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MDT Ep. 99: A Valentine's Battle for the Kingship of Man
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 fam
MDT Ep. 98: Concerning the Life of Elgar the Hermit and Divine Dinner Delivery
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 Lan
MDT Ep. 97: Concerning Three Witches
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
MDT Ep. 96: Concerning the Relics and Grave of King Oswald
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
MDT Extra: Letters on the Death of Elizabeth I
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 accou
MDT Ep. 95: Concerning Princely Heads and the Bishop's Monkeys
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 coupl
MDT Ep. 94: Helmbrecht v Sheriff: Eve of Justice
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 Hel
MDT Ep. 93: Helmbrecht Returns, or The Dark Robber Knight
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. Mei
MDT Ep. 92: Helmbrecht Begins, or How to Become a Robber Knight
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, t
MDT Ep. 91: Concerning Wage Warfare after the Plague
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 followin
MDT Ep. 90: Medieval True Crime IV: In the Shadow of the Gallows Pole
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
MDT Ep. 89: Interview with a Devil
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 you
MDT Ep. 88: Concerning the Plight of the Paterfamilias
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 n
MDT Ep. 87: Medieval True Crime III: Death in the Countryside
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 m
MDT Ep. 86: Concerning the Meaning of Stones
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 coup
MDT Ep. 85: Medieval True Crime II: Concerning Violent Crime in the Coroner's Rolls
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 T
MDT Ep. 84: Medieval True Crime I - Concerning Miraculous Justice for a Mutilated Priest
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 de
MDT Ep. 83: Concerning Island Kingdoms, Bloodsuckers, and Flesh-Eaters
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 myst
MDT Ep. 82: Concerning Plague Persecutions
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 a
MDT Ep. 81: Concerning More Descriptions of the Plague
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
MDT Ep. 80: Concerning Boccaccio's Description of the Plague
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 tal
MDT Ep. 79: Concerning Cursed Christmas Carolers and an Unlikely Bishop
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 r
MDT Ep. 78: Concerning the Character of William Rufus and Some Scandalous Shoes
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 mo
MDT Ep. 77: Concerning Some Demons of the Lanercost Chronicle (and a Revenant)
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, 19
MDT Ep. 76: Concerning a Glimpse into 15th-Century School Life
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, Will
MDT Vacation Bonus: Dragonslayer Film Commentary
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 ever
MDT Ep. 75: Concerning More Challenges to the Throne of Man
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 Cro
MDT Ep. 74: Concerning Bad Bishops, Buried Treasure, and an Unchaste Priest
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 fl
MDT Ep. 73: Concerning a Mouse and a Frog
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
MDT Ep. 72: An Icelandic Vision of the Afterlife
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
