Not tonight---it's late. But it's time for a break in the long journey toward an understanding of how magical creatures keep the money supply under control.
But I'm interested in the progress of the fork across Europe. If you ask the average citizen of the average Creative Anachronism festival they will tell you that it wasn't invented until recently.
But Romans used forks. Here's an image from this site of a 4th century Roman multitool---isn't that a fork on the other end of the spoon?
Forks have been found in ancient Chinese archeological digs. Pitchforks were used everywhere. Even large kitchen forks were common. So it's clearly not true that the fork had not been "invented". It was everywhere.
Here's an excerpt from this Wikipedia entry: "use of the table fork in Western Europe was facilitated by two Byzantine imperial princesses who married into the Western aristocracy: the Empress Theophanu, wife of Emperor Otto II, in 972...most of Europe did not adopt use of the fork until the 18th century". Seriously? 700 years? Why?
Here's my theory. Europeans didn't use the fork at the dinner table because they didn't want to. They knew it was possible, but it separated them from the pleasure of feeling their food in their hands, which was part of the sensual pleasure of a meal.
Any other theories out there?
