Podcast Episodes
Back to Search
How to Read Runes
Episode 559
**Contains very strong language/Tavern talk**
Were runes really magical symbols used by Viking sorcerers? Or were they the everyday handwriting of mer…
1 month ago
Battle of Grunwald: Defeat of the Teutonic Knights
Episode 558
In July 1410, the formidable Teutonic Knights, rapacious crusaders clad in heavy plate armour, faced a massive Polish-Lithuanian alliance. After an i…
1 month, 1 week ago
The King Who Created Medieval Bohemia
Episode 557
In 12th-century Bohemia, every royal funeral sparked a civil war. Dr. Eleanor Janega discovers how Přemysl Otakar I survived backstabbing brothers, i…
1 month, 1 week ago
Tolkien: Middle Earth and the Middle Ages
Episode 556
From where did J.R.R. Tolkien get his ideas for the world of Middle Earth?
For millions of readers, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are more than…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Extinct Beasts of Medieval Britain
Episode 555
Why have wolves often been the villains of British history? What happened to them and some of the other remarkable creatures that once roamed medieva…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Edgar Ætheling: The King Who Never Was
Episode 554
What if you were proclaimed King of England but never sat on the throne? In 1066, Edgar Ætheling possessed the strongest bloodline claim to the Engli…
1 month, 3 weeks ago
Great Buildings of the Middle Ages
Episode 553
How did medieval builders create monuments that still leave us awestruck? How were vast cathedrals, temples and cities constructed and embellished?
Fr…
1 month, 3 weeks ago
Henry III vs. Simon de Montfort
Episode 552
Was Henry III overthrown by England's first constitutional revolution? How did Simon de Montfort's rebellion change the course of history?
In 1258, a …
2 months ago
Guinevere: The Queen Who Broke Camelot?
Episode 551
Was Queen Guinevere a traitorous adulteress who caused the tragic downfall of Camelot, or a complex political survivor? Was she even real? Dr. Eleano…
2 months ago
Henry III: England's Longest Reigning King
Episode 550
How did a nine-year-old boy save England from the brink of collapse? How did he transform a disastrous legacy into a remarkably stable reign?
When Kin…
2 months, 1 week ago