The Maniculum Podcast

We just couldn’t get enough of goodly Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, so here’s a full episode dedicated to the Arthurian chivalric tale! Whether or not you’ve seen the new film, this romance has plenty of twists and turns, and (spoiler warning) our highest rating yet!

It’s been a while, but we’re back to one of our most popular texts: the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions! This week, we’re following Xuanzang as he journeys into medieval India, encountering wildly variable customs in education, law, and reincarnation.

We have a special episode this week, but you're going to have to wait for it. We joined the BookSquadGoals podcast to discuss the new Green Knight film and its medieval origins. The episode will come out this Monday, August 21, 2021, so don't miss it! You can tune in on your regular podcast app, and check out their fantastic website at https://www.booksquadgoals.com

Congratulations, you’ve made it! Welcome to our final episode of the Tain Bo Cuailnge and the grand conclusion of a war started with some undue pillow-talk. Will the Connachtmen be routed by Ulster? Will Maeb get her prized bull? Can we make it through to the end? Let’s dive in and find out.

Join us for the penultimate episode of the Tain Bo Cualinge! We've got brother-killings, shield decapitations, and much, much more. Will Maeb finally get the bull? Will the Ulstermen come out of their pains? Buckle up for the ride as Cu Chulainn continues to tear his way through the Irish countryside.

This week, the Leech’s Corner takes center stage! We’re dedicating an episode to some of the longer (and stranger) parts of the Leechbook, including everything from common summertime ailments to elf-diseases.

We’re stepping away from our usual texts this week in order to celebrate Pride month and to take a look at the lives of queer individuals in the Middle Ages. Because homosexuality and queerness were marginalized and prosecuted, there are few records of queer individuals during the medieval period.

The Cattle Raid of Cooley can get weirder! The third part of this epic Irish saga highlights Cu Chulainn's fight with the Morrigan, his battle against Loch, and his first on-the-page Warp-spasm. Things are starting to get messy.

Not to be outdone by our other texts, the Gesta Romanorum continues it's wild foray into ahistorical legends and poorly written exegesis. This week, we are taking a look at seven new tales, many of which play on ancient tropes you might recognize.

We're continuing our journey into early Christian hagiographies with a second telling of the Seven Sleepers legend, this time with the dramatic flare of Ælfric's Lives of Saints. This version of the tale comes with more fire and brimstone, but even less historical accuracy than the Baring-Gould's translation.

In a unique twist on the traditional hagiography, we're delving into the story of the Seven Sleepers. This saint's tale features group of time-traveling, heresy-debunking lads from Late Antiquity. Versions of this tale are found in both Christian and Islamic tradition, and we'll be reading two different records ourselves!

We're returning to the old Irish epic of the "Cattle Raid of Cooley" this week, featuring Cu Chulainn's boyhood deeds and a plethora of killing. This slaughterfest demonstrates the blasé manner in which violence is portrayed in Irish epic, as well as the continued absurdity of this tale.

So this week we are coming up on Easter, which is the biggest holiday in the medieval Christian calendar aside from Christmas! Since Easter constantly confuses with its jumping dates, we are going to look at the medieval "easter controversy" and this holiday's long, strange, and convoluted history.

We're concluding our guest series with Mary Osborne of BookSquadGoals this episode with our final ratings and thoughts! While we ordinarily put these in their own Master Lists (and you can still find them there,) we've also added them here with other conclusions and some tips from the Leech's Corner.

We're back with our guest, Mary Osborne of BookSquadGoals , to continue our tour of the furthest reaches of the medieval world. The bizarre illustrations continue, and we're all pleasantly surprised at how inclusive this text is in regards to what sort of races count as "people."

We're excited to have our first guest on the show this week! A heartfelt welcome to Mary Osborne of #BookSquadGoals. This week, the three of us dive into The Wonders of the East, a guide to far-off places, some of which don't exist! This will be a three-part series, so stay tuned for the completion of this series later this month!

This episode, we dive into the Tain Bo Cualinge, also known as the Cattle Raid of Cooley. The best known work of ancient Irish lore, this text details the rather odd pillow talk of King Ailil and Queen Maev, and the detrimental effects of wealth comparison.

Here's part two of our second episode featuring the Gesta Romanorum! This tale features tropes galore, though they may not be consistent enough to tell a single story. The Leech's Corner also spotlights medievalism meeting modern science, and answers hard questions like "Where do you find a medieval leek?"

We're back this week with the Gesta Romanorum, those weird collections of folktales with questionable morals. This episode contains some diversions into the study of semiotics and a few rambles into Greek philosophy, so we've made it a two-parter!

Zoe brings us back to Ireland with the tale of Mac Da Tho's Pig -- a story that centers around a sequence of bad (and/or inexplicable) decisions, toxic masculinity, a good dog, and a very large pig. This short tale is linked in some ways to the longer and much more famous Tain Bo Cualinge, which Zoe will be serializing for us in the near future; consider this an appetizer.

We have a new collection to jump into this week, featuring tales which may or may not be considered too civilized to be 'medieval.' These wide-ranging tales cover the Middle East and furthest reaches of Western Asia, and are sure to include new surprises. Let's just say gift-giving conventions have come a long way...

Happy holidays from the Maniculum Podcast! This week, we present a Middle English radio play that you can share with your friends and family- this play has everything: rage against the bourgeoisie, magic spells, and sheep theft. Oh, and the nativity is in there too.

This week, we're finishing up our Thanksgiving special with our ratings and reviews of the Saga of Eirik the Red. This shorter episode goes through our favourite characters and how you can adapt this saga into your writing and tabletop games. Be sure to check out the blog for more details, including a handmade geneological chart to help you keep track of who's who. Happy Thanksgiving from the Mani...

This week, the Maniculum is finishing the Saga of Eirik the Red for our Thanksgiving special! We discuss how to properly evict revenants and ghosts in your area, as well how to deal with the ever-relevant zombie plagues. Once the Icelanders finally get to North America, we discuss proper trade and negotiation techniques, and what we might learn from the Viking settlers.

This week, we kick off our two-part Thanksgiving episode, talking about the first Europeans who arrived in North America in a riveting Icelandic saga about Eirik the Red. Epithets and navigation errors abound!