“I remember how we sat in the mead-hall, drinking
And boasting of how brave we’d be when Beowulf
Needed us, he who gave us these swords
And armor: all of us swore to repay him
When the time came, kindness for kindness
- With our lives, if he needed them.”
Burton Raffel translation of Beowulf
Lines 763 – 768
Michael Edwards likely did not know that he would become a preserver of the ambrosia that Geatish and Norse heroes alike sought out for respite. Initially a Virginian truck driver, Edwards moved to the Mountain State after his wife accepted a residency position in health care. Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he chose to stay at home with his children. After some time, he began to feel a bit stagnant and decided to allocate time to taking postsecondary courses. When it came time to select a major, the decision was easy. “The only class that took was history,” he explained, “I could relate it to my hobbies. My favorite car was a 1959 Chevy Impala, and 1959 was the year Fidel Castro took control of Cuba.”
After taking ACDC classes, he was admitted into Marshall University’s history program, where he is currently working towards his master’s degree, specializing in pre-Revolutionary America. When considering his next steps after graduation, he weighs law school as a potential option. “I really like Dr. Robert Deal’s History of Law class,” he said. “And I think, as someone who is from here and knows what it’s like to live and work here, I could make it better.”
Yet his historic passion would expand from the exchanges of Benedict Arnold and John André to include a different breed of epoch, beginning with his introduction to medieval and ancient history professor, Dr. Laura Michele Diener. He humorously recalls their first meeting:
“One day after class, Bob, Isiah, and I were shooting the shit, and somehow, maybe because it was October, the topic turned to Northwest vampires. I couldn’t remember the name of that one movie, and so I popped into the 140 class across the hall and asked, “Movie with sparkly vampires?”
A woman answered, “Twilight?”
I said, “You’re the best,” before leaving, not knowing that the woman in the middle of the class was Dr. Diener. When I found out, I thought, “You idiot.”
But when I went to apologize, she just said, “No problem, you should take my Roman Seminar and also my Viking class.”’
Diener’s Viking class laid the foundation for Edwards’ curiosity-driven project, which evolved into cultivated expertise. During the annual Viking Winter Feast, an unique and engaging event designed to bring the solstice joy of medieval life from studied texts to a tangible reality for students, Edwards strived to be a “over achiever,” not only smoking an entire pig, but also brewing his own mead; an alcoholic drink known as ‘honey wine,’ described by Horace as ‘the sweetest drink from the North.'” Edwards shares that his interest in the beverage stems from a long love for the Old English epic Beowulf, a heroic poem about the Geatish warrior’s battles with the monster Grendel, who attacks a Danish mead hall every night, leaving nothing but slaughter in his wake.
Edwards explains, “There are two ingredients you need for mead: honey and water. To get a taste as close to that of the Vikings as possible, I even ordered honey from Norway. Honey can contain wild yeasts that aid in the fermentation process. I buy and mix grape yeast to control the fermentation. The ratios you use will alter the strength of the alcoholic taste. I use ¾ pounds of honey per gallon and let it sit for about 6-8 weeks. For a smoother taste, you can bottle the mead and let it age for around 6 months. I typically don’t go that high in alcohol, maybe about 12-15%. If I want to go crazy, I go up to 40% which is common in moonshine. I like to just tinker with the taste.” He laughs, “I’m an Appalachian man making alcohol, imagine that.”
Brewing ancient drinks has become a bonding activity to do with his children as well, with even his four-year-old helping. Edwards, a doting father who broke out into a smile whenever he told stories of his family, shares, “With a house full of kids, I like them to learn as much as possible, and brewing is like a cool Frankenstein experiment we can do together.”
This feast is going to be their last memory before finals, so I am going to send them out from Marshall with a bang. That way I know I done my part to make it special.”
It is this passion for bringing excitement and the delight of learning that continues to inspire his feast contributions. He reflects, “I thought about what Dr. Chris White said when talking about the importance of these classes for the undergrads: This is the last reason for any of them to think like this. So, I decided, if I am going to do something wild, now’s the time to do it. This feast is going to be their last memory before finals, so I am going to send them out from Marshall with a bang. That way I know I done my part to make it special.”
