posted 01-20-2008 03:40 PM         

The traditional name for the place where falconers kept their birds is the 'mews'. This name has now been adopted to mean a courtyard building in modern English but this is the origin of the word.

Originally meant to signify the place where the hawks and falcons were kept while they moulted (ie when they couldn't be flown).

I don't think there was any particular type of building for the mews. They could be temporary wooden structures or more permanent stone buildings. Modern falconers still use this term for the place where they keep their birds.

It is claimed that Emperor Frederick II (who was a fanatical but also scientific falconer and was responsible for a famous treatise of falconry as well as commissioning scientific expeditions to find breeding grounds of migratory birds) kept falcons in a luxurious mews on the top floor of Castle del Monte in Southern Italy.

Cheers

posted 01-20-2008 08:19 PM           

I know that I've read somewhere that the lord or king of a castle would have his favourite hawk sleep on its perch in his bed chamber and I've been searching my library since to no avail.
You mentioned moulting, apparently that is where we get the word "Haggard" from.
One is tempted to say it refers to an ugly bird.

posted 01-22-2008 06:24 PM         

The large number of terms, phrases and general words in the English language that originate from falconry terms (eg 'fed-up' 'cadger' 'hood-winked' 'haggard' as mentioned) are interesting survivals. The importance of falconry in the medieval period as an elite sport and as a means of catching food to eat is hard to imagine nowadays.

The fact that so many common phrases survive in common language is perhaps a measure of the universal importance it had.

Does this survival of falconry terms survive in other European languages as it does in English?

The most sought after birds (eg the Gyrfalcon - a large white falcon breeding in the arctic) had a very high value in the middle ages due to their rarity.

Falcons and hawks were rarely bred in captivity (as they are today) but had to be taken from wild breeding birds either as young in the nests or as adults caught in nets. Protection of wild breeding falcons and hawks on royal and other gentry estates was common with severe penalties for theft.

As wealthy Arab sheikhs do today, I'm sure medieval lords lavished vast sums on their falconry.

Cheers

posted 01-23-2008 02:46 AM            

I know that the gyrfalcon could only be flown by a king. I think queens and princes got peregrines.