renaissance faire camels?

[remisser]

They're having a medieval renaissance faire here in massachusetts like they do every year (King Richard's Faire) (http://www.kingrichardsfaire.net) - but they're going to have camels... do camels really fit the medieval times? I know they were around, but I thought camels were more of a desert type animal...

[j.c.]

One notes the British Lion is... you know... a lion.

Blame the romans.

Camels and elephants were probably not a popular as greyhounds, but I'm sure they were around.

That said, I think the ren fest people mostly have camels and elephants for kicks. How much fun would it be if they had kids run through the "giant diseased rat maze" or served black bread and boiled cabbage?

[everton]

Camels were not used routinely as pack animals in Renaissance Europe, but they do occasionally appear in paintings (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/aertsen/adoration-magi/), so people would have been at least vaguely familiar with them. Menageries were not unknown either, and Louis XIII of France had a camel in his collection in the early 1600s for instance. Renaissance and mediaeval are not interchangeable terms by the way.

[Laughing Lagomorph]

Originally posted by remisser
...... do camels really fit the medieval times? ......

Of course they had camels in medieval times.

Not in Europe, maybe, but North Africa, Arabia, etc? Sure.

[gluteus maximus]

Ever heard of the Crusades?