GOLDEN FORKS – BETWEEN MYTH AND REALITY

Text topic: Studies

Text author: Тамара Огњевић

The golden forks allegedly used by the Grand Prince of Serbia, Stefan Nemanja, in the banquet organised to honour Fridrich I Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor, in Niš in 1189, has long ago become a paradigm of a romanticized image of our „better, more glorious and more eminent“ past. These luxurious, pricy pieces of cuttlery – Nemanja’s forks – have become a specific social phenomenon, a symbol of a refined, well-mannered ruler and a metaphore of national excellence. This work aims to analyse the origins, characteristics, use and symbolism of the fork in Serbian Medieval eating culture, using complex gastroheritological method and researching various available sources from artistic imagery, through archeological finds to literary, historical and other referent materials, with a special view of the ruler’s manu and the gastrodiplomacy.