Everything you always wanted to know about the Middle Ages, but were unable to ask.
In memory of Wrigley Njus-Kirk, The Best Puppy (May 28, 2009–November 18, 2024), we’re reposting our episode on dogs this week! You can check out the original notes here: http://askamedievalist.com/2021/03/26/episode-29-dyou-like-dags/
We’ll be back with regular episodes next week! Until then, give your puppy a pat and keep it medieval!
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We talked about trade moving across Asia and into Europe, but what about trade going North–South? Like the Silk Road, there was a lot of Trans-Saharan trade going back a long time. Goods like salt, ivory, gold, beads, and metal goods–as well as enslaved people–crossed hostile conditions to travel from as far south as Ghana and Mali to northern Africa and the Middle East, and from there into Europe. Join Em and Jesse as they discuss these lesser-known but incredibly interesting routes.
1/ The Ever Given: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ever_Given (yeah, we recorded this a while ago).
2/ Ducks: The Friendly Floatees Spill! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_Floatees_spill
3/ John Oliver talks about trucks and waiting! (Start at the 5 minute mark.)
4/ Sacha Baron Cohen turned out to be a terrible person. Surprising? Not really.
5/ Nintendo was originally founded in 1889. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo
6/ Cannabis discovered in Chinese tombs
8/ Shoshonean Prayerstone Hypothesis
9/ History of the De Beers Corp: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~lcabral/teaching/debeers3.pdf
10/ History of diamond advertising: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/304575/
11/ Somehow over the past two years since we recorded this, the salt/salary thing turned into a throwaway line in Em’s new novel Troth. Never say I don’t learn nothin’ from this.
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The Silk Road spanned four thousand years and lasted for centuries–it’s hard to think of anything comparable in scale. From the second century BCE until the mid-15th century, jade, silk, tea, horses, the plague, and more flowed across the Eurasian continent. Join Em and Jesse as they talk about it–and also about Route 66, the origin of the word “tea,” Mongolian horses, and other questionably relevant things.
1/ Route 66 celebrates its centennial in 2026! https://www.route66-centennial.com/ The google doodle was April 30, 2022: https://doodles.google/doodle/celebrating-route-66/ It recognized the day in 1926 that the designation “U.S. 66” was proposed for the route.
2/ Tom Robbins did write a book called Another Roadside Attraction, but the family of clowns was in Villa Incognito. I refuse to link to those books on Wikipedia. You cannot read a summary of a Tom Robbins novel; they must be experienced.
3/ The Green Book: https://www.loc.gov/item/2016298176/
It was inspired by The Jewish Vacation Guide, a book published in 1917 that did a similar thing—list places where road-tripping Jews would be welcome.
The LOC site suggests that after the Civil Rights act of 1964 passed, the kinds of discrimination the book helped people avoid stopped happening and so the guide stopped being published. But I’ve talked to Jews who went on motorcycle road trips across the country and stopped at various establishments in the south in the late 70s and felt they were, in modern parlance, extremely sus, vibes are off, etc. So, like, sundown towns maybe went away but the people’s attitudes did not change as quickly.
4/ It was Turkmenistan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9QYu8LtH2E
The mention of Azerbaijan on Last Week Tonight.
5/ Bongbong Marcos was elected in 2022. We taped this one a while ago.
6/ Podcast episode on textiles: Episode 33 (on women artisans and textiles), Episode 54 note 15 (on the Bayeux Tapestry), and Episode 62 on tapestries.
7/ Mongolian horses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_horse
They live outdoors in temps that get down to -40 degrees. There are more horses than people in Mongolia right now.
In trying to source the cheese-making story, I have learned that horse’s milk cannot be made into cheese, because the lactose level is too high! So it’s probably not cheese that was made that way, but fermented mare’s milk—airag—which needs to be churned while it’s fermenting.
8/ Famously, people call it “chai” if it arrived in their country by land (for example, India, most of peninsular SE Asia, Russia, Japan) and “tea” if it arrived by boat (e.g., England and all of their colonies). Both of these words come ultimately from the Chinese “tu”, which became “cha” in Mandarin but “ta” and “te” in Min, a group of Chinese languages spoken in Fujian province and Taiwan (among other areas—there are over 70 million speakers! And you’ve never heard of it!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_tea has a nice table with different words in different languages if you’re interested in the linguistics here.
9/ The thing Em says about a Mayan god of zero appears to be incorrect. However, linguistically, in at least one Mayan dialect, yesterday and tomorrow are always expressed as “day minus one” and “day plus one” respectively—today is always zero. (https://baas.aas.org/pub/2021n1i336p03/release/2) The Mayans were a long-lived and pluralistic society and in retrospect it’s not right to say, “The Mayans thought,” because when did they think this? Which group? Today they are still over six million people speaking twenty-eight languages! Their earliest villages were established before 2000 BCE and their last city fell in 1697 CE.
9/ Rabban Bar Sauma (c1220–1294) was a Nestorian (named for Nestorius). We discussed miaphysitism and dyophysitism in Episode 48 (see note 14).
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Join Em and Dr. Jesse as they talk about the last two branches of the Mabinogi.
Em’s books can all be found here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C5XX9BH3 (or at many other fine internet sites.)
1/ The previous episodes were: Episode 78 (introduction), and episode 79 (branches 1 and 2). Also, we’re still using The Mabinogion translated by Sioned Davies (2008, Oxford University press) Link.
2/ People still alive: Pryderi, Cigfa, Manawyden, Rhiannon, Arawn
3/ Bank of England inflation calculator: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator
4/ Branch four: Trigger warnings for sexual assault.
5/ The film in which Bernie walks around by himself (in the US Virgin Islands) is Weekend at Bernie’s II. In the first film, his body is just repeatedly stolen. For some reason it was on TV constantly in 1994 or so. I don’t remember it well but I don’t think I have to in order to assert it has loads of super sketchy voodoo representation. Among other things, I’m sure.
6/ Guards, Guards! is by Terry Pratchett. Did we say that?
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Did you see a headless (possibly satanic) angel rising from the stage during the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics, or Winged Victory? Or did you wonder, as we did, how the two happen to be so similar, when angels in the bible are often described as having six wings, or wheels, or four faces and many eyes, or voices that sound like many people speaking at once? And actually, now that we mention it, why are apples so common in Mediterranean myths? Join Em and Dr. Jesse as we talk through the Olympics closing ceremony, its symbolism, and how the modern Christian imagination is inextricably tied to Greek myth.
1/ Bobby Gibb was technically the first woman to run Boston in 1966. Katherine Switzer ran it in 1967 and the officials’ attempts to eject her produced the photos described.
2/ The apple/evil pun only works in Latin (not Greek). Also, although both the Septuagint and the Vulgate use a generic word for fruit in Genesis, the word for apple (which Latin got from Greek) not only served the Latin pun but brought an accrual of meanings from the Greek world (which, as we discussed in this episode, is presumably why the apple became the de facto fruit in the garden).
3/ Dan Smith’s blog: https://danaturg.blogspot.com/2024/07/dramaturgy-of-paris-olympics-opening.html
4/ The Hymn to Apollo was in episode 46.
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The Mabinogi: what’s it actually about, when you get down to it? Join Em and Jesse as they discuss the first two branches, in which Pwyll meets Arawn, lord of the underworld, and has adventures; in which Pwyll meets Rhiannon and has a lot more adventures than maybe he bargained for; and in which Bendigeidran, Branwen, and Manawyden fight Ireland.
0/ Find links to Old Time Religion here, or buy it directly from Ingram Spark here. If you are seeing this during the month of July 2024, it (and Dionysus in Wisconsin) are currently 75% off at Smashwords.
1/ The Mabinogion translated by Sioned Davies (2008, Oxford University press)
The Horse in Celtic Culture: Medieval Welsh Perspectives ed. Sioned Davies and Nerys Jones (University of Wales Press, 1997)
2/ Randomly, there’s a fairly well-known professor of graphic design who shares my original surname. I don’t think we’re related.
3/ Branch one major characters:
4/ For our thoughts on The Green Knight (both story and film), hunt down Episode 60.
5/ Geoffrey of Monmouth (c1095–c1155). Extremely responsible for King Arthur mythos. See episode 60 on The Green Knight!
6/ The early modern Irish “Children of Lir“:
Different from “The Children of LLYR” (from the Mabinogion) and not related to Shakespeare’s King Lear
7/ The actual children of Llyr (from the Mabinogion):
8/ The Gundestrup caldron: this cauldron is clearly ceremonial (not for everyday use), but cauldrons generally are very communal and demonstrate the importance of being a good host
9/ A torc is a stiff metal neck ring (aka really iconic jewelry from the Bronze age through the Middle Ages, found throughout Europe from the Balkans through Celtic regions)
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Paul: Look, it’s a school of whales.
Ringo: They look a little bit old for school.
Paul: University then.
Ringo: University of Wales.
(From Yellow Submarine, 1968)
Ever wonder what Wales is, on a mythological level? That strange country of Michael Sheen with a dragon on the flag! And jokes about leeks in Henry V. The most well-known Welsh myths are collected in a book called The Mabinogi, which has solidly medieval origins. Join Em and Jesse as they discuss where the book came from and what we know about it.
0/ You can get Old Time Religion here.
1/ Spoiler: It was not January when the episode went out.
2/ Edition we recommend:
Sioned Davies, tr. The Mabinogion. Oxford: OUP, 2008. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-mabinogion-9780199218783
3/ If you speak Welsh, I’m just really sorry.
4/ Lady Charlotte Guest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Charlotte_Guest
5/ House of Legends: See episodes 59, 61, and 63.
6/ Geoffrey of Monmouth: see episode 60 on The Green Knight. We’ve recorded some other episodes on King Arthur, but apparently they’re not out yet.
7/ Possible authors:
8/ Mari Lwyd–essentially a hobby horse but using a (horse’s) skull. Really interesting, look it up for pictures!
9/ The prototypical Welsh word with a “w” as a vowel is “cwm,” which is a hollow at the head of a valley. Go forth and win at Scrabble.
10/ Brave weatherperson saying “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch”
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Here comes the parade, want some beads?
Okay, so carnival is a prelude to Lent, which is an extremely solemn time in Catholic tradition. So why is it the way that it is in so many places? Let’s talk about it.
1/ It’s late, but it’s up before the end of Lent. lol sob
2/ carnem levare: Latin for putting away (not eating) meat.
3/ The dialog is:
Aziraphale: Did you ever meet him?
Crowley: Yes…seemed a very bright young man. I showed him all the kingdoms of the world.
Aziraphale: Why?
Crowley: He’s a carpenter from Galilee. His travel opportunities are limited.
(From s1e03)
4/ https://www.comicmix.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/pancakes4.jpg pancakes
5/ John Bossy, Christianity in the West: 1400–1700.
6/ Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World.
7/ By “the countries [UK and the Netherlands] have some connections,” Em means that during the Glorious Revolution, William III (of Orange) and Mary II were invited to rule England, because they’d run out of endogenous rulers owing to having kicked James II/VI out. (They were invited because Mary was James’s eldest surviving child, and they reigned as co-monarchs, which honestly seems like a very rational move to me.)
8/ Peter Bruegel the Elder: The Fight between Carnival and Lent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fight_Between_Carnival_and_Lent
Jan Miense Molenaer (1610–1668): The Battle between Carnival and Lent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Miense_Molenaer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Between_Carnival_and_Lent
Molenaer shared his studio with his wife, Judith Leyster, who was also an awesome painter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Leyster
Hieronymus Bosch: Ship of Fools
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Fools_(painting)
The poem mentioned was written is by Jacop (Jacob) van Oestvoren who wrote “De Blauwe Schuit” (“The Blue Boat”) in 1413
9/ Joseph Roach, Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic Performance
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If you’re one of those people who thinks about the Roman Empire a lot because aqueducts are really cool, you’re going to love this. Join Em and Jesse as they discuss the irrigation of the Chengdu Plain, the plumbing of Tenochtitlan, and water management at Machu Picchu. Then we round out our “the middle ages didn’t constantly smell awful” series with a discussion of the history of perfume.
1/ Various news articles about water pollution:
Cuyahoga River fires (yes, plural): https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/cuyahoga-river-caught-fire-least-dozen-times-no-one-cared-until-1969-180972444/
Chicago River story: https://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/2023/9/28/23895006/trump-tower-chicago-river-pollution-attorney-general-kwame-raoul
2/ John Snow proved that the Broad Street Pump was carrying disease in 1854: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7150208/
Germ theory of disease was actually first proposed in 1546 but not widely accepted in Europe until the end of the 1880s. THE 1880s!
For more on Girolamo Fracastoro see: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-physician-who-presaged-the-germ-theory-of-disease-nearly-500-years-ago/
3/ The Irrigation of the Chengdu Plain: the Dujiangyan irrigation system is a UNESCO heritage site! https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1001/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dujiangyan
4/ Tenochtitlan plumbing: the Chapultepec aqueduct! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapultepec_aqueduct
5/ The Incan plumbing:
An article from UW-Madison (Go Badgers!!): https://ancientengrtech.wisc.edu/machu-picchu/machu-picchu-water-management/
6/ For the record, although there were people in the area of Venice from around the 10th century BCE on, the dedication of the first church, symbolically recognized as the founding of the city, was 421 CE. (There was a Roman city there before, of course.) Tenochtitlan, on the other hand, was founded around 1325 CE (with, again, some wiggle room).
7/ The tallest building in Des Moines, IA, is 801 Grand, which is 45 storeys high. [Sorry Des Moines!!! You are awesome.]
8/ Maledicta: The International Journal of Verbal Aggression, was published from 1977–2005. In vol. 12 (1996), they did publish an article entitled “Linguistic and Blasphemous Aspects of Bavarian Micturition and American Toilet Names” by the editor, Reinhold Aman. However, the journal is now offline.
He, uh. Really hated the Clintons.
9/ QI bits: I can’t find them. [I think you might need BBC iPlayer or a VPN or similar.–Jesse]
10/ The Ted Chiang short story is “Tower of Babylon,” which is collected in Stories of Your Life and Others. It’s really good!
11/ UW–Madison and building better potatoes: https://pasdept.wisc.edu/2019/10/07/new-potato-helps-farmers-weather-the-frost/
UW Machu Picchu project is part of UW-Madison’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Ancient Engineering Technologies project:
https://ancientengrtech.wisc.edu/machu-picchu/
12/ Pomander: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomander
13/ Wow, coming on hard with the perfume facts there, Em.
Recreating perfumes! https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/may-be-what-cleopatra-smelled-180972854/
An example of a glass perfume bottle (1st century CE): https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/239779
14/ National Theatre’s Antony and Cleopatra with Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo is the best.
https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/antony-and-cleopatra/
Some photos Jesse took of old pipes on Knossos:
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After a brief discussion of how people brushed their teeth, we move on to the question of where the water they used came from. And yeah, Rome had aqueducts–but so did a lot of places! And the Romans didn’t even build the aqueducts they did have–they took them from the Etruscans! Who may have gotten the idea from the Minoans! Also we talk about China, Harappa, and the Inca. You don’t want to miss this amazing smorgasbord of plumbing knowledge.
1/ This discussion of dentistry is very weird to listen to; as I [Em] am editing this episode, I’m also preparing to get some dental work and…let’s just say we all appreciate being born after Novocain became a thing. [Ooooo, yes. I agree.–Jesse]
2/ St. Apollonia–see episode 10 (Icons and Iconography) note 37 and episode 28 (Food) note 29.
3/ A broken jaw wired together with gold thread: the jaw of a Byzantine warrior (14th century) was broken and healed after being wired together (probably with gold thread). Hippocrates had suggested this method in the 5th century BCE, but there’s not a lot of archeological evidence of this type of surgery. https://www.livescience.com/byzantine-warrior-fractured-jaw
4/ Our Flag Means Death is set around 1717–1720. The “acts of grace” Blackbeard takes advantage of were a 1717–1719 thing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1717%E2%80%931718_Acts_of_Grace), and IRL Blackbeard died in 1718. Also, Stede dresses like a gentleman of that era (banyans! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banyan_(clothing))
5/ First toothbrush: China, 600s CE. Here’s a history of toothbrush evolution in China! https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22883376/
6/ Various tooth abrasives:
7/ The compound in coffee and tea that sticks to your teeth is tannin. When you brush your teeth with baking soda, I believe it forms a new compound—sodium tannate, and then it will leave your teeth alone! That’s why baking soda is a whitener. But it tastes NASTY.
8/ Trotula (12th century): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trota_of_Salerno
9/ Lead: plumbum in Latin. Pretty clear line from there to plumber.
10/ Indus Valley / Harappa:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanitation_of_the_Indus_Valley_Civilisation
https://www.harappa.com/blog/mohenjo-daro-street-drains
11/ Shelves in the closet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKE2S-lHhRY
12/ The Minoans:
Jesse has seen the plumbing at the palace at Knossos and spent a lot of time taking pictures of it. It’s still there and truly incredible!
A.N. Angelakis “Hydro-technologies in the Minoan Era”
13/ Linear A:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_A
(The other one is Linear B, aka Mycinean Greek. We didn’t name things too creatively I guess.)
14/ For more on Crete and the Minoans, see episodes: 2 note 9 and 68 note 9.
15/ The Etruscans:
https://novoscriptorium.com/2020/01/09/etruscan-hydro-technologies/
16/ The Cloaca Maxima in Roma:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanitation_in_ancient_Rome
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloaca_Maxima
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When Em was a kid, she was told that knights in shining armor didn’t bathe, that Elizabeth I had bathed only three times in her life, and various other assertions. But we know that soap is not a modern invention–the word itself comes from the Latin, and no less than Pliny the Elder discusses how to make it from tallow and ashes. So what constitutes bathing? Were people before the year 1900 CE just terribly smelly all the time? And what were bathrooms–and plumbing–like around the world? Join Em and Jesse for a far-ranging discussion of cleanliness, won’t you?
0/ Em’s new novel, Old Time Religion, can be ordered here. Dionysus in Wisconsin is here.
1/ This episode was apparently recorded in April of 2022. Amusingly, the novel I was working on is NOT either of the novels that have been published! It was TWO AND A HALF novels BEFORE Dionysus. 2022 was wild.
2/ William Alcott’s tract Thoughts on Bathing:
Catalog entry: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011604824
Full text!: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044014202691&seq=5
I think Em says 1939, she meant 1839.
3/ The most famous portrait of someone in a bath is, in my mind, The Death of Marat, by Jacques-Louis David, which is SOLIDLY 18th century. But there are others, from earlier.
(Also, who doesn’t love JLD? He’s amazing.)
4/ York Medieval interactive Viking attraction: https://www.jorvikvikingcentre.co.uk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorvik_Viking_Centre
5/ Nope, this is from a letter that Queen Elizabeth I wrote to George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon, who is better known for being Lord Chamberlain and the patron of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (Shakespeare’s Company) after his father Henry, also Lord Chamberlain and patron of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, died. He was apparently having a great time at Bath, and the Queen wrote him: “[I] can not but wonder, considering the great number of pails of water that I hear have been poured upon you, that you are not rather drowned than otherwise. But I trust all shall be for your better means to health.” Here is a link to the letter. (Berkeley Castle Muniments Select Letter 8). The letter is also available in Katherine Duncan-Jones, ‘Elizabeth I and her “Good George” unpublished letters’, in P. Beal and G. Ioppolo (eds.), Elizabeth I and the Culture of Writing (British Library, 2007), 29–41.
6/ Monty Python scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi8vXOUi-eI
Dennis the peasant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2c-X8HiBng
7/ The process of making soap is called SAPONIFICATION. Sometimes this happens to bodies that get buried in certain environments. The word soap came to Latin (saponem) from a proto-Fresian dialect (I don’t think we have that word, just a reconstruction of it) and thence to many other languages, including savon (French), xa bong (Vietnamese), sebon (Welsh), soap (English), sabuu (Thai–I don’t know for sure it’s related but I’d be willing to place a bet)…
8/ Natron is hydrated sodium carbonate (https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/history-technology/mummies-pigments-and-pretzels)
9/ Books for travelers Em alludes to:
H. M. L. S., A Few Words of Advice on Travelling and Its Requirements Addressed to Ladies with short vocabulary in French and German, London: Thomas Cook and Son, 1876 (2nd ed.) https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/CHgBAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
Anglo-Indian, Indian Outfits & Establishments: Practical Guide for Persons about to Reside in India: detailing the articles which should be taken out, and the requirements of home life and management there. London: L. Upcott Gill, 1882. https://archive.org/details/indianoutfitsest00angliala/page/n3/mode/2up
F. A. Steel and G. Gardiner, The Complete Indian Housekeeper & Cook: Giving the duties of mistress and servants, the general management of the house, and practical recipes for cooking in all its branches. London: William Heinemann, 1909. https://archive.org/details/b21528640/page/n7/mode/2up
10/ Polar plunge:
Wim Hof: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Hof
It’s madness if you ask me. [-Em]
11/ I Henry IV scene: I think this is II.i.15, which is actually about fleas not lice! Same idea though. 🙂 –Jesse
12/ A truly disturbing fact: most lice now have become impervious to the anti-lice shampoos we used to use when we were kids. [Oh god!! –Jesse]
13/ For example, Bolton Strid (or “the Strid”) is a small, fairly calm-appearing waterway that has claimed a lot of lives. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bolton-strid
14/ There’s a long section on bathing in Matrix, by Lauren Groff.
15/ Mr Darcy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBaspD6Aq9E
16/ Inca baths: https://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2019/02/27/researchers-reveal-inca-bath-complex-structure/
https://www.livescience.com/64845-inca-ceremonial-baths-archaeology.html
17/ Em was being a bit flippant about how long Japan’s written history goes back. The earliest written work recounting Japanese history (in Classical Chinese) was the Tennok and the Kokki, written in 620 CE. Neither survives. The Kojiki was the oldest account of Japan’s history (or it’s semi-historical, anyway) that still survives, and it dates from the early 700s. The first work to unambiguously mention Japan was the Book of Han, which was a Chinese book dating from 111 CE that covers history from 206 BCE to 23 CE.
18/ I know WAY MORE about the history of the 1970s now. Anyway, in his excellent autobiography, On the Move, Oliver Sacks mentions going to a bathhouse with a friend in San Francisco in 1978. Uncharacteristically, he doesn’t say anything more about the bathhouse itself.
Another fun fact, here at UW the pool at the Red Gym was men-only and swimsuit-optional until 1973. NINETEEN SEVENTY-THREE. A group of female students who forced their way into the pool (nude) forced the university to reconsider their policy.
19/ Greece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXt0VCPKfQ4
20/ Brooklyn 99 is the best. REST IN POWER Captain Holt: Andre Braugher (1962–2023) (https://www.npr.org/2023/12/19/1220282449/remembering-andre-braugher-star-of-homicide-and-brooklyn-nine-nine)
21/ Shanxi province excavations: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5111981/Luxurious-2-300-year-old-imperial-bathrooms-China.html
22/ Editing this, it is once again winter and I [Em] would happily move into a sauna for the next five months if available.
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Are you travelling for Thanksgiving? Believe it or not, “travel” as a thing is not a modern creation. In the middle ages, people visited many remote and far-flung places and brought back notes (and delicious noodles). Join Em and Jesse for travel talk, including Lord Elgin, Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo, Zheng He, Margery Kemp, and more.
0/ The actual postcard:
I found it in a copy of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, by Oliver Sacks. I was definitely not reading that when the postcard arrived, so…I don’t know how it was saved.
1/ Anyway, in the UK a “subway” means a pedestrian tunnel under a street. (cough)
2/ Lord Elgin: Boo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bruce,_7th_Earl_of_Elgin
It’s actually weird that this one, with more complaining about the British Museum, is coming directly after our episode about the British Museum. We didn’t plan that. We just slag off the British Museum from time to time. [We do!–Jesse]
There is apparently some debate about the legality of Lord Elgin’s firman (a royal mandate allowing him to do the things he did).
He did all this in the early 1800s, and he had considerable trouble getting his booty back to the UK. Some pieces took upward of ten years to arrive. Also, Byron was horrified and wrote the following lines:
Dull is the eye that will not weep to see
Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed
By British hands, which it had best behoved
To guard those relics ne’er to be restored.
Curst be the hour when from their isle they roved,
And once again thy hapless bosom gored,
And snatch’d thy shrinking gods to northern climes abhorred!
No one better than Byron for a slam poem. [Much, much applause!–Jesse]
The marbles were purchased by the British gov’t in 1816 for 35,000 GBP. (Elgin had estimated their value at 75k, which is actually what he spent to bring them back to the UK, so he took a bath on the whole deal.) This would be approximately £2,795,511.37 (about 3.5 million USD) in today’s money, which is a lot but not an astronomical sum. [Welp, I’m glad he roasted!–Jesse]
4/ What the heck, let’s link to James Acaster again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x73PkUvArJY
5/ Also, quick shout out to the QI bit about the Parthenon, why not: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdvD4Fhc_K8
6/ Netscape guy James Clark repatriates stuff: https://news.artnet.com/news/netscape-founder-returns-looted-cambodian-antiquities-2059851
For more on museums, see episode 72.
7/ Famous travelers include:
Ibn Battuta: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Battuta
Marco Polo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo
Zheng He https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He
Margery Kemp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margery_Kempe
8/ Travel in the Roman empire: https://orbis.stanford.edu/
9/ The episode on graffiti was episode 69 (the part about the Vikings was right at the end—see note 20).
10/ The Rus’ come up a bit in Michael Chabon’s Gentlemen of the Road. I think there was a substantial Jewish population there at one point. But maybe I made that up.
11/ Venice lion
Not to be confused with the Thomas Pynchon book of the same name.
13/ The Azores and mitochondrial mouse DNA!
14/ The Azores on medieval maps:
Medici or or Laurentian Atlas (Genoese cartographer)
Catalan Atlas (Majorcan Jewish Cartographer, Abraham Cresques)
Guillem Soler (Majorcan Cartographer)
15/ The Derbyshire man illumination in the Domesday book
16/ The Ipswich man
17/ Henry VIII’s warship’s crew
19/ John Hawkwood (1323–1394) was in episode 63 note 7 and episode 64 note 10.
20/ Xi Jing (1091–1153), a Chinese traveler who visited Korea in 1123. Here’s a translated edition of his account of his travels from University of Hawaii Press.
21/ Adam de la Halle
The May Day episode was episode 31.
Here is a whole site from Berkeley devoted to Ibn Battuta’s travels.
22/ Em ranted about Barthes’s essay (from Mythologies) in episode 3 note 3.
23/ The Anne Boleyn series with Jodie Turner-Smith as Anne Boleyn
Bridgerton (series)
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We’ve all seen that scene in Indiana Jones where he’s clutching an artifact and shouting, “It belongs in a museum!” But nowadays in 2023, we tend to temper that idea–museums are fun, but who gets to hold a particular object, why, and for how long is a point of contention. Join Em and Jesse as they discuss one of the world’s oldest and largest museums, the British Museum. With a collection of over eight million objects, you know there’s some controversial stuff in there. We’ll also discuss other recent British Museum-related controversies, the illegal antiquities market, the differences between Lord Elgin and the city of Elgin, IL, and more.
1/ “Wake Up Thai People” Cold War map: https://transnationalhistory.net/doing/2020/04/12/a-tale-of-two-nations-the-creations-of-iran-and-thailand/
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2017/12/22/cold-war-maps-to-wake-up-southeast-asian-buddhists/
2/ Article about the Met’s “aggressive” collection policy.
3/ I think “all art is counterfit” is a minor plot point of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier?
4/ Article about Met sending back Nepali statue: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/mar/20/new-york-metropolitan-museum-collection-artifacts-theft
5/ Article about illegal Cambodian statues at the Met: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/24/arts/cambodia-met-museum-looted-antiquities.html (not the one I remember seeing, but a much newer one)
6/ Article about illegal Gilgamesh tablets: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hobby-lobby-forfeits-rare-gilgamesh-tablet-smuggled-iraq-180978314/
7/ Article about guy sending back Cambodian statues: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/12/arts/design/james-clark-cambodian-antiquities.html
8/ Elgin marbles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgin_Marbles
Versus Elgin, IL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgin,_Illinois There is an adorable Doctor Who-themed cafe there. [Yes! Blue Box Cafe is so good!–JN]
9/ Memes:
The British Museum after it’s been decolonized
The guy putting the leaning tower of Pisa in his backpack
10/ The acts:
British Museum Act 1963: Also https://observer.com/2023/02/the-uk-has-a-60-year-old-law-prohibiting-repatriation-of-art-is-that-about-to-change/
11/ Sarah / Saartje Baartman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Baartman
The Suzan-Lori Parks play Venus: https://www.amazon.com/Venus-Suzan-Lori-Parks/dp/1559361352
The Kim Kardashian photos were recreated in Paste magazine, by the photographer who originally took them (Jean-Paul Goude). The original model was Carolina Beaumont.
12/ Kara Walker’s Sugar Baby. We also discussed it in episode 10 (note 16 and 24), episode 17 (note 1), and episode 42 (note 7).
https://creativetime.org/projects/karawalker/
13/ Venus de Milo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milo
See Lorenza Böttner’s Venus de Milo: http://lebastart.com/en/2018/11/lorenza-bottner-fall-flight/
14/ Favorite translation of the Odyssey: Fitzgerald, but I hear the new one by Emily Wilson is good. Favorite Gilgamesh is Stephen Mitchell, but Maria Headley is working on one and I am all a-twitter about it.
15/ Yilin Wang’s website: https://yilinwang.com/qiu-jin-british-museum/
Qiu Jin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qiu_Jin
https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/chinas-hidden-century/qiu-jin
16/ James Acaster’s Finders Keepers, Shut Up: https://youtu.be/x73PkUvArJY?si=5VrEBLpnKY0CqG1g
17/ Prince photo court case: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/the-supreme-court-ruling-lynn-goldsmith-andy-warhol-foundation-2304684
18/ Lichtenstein documentary: WHAAM! BLAM! Roy Lichtenstein and the Art of Appropriation: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/whaam-blam-roy-lichtenstein-documentary-2268088
19/ Copyright case about AI: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/21/arts/design/copyright-ai-artwork.html
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Em and Jesse talk about Italian sumptuary laws, which unlike the British ones, were more aimed at women. Then they talk about fashion “dos” of the middle ages.
1/ So, the difference between having a title and being part of the peerage is this. In America, when you earn a lot of money, you get to be part of a special club where you are allowed to accumulate “social dollars” (rizz, street cred, social capital, whatever) and then spend it to get stuff you want (meet Taylor Swift, drive an F1 car, sit at the 50 yard line at the Superb Owl, shoot yourself into outer space). We don’t have a real “nobility” here, we have the rich and famous and everyone else. In the UK, you can be rich but you can’t buy your way into the peerage. And this is why the British class system is the way it is (rigid). Peers make the laws (remember that the House of Lords still exists). When I say baronets and knights aren’t noble, I mean they’re not peers. (This gets very complex, because some titles are hereditary and some are not, the king can write special things into your letters patent, etc. But the bottom line is James I started using the title baronet as a way of getting rich merchants to give the crown money in exchange for being able to be called Sir and pull rank on a limited number of knights.) Or at least I think this is how things are.
2/ It’s like the set up to an Onion article, Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Patrick Stewart called upon to raise troops for British invasion of France…
3/ Fourth Lateran Council in 1215: this council did a lot of famous stuff. Very important!
4/ Married saints: St Therese of the Little Flower (Lisieux) was not married. But her parents are the only (to date) married couple to be canonized: Sts Louis and Zelie Martin. St Catherine of Sweden is the daughter of St Bridget of Sweden (c1303–1373).
5/ Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood.
6/ Medieval slashed sleeves–see some awesome medieval and early modern slashing here!
Diane Owen Hughes “Sumptuary Law and Social Relations in Renaissance Italy” in Disputes and Settlements: Law and Human Relations in the West ed. John Bossy; 69–99.
7/ There’s a Frog and Toad story where Toad winds up finding a bunch of buttons and sewing them onto his coat. The story about the illegal buttons reminded me of it.
Our Flag Means Death, s1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prQDst-tAJ8
8/ Allison Fizzard, “Shoes, Boots, Leggings, and Cloaks: The Augustinian Canons and Dress in Later Medieval England” from the Journal of British Studies 46(2), 245–262.
Jesse and I went to Rome once and played “identify the order” based on the vestments of various monks and nuns in the Vatican. [Still 100% possible!–Jesse]
9/ No shade to community theater; I know ya’ll work hard. [The real backbone of the theatrical community!–Jesse]
10/ Buttons for ornamentation: you can actually get suit coats with ornamental buttons on the cuffs. It makes me feel happier to know this has a medieval origin, because it does feel like a cheaper choice by the manufacturer. [It was the cheaper choice in the Middle Ages too, but it was meant to look fancy!–Jesse]
11/ As mentioned in the last episode, Em did a reading and a panel about historical accuracy in fantasy writing about the middle ages; they’re on youtube:
Reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDSlNulRx6s
Panel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcjyH749eH8
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Just in time for Paris Fashion Week, join Em and Jesse for an exciting discussion of sumptuary laws and the medieval origins of prohibitions against wearing white, as well as a few digressions about John Waters films and Blackadder.
0/ Rainbow Space Magic Con: https://www.rainbowspacemagic.org/
1/ Serial Mom: (warning for violence) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnGHB-kI2ZM
2/ If you’re interested in the history of weddings, I suggest Carol Wallace’s All Dressed in White: The Irresistible Rise of the American Wedding, Penguin Books, 2004.
3/ Margery Kemp: see episodes 6, 7, 8, 9, 36, and 49. Jeez, it’s like we never STOP talking about her. We should call this the Margery Kemp Power Hour.
4/ Mary C. Erler, “Margery Kempe’s White Clothes.” Medium Aevum 62 (March 1993): 78-83.
Jesse Njus, “Margery Kemp and the Spectatorship of Medieval Drama,” Fifteenth Century Studies 38 (2013): 123–51.
5/ “Tide Pods: the universal currency” is a random thing my husband said in his sleep one time that will now forever live in my head. And, hopefully, yours.
6/ We talked about the plague in EPISODE TWO. Go check it out.
7/ To clarify, England was England in 1363—but it wasn’t the UK. Scotland didn’t join until later (after 1603 when James I took the throne, and then formally with the Act of Union in 1707).
8/ The rolls of Parliament: https://www.british-history.ac.uk (Unfortunately, I think library access is needed to log on–check your local library’s access!)
Edward III: October 1363: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/parliament-rolls-medieval/october-1363
Edward IV: April 1463: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/parliament-rolls-medieval/april-1463
Side note, remember that at this point, the king had some soldiers, but if he was fighting a war he’d call upon his lords (the dukes and earls and such) to bring men to fight. Armies were kind of a distributed thing. So he needed the country to have money so the wealthy could bring soldiers to come fight.
9/ Henry IV took the throne in 1399 and his son became Henry V in 1413. I am suddenly understanding the jokes about Henry V not speaking French very well in the play of that title in a different, more political light.
10/ Blackadder: Here is the clip where they talk about the robe: https://twitter.com/pitchblacksteed/status/1294974184183996416?lang=en
Here is another clip where the robe (and collars) are clearly visible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD2iYSKHHzo
11/ In 1363, 100 GBP would be about 76,777.23 GBP in 2023 dollars. Five hundred GBP is 383,886.16 GBP today. Straight inflation isn’t always a good way to track buying power, because the price of goods and services vary significantly over time (think about the price of college in the year 2000 vs the price of a pizza compared to the price of both now). But this calculation does give some sense of how much money 500 GBP a year was. In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy has 10,000 pounds a year—about 800,000 pounds today, give or take. No wonder Mrs. Bennett loses her mind when he proposes.
Anyway, you can check out the calculator here: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator
12/ Marginalia of shoes: https://www.tumblr.com/cuties-in-codices/727178156069552128/shoes-in-ehrenspiegel-des-hauses-%C3%B6sterreich?source=share (this is actually from 1555, but you see what I mean)
13/ The plays are (surprisingly, maybe), Henry VI, parts 1 (http://shakespeare.mit.edu/1henryvi/index.html), 2 (http://shakespeare.mit.edu/2henryvi/index.html), and 3 (http://shakespeare.mit.edu/3henryvi/index.html). There’s also an Edward IV in two parts by a chap named Thomas Heywood (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_IV_(play)).
[Edward IV also famously appears in Richard III.–JN]
14/ Ermine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoat
Sable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sable
15/ Wives and children of nobility are generally addressed as “lady” and “lord,” depending on rank and whether or not the father has any subsidiary titles. So in a household of the Duke of Buckingham, who has a family surname of Castleman and no subsidiary titles, the duke himself will be formally addressed as “Your Grace” when he goes somewhere for tea, or announced at the ball as “His Grace the Duke of Buckingham.” His wife will be “Her Grace the Duchess of Buckingham” on invitations and “Your Grace” when she goes to tea. The son will be “The Lord Charlie Castleman” on invitations and “Lord Charlie” at tea parties, and the duke’s daughter will be “The Lady Ariella Castleman” when announced at the ball and “Lady Ariella” at tea. If she marries a commoner or someone beneath her in rank (the son of a baronet, earl, viscount, or baron), she may choose to retain the title Lady Ariella. Interestingly, the daughters of dukes rank between the eldest son and the younger ones in terms of precedence.
FOR AN EXHAUSTIVE EXPLANATION OF THIS, SEE https://www.chinet.com/~laura/html/titles12.html.
16/ The stuffing of clothing/wearing of padding in order to attain the fashionable shape is something I kind of wish hadn’t gone away. It persisted all the way up until the 1920s, when women’s clothing suddenly abandoned the majority of the underpinnings that had been necessary (corset, bum roll, petticoats, hoops or cages, etc.). Now women are largely expected to change their bodies in order to attain a fashionable silhouette instead of the clothes doing it. Unfortunate.
17/ We discussed Mankind in episode 1(!!!) note 23.
18/ We discussed female silk workers in episode 33 (the notes for the episode include sources for more info on women silk workers).
19/ We talked about Judenhutte in episode 10 (notes 31 and 39), episode 25 (note 14), episode 41 (note 7), episode 45 (note 10), and episode 61 (note 2). Also see Sara Lipton, Dark Mirror: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Jewish Iconography, Metropolitan, 2014. Link.
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What got written illicitly on the walls back before 79 CE? It turns out a lot of stuff! Join Em and Jesse as they discuss the graffiti of Pompeii and also stuff Vikings wrote their names on.
Em’s book: Amazon, all other sites.
Ancient Graffiti in Context ed. Baird and Taylor: https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Graffiti-Context-Routledge-Studies-ebook/dp/B004OBZWDG
Medieval Graffiti: The Lost Voices of England’s Churches by Matthew Champion
https://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Graffiti-Voices-Englands-Churches/dp/009196041X
Graffiti in Antiquity by Peter Keegan https://www.amazon.com/Graffiti-Antiquity-Peter-Keegan-ebook/dp/B09M62F91Y
SPQR by Mary Beard
https://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard/dp/1631492225
Pompeii by Mary Beard
https://www.amazon.com/Pompeii-Life-Roman-Mary-Beard/dp/1846684714
1/ Shout out to the Straat Museum in Amsterdam, which is an amazing Street Art Museum.
https://straatmuseum.com/en
Museum of the City of New York’s “City as Canvas” exhibit: https://www.mcny.org/cityascanvas
2/ The Outlaws: it’s super funny and on prime. Check it out.
Some articles on Banksy’s getting painted over: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/nov/12/banksy-artwork-deliberately-destroyed-by-christopher-walken-in-bbc-comedy-show-finale
Stephen Merchant explains the Banksy scene: https://www.tvinsider.com/1036548/the-outlaws-season-1-stephen-merchant-prime-video-banksy/
3/ Artists’ warehouse story: The 21 graffiti artists from the 5Pointz building in Queens will receive $6.75 million in damages from developer G&M Realty for the 45 murals G&M destroyed in 2013.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/nyregion/graffiti-artists-5pointz.html
4/ French petroglyphs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/france-chauvet-cave-makes-grand-debut-180954582/
5/ Wall art/street art in Richmond, VA (known as RVA):
Ghost signs: https://rvaghostsigns-blog.tumblr.com
RVA Street Art Festival: https://www.rvastreetart.com/2022-festival
RVA Mural Walks: https://wouldilietoyoumuralwalks.com
Google “RVA Street art” for some more great examples!
6/ Beatles’ song: “If I Needed Someone” (lyric: “Carve your number on my wall/and maybe you will get a call from me…”
7/ Life of Brian: Romani ite domum. (Although the movie says the locative is correct, they actually use the accusative, which is, in fact, correct.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIAdHEwiAy8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_ite_domum
8/ My children also draw on walls.
9/ See above for Beard’s books.
Pompeii graffiti: https://web.archive.org/web/20131001070703/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/10336768/What-can-we-learn-from-Roman-graffiti.html
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/reading-the-writing-on-pompeiis-walls-1969367/
Bawdy graffiti: https://kashgar.com.au/blogs/history/the-bawdy-graffiti-of-pompeii-and-herculaneu
10/ Fullers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulling
11/ Ostraca: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostracon (ostracon is singular; ostraca is plural)
12/ See above for Keegan’s book.
13/ Mills, Mary Beth. “Attack of the Widow Ghosts: Gender, Death, and Modernity in Northeast Thailand.” Bewitching Women, Pious Men: Gender and Body Politics in Southeast Asia. Aihwa Ong and Michael G. Peletz, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995: 244-273.
14/ Episodes on obscenity: 65 and 66
15/ We talked about the innkeeper adulterating their beer in episode 8 (note 26) and episode 27.
16/ The Alexamenos Worships His God graffito: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexamenos_graffito
17/ If you are interested in medieval church graffiti, check out the Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey: http://www.medieval-graffiti.co.uk/
18/ Hexafoil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexafoil
19/ Orkney Islands article: http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/maeshowe/maeshrunes.htm
20/ Viking graffiti at the Hagia Sophia:
https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/expeditions-and-raids/viking-graffiti/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangian_Guard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runic_inscriptions_in_Hagia_Sophia
21/ “Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.” It’s from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.
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Let’s talk about psychedelics in ritual practice. From Hunter S. Thompson’s pilgrimage across the desert to the human sacrifices of the Incan empire in the sixteenth century to the use of opium during the late bronze age, people have been altering their mental states in religious contexts almost since the dawn of civilization. Join Em and Jesse in their second episode about drugs in honor of Em’s killer new novel, Dionysus in Wisconsin.
Get the novel! Dionysus in Wisconsin on Amazon, on Bookshop.org, and other sites. Or drop me an email at ehlupton(at)gmail(dot)com to get a signed copy ($15, including shipping, although that may be different if you are international, drop me a line and we’ll chat).
1/ From Chapter 1 of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (originally published by Rolling Stone in 1971 and then as a book by Random House in 1972). Here’s the clip from the amazing 1998 film, directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro.
2/ See these articles about 1600–800 BCE Menorca!
National Geographic article “European ‘shamans’ took psychedelic drugs 3,000 years ago.”
The study published in Scientific Reports “Direct evidence of the use of multiple drugs in Bronze Age Menorca (Western Mediterranean) from human hair analysis,” authored by E. Guerra-Doce, C. Rihuete-Herrada, R. Micó, R. Risch, V. Lull, H. M. Niemeyer
3/ O. Hai & I. B. Hakkenshit, “A Simple and Convenient Synthesis of Pseudoephedrine From N-Methylamphetamine.” Journal of Apocryphal Chemistry, Feb. 2012. DOI: 1F.1BC9/b00000F00A https://maggiemcneill.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/synthesizing-pseudoephedrine-from-meth.pdf
4/ National Geographic “Ancient hallucinogens found in 1,000-year-old shamanic pouch.”
Melanie J. Miller, Juan Albarracin-Jordan, Christine Moore, and José M. Capriles “Chemical evidence for the use of multiple psychotropic plants in a 1,000-year-old ritual bundle from South America,” in PNAS
5/ Ayahuasca and coca evidence from two Inca children who were sacrificed. (Note that this isn’t the first time Em has seen this practice referenced, e.g., this Wikipedia article [tw child sacrifice].) Science News, “A special brew may have calmed Inca children headed for sacrifice.”
6/ “Antiquity of Coca-Leaf Chewing in the South Central Andes: A 3,000 Year Archaeological Record of Coca-Leaf Chewing from Northern Chile” in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, authored by Mario A. Rivera , Arthur C. Aufderheide , Larry W. Cartmell , Constantino M. Torres, Odin Langsjoen
7/ Paolo Nencini “Facts and Factoids in the Early History of the Opium Poppy,” in The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs 36.1 (Spring 2022)
8/ Poppies! Pretty flowers with poison! See Smithsonian Magazine “Archaeologists Discover Evidence of Earliest Known Opium Use.”
See the actual study in Archaeometry “Opium trade and use during the Late Bronze Age: Organic residue analysis of ceramic vessels from the burials of Tel Yehud, Israel,” authored by Vanessa Linares, Eriola Jakoel, Ron Be’eri, Oded Lipschits, Ronny Neumann, Yuval Gadot.
9/ The Minoan goddess: pretty sure we’ve mentioned her before.
Wikipedia page with pictures of the statue from Crete (in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum) and a drawing of the Mycenaean signet ring.
Pictures below of the actual Mycenaean signet ring in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. (Pictures taken by Jesse.)
10/ Good pictures of poppy pods and the base ring juglet in this article “Traces of opiates found in ancient Cypriot vessel” (more in the study below).
Picture of poppy pods from Wikipedia.
“Detection of opium alkaloids in a Cypriot base-ring juglet” in Analyst (Issue 21, 2018) authored by Rachel K. Smith, Rebecca J. Stacey, Ed Bergström, and Jane Thomas-Oates.
11/ “I blame Nixon.” For the kids out there, Nixon started the war on drugs.
12/ Cannabis at Tel Arad: Smithsonian Magazine “Archaeologists Identify Traces of Burnt Cannabis in Ancient Jewish Shrine.”
Science Advances “The origins of cannabis smoking: Chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs.”
Journal of Ethnopharmacology “Archaeobotanical evidence of the use of medicinal cannabis in a secular context unearthed from south China.”
“Did ancient Mesopotamians get high? Near Eastern rituals may have included opium, cannabis” in Science.
13/ There are loads of books on the modern drug trade and porous borders, e.g. The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia by Al McCoy.
14/ “A rock with a tongue in it” = an oyster.
15/ See also the last scene of the film Saving Grace, which is tremendously funny but not on YouTube.
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In honor of the publication of Em’s debut novel, Dionysus in Wisconsin, Em and Jesse talk about Dionysus (the god), and then about drug use in ancient religious rituals.
1/ Order book here (or from non-Amazon sites here). (Incredibly well reviewed! Buy one now!!)
2/ Sparagmos: your vocabulary term for the day, kids. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparagmos
3/ Dionysus’s origin story: in some versions, Hera goads Semele into asking to see Zeus au natural. [Hera is usually at fault, absolutely! But the extreme lack of support/belief from Semele’s family plays a part as well.–Jesse]
4/ The film is Inception. I watched the entire thing. Could not tell you what it was about.
5/ Eleusinian Mysteries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleusinian_Mysteries
There’s a nice picture of the Ninnion Tablet on the Wikipedia page (the tablet is one of the few depictions we have of the Elusinian mysteries).
6/ Carl Ruck, “Entheogens in Ancient Times: Wine and the Rituals of Dionysus,” in Toxicology in Antiquity, 2nd edition, ed. Philip Wexler, (2019), 343–352.
7/ Michael Pollan, How to Change Your Mind
8/ Entheogens
9/ F. J. Carod-Artal, “Hallucinogenic Drugs in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican Cultures,” in Neurologia 30.1 (2015), 42–49.
10/ Balche: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balch%C3%A9
11/ “Many mushrooms cause hallucinations. Some only cause hallucinations once.”
12/ For the record, erowid.org (https://erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms_basics.shtml) notes that there are numerous species of psilocybin mushrooms in three different genuses (psilocybe, panaeolus, and copelandia) that are psychoactive. Dose varies by whether the mushroom is dried or fresh and also based on species. Onset is generally 30–60 min after being taken but up to 2 hrs, and effects last 4–6 hrs with an additional period of 2–6 hrs during which “it is difficult to go to sleep and there is definitely a noticeable difference from everyday reality, but which is not strong enough to be considered tripping.”
Jesse just returned from Amsterdam where there are Mushroom (psilocybin) stores. The staff are very careful to make sure that customers understand the process of taking psilocybin, and staff refuse to sell to any customers who won’t listen to the brief lecture (eat before partaking, don’t mix with anything else, be in a safe space, vitamin C will help slow/nullify effects).
13/ Fatur, Karsten. “‘Hexing herbs’ in ethnobotanical perspective: a historical review of the uses of anticholinergic solanaceae plants in Europe.” Economic Botany 74, 140–158 (2020). (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12231-020-09498-w)
14/ Franciscan Friar Bernardino de Sahagún (c.1499–1590) left us a number of descriptions of drug use and is quoted by Carod-Artal (see note 9 above).
15/ For the descriptions of Mayan drug enemas and statues, see Carod-Artal (note 9 above).
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Are butts the most medieval of body parts? From the Wild Man to Chaucer to good old Michelangelo, let’s pontificate about the posterior.
Do you need more of a pitch than that?
0/ Preorder Em’s book: a little obscene, only a few butts.
1/ Warning for…talking about butts, I guess.
2/ The Wild Man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_man
3/ York Minster Cathedral: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_Minster
The monkey burial: Window n25 (bottom of left window–the bier is covered in green cloth and there is a monkey who has grabbed hold and is hanging off of it). Here is a close up of the detail.
The legend of the mocker(s) who attempt to stop the Virgin’s funeral procession was well known in medieval Europe, although the name Fergus seems to be specific to York. See the notes at the bottom of the linked page for the lost York Play.
Here is a depiction in medieval art with a summary of the legend: https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RYV
Here is the an article by Stephen J. Shoemaker ” ‘Let Us Go and Burn Her Body’: The Image of the Jews in the Early Dormition Traditions” in Church History 68.4 (Dec. 1999), 775–823. Shoemaker also wrote a book The Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption
4/ Gargoyles and grotesques: Michael Camille Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art.
5/ Michael Camille “Dr Witkowski’s Anus: French Doctors, German Homosexuals and the Obscene in Medieval Church Art,” in Medieval Obscenities (ed Nicola F. McDonald), 17–38. (We discuss a number of images from this essay, including 2.2.)
6/ Borges Cathedral: http://en.posztukiwania.pl/2017/09/26/details-from-behind/
7/ Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Supper_(Leonardo)
Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel pettiness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNeHaAmjkIQ
8/ Barbara Newman quote: “[F]or us, the secular is the normative, unmarked default category, while the sacred is the marked, asymmetrical Other. In the Middle Ages it was the reverse” (viii). Barbara Newman, Medieval Crossover: Reading the Secular against the Sacred (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013).
9/ Marginalia butt faces (just as examples!)
11/ Henry Medwall, c.1461–1501?
A play: Fulgens and Lucrece B: “Nay, we shall nede no horse ne Mule/ but let us just [joust] at fart pryke in cule”(p. 328, lns. 1164–65). (Presumably they are trussed up around poles and brooms that serve as the spear.) I’ve cited page and line from Medieval Drama: An Anthology edited by Greg Walker.
Peter Meredith, ” ‘Fart Pryke in Cule’ and Cock-Fighting” Middle English Theater, vol. 6 (1984), 30–39.
12/ Dante, canto 21 (line 139)
13/ Roman de la Rose (Wikipedia)
See our previous episode, note 11, for more on female illuminator Jeanne de Montbaston who illuminated a manuscript of the Roman de la Rose (and for links to examples of her “obscene” work on this manuscript, BNF25526).
Alastair Minnis “From Coilles to Bel Chose: Discourses of Obscenity in Jean de Meun and Chaucer,” Medieval Obscenities (ed. Nicola F. McDonald), 156–178.
14/ The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale
15/ Miller’s Prologue and Tale
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A long time ago, people were pure at heart. Of course, sex happened occasionally, but no one took off their clothes for it–that would be gauche. Then James Joyce wrote a book called Ulysses and things started to go downhill. In 1933, a judge named John M. Woolsey ruled in a case called United States v. One Book Called Ulysses that Ulysses was not obscene, and since then we have lost all moral compass. Right?
Well, not exactly. Join Em and Jesse as they journey through the mystifying world of book bannings, what constitutes art and obscenity, and finally come to focus on such ridiculous Medieval things as phallus trees and vulva pilgrimage badges.
0/ Dionysus in Wisconsin Amazon link! And Goodreads link! This is the song I’m playing in the background–“St. Peter’s Bones,” by Girlyman.
1/ Yeah, we record in advance. Quite a bit in advance. Also, there were more book bannings (and more public) in 2022. 🙁 Anyway they have been terrible AND they made John Green sad. So you know it’s bad.
2/ Ted Cruz limericks here (link to HuffPo)–or Google Ted Cruz Nantucket limericks and see what comes up 🙂
3/ “It was all very odd.” The motto of 2021.
4/ Kurt Vonnegut letter: (link to an essay about the letter)
5/ PEN America’s site that collects lists of banned books, including ALA’s lists of banned books: link here
Ok so. As I recall, the ALA (and other professional bodies) doesn’t really endorse the idea of segregating books by age. But also, if you are saying to yourself, well, bookstores and such are more progressive, let me tell you about the erotica dungeon on Amazon. Basically, people who wrote erotic novels find their books don’t come up in search results, not ranked on Amazon, etc., making it hard to get noticed. They could very easily do that with any genre they want. And authors would have no say in the matter. The books may be available, but if you can’t get a copy…
6/ This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006). It’s definitely streaming somewhere–check it out!
7/ Jesse is of course referring to Thud!, by Sir Terry Pratchett, in which two characters, who are investigating a theft from an art museum, have the following conversation:
“Tawnee says what she does is Art, Sarge. And she wears more clothes than a lot of the women on the walls around here, so why be sniffy about it?”
“Yeah, but…” Fred Colon hesitated here. He knew in his heart that spinning upside down around a pole wearing a costume you could floss with definitely was not Art, and being painted lying on a bed wearing nothing but a smile and a small bunch of grapes was good solid Art, but putting your finger on why this was the case was a bit tricky.
“No urns,” he said at last.
“What urns?” said Nobby.
“Nude women are only Art if there’s an urn in it,” said Fred Colon. This sounded a bit weak even to him, so he added: “Or a plinth. Both is best, o’course. It’s a secret sign, see, that they put in to say that it’s Art and okay to look at.”
“What about a potted plant?”
“That’s okay if it’s in an urn.”
8/ Billy Connolly on Graham Norton: https://youtu.be/iBefd6lT-aA
Bonus discussion question: has widespread censorship of nudity and “trigger” words on social media made us a more prudish society?
9/ The one non-NC-17 film I can name with male frontal nudity is Walk Hard. I don’t see a lot of films though. Also it is very incidental.
10/ Mikhail Baktine, Rabelais and his world. See also episode 44 notes 4 and 5
Pro tip: giving birth is absolutely terrifying, it’s true. (Both of my children were from my womb untimely ripped. It was strangely chill for all that.)
11/ Phallus tree: episode 12, note 28. See the image here on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phallus_tree
Massa Marittima (Check under “Main Sights”)
Marginalia: Bibliotek National, BNF25526, folio 160 recto and folio 106 verso.
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6000369q/f325.item
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6000369q/f218.item#
Jeanne de Montbaston et son mari, Richard. She continued to work after he died. See some of her work here: https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/person/105F5P
12/ The episode on illumination: Episode 32, especially note 10
13/ Badges (just Google “obscene medieval pilgrim badges” and look at the images!):
14/ Medieval Obscenities, ed. by Nicola McDonald
Georgia Rhodes, “Decoding the Sheela-Na-Gig,” Feminist Formations, vol. 22, no. 2 (summer 2010), 167–194.
15/ Quick mentions at the end of:
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1/ EB White was a rather nice, shy guy who wrote for the New Yorker and hid from his admirers. TH White was a weirdo who lived on the edge of the woods in the UK. EB White is the White of Strunk & White. https://xkcd.com/923/
2/ it would be more accurate to say Em “hangs around” the book space. There’s no working going on. But this is true: 50% of all books sold are romance novels (to the tune of $1.44 billion per year). The other 50% are all the other genres. Think about that.
3/ Ramon of Llull (c.1232–c. 1315)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Llull
The Book of the Order of Chivalry, a new translation by Noel Fallows
https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781843838494/the-book-of-the-order-of-chivalry/
4/ For the Green Knight, see episode 60.
5/ Tristan und Isolde. We will have an upcoming episode on Wagner (and Tolkien), too!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_and_Iseult
6/ “This is the medieval version of trying to go viral on TikTok.” I think we can stop there. That’s either the best or worst thing I’ll ever say.
7/ For more on the Bayeux Tapestry, see episode 54 note 15, episode 58 note 5, and episode 62 note 15.
The Bayeux Tapestry links:
https://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/the-bayeux-tapestry/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry
Chivalry by Maurice Keen https://www.amazon.com/Chivalry-Maurice-Keen/dp/B002L4N66S
8/ Council of Clermont, called by Pope Innocent II in 1130 (not to be confused with the more famous Council of Clermont called by Urban II in 1095 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Clermont)
Pope John XXII lifted the ban in 1316.
9/ For more on sins and the Inferno, see episode 8.
10/ Sir John Hawkwood (c.1323–1394)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hawkwood
To clarify, Florence actually created a fresco of the monument they wanted to build him but…couldn’t afford, I guess? An image of the fresco is on his Wikipedia page.
11/ Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale: https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/knights-tale-0
Chaucer’s Miller’s Tale (adult rated!): https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages/millers-prologue-and-tale
12/ I can’t believe I have to do this, but just in case we have a bunch of Gen Alpha listeners (who permitted this?), here’s the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade clip: https://youtu.be/A0TalLrtZ24
13/ The Lady of Shalott (1832, by Tennyson): the most boring poem for your forensics poetry competition. Suck on it, pre-Raphaelities. Sorry Jesse, I’ll take that out. [Lolz!–JN] Poem link: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45359/the-lady-of-shalott-1832
14/ Elaine (of Astolat, aka the Lady of Shalott): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_of_Astolat
Not the same Elaine (of Corbenic) who is the mother of Galahad by Lancelot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_of_Corbenic I combined them in the episode!!
15/ Once and Future: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_%26_Future
16/ For more on Gawain and the Green Knight and Morgan le Fay, see (recent) episode 60.
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Early on, a friend of the podcast asked if we were going to cover chivalry. Because really, when you think of the Middle Ages, this is it, right? Knights in very shiny armor on beautiful horses charging into battle, swords drawn! Knights getting scarves from their ladies! Knights holding vigils and praying in front of the holy grail. Today, three years later, Em and Jesse are finally going to get down to brass tacks on the topic. Who wrote the book on chivalry and what did it say? Did people ever really behave like this, or was it an unreachable ideal? And, of course, Chaucer forever. Join us, won’t you?
1/ Colin Firth rescuing a woman from a nondescript office job…Bridget Jones?? [Lol!]
2/ Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Huntsman
3/ England Before 1066: see episodes 53, 54, and 56.
4/ Maurice Keen Chivalry
Richard Kaeuper Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe
5/ Crusades: We haven’t really covered these yet! We should do that. But we discuss the infamous Albigensian Crusade in Episode 48 (see note 27).
6/ Macbeth “unseam’d him from the nave to the chops, / And fix’d his head upon our battlements” (I.ii.22–23)
Henry V The opening of IV.vii discusses the slaughter of the boys watching the supplies.
7/ John Hawkwood (1323–1394) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hawkwood
Terry Jones, Chaucer’s Knight.
8/ Andrzej Tadeusz Bonaventura Bciuszko. Sorry. https://www.nps.gov/thko/learn/historyculture/kosciuszkobio.htm
9/ Baron von Steuben (1730–1794)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Wilhelm_von_Steuben
10/ Known to every Illinois schoolchild, Kasimir Pulaski (1745–1779).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_Pulaski
11/ Hundred Years War (1337–1453) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Years%27_War
Battle of Crecy (1346) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Crécy
Battle of Agincourt (1415) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt
12/ Sir Geoffrey Luttrell being helped by his wife and daughter-in-law (image from the Luttrell Psalter, mid-14th-century British Library MS Additional 42130 folio 202v)
13/ Chrétien de Troyes (flourished 1160–1191)
14/ Against the King’s Peace: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_(law)
15/ The Three Estates (those who pray [clergy], those who work [peasants], those who fight [knights/nobility]) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estates_of_the_realm
16/ Étienne de Fougères (d. 1178) writes a Livre des Manières about knights and chivalry. French wikipedia site: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Étienne_de_Fougères
17/ Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_of_Clairvaux
18/ Ordene de chevalerie anonymous Old French poem c1220.
The poem is about Prince Hugh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_II_of_Saint-Omer
19/ Saladin (1137–1193) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin
20/ Quote from the Ordene de chevalerie is from Keen’s Chivalry p. 7
21/ Please instead insert King Charles into this joke.
22/ Carpet considerations.
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The other day, I asked a friend, “Hey, what do normal people put on their walls?” The answer…is tapestries. Cold, stony castle? Tapestries. Small, plain cathedral? Tapestries. A house of some sort? Probably also tapestries. In this episode, Em and Dr. Jesse talk over how tapestries are made, famous tapestries from around the world, and the use of color in Medieval society. Join us!
1/ For more on textiles, see episode 33 (on women artisans) and episode 54 note 15 (on the Bayeux Tapestry).
2/ Rather than getting caught up on horizontal vs vertical terminology, just keep in mind that the warp is what goes on the loom and the weft is the part you weave with.
3/ Tang Dynasty (618–907CE) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_dynasty
Zhu Kerou (fl.12th century). See her famous “Butterfly and Camellia” silk tapestry here: https://thenewhistoria.org/schema/zhu-kerou/
4/ Uyghurs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghurs
5/ The medieval Andes! Huari tapestry images from a museum exhibition.
Huari / Wari: fl. 500/600–1000 CE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wari_culture
6/ Greek painting of sculptures is called polychromy.
https://youtu.be/86PD8o6xe_4
The MET in NYC has recently decided to get on board with this and now has an exhibit about polychromy (which they’re touting like it’s a new discovery 🙄).
7/ Check out the Bayeux Tapestry close up! https://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/the-bayeux-tapestry/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry
8/ The Barnes Museum in Philadelphia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnes_Foundation (discusses the legal challenges and controversy of the museum’s move)
9/ The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries at the Musée de Cluny (see episode 29, note 24 and episode 30, note 21).
10/ The hunting of the unicorn tapestries at The Cloisters in NYC.
11/ Raphael (1483–1520): not just a ninja turtle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael
12/ Pieter van Aelst (c.1495–c.1560). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_van_Aelst_III
13/ Mathilda episodes: episode 58 (Long Live the Queen)
14/ Episodes on England before 1066: episodes 53 (England Before the Norman Invasion) and 54 (More England, More Normans).
15/ The Bayeux Tapestry links:
https://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/the-bayeux-tapestry/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry
16/ Beowulf episode here: episode 56
17/ Em’s newsletter.
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It’s wintertime in the Northern hemisphere! Snow is, of course, eternal, but did you ever wonder how far back the tradition of making snowpeople goes? Jesse did. Join us as we trace the history of snowpeople in Europe/the UK as far back as we can.
1/ Marginal illustration in a Book of Hours from c1380 (Ms KA36, fol. 78 verso, Brussels) now in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek
Actual picture: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Koninklijke_Bibliotheek_Book_of_Hours_snowman_illustration.jpg
2/ For more on the Judenhut or Judenhutte see episode 45, note 10, episode 10, notes 31 and 39; episode 25, note 14; and episode 41, note 7. Also see Sara Lipton, Dark Mirror: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Jewish Iconography, Metropolitan, 2014. Link.
3/ Mary Dillwyn is incredibly important to early photography. Here is her awesome c1853 snowman photo. Also here (museum collection).
4/ Tournai 1422–23 snow figures! See the articles in note 5 for more.
5/ Arras 1434–35: the Danse Macabre Snowmen
See Sophie Oosterwijk‘s ‘The snows of yesteryear’: the medieval Danse Macabre snowmen of Arras (Atrecht) (First published in French as ‘Les bonhommes de neige d’Arras (Atrecht)’, Bulletin de liaison de l’association Danses macabres d’Europe, 46 (2013), 4–6, 2013.)
6/ The Miracle of 1511! Wikipedia article here. Atlas Obscura article here.
See Herman Pleij, “Urban Elites in Search of a Culture: The Brussels Snow Festival of 1511” in Vol. 21, No. 3, New Historicisms, New Histories, and Others (Spring, 1990), pp. 629–647.
7/ Brussels poet Jan Smeken wrote a ballad about the snowmen. See the articles in note 6 for more!
8/ Fun fact: one time I (Em) walked through the red light district in Brussels with my mother.
9/ Manneken Pis. A very famous statue!
Jeanneke Pis. A less famous statue.
10/ “Mais où sont les neiges d’antan?” is from “Ballade des dames du temps jadis” by François Villon (c.1431–after 1463)
“Ou sont les Neigedens d’antan?” is also a joke from <i>Catch-22</i>, which has a character named “Snowden.”
11/ Switzerland’s exploding snowman
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Once upon a time there was a guy named Gawain, and someone made a movie about him! And he got to be played by Dev Patel, which is pretty great when you get down to it. And then we covered it! In which Em reveals that she watches way too much historical costuming YouTube, Jesse gives a coherent literary critique, and then we talk about cinematography and death. Oh, there’s a bunch about the actual Arthurian legends, too. And if you listen to the end, you can hear a short clip of Em singing. (Is that an inducement? Hmm.)
1/ To be fair, a lot of the podcasts I’ve listened to are about horror movies, so I’m never going to actually watch them. Shout out to Random Number Generator Horror Podcast Number 9.
2/ The Green Knight a 2021 film written (adapted?) and directed by David Lowery based on the late-14th-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The film stars Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sean Harris, and more. It was released theatrically by A24.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Knight_(film)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9243804/
3/ Geoffrey of Monmouth (flourishes in the first half of the 12th century) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_of_Monmouth
A Companion to Geoffrey of Monmouth edited by Joshua Byron Smith and Georgia Henley https://brill.com/display/title/39588 (Published by Brill, so get it via ILL from your local library.)
4/ Prophecies of Merlin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophetiae_Merlini
5/ The “later work” Em mentions is the Prose Merlin.
The Middle English Prose Merlin was written in the mid-15th-century, just before Malory wrote his super famous version, making the Prose Merlin the earliest (extant) prose Arthur story. It’s largely based on French sources, including the Old French Vulgate Cycle (which is written in prose) and Robert de Boron’s Old French poem Merlin (of which only fragments remain). https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/conlee-prose-merlin-introduction
Robert de Boron flourished in the large-12th century and early 13th century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_de_Boron
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_(Robert_de_Boron_poem)
The Old French prose source is from the early 13th century and is known as the Vulgate Cycle (or the “The Pseudo-Map Cycle” and the “Lancelot-Grail Cycle”). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancelot-Grail
6/ The Lady of the Lake is a fascinating character. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_of_the_Lake
7/ Marie de France (flourished 1160 to 1215). See episode 19 note 13 and episode 29 note 26.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_de_France
8/ Chrétien de Troyes (flourished second half of 12th century)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrétien_de_Troyes
9/ Thomas Malory (c1400–c1470) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Malory
Le Morte d’Arthur https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Morte_d%27Arthur was completed c1470 and **published** by William Caxton in 1485! Caxton’s published version was the earliest extant version of Malory’s work until 1934, when a manuscript was discovered at Winchester College. That manuscript is now in the British Library and is the earliest (and only) manuscript of Malory’s work. It’s known as BL Add MS 59678 or the WInchester Manuscript. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/thomas-malorys-le-morte-darthur
10/ It sounds like we’re making this stuff about Cotton up, but it is true.
We also talked about Cotton in episode 39 note 8 and episode 56 note 2. Here is more info on the Cotton collection: https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/cotton-manuscripts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_library
11/ Gawain characters: This got confusing! Jesse talks about Morgause (Queen of Orkney), and then switches to Morgan (and then back to Morgause). Basically, both women have always been ambiguous, but Morgause is maybe seen worse in the modern era than she was in the Middle Ages!
* Morgan le Fay: sister of Morgause and others https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_le_Fay
* Gawain: our hero(?) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gawain
* Mordred: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordred
* Morgause: Queen of Orkney (wife of King Lot), mother of Gawain and Mordred https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgause
Here’s the poem in translation! https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/weston-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight
Here’s the original: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/Gawain?rgn=main;view=fulltext (divided into Passus I, II, III, IV)
12/ Christian virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance (the cardinal virtues), and faith, hope, and charity (theological virtues).
13/ In retrospect, I think some of these characters have names in the credits, although not mostly mentioned in the movie.
14/ St. Winifred 7th century Welsh martyr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Winifred
15/ Em’s newsletter can be found by clicking here. The song in the background is George Harrison’s “The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.” His version is better, go here and listen to it.
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