Medieval Death Trip

We kick of 2024 with a look at humanity's attempts to recreate itself, first with a dip into the legends of the Golem of Prague, and then an extended discussion of the role of AI in the future of medieval studies and particularly this show. Today's Texts: Eleazar of Worms, Commentary on Sefer Yezirah, fol.[...]

We conclude our miniseries comparing the legends to the real life of Gerbert d'Aurillac: mathematician, pope, and alleged magician. Today's variant of the Dark Legend comes from Walter Map, and we follow that with a look at the historical Gerbert's contributions to science. Today's Texts: Map, Walter. De Nugis Curialium. Translated by Montague R. James,[...]

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Gerbert d'Aurillac series with a special Halloween anniversary detour into a Victorian version of his Dark Legend: the 1888 short story, "The Demon Pope," by Richard Garnett. Today's Text Garnett, Richard. "The Demon Pope." The Twilight of the Gods and Other Tales. John Lane, 1903, pp. 86-98. Google Books. Music[...]

We pick up our unfinished thread from the Melrose Chronicle by exploring the "Dark Legend" of Gerbert d'Aurillac, who became Pope Sylvester II allegedly through the assistance of the devil. We'll hear one version of this legend as told by William of Malmesbury, and then examine what we know about the historical Gerbert. Today's Texts:[...]

It's back to basics in Ep. 101 as we return to the Chronicle of Melrose to hear about the years surrounding the turnover of the English kingdom from Anglo-Saxon monarchs to Danish ones, including the mystery of the death of King Edmund Ironside and whether or not he was assassinated by a fellow English noble.[...]

For our 100th episode, we look at one of the technologies that marks an endpoint for the middle ages, the printing press, and consider how Johann Gutenberg may be a prototype for today's paranoid tech tycoons and the lawsuits that so often dog them. Today's Texts: Van der Linde's, A. The Haarlem Legend of the[...]

On Valentine's Day 796 years ago, brother fought brother for the throne of the Isle of Man, as their fathers and uncles had done before them, another entry in the blood and betrayal-filled saga of the house of Crovan. Today, we hear the family conflict that led to that battle and see yet another king[...]

On this episode, we get cozy for the holidays with a visit to the humble abode of Elgar, Hermit of Bardsey Island. Just don't mind the visiting spirits or food-delivering eagles. Today's Texts - "Account of Elgar, The Hermit." The Liber Landavensis, Llyfr Teilo, or the Ancient Register of the Cathedral Church of Llandaff. Edited[...]

This time on Medieval Death Trip, we celebrate Black Friday weekend with some black magic in our belated Halloween anniversary episode. We look at a couple of quite different medieval witches, a Cornish wildwoman from the Life of St. Samson and the famous Witch of Berkeley, as well as a report of a night-hag from[...]

This episode we examine the fate of another royal head, that of King Oswald of Northumbria, and the miracles associated with his relics and the dirt from his grave, as reported by the Venerable Bede. Today's Text Bede. Beda's Ecclesiastical History. The Church Historians of England, translated by Joseph Stevenson, 1853. Google Books. References Fowler,[...]

This extra minisode of Medieval Death Trip offers a bit of historical perspective on the recent death of Queen Elizabeth II by looking back at accounts of the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603. Also, a surprisingly relevant but brief account of the Calendar (New Style) Act of 1750. Text: - Birch, Thomas. Memoirs[...]

This episode we return to the Lanercost Chronicle (and a bit of Capgrave's Chronicle) to get some serious history concerning the fall of the last native prince of Wales, before getting some a less serious dinner party anecdote about a couple of monkeys. Much hand-wringing is also given to the appropriate pronunciation of the name[...]

This episode we conclude the story of the peasant lad who spurned a humble farming life to go off live the high life with a robber knight and, as we shall see, did not ultimately get the life he expected. Here is the final part of Meier Helmbrecht. Today's Text Wernher der Gartenaere. Meier Helmbrecht.[...]

We continue with Part 2 (of 3) of the 13th-century peasant epic Meier Helmbrecht, in which Helmbrecht returns to his family after a year as squire to a robber knight, and cultures clash accordingly. Today's Text: Wernher der Gartenaere. Meir Helmbrecht. In Peasant Life in Old German Epics, translated by Clair Hayden Bell, Columbia UP,[...]

In this episode we learn how important good hair is to becoming a medieval cattle rustler with part one of the 13th-century poem Meier Helmbrecht. Today's Text: Wernher der Gartenaere. Meir Helmbrecht. In Peasant Life in Old German Epics, translated by Clair Hayden Bell, Columbia UP, 1931. Archive.org.

This episode, we follow up on a question from Ep. 90 about why the wandering worker Thomas Fuller might have fallen in with a criminal shepherd by looking at a pair of vagrancy and labor laws from the economically disrupted decades following the Black Death: the Statute of Laborers of 1351 and the Commons' Petition[...]

We finish off our Medieval True Crime miniseries with a look at two hangings from the year 1484 and explore some of the practices surrounding and meanings of hanging as a mode of execution in medieval Europe. Today's Text Knox, Ronald, and Shane Leslie, editors and translators. The Miracles of King Henry VI. Cambridge UP,[...]

In this (belated) episode marking our seventh anniversary, we learn about the infernal realms, straight from the devil's mouth, going from a 11th-century Old English text to the 16th-century stage. We also learn why you shouldn't attack your father with an ax and what demonic possession has in common with e. Coli. Today's Texts: Kemble,[...]

In this slightly belated Father's Day episode, we return to the snarky wit of Walter Map as he explains why it's so hard to be the man of the house. Today's Text Map, Walter. De Nugis Curialium. Translated by Montague R. James, historical notes by John Edward Lloyd, edited by E. Sidney Hartland, Cymmrodorion Record[...]

We return from an unplanned semester hiatus with the third installment of our Medieval True Crime miniseries, continuing to explore the 13th-century coroner's rolls of rural Bedfordshire (plus one item from 14th-century Essex), as well as muse on why murder narratives so monopolize our mysteries and how murder was defined in medieval England. Today's Text:[...]

As we kick off the New Year, we take a brief diversion from our Medieval True Crime miniseries to explore the world of precious stones and the extraordinary properties attributed to them through a look at the Lapidary of Marbodus and a couple of other short texts. Today's Texts Shackford, Martha Hale, editor. Legends and[...]

This episode, we continue our Medieval True Crime series with a trip to late 13th-century Bedfordshire as represented in its Coroner's Rolls, as well as hear some inadvertently lyrical legalese from early 14th-century Northampton. Today's Text: Gross, Charles, editor. Select Cases from the Coroners' Rolls, A.D. 1265-1413, with a Brief Account of the History of[...]

For our sixth anniversary episode, we kick off a miniseries on medieval true crime, with the account of a particularly brutal assault on a parish priest, with an additional look at medieval treatments for eye wounds, and also learn how a dead man managed to kill the warrior who slayed him. Today's Text: Knox, Ronald,[...]

This episode, we check in once again with 14th-century traveler Odoric of Pordenone as he takes in the many lands between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, including Sri Lanka, Java, Borneo, Vietnam, and some that remain rather mysterious. Today's Texts: Odoric of Pordenone. "The Eastern Parts of the World, Described." Cathay and[...]

This episode, we examine the persecution of Jews that occurred during the plague years of 1348-1350, including the record of well-poisoning interrogations, the pope's attempt to quell the violence, and a Jewish account of the persecutions and resistance. Today's Texts * "Appendix 2: Examination of the Jews Accused of Poisoning the Wells." The Epidemics of[...]

As life under quarantine begins to enter a new phase, we continue our survey of plague texts, with a grab-bag of selections ranging from Petrarch baring his soul to a surgeon listing failed remedies to some Paris professors issuing pandemic guidelines to keep the country safe, which include by no means consuming olive oil. Today's[...]

We return at last for our first episode of 2020 in the midst of the covid-19 global pandemic. As such, our text for today is the famous description of the bubonic plague as it appeared in Florence in 1348 with which Boccaccio frames his tale collection, the Decameron. Today's Text Boccaccio, Giovanni. Stories of Boccaccio[...]

This Christmas Eve episode, we return to the Gesta Regum Anglorum of William of Malmesbury, to learn hear some legends of Saxony, including some overly boisterous Christmas revelers cursed to continue their revels for a whole year without rest. Today's Text: William of Malmesbury. Chronicle of the Kings of England. Edited by J.A. Giles, translated[...]

This episode, we explore a character analysis of an unpopular leader, as William of Malmesbury explains how the virtues of William Rufus transformed into his greatest vices. Along the way, we also learn why pointy shoes are indicators of moral degradation. Today's Texts: William of Malmesbury. Chronicle of the Kings of England. Edited by J.A.[...]

This Halloween, we celebrate our fifth anniversary with five terrifying tales of demonic activity from the Lanercost Chronicle. Today's Text: The Chronicle of Lanercost: 1272–1346. Translated by Herbert Maxwell, James Maclehose and Sons, 1913.

We return from our hiatus with an exploration of life in Tudor grammar school classroom, as described in a compilation of translation exercises composed for his students by a master of the Magdalen School, Oxford. Today's Text: Nelson, William, editor. A Fifteenth Century Schoolbook: From a Manuscript in the British Museum (MS. Arundel 249). Oxford,[...]

As a treat to all of our listeners while the regular show is on vacation for July, here's the commentary track I made for the 1981 film Dragonslayer. This was originally released this past winter just to our Patreon supporters, but now everyone can get have chance to enjoy it. Note that this includes a[...]

This episode we encounter another saintly curse, this time at the hands of St. Maughold, the patron saint of the Isle of Man, and on our way to that miracle story, we catch up on the trials and tribulations of the Manx dynasty of Godred Crovan since we last saw them in Ep. 44. As[...]

This episode we go to Durham with its greatest chronicler, Simeon, to first hear about the short, shameful, and Cuthbert-cursed 10th-century episcopate of Bishop Sexhelm, and then we pick up about a hundred years later with the similarly flawed bishop brothers, Aegelric and Aegelwin. Finally, we wrap up by seeing what happens when a priest[...]

This episode, we turn to another genre of wisdom literature: the fable. We look at four versions of the fable of the Mouse and the Frog from across one-and-a-half millennia, with quasi-classical versions from the Vita Aesopi and the Romulus Aesop and medieval elaborations on the story by Marie de France and Robert Henryson. Today's[...]

This episode we take a look at Sólarljóð, an Old Norse poem that mixes a Christian tour of heaven and hell with the stylings of eddic poetry. We also consider what it might have in common with one of the fugues of the Great Revival. Today's Texts: "Song of the Sun." The Elder Eddas of[...]

As the recovery process begins after the April 15th fire the consumed the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, we reflect on the event, we learn how to make stained glass from a 12th-century artisan, and we hear about the architectural glories of the cathedral as described by Elizabeth Boyle O'Reilly shortly after the[...]

This episode, we return to an old favorite, the Lanercost Chronicle, to hear how Charles of Valois stoked violence between Normandy and the merchants of the Cinque Ports, as well as witnessing the Virgin Mary acting as a celestial attorney. Today's Texts: The Chronicle of Lanercost: 1272–1346. Translated by Herbert Maxwell, James Maclehose and Sons,[...]

We conclude St. Patrick's Confessio this episode, taking a look at Patrick's education and literary style, as well as the cultural context of missionary activity in the 5th century. We also are left wondering if that money was just resting in his account... (/FatherTed) Today's Texts: Patrick. Confession. St. Patrick: His Writings and Life, edited[...]

This March, we're going back to one of the earliest surviving St. Patrick texts, his own autobiographical Confessio. This episode we'll hear the first half, which covers Patrick's abduction from the coast of 5th-century Britain into slavery in Ireland and continues up to the start of his mission to convert the Irish some thirty years[...]

For Valentine's Day, we have a tale not so much of love, but of supernatural seduction. This is the story of a chaste young woman of the town of Dunwich stalked by a devil, as reported in The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich by Thomas of Monmouth. We also take a look[...]

We kick our 2019 with a return to narrative history, hearing about a terrible way to die and how not to profit off the deaths of others during a plague from William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum Anglorum, and we also look all the way back to the first book of Samuel to learn how to[...]

Listeners! This weekend (Feb. 9-10) I'll be updating many of the descriptions and tags on old episodes in our podcast RSS feed. There is a possibility that some podcast manager apps (especially iTunes) will interpret these changes as a whole lot of new episodes being posted and may try to download them all. As a[...]

In this final episode in our holiday chess series, we finish off the last pages in William Caxton's The Game and Playe of the Chess, looking at the pawn and the importance of the common people to the realm, and we consider the how to explain pawns becoming queens in a medieval context.

This fourth installment of our holiday chess series finishes off the back rank of pieces: the bishop (or alphyn), the knight, and the rook. We also explore a long-standing Wikipedia beef over rook terminology, and recommend a modern board game that plunges you into the paranoid world of zombie survival. Caxton, William. The Game and[...]

In the third episode of our holiday series of excerpts from William Caxton's The Game and Playe of the Chesse, we learn about how the king and queen move, which was a bit different in the 15th century than it is today. We also consider the difficulty of working out the rules of an ancient[...]

In this second installment of our holiday series of excerpts from William Caxton's The Game and Playe of the Chesse, we hear about the layout of the chessboard and what it represents. We also look at some of the games that chess replaced in Europe, including the Roman ludus latrunculorum, the Celtic fidchell or gwyddbwyell,[...]

We kick off a holiday miniseries of chess lore from William Caxton's The Game and the Playe of the Chesse with one version of how chess was invented. We then some historical corrections to this account and also hear one of the earliest written accounts of chess, the Persian Chatrang-namak.

For our 4th anniversary, we celebrate Halloween with one of the great tales of the unquiet dead from the Icelandic sagas -- namely, Grettis saga and the story of Grettir's fight with the revenant Glámr. We also recommend three good horror movies that relate to revenants and medieval themes.

This episode we hear three tales from a miracle catalogue compiled in the hopes of winning official sainthood for King Henry VI, whose reputation needed all the help it could get after the events of his reign. We also take a look at the state of peasant parenthood in late medieval England.

Previously, we heard Odoric (or Odoricus) of Pordenone (or Friuli) describe his travels as a Franciscan missionary to the Far East. This episode, we get an attempt by a later chronicler to craft a saint's life for the traveler, using surprising little material from Odoric's writing, but finding many other marvels and miracles to include.[...]

At last we reach the coast of China with Friar Odoricus in the final episode of our medieval travelers series. We also take a look at the Renaissance exploration advocate and scholar, Richard Hakluyt, whose name adorns the learned Society that produced many of the translations we've used in this series and who himself provides[...]

In our third travelers episode, we catch up with the explorer and diplomat Ibn Battuta, as he narrowly avoids disaster in Southern India, though his entourage is not so lucky. We also get some of the first written descriptions of the people of the Maldives, and discuss the status of slaves in Ibn Battuta's traveling[...]

In the second installment of our medieval travelers series, we follow Marco Polo into the deserts of Iran and learn about the hazards of the road, including a lethal wind.

We kick off a miniseries of texts from medieval travelers by continuing with Gerald of Wales as he sets out to tour Wales with Archbishop Baldwin, collecting stories from the region and getting involved in a few escapades of his own.

We're back for some late summer episodes with a look at how medieval authors cozied up to potential patrons, with a specific look at Gerald of Wales. Coincidentally, we also announce our Patreon campaign! You can support us at www.patreon.com/mdtpodcast/ and get an audiobook of Jordanus's Wonders of the East.

It's a special Saint Patrick's Day episode, in which we hear about the contests between the saint and some Irish magicians, as related in Muirchu's 7th-century Life of St. Patrick.

This episode we continue with Walter Map's De nugis curialium and learn that politics really is hell.

This episode we dive into Walter Map's De nugis curialium for a satirical lesson in administrative chaos, choler, and corruption, and also how generally terrible we are.

This Christmas Eve episode, we take a look a medieval forebear of the Ghost of Jacob Marley, as well as a role-model from ancient Rome.

This episode as school breaks for the holidays, we look at one account of the life of translator, philosopher, and part-time court comedian John Scotus Eriugena, who allegedly met a rather bad end at the hands of disgruntled students.

This episode we tap into the Ragnarok zeitgeist and go back to the medieval Norse sources: Snorri Sturluson's Gylfaginning and the apocalyptic poem Völuspá.

This Halloween marks our third anniversary, and we ring in our fourth year with two versions of King Arthur's famous battle with the man-eating giant of Mont St. Michel.

This episode we (that is, I) wax autobiographical as we look at our first saga text, an account of the death of King Magnus Barefoot during his attempted conquest of Ireland in 1103. Also, there are some thoughts on the idea of the progress of literary technique.

This episode we crack open the Chronicle of Man and the Sudreys to look at the Isle of Man and the rise of the royal house of King Orry, Godred Crovan, and King Magnus Barefoot of Norway is warned in a dream to leave Norway and never return.

Today we plunge into some hard-core scholasticism, as we hear Thomas Aquinas wrestle with the thorny question: "If all dead bodies are resurrected at the Last Judgment, what happens to the bodies of cannibals, whose bodies are made up of the flesh of those they have eaten, who also need to be resurrected?" We also[...]

We conclude our three-part look at the remains of St. Cuthbert with James Raine's account of his 1827 exhumation of Cuthbert's body and the recovery of some extraordinary early medieval artifacts. Featured Music: Extracts from Franz Schubert, Piano Trio in E flat major, D. 929 and Piano Trio no. 1 in B flat major, D.[...]

In Part II of our "Cuthbert's Body" series, we hear Reginald of Durham's description of what was found inside Cuthbert's coffin in the investigation preceding the Cuthbert's translation in 1104, and we consider what incorruptibility meant for a medieval audience.

This episode is the first in our three-part series looking at encounters with the remains of St. Cuthbert, starting in this installment with a quick look at the discovery that his body had not decayed in 698, eleven years after his death, as recounted by the Venerable Bede, and then taking a longer look at[...]

This episode we're looking at lists: a list about list, a text akin to an early modern police blotter, and a catalogue of scholarly sessions from Kalamazoo, where I'll be heading off to this week!

This episode we slither into spring with several tales of serpent shenanigans as well as science (or it's medieval equivalent).

In this episode, we look at some tragedies that afflicted the house of Alexander III, King of Scotland, including the deaths of almost all of his family and himself. Also, someone gets pushed in a river, and someone else gets clubbed in the head.

This episode we look at the less than stellar reputation of King John during the First Barons' War, as recounted in the Melrose Chronicle, and consider the relationship of medieval texts to immediate politics.

This episode we celebrate the winter's solstice with a grab-bag of comets, eclipses, and meteors, as well as earthquakes, tempests, and plagues.

We remain at Battle Abbey for one more episode, this time learning how the people of the abbey offended God and looking at the death scenes of Abbot Walter de Lucy and Abbot Ralph.

This episode, we start shifting into holiday mode with an anecdote about a bishop behaving badly at Battle Abbey.

It's Election Day in the U.S.A., and here's a quick little tale of the election of an 11th-century bishop to take our minds off of the horrible, horrible anxiety of the day!

We celebrate two years of Medieval Death Trip on our Halloween anniversary with an extra spooky episode looking at the walking dead who haunt William of Newburgh's Historia rerum Anglicarum.

We're back from our hiatus to remember the Battle of Hastings on its 950th anniversary by looking at the account of the battle in the Historia Ecclesiastica of Orderic Vitalis.

In this episode, we celebrate the start of a new school year with a return to Eberhard the German's Laborintus and learn more about the trials and tribulations of teaching medieval schoolchildren.

On this episode, we're back with Thomas of Monmouth's The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich to hear a tale of fire, fratricide, and fetters.

On this episode, get a different version of the story of Edgar's love for the married Aelfthryth, this time in a blending of history with courtly romance from Gaimar's L'Estoire des Engleis.

On this episode, we take one more step backwards in history from last time and look at some scandalous behavior from King Edgar the Peaceful as described by William of Malmesbury.

On this episode, we look at one moment in history from three different sources -- the deaths of King Edgar and his short-reigned heir, Edward the Martyr. Sources featured: The Melrose Chronicle, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum Anglorum. Stay tuned to the very end for the new riddle!

It's our (shortly after) Mother's Day episode, in which we learn from Edward the Confessor how not to treat one's mother and investigate a connection between The Song of Roland and radioactive wastelands.

This episode, we return to the Lanercost Chronicle for some examples of clergy behaving in some unclergylike ways, with a particular look at the decline and fall of clerical marriage in the medieval church.

On this episode, we look at a couple of diggers of relics: first, Elfred (or Aelfred or Alfred), who brought the relics of the Venerable Bede to Durham Cathedral; and second, antiquarian James Raine, who dug up those same relics in the early 19th century.

After much delay, Medieval Death Trip is back to ring in 2016 (just not on the conventional date for New Year's Day) with a very special episode. What would it sound like if all the previous MDT episodes got together and made a monstrous baby? It might turn out a little bit like this.

We celebrate the Winter Solstice with a return to the Chronicle of Dale Abbey, where attempts to capitalize on the Hermit's Dale don't go smoothly.

This episode, Thanksgiving is making us feel a bit nostalgic about home comforts, so we look at the story of the Hermit of the Dale from the Chronicle of Dale Abbey.

This episode we celebrate our one-year anniversary on Halloween, with the tale of a mistreated werewolf: the Lai of Bisclavret by Marie de France.

This episode, we turn to the Chronicle of Battle Abbey to hear a tale of extortion, divine punishment, and ecclesiastical fashion.

In this episode of Medieval Death Trip, we acknowledge the recent passing of neurologist Oliver Sacks and horror writer/director Wes Craven with stories of compulsive behavior and monstrous encounters from the Lanercost Chronicle.

In this episode, we wrap up the Melrose Chronicle's account of Simon de Montfort with a look at the miracle stories attached to his relics.

In this episode, we continue the tale of Simon de Montfort's struggle against King Henry III, with a look at two depictions of his final battle and death.

The Trip goes on after an unexpected summer detour. This episode we celebrate the underdog blockbuster of the season, Mad Max: Fury Road, with a medieval story of vehicular deception during the Second Baron's War.

In this episode of Medieval Death Trip, we hear the Warenne Chronicle's account of how as King of England, William Rufus dealt with rebels and how his own death was foretold in signs and visions.

In this episode we finally cut to the core of the story Thomas of Monmouth tells about the murder of William of Norwich. While Thomas thinks he's telling the story of how William was murdered by Jewish citizens of Norwich, his actual text reveals quite plainly how mass hysteria and xenophobia drove such accusations.

In this episode we continue with Eberhard the German's Laborintus and learn how a teacher acquires the knowledge of grammar, along with getting some practical advice about inspiring medieval schoolchildren.

Better late than never, it's Episode 9, wherein we hear Eberhard the German's description of his own doomed conception, after a fashion, by which he introduces his handbook of Latin composition, the Laborintus.

Today, we continue with Thomas of Monmouth's tales from the shrine of William of Norwich. This time, instead of miracle cures, we get an example of a miracle injury -- in other words, a good old-fashioned smiting. On the way we get a visit from a sinister pig and learn that candles might be valued[...]

This episode we return to the The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich to look at three cases of cures for toothache, followed by a glance at some actual medieval dental treatments. Get those worms out of your teeth!

Medieval Death Trip returns with the first episode of 2015, in which we take year-end retrospectives to the extreme and sample all the year 14s for each century covered by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, followed by a look at the great Cottonian Library Fire of 1731.

On this episode, we hear an account of the great Croyland (or Crowland) Abbey fire of 1091, purportedly written by the abbot at the time, Ingulf.

Episode 4 continues the story of the murder of Bishop Walcher of Durham foreseen in our previous episode. Text from Simeon of Durham's History of the Church of Durham.

First episode in a two-parter: we look at story from Symeon of Durham's History of the Church of Durham involving a person who reawakens from apparent death to share a vision of the afterlife that portends bad things for the bishop of Durham.

On this episode, we look at an example of the kind of odd incidents you might find preserved in a medieval chronicle -- in this case, the Lanercost Chronicle. We have three short episodes from the account of the year 1288, and then one spectacular lightning strike from 1291.

Our first full episode examines a tale of pirates, prisons, and poisonous toads, and the gruesome aftermath of combining those three elements together. This episode's text is from The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich by Thomas of Monmouth.

Medieval Death Trip launches with this Prologue episode, in which the premise and basic principles of this podcast are sketched out.