Torches

So you built yourself a castle, a nice big dark castle.  You’ve got a stout gate, arrow loops to defend approaches, and high walls to dissuade attackers.  The next question is, how are you going to navigate this edifice without stubbing your toe?  Fireplaces are a good idea, but you can’t have those everywhere.  I already covered candles in my post, “Jobs – Chandler,” so that leaves us with oil lamps and torches.  I know, I know, it’s an unwieldy topic that should be split into two.  Fine, I’ll listen to my audience this one time and stick to that movie castle mainstay, the torch.
    First point to get out of the way is that torches were not used regularly indoors.  Dependent upon materials used, torches are thought to have burned for an hour or less.  Having servants changing out the castle's sconces every hour seems like a terrible waste of time.  Without a flue to clear it out, smoke would have built up rather rapidly in any enclosed area and smudged the hell out of walls and ceilings.  Lastly, large untended flames dangling over wooden floors (possibly covered in rushes) spitting sparks seems like a terrible idea.  Torches would not be the medium of choice for providing regular illumination inside a building.
    Now that we have dispensed with the castle illuminating idea, why the hell would I want to use a torch?
It's a good way to draw attention to yourself if you're lost in the wilds (otherwise, it's probably easier to see by star/moonlight).  When you are in a cave, it might be a good idea to have some kind of illumination (though you may be overcome with smoke).  Dramatic torchlit processions have long been popular for religious and political occasions of all kinds.  Setting fire to something is often easier for soldiers or bandits if they have a torch handy.  Torches are also popular with jugglers and other kinds of traveling entertainers.  There are myriad occasions where torches can be useful, but you need to keep their limitations in mind.    
    While torches are widely depicted in art of the period, I haven't found much in the way of clearly referenced historical material related to their construction.  It seems widely agreed that a wooden stave (preferably green or wet) was used for the handle.  One end of the stave was then wrapped in a material and soaked with a flammable substance.  The important idea was to keep the flammable material burning slowly.  Most bark, reeds, or rags on their own would burn out in mere minutes.  Pieces of highly resinous larch or pine were impregnated with wax for use as torches by early Celtic miners (900-400BC).  In Italy, saplings were beaten into fibers at one end and treated with fat to make torches.  Dictionary.com describes torch wood as "any of various resinous woods suitable for making torches, as the wood of the tree Amyris balsamifera,  of the rue family, native to Florida and the West Indies."  A. Roger Ekirch's At Day's Close, Night in Times Past (2005), says torches were "Made from thick, half-twisted wicks of hemp, dipped in pitch, resin, or tallow, a single torch weighed up to three pounds" (p. 124).  It is clear that there are almost as many right ways to make a torch as there are wrong ways.
    It's good to see that I haven't made any mistakes yet in regards to this in my writing, but it seems I have new nits to pick with loads of movies.  Will I ever be able to watch "The Adventures of Robin Hood" the same way again? (You put movie titles in quotes, right?) It just goes to show how much of our understanding of the world is warped by the entertainment of our childhood (and adulthood).  I'm using way too many parenthetical comments (aren't I?).  Ah well, I suppose my characters will just have to go back to trimming their wicks (for their candles, come on people).


Pitfalls - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQZqbGME5HY&hd=1
Forum with History and Construction - http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Soc/soc.history.medieval/2006-06/msg00554.html
Reddit Related Topic - http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1e7adh/weve_all_seen_the_unrealistic_torches_used_in/
Limited Resource- http://www.medievaltravel.co.uk/technology/medieval-technology-torches.html
Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torch
An Author's Take - http://jillwilliamson.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/medieval-facts-lighting-part-two-torches/