How Did Medieval PEASANTS LIGHT their HOMES? 

Botanist here! The reason there was disappointing results regarding pith is because that’s actually a grass, perhaps the genus Poa or Agrostis. The stems of graminoids (grasses, sedges, rushes) can all look quite similar so it’s usually easier to ID by the inflorescence (flowery part). The grass you harvested has a pyramidal “Christmas tree” like structure to the inflorescence, classic sign of grasses in the Poas group. Rushes (the common name of plants in Juncaceae, the rush family) are incredibly dissimilar to grasses and sedges when looking specifically at the flowers. Most of their flowers look exactly like tiny lily flowers. Juncus effusus is a worldwide species of rush that was most used for rush lights. Each stem from that plant is a long sharp spike (with no nodes), and the inflorescence emerges from the side of the stem towards the tip. Those plants will give you a much better result for pith! (Going deeper, the “pith” you pulled out of the grass was actually the rolled up immature leaf sheaths. Grasses are hollow and have no pith. I think this is cool though because it likely proves that rush lights could be made out of a larger variety of plants than previously thought!)

Feels like I'm watching what History channel should have been.

45 years of reading historical fiction and I finally know what a rush light is .

I visited Sri Lanka in the 1970's, i stayed with a family in a village with no electricity. Everyone lit their homes at night with homemade coconut oil, poured into a half coconut shell with a wick. The aroma was delightful.

The Vikings were really good at lighting people's homes. As a matter of fact they traveled town to town providing that courtesy service to everybody.

Love how this lad is a millionaire (ceo of a gaming company) and instead of doing the typical CEO stuff he decided to basically do what History Channel should've done. Godspeed and stay healthy, my guy, appreciate your work.

I made some rushlights using an 18th century recipe I found which I followed to the letter. First I soaked them in water for a few days then peeled off the outer skin while still wet, leaving one sixth of it in place in a narrow strip along the entire length of the rush. I’m not sure of the purpose of this but I assume it acted as some sort of wick. I then left them to dry before soaking them in thoroughly rendered mutton fat which I’d also put through a sieve. When lit they burned slowly with a very even clear flame, without any spluttering at all and each rush lasted about twenty minutes to half an hour. I was surprised and impressed with how good they actually were!

Wax candles were a luxury for a long time. In Mrs. Gaskell’s Cranford novels of the mid-19th century, she describes the “elegant economy” of one household, where they had two candles displayed on the mantle, but only burnt one at a time, switching them out so they were level, and thus it appeared to daytime visitors as if they could afford to burn both candles at the same time, an impressive luxury to them. It was quite humbling to read by the light of my lightbulb with a ten-year lifespan, burning a huge scented candle just for the pleasant fragrance. Life is so different in tiny ways we often don’t even think of, and it fascinates me!

“Sedges have edges, rushes are round, grasses have knees that bend to the ground.” Rushes have round stems, sedges have triangular shaped stems, and grasses are round, with “knee” or joint-like nodes. Grasses also have hollow stems, where rushes and sedges have solid stems. Remember that little rhyme next time you have to distinguish between the 3. Cheers!

So, I guess soaking the rushes in lamb fat, one would make a "lambp".

It would appear that Denethor survived the Battle of Minas Tirith and is indeed thriving, now making excellent RU-vid videos. Can you make one on how the soldiers of Gondor were trained and equipped please?

Writer here, I absolutely love all of the information I get here and in the comments. There is nothing quite like having the living research library I can curate on RU-vid. Thank you for making these videos!

They obviously used massive torches that burn suspiciously without any black smoke for hours and hours. Haven't you seen any Hollywood movies? TORCHES. Everywhere. Even outdoors. Medieval life was pretty lit...

Apologizes for thirty seconds that he is using a modern dish... pulls out a heat gun twenty seconds later with no shame. Never change :P

Notes: Rushes, for the non-Brit, are a specific plant genus, _Juncus_ , that prefers cool, wet conditions. They were also used to make floor mats during this same period and on into Shakespeare's time. (And you can even buy some mats today.) They're a slow-growing plant, however, which is why the greener rushes have no pith, as our host discovered. Historically, rushlights varied a lot in quality. The light produced could be dim or bright, and the duration could be anywhere from ten minutes to an hour, depending on the rush. You could even sacrifice brightness for duration by leaving some of the outer layer intact, making for a slower burn that lasted longer. Rushes were also used in a cheaper model of candle, the rush-candle. Still not cheap enough to be common, though -- it only replaces the twisted fibers of a normal wick with the rush pith. Medieval peasants also used oil lamps fueled by vegetable oil. These were very basic -- literally just a tray or bowl with a wick in the oil -- and prone to accidental spillage, giving them the nickname of "spills" in-period.

This must be one of the nicest places on RU-vid. Here we have Jason explaining, in a great way, what peasants would have done and we have people in the comments sharing their lovely stories from their experience with rush lights :-)

It would appear from many comments that 'Rush Lights' were made and used right up to the beginning of the 20th Century. My Grandad was born in 1897, he had shown my dad as a boy how to make rush lights. I remember my Dad showing me the soft spongy center of the rushes down on the banks of the River Trent near where we lived, we didn't actually make rush lights out of them but I knew what they had been used for in the past. I'm 62 now.

4:36 - Unintentional Historical Accuracy: _A nobleman having no idea how to do a peasant's job._ 😉

When I was a child I noticed that the pith of elderberry twigs was ideal for soaking up paraffin and using as a candle. Elderberry twigs of all sizes has a very nice uniform porous pith.

Back in Medieval times me and my dad made these, we used a tall thin clay pot with pig fat in the bottom next to the fire place , a quarter full, then stand a bundle of reeds in the pot, when the fat was hot it was drawn up inside the reeds, today you call it capiliary rise. Dad called it the drawing of the fire juice. True Story.

You would rest the rushes as you would for flax. And you make them in autumn because A. The plants are mature, B. You need them for winter, and C. You’ve done your fall butchering so there’s ample supply of rendered fats for riches, candles, jar covers, preserves, and soap making

Ah yes, the heat gun. An essential implement in any Medieval peasant household.

I feel like this was suggest to me because the economy is so bad that I’m living paycheck to paycheck, and my utilities may be cut soon. Whatever got me to this channel, ty! I find this stuff incredibly interesting and possibly even useful.

I grew up in the country side in a fairly wet area where these rushes grow in abundance and I can confirm - you can get papercuts from the leaves! The leaves also make a fabulous whistling aid when put between the thumbs

These are the types of videos RU-vid was invented for. Thank you!

I think that I may be able to help you with the water conundrum, When harvesting certain species of plants, sometimes they go through a process known as 'water curing'. This helps to remove volatile compounds (terpenes, terpenoids) etc, as well as reducing chlorophyll content The still-wet freshly harvested plant material is placed in a vat of clean water and left to sit for a few days. Once the water starts to turn green, replace it with fresh. Rinse and repeat until water remains clear. Thoroughly dry, and your done. Now, if you heat that plant material up, say, with a lighter, it will no longer smell 'green', or like a bonfire, or whatever, and it will smoke less. Maybe they water cured the rushes to keep their homes from smelling like bonfires and filling with too much smoke? 🤷🏻‍♂️ Excellent video by the way, thank you, information well and truly stored 🙂👌

Keeping your home lit in the past, even up to gas-lighting, seems like a part-time job! And in fact it was a whole job in the great stately homes on England, where a man or boy was in charge of cleaning lamps, trimming wicks, whatever lighting maintenance was required all over the mansion. (I believe I learned that from Liza Picard.)

I remember watching a video on beeswax and how expensive and unaffordable it was to an average peasant of the times. Thanks for posting I've always been interested on furthering my knowledge on this topic(lighting issue).

*pulls out heat gun* Townsfolk: “he’s a witch burn him!”

The pre-soaking of plants is called "retting".This uses the action of bacteria and moisture to dissolve or rot away much of the cellular tissue surrounding the fibre of the stem. Usad for flax, hemp---and nettles.

I’ve heard tallow candles and rush lights actually smell quite bad, because the rendered fat goes rancid quickly but of course must not be wasted. They lasted only about 20 minutes at a time, so you had to be constantly changing them, and they gave off a very dim light. Night used to be VERY DARK. We barely have a conception of how dark, because of incidental ambient light and even light pollution in the sky reflecting light back on cloudy night. The moon really, really mattered. I think that was Liza Picard or Ruth Goodman I read much of that from, but also multiple other places, including novels from the 19th century.

The Brits, Scots, Welch, and Irish have such a rich history. They all seem to present history in such an immersive way. I wish all history presentations were like this.

The Modern - I'm using a Pyrex because I don't have a wooden bowl. The Medieval - I'm using a wooden bowl because I don't have a Pyrex.

I love this history of practical every day things. This is the type of knowledge that is often lost.

I absolutely love how genuine and humble you are. 👏🏻 wonderful content in an age of (as I like to call it) “fast food media” and unrealistic perfectionism.

Those look like the happiest horses I’ve ever seen. It looks like they really enjoy living there.

“these are medieval rushes” ...they’ve lasted well.

It would be cool if Netflix commissioned this guy a history show akin to how Steve Irwin was for animals.

What a stunningly authentic and honest presentation of rush lights. I had no idea about them. The indoor setting made me feel quite at home, as if some hundreds of years ago. Absolutely delightful. Surely the choice of rush would have been passed on, generation to generation each time finely tuned to get the best results. This is living history at its best, allowing us to better understand how our ancestors lived. Thank you for all the work that went into it.

There is a really interesting book that goes into a lot of detail on the uses of rushlights called At Day's Close: Night in Times Past. Not only does it give a great insight into how night was viewed in times past, medieval to early modern, rushlights come up quite a bit. One story tells of two travelers trying to get across the alps on a road and trading a wine bottle for a rushlight lantern that immediately goes out in the wind. The medieval section is also interesting, talking about how knights would hold vast parties at night, the roads to their castles or towers lit up with torches, while the lower classes were by law, forced to stay in their homes.

I remember my grandfather who had a very impoverished Victoria childhood, showing me these rushes and the spongy core when I was very young, he also used to tell me about how he caught various birds to feed his brothers and sisters. A lost world, the medieval period went on for a lot longer than we think, for some.

Forgeteth thy messy cookefyre, useth the implement the goode Lorde intended: the heat gunne

My daughter used up my long lighter for the gas grill. The push start spark thingy had stopped working years ago. I had some European honeysuckle which I had cut down, here in the US it is a nasty invasive. But I had the thought, the inside of the much smaller stems sort of has a spongy pith . So I dipped to them into a jar candle that I had already lit, and after getting wax all on the first couple of inches, I would light them and then use them to reach into my grill and light that. It worked like a charm. I wonder if smaller European honeysuckle stems were ever dried and used in a similar way. Plus the kids find all that sort of fun too.

Ive read a lot of fantasy and stories that mention rush lights are usually so vague I always assumed it was a bundle of basically dry twigs and didnt realize they were soaked in tallow or oil. Very cool to know Ive been wrong for close to 40 years. lol. Thank you for teaching us about one of my favorite eras of history.

Medieval DIY light tutorial: Step 1: Prepareth thine bundle of rushes Step 2: Taketh thine Pyrex dish and placeth it on thine table Step 3: Puteth thine tallow on the dish and heat it with thine magic heat aparatus Step 4: Once it is meltethed, drowneth thine rush core in the tallow Step 5 : Doneth

In Finland the most common type of lighting (atleast in the countryside) from atleast the middle ages all the way up to late 19th century were shingles, thin strips of wood (typically pine) that you pull off the tree so that the grains remain intact and continuous from end to end. A single such shingle ("päre" in finnish) burned usually for about 15 minutes and you'd normally have several burning at a time for extra light. The shingles were typically attached horizontally to a simple shingle holder, oldest ones that have been found indeed originating from the middle ages. Such shingles were obviously rather easy and quick to make, but according to some estimates a single countryside family would typically need 20 000 of them for a full year's supply. To find images of various shingle holders you can search for "pärepihti".

Well this was a totally random and fascinating video suggestion in my feed today! You have such a calm and clear way of presenting and the environment is stunning! So of course I did a little background research on this channel and WOW! Jason Kingsley is legendary! Much respect to you, good sir! Also, those might be some of the happiest horses I've ever seen! ❤😊

The burn rate is primarily related to melting and evaporation points of the fat. It is the GAS that typically is burning so the heat must melt and evaporate a small portion of the fat and that burns. The heat to change the phase is created by the burning gas. If you can raise the melting point, without increasing the heat generated you get a longer, but dimmer burn. So heaviest of fats is best (a reason bees wax is preferred over tallow is it has a melting point about 10-15 degrees higher). Adding a salt (no necessarily sodium chloride, many inorganic salts which dissolve readily will do) to the fat will increase the burn time because it changes the melting point. Beef fat is particular rich in the triglyceride with the highest melting point, Stearin. Processing the fat more to increase the Stearin content would improve the quality of the light (I'm thinking partially melting and filtering or leaving melted fat in a tall thin container so the heaviest fats end up at the bottom). Beeswax is NOT a triglyceride and is a a wax ester.

Botany tip: grasses, rushes, and sedges often live in similar habitats. Grasses are hollow (lacking a pith) and are round. Both rushes and sedges have a pith but rushes have a round cross section and sedges are triangular ("rushes are round and sedges have edges").

Greetings from Norway, in my area we used wooden sticks ,they were about the thickness of arrows and about thirty centimeters long,if you made the sticks thinner they burned down too quick.The trick was to not make them dry completely but if you had pine tar you dry them completely and then let them soak in tar for days.The soaked sticks burned like standing candles,the unsoaked sticks were burned in a horizontal posisition preventing the flame to go out by itself.

The harvesting only what you need is solid advice. I feel so many today would see it as a game and clear the entire field.

The quality of the content on every video is incredible ! Keep up the amazing work

I was shown how to make rushlights some 65 years ago. Our rushes were left to ret before they were dried. Took about a month. That made removing the outside tissue a lot easier. Also, the rush cores were laid in a narrow tray and the tallow was poured over the rush cores in the tray and left to set. The individual rushlights could then be separated from the block of tallow as required.

It's nice to see Denethor living the simple peasant life.

I just wanted to say thank you for sharing this knowledge from antiquity. I can't explain it, but I'm sure I'm not alone in this boat, the desire to know how our ancestors, especially the poor in the meek, the salt of the earth, navigated their world using what was right there in front of their eyes. Again thank you, and I look forward to your future videos. Michael Freeman Western Kentucky USA

Just stumbled upon your channel a couple of weeks ago, and being quite a history lover myself, I can say with confidence, that your work is outstanding. As pointed out by Nathan the Botanist, you where unlucky enough to get a grass species for your rush lights, but I guess people also made lights out of grass in areas, where there weren't much rush, so this video might actually have unintentionally taught everyone about a piece of historical use of grass not known before, quite fascinating to say the least. Keep up your work man, it's amazing.

From what I've seen rush lights burn quickly. I wonder if that's where the saying comes from your rushing it or you're in a bit of a rush. To indicate that you don't have much time.

I *deeply* admire your willingness to film yourself while you are experimenting and learning. This seems so genuine and so real. Thank you. As others have said, *THIS* is what they should have been doing on the so-called History Channel.

Fascinating video. It reminds me of a book I read when I was a kid. In that one, the pioneers in the American midwest made grasses into a heat/light source in a very similar way to this. But they twisted the dried grasses together to make them thicker. I wonder if that is a step that was done by medieval people as well. Perhaps increasing the thickness and density in that way made them last longer.

I can't help that every time I see one of your videos I think of Rutger Hauer!!! I have loved him for a long time 40 years at least and I just love that you teach and help bring light to the ART in the sword techniques and the movement of a Knight! In the movie ladyhawk Rutger Hauer is amazing in his handling of his horse and his sword and I always wished I could talk to him about that because it was like poetry in motion! Because of him all these years and then finding your videos I have had an amazing Awakening to something that I didn't realize could be considered an art form I just want to thank you for helping me touch a part of me that is buried deep from long ago times and far away places, somewhere deep in the DNA from ancestors long lost yet I still feel the pull of those times and have an awareness of memories that are not mine but will never be lost to me! Thank you very much for helping me remember that it's always there and I'm blessed for that honor! Thank you ❤️😌

"Rushes are different to grass" A plant biologist would definitely agree. "Sedges have edges, rushes are round, grasses have nodes where leaves should be found"

As a writer creating stories in a world with medieval-level technology, information like this is golden!

I'm glad this popped up in my feed. I really enjoyed watching this and seeing the learning process that you went through

I love his relationship with his horses. Very kindred and respectful

6:30 The difference of soaked reeds is that it will naturally be without bugs or dust that would otherwise render their employment indoors potentially unsavory.

William Cobbett explained his book, “Cottage Economy”(1821), how to use rushes for light, and detested the use of wax candles.

We have a similar plant in the Faroe Islands. It’s probably genetically related to this one. The climate is very similar to the UK. We just call it “Veikur” which literally means “Wick.” I tried preparing them when I was a kid (I’m 33 now), but I failed lol. They were usually used with whale oil, in an oil-lamp. They were supposedly quite efficient. :)

I'm working on fiction writing, and your videos have been very informative. I'll need to refer back to them often, so I don't forget the details I've already "learned." (In one ear, out the other, as it were)

Anachronism Alert: Everyone knows that the Medieval peasants only had access to the heat crossbow.

I love how he looks more and more deshevaled and tired as the video goes on. Rush lights are this man's only weakness apparently

First video of yours, I was not expecting such an epic intro

This video is actually quite wholesome and heartwarming. Thank you for it. I felt better watchig it.

Most likely others have already posted this but the sandpapery stems of rushes have been used to scour pots and pans. Musicians use them to polish the reeds of woodwind instruments. The stems of this ancient plant have also been used to polish furniture. Love what you are doing! Thank you

Py Rex: Early medieval king. Later known as The Indestructible. Died unexpectedly in an ice pool on a particularly hot day. Family was shattered. I love your stuff. Thanks.

Jason, I really enjoy your shows.

Love your videos buddy and very glad there's people around like you keeping us in touch with the past and our history. Well done and thanks 😀

ah yes, ye olde medieval Black and Decker Heat Gun. my favorite of the medieval tools

The comment "it might have just been convenient in between seasonal tasks" after the seasonal characteristics of the plant sums up a big reason I like watching this guy. Actually taking some effort to experience the day to day life of the history, and having a strong connection with nature provides so much illumination. I remember thinking the same thing when he's talking about heat in armor when riding horses in the summer.... obviously a huge part of history and the Crusades, and it barely gets an asterisk in a textbook! The dude is almost having a heat stroke!

Thank you fir posting this ❤

This brings me so much joy. Thank you.

"If you couldn't afford beeswax candles..." And the same time a bee hovers in to the picture. Just awesome!

Came for the medieval history lesson, was blessed by horsie yawns in the middle of it. 10/10 love your channel, sir.

Just found your channel thanks to Lindy. I wish I would've found your channel sooner but on the bright side I now have a whole catalog of videos to watch!

Thank you so much for taking the time to actually TEACH something worthwhile! Entertaining as well ❤

Jason, I would think they tied them in a bundle after they were ready, so the light would be brighter and perhaps not burn as fast as a single rush, standing upright , the flame would have to work it's way DOWN, whereas, if you held it to the side, as you did, the fire burned it more quickly. This is only a guess, but comparing it to a standing candle , or if you held the candle on it's side, the fire reaches more wax, more quickly. Thank you for the video, I sent it to my son who very much likes trying to make things the old ways.

In my experience growing up, when we didn't have candles, the cheapest and easiest way of lighting was an oil lamp in the corner with a mirror or a piece of aluminum foil behind it to reflect more of the light towards the middle of the room. Truth is, aluminum foil that's been crumpled first actually works better than a mirror or anything else, I'd assume in the old days anything with a somewhat reflective surface would have served double duty as a "reflective lamp backer", like a wider blade or anything with a metallic surface.

Weird how I used to prepare rushes when I was a kid without even knowing it. Maybe I was a medieval peasant in a past life!

I just love this… amazing channel. Amazing content…, thank you for this!

Am I the only one who cracked up when he brought out the heat gun? xD

So I guess to be "in a rush" would have connotations to trying to do something before it goes out.

Hahaha I had an inkling he was going to use a heat gun but it was so surreal seeing him whip it out in his medieval attire with his medieval task. Love it this is awesome.

In one of the Little House on the Prairie books they burned straw (during the big winter) which they twisted together in to make it last longer than untwisted blades.

What a long process. Makes me appreciate a lightbulb.

There is a growing plant about 50 miles from my grandparents oil home that it call a petroleum palm that is very flammable. My grandpa told me that during the American depression his family would work for the land owner to harvest the juice and pulp to most out of every plant, distilled it and into a lantern oil

Prompted by some of the more recent comments: Just an FYI for anyone half considering this as a possible energy-saving option - LED lights use miniscule amounts of energy, cost literally pennies to run (1 5W light would need to run for 6hrs before costing 1p in energy, at the current national average rate of 34p/kWh) and the cost of rendering the fat would probably outweigh the cost of having an LED on 😉

Love your video and your honesty. Nice one👍🙂

Very appropriate. As the world is regressing to medieval times, we should learn medieval technics.

We used to make something in Boy Scouts called "magic matches," which were just lengths of string soaked in paraffin wax. They were especially useful for making fires during winter camping trips.

Suddently these tips have become practical again and not only a historical curiosity. Thanks Ursula

The reason the leaves feel like Sandpaper is that they are! many grasses form little sharp pieces of silica on the edges or on the flat and when long grass gets damp in the evening and you run through it bare foot, you'll cut yourself; Not very often but you almost certainly will. Also certain types of bamboo will form very little serations in the form of hooks. I found that out after a classmate cut me with a bamboo leaf and i took a closer look. you can Make the little pieces of silica on grass visible by holding a leaf of fresh green grass in the flame of a lighter. the grass will not start to burn immediately but there will be very little glowing dots and that are the pieces of silica.