Ask a Medievalist

Summary This episode is dedicated to Tolkien superfan Stephen Colbert. May he return to The Colbert Report ! No matter what, we know that he will go on to far, far better things than the crumbling edifice that was once known as CBS. Notes 1/ George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice series 2/ Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 (and died September 2, 1973). Tolkien’s imagined etymol...

Synopsis What exactly is authority? Where does it come from? How do you get it? Can you move authority from St. Paul, MN to the south side of Chicago? Join Em and Jesse for a wide-ranging chat on the subject. Notes 1/ Of course, many people in addition to women have a hard time getting others (i.e. non-group members) to pay attention to their authority. For example, trans and nonbinary people have...

Summary It’s January, the first month of the year, ruled by the god Janus, who looks both ways. But a week ago it was December, the…tenth month of the year? What the heck was up with Roman calendars? Join Em and Dr. Jesse to explore why this otherwise competent civilization just fell apart when it came to tracking what day it was. Notes Jörg Rüpke, The Roman Calendar from Numa to Const...

Synopsis When is Hanukkah this year? When is Lupercalia, or Easter, or Midsummer’s Eve? When is your birthday? Figuring out when big events happen is incredibly important, and humans have been doing it for a long time. But while we can see some similarities in the process of calendar evolution, many civilizations had very different ways of conceptualizing and measuring time. Join Em and Dr....

Summary Starting in the middle ages, a rumor spread of a female pope, elected because of her incredible learning, who went undiscovered until she gave birth to a child. At which point, everyone lost their minds. Join Em and Dr. Jesse to learn about the veracity of this tale and the wacky test it (allegedly) engendered. (Ha.) Notes Our sources: Thomas F.X. Noble, “Why Pope Joan?” Cathol...

Summary Avignon! A city where there is a bridge, and a song about the bridge. And, once, the pope lived there. Why? Let’s talk about this weird century. Notes 1/ Avignon: it has a bridge! And a song about the bridge: “Sur le pont d’Avignon.” The bridge is medieval; the song dates from the fifteenth century: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sur_le_Pont_d%27Avignon 2/ Boniface...

Synopsis Let’s talk about a few good antipopes. What’s that about, anyway? If they meet, do they both annihilate? How do they sometimes switch places? Join Em and Dr. Jesse as they go over some of the more interesting antipopes of the 11th and 12th centuries. Notes 1/ The board game is Kremlin . 2/ Gregory VII (born c1015, namesake of the reform movement, pope 1073–1085). Gregorian ref...

Synopsis When did the conclave system get started and why? Following on the heels (uh, vaguely) of our emergency popecast , Em and Dr. Jesse discuss history of papal elections and how the Church got to where it is. Notes Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes , by Eamon Duffy. 4th ed. Yale University Press, 2015. 1/ We recorded this in February 2024; Benedict died on the 31st of December, 2022...

Synopsis Pope Francis, beloved of medievalists, died on April 21, 2025, so we’re here with all you might care to know about the forthcoming conclave (now a film starring Ralph Finnes), the history of conclaves, and why medievalists loved Francis so much, anyway. Notes 1/ Benedict went to Mater Ecclesiae Monastery , I think. It’s in the neighborhood. 2/ Jesse and I decided to try and do...

Summary Em and Jesse are back with more medieval meme review. Join us as we discuss martyrdom, marginalia, The Seventh Seal , and the Bayeux Tapestry. Notes 1/ martyrdom of Isaiah: Martyrdom sword through throat: 2/ St. Sebastian . Artists love him! Just to be clear, “It’s difficult to assert that there were any gay men before Walt Whitman” is a joke about how historians tend to...

Synopsis Memes. Love or hate them, they’re hard to escape. Let’s do a medieval meme review. Notes 1/ Sorry for the weird sound at the beginning. File errors. 2/ There are whole Bsky accounts like “ weird medieval guys “. 3/ Cave Canum Know thyself 4/ The Book of Dog Names: Superdog’s name is Krypto Livre du Chasse (see Episode 29 note 5 for more!) Here is the Christie...

Synopsis Trade goods weren’t the only things that moved along the Silk Road. Join Em and Jesse as they trace the history of an interesting artistic motif that made it from China all the way to England! Notes 0/ Credit to Hither, Page , by Cat Sebastian, for bringing this topic to my attention. 1/ Previous episodes on trade routes were ep 83 (Old Silk Road, Take Me Home) and 84 (Trans-Saharan...

Synopsis In a first for Ask a Medievalist, Em sits down with Sebastian Nothwell to discuss his approach to writing historical/historical fantasy novels. In the process, they get into everything from Victorian steam power to the effects of the peasants revolt of 1381 on the chartists in the 1830s–50s. You can find Sebastian’s website at https://sebastiannothwell.com/ . Notes 1/ British Newspa...

Synopsis “Times are tough, but they could be worse” is the eternal message of our show. This time, we’re talking about persecution and rebellion–how certain groups were oppressed for political purposes in medieval (and early modern, and modern) Europe, and some people and groups who rebelled, in both a personal and more broadly political way. From Boudica to Hrotsvit to Jac...

Summary The Ramayana is not the oldest story in the world, but it’s definitely in the running. Composed starting in the 700s BCE, it has been carried to all corners of the earth and translated into many languages and cultures, traveling along several distinct lines of migration, yet it remains largely unknown in the west. In honor of Em’s new novel Troth , join Em and Jesse as they discuss t...

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!

Synopsis One time, Em got drunk and started texting Jesse about the bronze age collapse. This is the result. Notes 1/ Em studied abroad in Tianjin, China. It was very educational. I learned that black vinegar is good for your health, that there are mushrooms called ear mushrooms (wood ear, but I only recognized one character), and that I can explain that my stretched earlobes didn’t hurt in...

Synopsis 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 f...

Synopsis 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,” Mongoli...

Synopsis 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.) Notes 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 Univer...

Synopsis 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...

Synopsis Last week, the 2024 Summer Olympics started in Paris with an opening ceremony that featured nods to several musicals, a heavy metal band named after Godzilla, a bit of an aria from  Carmen , and of course, a tableau of drag queens and gender bent fashionistas referencing Leonardo da Vinci’s 1498 painting  The Last Supper . Or perhaps they were referencing Jan van Bijlert’s 164...

Synopsis 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. Notes 0/ Find links to  Old Time Rel...

Synopsis 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 M...

Summary 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. Notes 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 eve...