17 million views on the platform.
What things do people do?
Hot Wench Summer videos feature a young woman hopping around in medieval attire with the caption “It’s 1452 and you’ve just had your monthly river bath so you’re going to the tavern to seduce a lord.”
And how will she do that?
In a painting by Edwin Austin Abbey, a woman sits under a tree among autumn leaves and plays the lute while a man listens
A model wearing an original creation from the House of Rodarte Womenswear’s Winter 2023-2024 collections for women in February in New York
TikTok doesn’t reveal it — but she twerks (as far as medieval costume goes) and it’s got 400,000 likes; One must assume that the Lord is genuinely interested.
Are you trying to sell us that as a fashion trend now?
The popularity of doublets, corsets, lace-up corsets and even armor pieces recently led iD magazine to state that “fashion is going medieval”.
Not with John Lewis, that’s not it. Type “medieval” into the website and you get Lego.
Okay, if fashion doesn’t convince you that this trend has cultural significance, then you can’t disagree with mead selling well.
What, during the plague?
I want you to know that the country’s leading mead seller…
Also, introduce ourselves, the only mead seller in the country…
Actually there is more than one. Lyme Bay winery in Devon sells 116,000 bottles a year and Tom Gosnell runs a mead bar in London’s Bermondsey called Gosnells Meadery Taproom.
You can sell anything to London hipsters.
OK, since you’re more of a literary type, did you know that a book called Weird Medieval Guys: How to Live, Laugh, Love (and Die) in Dark Times is coming out?
That sounds promising. Will it explore central medieval ideas, such as the cosmological argument for divine existence?
Not so much, but it does an excellent job of showing how to survive a wolf attack.
Pass on the mead.