Tri-Kingdom University and Scandinavian Sumptuary Laws

 Last weekend was the Tri-Kingdom University, a combined online university by the SCA kingdoms of Drachenwald (Europe), Atlantia (US) and Lochac (Australia and New Zealand).

It is nice to be able to both teach, and learn new things from your own home. I'm at my work space in the kitchen, wearing 14th century clothign, drinking tea from a 13th century replica mug. It is not an immerisive experience, like going to an event, but you can listen to teacher's from all over the world. 

I listened to classes about necromancy, the clothing of Queen Catherine Jagiellon of Sweden (16th century), and Bronze Age Aegean incense, potions and perfumery.

I taught a class about Scandinavian sumptuary laws before 1600.This is a subject that I have published about, so I thought that I'd add a list of my articles that discuss sumptuary laws here.

"Dangerous Fashions in Swedish Sumptuary Law" in The Right to Dress: Sumptuary Laws in a Global Perspective c. 1200-1800 edited by Giorgio Riello and Ulinka Rublack - 2019

"Foreign Seductions: Sumptuary laws, consumption and national identity in early modern Sweden" in Fashionable encounters: perspectives and trends in textile and dress in the Early modern nordic world edited by Tove Engelhardt Mathiassen, Marie-Louise Nosch, Maj Ringgaard, Kirsten Toftegaard and Mikkel Venborg Pedersen - 2014

"Inget scharlakan för dåliga fruntimmer: Dräktregleringar och sexuella normbrytare i medeltidens Skandinavien" i Det våras för medeltiden. Vänbok till Thomas Lindkvist, Auður Magnúsdóttir, Henric Bagerius och Lars Hermanson (red.) - 2014

 

The tale of the mantle

In the beginning of this month I went to the International Medieval Congress in Leeds. Together with two friends I had session about materiality in Arthurian literature. My presentation was about clothing and textiles in six romances translated to Norwegian and Swedish in the early to mid-13th and early 14th century respectively. One of these, the so-called Möttuls saga was probably based on the Old French Le Cort Mantel, and was adapted into Old Norse  by a  cleric known as Brother Robert, probably of Anglo-Norman origin, for King Haakon IV of Norway (1217–1263). 

The Norse text can be found in its entirety here.

The tale is about a wondrous cloak which tests the fidelity and virtue of the woman who wears it, and the story in the Norse version is rather comic and somewhat bawdy. The cloak is very beautiful; made from red silk and is gold embroidered all over with leaves. it is held together with cloak ties and if the woman wearing it is virtuous, it should reach all the way to the floor. A man brings the cloak to the court of King Arthur and demands that all women at court should try it on.

Unsurprisingly all but one of the women at King Arthur's court fall short in this test; the cloak is eithr too short or too long, and often both at the same time, indicating, according to the tale, in which position the woman had been unfaithful.

So much about the story, but when I worked with this material I felt a very strong urge to have such a cloak, though without the magic. Silk cloaks are not unheard of in medieval Scandinavia, I found three in Norwegian documents when I did my PhD dissertation:

* One, is in a woman's will from 1349, and it is made from blue silk and has skillmala, an unidentified type of ornament. Link to the document.

* One, from 1353, has no mention of colour, but was lined with ermine and edged with sable and also had lade, a word that means woven or embroidered trim. This is a man's will, but it also contains items of women's clothign, so the cloak may also be a woman's cloak. Link to the document.

* The latest one, is in a document dividing posessions between a brother and a sister on the occasion of her wedding in  1366. This cloak was given to the woman, was green, lined and edged with ermine and had gold ornaments made in Norway (norröna). These were probably cloak clasps, since bezants, the metal ornaments so common in medieval fashion were usually silver or gilt silver. Link to the document.

So, I decided that I really need a floor length silk cloak.

Cloaks from this period were semi-circular - one such cloak was found during excavations in the church of Leksand in Sweden. The cloak, which is dated to the 12th or 13th century, was made from a diamond twill wool and had a border of woven trim along the straight edge of the semi-circle. This cloak was probably long enough to reach to the wearer’s feet in the back. Marc Carlson has a page about it, which shows an estimation of the cut, and more information can be found in Margareta Nockert's article ’Textilfynden’,  in Tusen år på Kyrkudden, red. Birgitta Dandanell, Falun 1982.

I looked around for reasonably priced silk when I was in London on my way home from Leeds, but I didn't find any in a colour I liked. However, this week I passed the town of Borås, known for its textile trade, on my way to a friend's 50th birthday celebration, and there, at a shop called Furulunds, I found a gorgeous raspberry red silk. The photos do NOT make it justice.

Now I "just" have to make the embroidery. And decide HOW to make it, which means more research. I will keep you posted.
It will be lined, probably in another silk, but given the time the embroidery will take to make I don't have to look for lining fabric this year.

Recreating blessed Isabelle de France’s auqueton

In the latest issue of The Dragon's Tale, the Kingdom newsletter of Drachenwald I have an article about my recreation of blessed Isabelle de France’s auqueton. For those of you who are not members of either Drachenwald, or SCA in general, who can access Dragon's Tale here, I have, with the permission of the chronicler, also put it on this blog (with slightly more pictures)

You can find the full information about the garment and its creation here.

A costume of the Count Elector August of Saxony

Those of you who study 16th century clothing are probably aware of the yellow and black suit of the count Elector Moritz of Saxony  (Good photos of the costume here). It is exhibited at the Dresden Rüstkammer and has been published in a 2008 publication from the Abbegg Stiftung. The Abbegg stiftung (foundation) is this extremely cool organisation that collects and conserve textiles - from ancient to the 19th century. Their museum is well worth a visit and their publications are top class. It was sheer will power that stopped me from buying more than these three. And the risk of having to pay for overweight on the plane.

You can see that I bought the book with Moritz' clothing.

However, Moritz was not the only count elector whose black and gold clothing has been preserved in the Rüstkammer. While visting the Abbegg Stiftung in Riggisberg this week  for the Dressing the early Modern Network's conference A taste for the exotic, which was organized in collaboration with the Abbegg foundation, we had the opportunity to visit their conservation workshops to see some of their current projects. The one that interested me most was a costume that belonged to Moritz of Saxony's successor: August.

Painting by Lucas Cranach the Younger, c 1572. From wikipedia

Very reasonably we were not allowed to take photographs from the studio. There will be a publication on this costume in either 2019 or 2020, which will undoubtedly provide both excellent photos, patterns and construction details.

However, I did make some sketches and notes and when I got home I made some better sketches, with pencil, pen and water colour.

While the yellow dominates in the costume now, it would have been dominantly black when worn, being completely covered with the black, embroidered net. The exception is the bodice of the doublet, which would not have been seen when worn with the jerkin.

As these drawings are made from sketches, notes and memory there are omissions and possible misunderstandings and mistakes, but until we have the publication it at least gives an idea of the costume. Including the interesting fact that the stockings were stitched to the bottom of the trunk hose, which would made it so much easier for them to be nice and taut, without wrinkling.

The start of a Society of the Golden Egg challenge

A little more than one year ago, when Contessa Isabetta del Verde was queen of Drachenwald, she founded the Society of the Golden Egg. The Society of the Golden Egg is a challenge household for the arts and sciences in the Kingdom of Drachenwald, within the Society for Creative Anachronism.
This is the web page of the society, which will tell you much more, including ongoing projects. Members of teh household are either in the process of making their challenge or have finished their challenges, after which you remain a member of the household for three years. After that you will have to make another challenge if you want to stay.
There are currently eight challengers, and I am one of them.

I liked the idea of the society from the start, but since I research and make stuff all the time I wasn't sure if I needed this/it was for me. Especially since even the largest projects, such as Valeria's Eleonora di Toldeo gown, tend to be finished much quicker than in a year.

But then I found this, which if we take into account the fact that I have started working 75 % instead of 50 % probably will take a year - at least if I include research, blogging about it and making an article. It really is the perfect project for me:

A quilted auqueton from 13^th century France

A Golden Egg challenge by Aleydis van Vilvoorde

The project is to research and recreate the auqueton of St.Isabelle of France, the sister of St. Louis, who lived 1224-1270. While St. Isabelle did become a saint the garment in question is not a religious habit, but a secular garment worn for warmth, and a rather fashionable one too, since quilted garments had recently become popular under the influence of muslim manners of dress. The garment has its name from the Arabic al coton. While fashionable it was not only a high-status garment; quilted garments made from linen or half cotton/linen and with cotton wadding were made as ready-to-wear, at least in Italy, in the period and since the materials were relatively cheap (and labour very cheap in the Middle Ages), they were actually a cheaper alternative to wool garments to keep warm.
When making it I will be using the correct materials and with period sewing techniques but make the garment in a size that fits me. The aqueton will also act as the focus for wider research on quilted non-military garments in medieval Europe. Included in the challenge is that I will blog about the research, tests and finished results. I will also write at least one article on the subject for Dragon’s tale and present the finished aqueton and the research on a web page at my blog.

The project is a challenge in several ways: I have never quilted a garment before, so I will learn new skills. Patterning for a quilted fabric will be an interesting challenge which will mean making samplers to see how much the fabric shrinks from being quilted. it will also be a challenge to make all that hand quilting in less than a year. My goal is to finish the challenge so that I can present it at Double Wars 2019.

To sum it up why it is perfect for me:

•  It is from one of the time periods I mainly make and wear.
•  It’s a preserved garment
•  It involves the new fashions for quilted clothing, and cotton,
    which is something I am very interested in researching further.
•  It will provide opportunity to continue my research in the field of
   cotton and quilted clothing of the high Middle Ages.
•   It is rarely done, the reconstruction of Sihame Cornetet linked to below
    being the only example that I have found.
•  It will be a challenge to make all that hand quilting in less than a year,
    and I need something to push me.

•  It is a practical garment to keep warm. Though wool I does this admirably,
   so this is the least concern.

I have started on the research: The garment is one of those included in the recent book by Elizabeth Coatsworth and Gale R. Owen-Crocker: Clothing the past: surviving garments from early medieval to early modern western Europe. I have also studied Sihame Cornetet's analysis from her blog. There you find many interesting photos and information, and she has also has begun a reconstruction.  

Apart from reading my first step was to make a test quilt, to see how much the fabric would shrink from quilting.

Yesterday, during the sewing meeting that I host  for the barony of Gotvik every other week I took some linen scraps of the approximate weight that I am going to use and I measured and marked a rectangle on it.

The cotton batting is spread very thinly, just like the original. When I make the actual pieces I will probably comb it to make it a little more even though.

I then quilted it with waxed linen thread, using running stitches. The finished piece is still flexible, due to the thinness of the cotton wadding, and it didn't shrink noticably.

The next step is finding if there are any older publications in French about this garment and if possible hunt them down. Actually starting on the quilting will have to wait until next salary, because I have bought quite enough fabric this month already.

The other challenges include cooking, brewing, clothing reconstruction, spinning and weaving and lace making - you can read about them here.
There is also a facebook group for the Society, which will keep you updated abotu what is happening with the various challenges.

Help me research YOU!

So, I have this side research project gong on, studying you, and myself, for a conference paper, and I would like you help me. I have made a survey on the re-creation and wearing of medieval dress.

About the survey:
This survey is a part of a research project on the choices and priorites made by people who re-create medieval clothing. It is inclusive and tries to cover both re-enactors, groups such as the SCA, LARPers and those who make medieval clothing In other contexts. For the purpose of the study "medieval" has been defined as the priod 500-1600. The 16th century has been included even if it's not part of the Middle Ages, because one of the largest groups which re-create medieval clothing, the SCA, include the 16th century in their re-created time period.
There will be questions both about your ow choices and practices and about you opinion on the choices and practices fo others. In the latter case "others" can be other people in general, or people taking part in the same re-creating activity as you do, the interpretation is up to you and you can define which in the comments if you want to.
You do not have to answer all questions, but the results will be more reliable if you do, so I am grateful if you complete the whole survey.
The point of the survey is not to judge, either from a point of period correctness or based on any moral criteria, but to study practices among those who make and wear medieval clothing. I will not judge you either for making all your garb from polyester and glue, nor for wanting to (metapphorically) burn those who do.  It is anonymous, and the information you provide about yourself will only used for statistics and not published in connection with any individual comments or answers.

About me: My name is Eva I Andersson and I am a historian working at the Department of Historical Studies at Gothenburg University in Sweden. I eared my PhD in 2006 on a dissertation medieval dress in Sweden and Norway. Since then I have mainly studied Early Modern dress, gender, and consumption. My professional web page can be found here

I have also made historical clothing, mainly medieval, since 1993, and this experience lies behind my interest in the practices of  re-creating medieval dress. (You know this if you're reading my blog ;) )


The survey can be found here.

Making a 14th century night cap

In only a month the SCA camping season starts with the event Double Wars. And since we are having a very cold spring (due to the record high temperature at the North Pole pressing down cold air further south) I am more than a little worried about keeping warm in my pavillion before hubby joins me after four days.
Asking advice about heating the pavillion (I am leaning towards this) a guy in our local group mentioned that you (obviously) shouldn't keep it running when you are asleep, and that you heat up you pavillion, put on your cap and crawl into your sleeping bag.
Well, I do have a sleeping bag, and lots of modern caps (I'm an enthusiastic knitter), but I thought: wouldn't it be cool with a period night cap?

There are lots (well, relatively) of preserved ones from the late 16th - early 17th century, like this one, from the Cleveland Museum of Art:

But since I mostly make earlier periods I wasn't that interested in making one of those. I am also sure that it wouldn't be comfortable to sleep on the embroidery - they were after all probably mostly worn as undress rather than for sleeping.

But they did use night caps, for instance Les Quinze joies de mariage from the 14th century mentions the wife providing night caps for overnight guests. And there are images, though it took me a few hours of browsing through my vast collection of 14th century Italian images to find a few:

The women here appear to be sleeping in St.Birgitta caps. Which is only reasonable, they're extremely practical.

However, I wanted something warmer, made at least partly from wool, and found these Italian paintings:

Barnardo Daddi:

Memmo di Filippuccino:

The last one is from San Gimignano, and from 1306, which is one of the periods I mostly wear. I find it interesting that sh'es naked except for the cap :) And it shows that women also wore this kind of cap at night.

So I made a night cap from red wool, lined with white linen. The lining is slip stitched in place at the edge and easily removable for washing.

And finally: Some ordinary caps that I thought were intriguing and could be used for night caps too maybe:

My next (?) project

This may not be my next project, since there's always the possibility that I'll make something quickly for Double Wars for instance. But it is the project that inspires me and fuels my clothing research right now.

This is a leaf from a treatise on vices, owned/comissioned by the Cocharelli family in Genoa c. 1330-1340. This particular leaf is at the Cleveland Museum of Art (link to the manuscript leaf and a high resolution view of the illustration above). A few other pages have been preserved and most of them are at the British Library (link).

The motif is queen Accidia, personifying Melancholy, who can't even be enthusiastic over board games :)
The text at the Cleveleand museum of Art stresses Islamic influences in the textiles, and in the jeweled headdresses of all women except Accidia. They do not mention the dress of the women as specifically ifluenced by Islamic culture, which is wise, since both the type of garments worn together and the way thatthey are decorated are found in many images from late 13th to mid- 14th century Italy.

I have already written about Italian gowns with high waists, belted and with seams (as well as making one of silk and one of cotton).
Blog post 1.
Blog post 2.
Silk gown
Cotton gown

So high waist seams are definitely something seen in Italy at this time.

The placement on the trim of the two non-striped highwaisted gowns is also rather common, here are just a few examples:

The Tolentino basilica

The white gown is also split down in front, as the gowns in the Cocharelli treatise.

While the woman to the right below has a gown that is split at the sides.

I have (of course) also written a blog post about split overgowns in the late 13th- early 14th century, it's here.

The fresco San Zeno in Verona which was the inspiration for my teal silk gown, also has decorations which are similar to the ones in the illustration at the top of this post. And, of course, the high waist seam.

Ambrogio Lorenzettis painting of the bad and good judgement shows a woman in a dress with the same trim placement as on the Cocharelli treatise, almost like a yoke.

St.Ursula, from Chiesa di St. Orsola in i Vigo de Cadore in the Veneto.

As for overgowns split both at the sides and in front (and possibly in the back), as the woman in the mi-parti outfit has, there are examples of this too, like this: Giovanni Baronzio 1325-1350, The Life of St. Columba

As for the headdresses being Islamic inspired I don't know enough about Islamic dress to say anything about it, but one can note that wearing your coronet/crown tilted back is not that uncommon in 14th century Italian art.The added jeweled band seems a little odd though.

This of course needs to be examined further.

But if anything it is queen Accidia that looks... - almost French, rather than Italian.

I haven't yet made up my mind which of the versions that I want to make. The mi-parti one is cool, the white unusual, but the striped ones are more insane, and I tend to go for that.

A tip: Fashioning the self in slavery and freedom

This is an excellent tumblr, and facebook page for the same.

It's a page by historian Jonathan Square which, I quote: "explores the politics of fashion among people of African descent during slavery and the emancipation era."

Well worth following in both places.

Henri Christophe, ruler of Haiti with his wife Marie-Louise Coidavid 

and daughter (either Françoise-Améthyste or Anne-Athénaïre).

Cotton in Europe in the Middle Ages

Last year I held a class on cotton in Europe in the Middle Ages at Double Wars (SCA event). Since many persons who couldn't attend expressed interest in the subject I made that class into an article for the Drachenwald Kingdom Newsletter Dragon's Tale.

SCA members all over the world can access it from the SCAs web page, but I have many readers who are not in the SCA, so with permission from the Chronicler I'm also putting the article here on the blog.

Today this arrived:

Costume, with my latest article! *bounce* bounce*

I also got a hat in the mail

It will probably be remade heavily.

Pondering Quattrocento caps

As you saw I made a small linen cap for my working class Italian 15th century outfit, based on several paintings.

But now I am re-making a much fancier Italian 15th century gown, which needs something equally fancy to put on the head.

So I started looking at paintings from the second half of the 15th century, and came up with these other examples of caps:

Del Cossa: Triumph of Minerva. c. 1480
Several examples of white coifs tied under the chin.

Francesco del Cossa: Triumph of Venus.  c. 1480

Two red coifs tied under the chin.

An embroidered coif, Filippino Lippi

Ippolita Sforza, by Lorenzo Costa 1490.

Cap placed on the back of the head, decorated with pearls.

Neroccio de Landi, unknown woman.
She wears a cap made of the same fabric as her under gown, and edged with pearls, and with a brooch or jewel at the top front.

Carlo Crivelli: St. Ursula 1473

Like the coifs in the del Cossa paintings her cap has deep cuts at the temples. It is of the same colour, if not maybe the same fabric, as the body of her gown.

Piero della Francesca, ca 1460-70
Her cap appears to be stiffer and more built up than the other caps seen here, but has the same shape, with deep cuts over the temples. Decorated with small pearls and gold and worn with a veil hanging from it in the back.

There is also a preserved Venetian cufietta, c. 1480-1520, which has some resemblance to what we see in these image. Thoughwith out the deep cutouts in front.

There are of course other types of headwear in 15th century Italy - veils, of course, but also some seriously weird "half caps", such as this:

Here the front of the coif is there, but the back has been removed and the hair hangs partly over it at the sides.

Those I definitely need to do some more thinking about.

Crazy about cotton

Today my khadi fabric arrived from India. I have been eye-ing this particular fabric on eBay for a while, since it combines two things that we know were common in the Italian cotton weaving: indigo dye and woven patterns. If it had been linen warp and cotton weft it would have been even better, since that was the most common type of cotton fabric woven in Europe in the Middle Ages.

It'a a bit bluer than the photo shows, at least on my browser. And it's everythign that I wished for; I was afraid it would be thin and flimsy, but no, it will do fine for a medieval gown.

Now to decide what to make from it: A 15th cnetury Italian high-waisted gown would look very good made from this. However, by that time the Italian cotton weaving industry was rather small, having been out-competed by the southern German fustian industry. Thought they of course still used cotton clothing in Italy. A working cless 13th or early 14th century Italian gown would, however probably be more typical.
Since I have other things to make this isn't that much of a problem though, I will consider the choice for a while. And pet the fabric (and pre-wash it).

Various ways of making 13th-early 14th century fillets

Since I have been making clothing from this period for over fifteen years now I have of course learnt a lot, discarded some ideas and tried new ones regarding the fillets, coffee filter hats or whatever you want to call them. So I thought that I should share three different fillets that I have made, and the inspiration for them.

More generally I have written about headwear options for women in this period in this, rather image-heavy post.

It is important to note that these are in period texts considered as part of the veils, chin band etc, what in German would have been called gebende, a word related to ribbon, at this period, and one that I like a lot, because it includes all parts of the (mostly) linen headwear. They were therefore also of the same material and colour as the veil, chin band or wimple etc.

In fact, it is clear to see from 13th centry images that they originally were a strip of linen would around the head. These two are from a French manuscript from the 1220s - and you can even see the pin holding it together.

 

This lady, from the Worcester cathedral, from the 1240s, has a pleated band wound around her head as a crown, but we can see where it overlaps.

This 13th century lady from Dryburg Abbey appears ot have wound her pleated strip twice around her head.

I haven't worn this variant yet, but since I have five metres of hemmed linen strip to wind around my head this is probably just a matter of time. And of boiling starch.

Later one they appear to have become a separate piece, worn over the chin strap and sometimes also over a coif, but always under the veil, if worn with a veil (see the post linked above).

A lot of these were plain, and I have one of those too, bust since it's only a piece of linen, cut at an angle at the edges, folded over, sewn together and starched slightly I didn't bother to take a photo of it.

Plain fillets, from Reims cathedral, 13th century, and the Holkham Bible 1325-1330.

 

But, there are also more decorated ones, in one way or the other, and that's what I am going to show you three examples of.

1.

This is  a fillet with a "wavy" edge. These are rather common in art, but whether the many examples of fillets with this kind of edge is the artists' way of showing pleating or actually shows a wavy upper edge is under debate. I however think that it is unlikely that so many artists, who have no problems showing pleats on for example sleeveheads on gardecorps should be unable to draw them on women's headwear.  I think that there were several different ways to decorate a fillet, pleated, with a wavy or scalloped edge, edged with a braid etc.

This fillet is based on St. Anna on this early 14th century altar frontal from Odda in Norway, seen below.

Both her fillet and and her "chin strap" has rows of decorations which I have interpreted as braid, but could also be embroidery for instance. Another example showing a fillet with an edge of something thicker, maybe a braid, or a rolled piece of fabric is this s seal from c. 1300 (picture showing the imprint) 

My fillet has a silk cord sewn to it, but a more period solution would be a hand made braid or cord. The fillet is made from linen in a diamond twill, to add some interest to the simple white colour, and it is stiffened with heavy fusible interfacing. This was my first fillet, and today I would have either chosen vellum, which I'm told was used to stiffen some 13th century Spanish hats, or starch.

To make the top wider than the bottom the pieces are cut at an angle where they are sewn together.

A few more wavy fillets with some kind of edge decoration at the top:

Roman del la Poire, 13th century

And the ever popular Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift.

2.
This fillet instead has a scalloped  edge.

There are quite a few images of these too.
My first inspiration, the violent woman in blue in the Trinity Apocalypse.

This one, from teh Maciejowski Bible also appears scalloped.

But it is also slightly shaped, since the edges stand out. To achive this there is a wire sewn along all the scallops bty hand, before, again by hand, sewing the outer and inner layers together.

Here you see that the strip is angled at the back.

3.
Finally we have a pleated fillet, which is new, I made it this autumn.

This is not my first try at a pleated fillet, but the less said about that other one, the better.  I sewed wire to the edge of many metres of linen and knife pleated the whole thing. It was not a success. This one is also made from a long strip of linen, but instead of knife pleating it all I sewed tucks on the strip, levaing the top 1,5- 2 cm. After hemming it all of course.

To give it some stability I sewed a strip of linen to the bottom edge. I contemplated sewign teh pleats to teh top edge of this strip too, but as you can see on the photo of me above, it keeps its shape pretty well anyway, with the help of spray starch.

This, absolutely fabulous photo of Countess Margareta von Brabant, married to count Gerald von Gerle, taken by the German re-enactment group Amicorum Gratia shows a pleated fillet from above, and you see that it is double, though the inner layer also appears to be pleated. This may be next on my list. Again, this my be a strip of linen wound twice around the head.

I'm not sure about this cosntruction with the tucks, but it does give a good Maciejowski bible look.

This Italian manuscript from 1241 shows either a pleated, or a scalloped fillet which has decoration in yellow on it. I'm guessing pleating.

This german one appears to have pleats both at the top and the bottom, and not much of an angle. My guess is that this is still a strip of linen just wound around the head.

This one, from, the Rutland Psalter (ca 1260) is probably pleated in some way, but much less so than the one I have made.

Anyway, there are a million medieval images showing this type of headwear, and showing these was not the point of this post, but to show different variants that I have made. And, hopefully, point out that these are three interpretations, and that there are many more to make.

And therefore I end here.