And this is what made Lawrence and Horo one of the more lovely couples in this decade (counting Tomoya and Nagisa here too).

In this episode, one thing grabbed my attention. It’s the medieval diet 101 lesson given by Lawrence. It threw me back to my reads before a dungeon & dragons game. It’s the kind of small detail that makes a fantasy world feel more alive. Moreover, it is a theory that actually existed back in the day of castles and knights. Knowing this theory does dispel an old prejudice that the medieval european people ate junk and fat food. It was just easier for nobles to follow this kind of diet than for the peasants (who had to eat what they can find and what nobles would leave them). I can argue that eating according to a diet is also easier nowaday for the middle and the upper class of today.

In ten screencaps, you have the basic of the medieval health diet. It’s roots lies as far as the greek antiquity, in part influenced by Ancient India.

According to Aristotle in his Physics:

* Air is primarily wet and secondarily hot.
* Fire is primarily hot and secondarily dry.
* Earth is primarily dry and secondarily cold.
* Water is primarily cold and secondarily wet.

To be fair, this description of the four elements and its attributes are influenced by the climate in Greece, Mediterranean. Someone living in Northern Europe would have said otherwise about Air.

Alcmaeon of Croton was one of the first to come up with the idea that diet, lifestyle, seasons and climate could play an important part in a man’s health. Hyppocrates would later complete this idea with the theory of the four humours, blood (air), yellow bile (fire), black bile (earth) and phlegm (water). Around the same time, scholars of Ancient India came up with Ayurveda, an art of life, a philosophy and a medicine theory featuring the five elements (ether, wind, fire, water and earth), three of them (wind, fire and water) giving life and movement to the body. Wind (Vata ou vâyu) is within the body as the breath (prâna); Fire (Pitta) is found as bile; water (Kapha ou çlesman) should be in the body as phlegm. The three elements are also called humours (doshas). When the humours and the elements are well balanced, this is health (tridhâtu). Disease comes from the unbalance (tridosa : the three troubles).

Could Greeks be influenced by Indians? Was it the other way? To think of things back in their context, one should remember that trading between West and East was fairly old. Seals of the Indus civilization (2400-1750 BC) were found in Mesopotamia. Then the Persian emperor Darius the First (522-486 BC) conquered Indus, his empire did spread from Thrace to Indus. His administration created a writing system meant to be adapted to sanskrit. It is strongly suggested that if Indian and Greek schools of thoughts did not have direct contact, the Persian empire may have served as proxy for both philosophies (Darius did have greek doctors).

Galen would later refine this theory of humours, by adding four grades for each of them. He have gone as far of classify food according to this theory. Garlic and Pepper are fire element, their both attribute hot and dry being of the 4th degree. Ginger is air element; 3th degree hot and 3st degree wet. Peach is water element, 3th degree wet and cold. Vinegar is earth element, 2nd degree dry and cold.

This have heavily influenced the health diet in the Middle Ages. However, people were well aware that everyone are born different. In one person, the blood as humour would dominate, in another it should be phlegm, etc… And they are naturally attracted to a type of food, influenced by their own temper. This is where the medieval people let it go. As long as the balance of humours is not broken, the guys were free to eat what they want (especially if you are a noble) and can (ESPECIALLY if you are a poor peasant).

Moreover, people have come up with arbitrary rules to ensure the social order. Thus, food from “air” should only be eaten by aristocrats (this means birds, not sure if chicken count. The fruits and vegetables growing on trees also count) . While food from “earth”, like pigs and carrots, are for peasants. What kind of rule is that? Beat me.
This theory is so influencial in the western european thought that some of this stayed in our everyday vocabulary, Thus, we French would love to talk about the famous “British phlegm”.
This diet theory is not exclusive to the mediterranean and indian area. Chinese too have this kind of theory adapted to their own philosophy.

Overall, this small trivia from Spice & Wolf made me smile. It is something I want to see more in fantasy writing, but also reminds me why Spice & Wolf is “unique” in a genre dominated by swords and spells. Perhaps one day, some anime would dispell the prejudice against the european style long swords, too often described as heavy and unpratical clubs with edges, and the european sword fighting too often seen as “two lumberjacks going at each others”.