E X T E N S I O N ENTERTAINMENT IN MEDIEVAL TIMES: TOURNAMENTS AND FEASTS A tournament was a pretended battle in which knights practised their fighting skills. The object was not to kill the opponent, but to capture him. The winner got the loser s horse and armour as a prize. In early tournaments large teams of knights fought each other. As many as 3,000 knights fought in a meadow1 outside a town. Later, the joust 2 became more popular. In it two knights competed by riding at each other with lances, sometimes wearing fancy dress. Tournaments were very dangerous. To improve safety, knights began using blunt3 weapons. As collisions between jousting knights caused injuries4 both to knights and horses, they started using tilts. A tilt was a barrier first used in the XV century to separate jousting knights. At first it was just a rope, but later a wooden barrier was used. The nobles enjoyed the jousting tournaments, but the Church disapproved of them. Another form of entertainment for kings and barons in medieval times were feasts in the castle. To celebrate special occasions, kings ordered the local sheriff to provide5 a lot of food (chickens, eggs, oxen6, pigs, sheep, etc.) and beer. Before eating, though, kings and lords employed testers to test their food, as they lived in fear of being poisoned. During feasts and celebrations performances were held in the castle. The king, in fact, kept dwarves7, fools and jesters8 to entertain them and their guests. 1. 2. 3. 4. meadow: prato, campo. joust: torneo, giostra. blunt: smussato, non affilato. injury: ferita. 5. 6. 7. 8. 72 provide: fornire, procurare. ox (plur.: oxen): bue. dwarf: nano. jester: buffone, giullare.