Can you answer these medieval animal riddles?
Here are seven riddles about animals from the Early Middle Ages. Can you solve them?
Disabilities in the Middle Ages with Kisha Tracy
How did medieval people deal with physical and mental challenges? Danièle speaks with Kisha Tracy of Fitchburg State University on why its important to talk about disabilities in the Middle Ages and what evidence we have for how people cared for each other when there was physical or mental disabilities.
New Medieval Books: Fighting Manuals
With the popularity of medieval fighting techniques growing at a rapid pace, we wanted to showcase some books that offer translations and insights into fighting manuals from the Middle Ages.
Famous Boars in Medieval Arthurian Romance
In medieval literature boars made teh perfect enemies that the hero must conquer in order to complete their quest.
Etheldreda: Queen, Abbess, Saint
Saint Etheldreda / Ӕthelthryth / Audrey (636 -679 AD) was an East-Anglian princess who became the Queen of Northumbria and later the founder and abbess of a monastery at Ely in Cambridgeshire.
How to be a Medieval Romance Hero in Five Easy Steps
If you follow these simple steps, you can be a hero straight out of a medieval romance in no time at all.
The Battle of Agincourt with Michael Livingston
Episode 8 of The Medieval Podcast – Danièle speaks with Michael Livingston about his latest research on where the Battle of Agincourt might have been fought.
Traces of the Past: Reenacting the Medieval Period in Argentina
What is the reason why more and more people participate in these events: historical curiosity, cultural immersion, entertainment, or all three of them?
The Zanj Revolt: A Slave War in Medieval Iraq
After generations of oppression, an army of slaves rose up to challenge the Abbasid Caliphate.
Medieval Geopolitics: The High Phase of Northern Crusading
Examining the Prussian Crusades (1230-83), the Lithuanian Crusades (1280-1435), and the Novgorod Crusades (1243-16th century).
Quiz: Medieval Kingdoms
How well do you know your kingdoms from the Middle Ages? Try these 10 questions!
Eloping Lovers and A Werewolf: The Romance of Guillaume de Palerne
In addition to being a story celebrating courtly love and all the romance tropes, Guillaume de Palerne is essentially a story of transformation and disguise
Medieval Marriage with Ruth Mazo Karras
Episode 7 of The Medieval Podcast – What was marriage in the Middle Ages really like? Danièle is joined by Ruth Mazo Karras to discuss love, weddings and partnerships in medieval society.
“Fiction Piled on Fiction”: The Uses and Abuses of King Arthur
Here we are in 2019 still discussing the possibility of an historical King Arthur. How and why that is the case is a fascinating story told expertly by the historian Nicholas J. Higham in King Arthur: The Making of a Legend,
How to be a Holy Man and a Pragmatist: The story of Hybald
Any type of leader will often have to balance their convictions with pragmatism. For a seventh-century Anglo-Saxon abbot, perhaps there could be a way to display both.
Medieval Reads: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
Once in a generation, a writer comes along and, in making fun of his generation and in creating fun using the Middle Ages brings together a new set of stories for people to tell. This is what Mark Twain did in 1889.
Medieval Geopolitics: The Northern Crusades as a “Penitential War”
In this column, I look at the next phase in history of the Northern Crusades: that of “penitential war.”
The Mongols in Europe: The Byzantines, the Bulgarians and the Golden Horde
How did the Mongol presence in the Balkans effect its two main political powers – the Byzantines and the Bulgarians?
500 Years after the First Voyage around the World: Secrets of the Atlas Miller
This is the secret of the Atlas Miller: it tries to counter the idea that the world could be circumnavigated.
The History Channel’s Knight Fight: How Historically Accurate is it?
Taking a look at the History Channel’s newest ‘medieval’ show Knight Fight.
Can you solve these Byzantine riddles?
Here are five riddles written in the eleventh-century. Can you answer them?
The child by the seaside: a medieval story about Saint Augustine
While Augustine was working on his book On the Trinity, he was walking by the seaside one day, meditating on the difficult problem of how God could be three Persons at once. He came upon a little child.
What was farming like in medieval Iceland?
How did Icelanders build and run farms in the Middle Ages?
Juggling the Middle Ages with Jan Ziolkowski
Episode 6 of The Medieval Podcast – Danièle is joined by Jan Ziolkowski to talk about the ‘Juggling the Middle Ages’ exhibition at Dumbarton Oaks.
Medieval Geopolitics: What were the Northern Crusades?
I am going to sketch a very brief history of the so-called “Northern Crusades” – that is, the crusades undertaken by the Christian kings of Denmark, Poland and Sweden, the various German military orders, and their allies against the pagan peoples of the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea.