The Maniculum Podcast

Episode Notes We're finishing up Perlesvaus with a bang this week! Will Percival redeem himself as the "Good Knight"? What will happen to England with King Arthur away on a pilgrimage? Mac and Zoe linger on the overarching themes of this incredibly weird text, and discuss how you can adapt this chivalric farce into your campaigns! Send us your feedback online: https://pinecast.com/feedback/the-man...

Episode Notes Here there be dragons! Many different kinds of dragon, actually. This week, we're looking at the Lay of Fafnir, one of the earliest dragon myths known to man, and its variations throughout history. Turns out you may be more familiar with this tale than you thought.... Check out our socials! Discord: https://www.discord.gg/ng7ufQRRbJ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/themaniculump... W...

We are back on Perlesvaus this episode, and our heroes have begun to resolve their quests. What will happen to our dear heroes? Will Lancelot prove he has the strongest pull out game of all the knights? It remains to be seen! Check out our socials! Discord: https://www.discord.gg/ng7ufQRRbJ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/themaniculump... Website: https://www.themaniculumpodcast.com/ Twitter: htt...

We've cultivated another set of wonderful, weird medieval articles for this episode. In case you thought the Middle Ages couldn't get weirder, we'd like to introduce you to the world of medieval animal trials, in which real lawyers had to defend animals in a court of law. No, we're not kidding. Check out our socials! Discord: https://www.discord.gg/ng7ufQRRbJ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thema...

We are back yet again with Perlesvaus, and our heroes (questionable) have found the one stretch of land in all England where there is no hermitage! Not only that, we get some interesting fourth wall breaks - our narrator knows he's inconsistent, but is that his fault? Nah!

We've collected some of or favorite academic articles to share with you! While these articles aren't attached to texts, they do contain a lot of fantastic ideas for you to use in your next game or novel!

Welcome back to Perlesvaus! What can possibly go wrong in this episode? Who will Knights of the Round Table behead this time? And what sort of terrifying creatures will we encounter? Something smaller than a breadfox, that's for sure!

Join us as we dive into the world of Old English elegy! These poems have some of the most interesting imagery you can find in any English literature, from the beasts of battle to cursing ghost women.

Come join us as we explore cannabis and hemp usage throughout the middle ages (and earlier) with special guest and marijuana expert, Alaina! Hemp has been grown and ingested worldwide for thousands of years. Don't let preconceived notions of this plant fool you!

Oh boy, we're back with another "season" of everyone's favorite medieval comedy soap opera, Perlesvaus! We've got classic Dungeons and Dragons shenanigans in this one, from sultry maidens to sleeping with your armor on. What mischief (and war crimes) will Percival get into next?

In this episode, we take on medieval rap battles- that is, Middle English debate poetry! The Debate of the Carpenter’s Tools provides a humorous look inside the medieval guild life, carpentry’s specific tools, and the dangers of the love of ale.

Join us this week for a very special episode! Mac and Zoe DM the Green Knight RPG, inspired by the film, inspired by the poem. Our players are guests from some of your favourite podcasts: Saga Thing, Pontifacts, and BookSquadGoals. We hope you enjoy the assorted mess as we medievalists and lit nerds play this one-shot together.

We're continuing with Percival's Murderhobo adventure with part five of Perlesvaus! The rampaging continues for Percival, but we get some new homoerotic undertones from Gawain. Join us for more laughs, digressions, and meta gaming in this episode!

Join us for the conclusion Saint Brendan's Voyage, where we evaluate Brendan's leadership acumen, his seafaring ability, and overall sainthood. Spoiler: none of them are great.

Come "row about" with us with the tale of Brendan the Navigator! This Irish immram explores the wonders of the Atlantic, but not too many of them, because Brendan just keeps going in a circle. His title really is quite the misnomer.

Happy New Year! We hope you're jumping into 2022 with resolutions ablaze, but as for us, we're settling back into our goal to finish Perlesvaus. Our excellent narrator throws Percival and the other Arthurian knights into some pretty "hairy" situations in these branches!

Happy holidays! It’s the end of another year, and we’re back with another Christmas special. Not really into candlelight mass? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! This year, we’re reading three medieval Christmas sermons, each filled with bad analogies and questionable theology. Come along as we break down these strange sermons to find the “true” meaning of Christmas — at least, according to these...

Welcome back to another wacky week of Perlesvaus and the adventures of anyone but Percival, for some reason. Follow Gawain on his quest as he encounters fey statues that might not be statues, a magical chessboard with an advanced AI, and the Castle of Inquiry, where he rolls a Nat 20 on his Metagaming check.

Surprise! We've got a very special episode this week focusing on the medieval history of Southeast Asia and featuring game designer and writer Zedeck Siew. Come join us on this island adventure, where every land its different and you never know what's around the next bend. Please support A Thousand Thousand Islands on their Kickstarter , and check out their other works here !

Happy holidays, and more generally, happy autumn! It’s getting close to Thanksgiving here in the USA, and that means lots and lots of food! So for this year’s holiday special, we’re diving into some medieval cookbooks and recipes you can try this season!

Let’s return to the strange and accursed world of Perlesvaus, where we rejoin Sir Gawain in his quest to find Sir Percival, the Good Knight. Remember, this tale is more medieval fan-fiction than anything, and boy does it deliver.

Happy Halloween, Samhain, and All Hallows Eve! In our second annual Halloween episode, we’re going to go “trick or treating” with some Old English riddles! These are sure to surprise and thrill, and are fantastic fun to pull out in tabletop games, or sneak into a novel like Tolkien did.

Welcome back to the wacky world of Arthuriana! We’re focusing on good Sir Percival this week, but his tale might be stranger than you remember — this spinoff from Chrétien de Troyes’ unfinished tale takes unexpected liberties, particularly in the number of decapitated heads present. Seriously, there are a lot of heads.

Well, we're back with the final portion of Liuprand's No Good, Very Bad, Horrible Time in Constantinople! Will he ever get home, or will he be executed for his behavior? Come read the final portion of his letter with us in this episode!

This week, we're jumping into the firsthand account of Bishop Liuprand of the Holy Roman Empire. After being sent on a diplomatic mission to Constantinople, he sent this letter back to his sire Emperor Otto with... incredible snark. We're surprised he wasn't executed for what we're reading now!