The days have been getting shorter, the nights longer and the wind bitter-er. Even as the winter solstice draws near, the coming months of cold and darkness make spring seem still an eternity away. Making it through winter is never easy, so how did people in the Middle Ages get by? Join Olivia and Aran as they look into how people not only survived but thrived the whole medieval winter through.

For more on some of what we discuss, check out:

• A digitised version of the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry:
  • https://arca.irht.cnrs.fr/iiif/4856/canvas/canvas-2045964/view
• The History of the Snowman by Bob Eckstein:
  • https://archive.org/details/historyofsnowman00ecks/
• Anglo-Saxon poem The Menologium:
  • https://oldenglishpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/the-menologium/
• Recipes for pottage:
  • https://historydollop.com/2017/01/27/two-peasanty-pottages/
• Nutrition and the Early Medieval Diet by Kathy L Pearson
  • https://www.jstor.org/stable/2865862

Join the official WMG Discord server!! https://discord.gg/txp5E5Rd

Music used in this episode is a public domain recording of the medieval French Christmas carol "Nowell, nowell Dieu vous garde," available here: https://archive.org/details/lp_nowel-nowel-english-medieval-carols-and_richard-hickox-member-of-the-richard-hicko/disc1/02.07.+Nowell%2C+nowell+Dieu+vous+garde+(Carol).mp3

This week, we're getting in our medieval spaceship and travelling through the medieval cosmos to find out just what medieval people thought about all of that space. We'll discuss some correct ideas they had, plenty of incorrect ones, and also how to use medieval astrology to make sure your medieval horse is in peak physical condition.

For more on some of what we discuss, check out:

• The Stars and Human Sexuality: Some Medieval Scientific Views by Helen Lemay
• https://www.jstor.org/stable/230317
• Robert Grosseteste on Light, Truth and "Experimentum" by Simon Oliver
• https://www.jstor.org/stable/41963724
• Foretelling the Future: Arabic Astrology and English Medicine in the Late Twelfth Century by Roger French
• https://www.jstor.org/stable/235980

Make sure to join the Weird Medieval Guys official Discord server! https://discord.gg/ZwHz5JDKky

Here's a rhetorical question: do you love your pet? Of course you do, but did you know that medieval people did too? The only difference is, these pets had jobs!

In this episode, Olivia and Aran delve into the wacky world of medieval cats and dogs, to explore what contemporary people wrote about them. Spoiler alert: they thought they were cool little guys.

Also discussed: the official WMG dogs Bonnie and Bizzy; whether medieval hunting is like football, and if they had Mormons in late-antique Arabia.

Further Reading:

Carole Rawcliffe, "Town Tykes and Butchers Hounds" https://www.jstor.org/stable/26630015?read-now=1&seq=18#page_scan_tab_contents

Peter Konieczny, "Why cats were hated in medieval Europe" https://www.medievalists.net/2023/05/cats-hated-medieval-europe/#:%7E:text=Cats%20in%20medieval%20Europe%20mostly,this%20view%20of%20felines%20emerged

Edward, Duke of York, "The Master of Game": https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43452/43452-h/43452-h.htm

Some lady called "'Olivia Swarthout' (never heard of her): "Medieval Muslims loved their cats so much" https://weirdmedievalguys.substack.com/p/medieval-muslims-were-so-much-nicer

The Laws of Hywel Dda: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Laws_of_Howel_the_Good

Join the official Weird Medieval Guys Discord: https://discord.gg/ZwHz5JDKky

Oh my god the Weird Medieval Guys Podcast™ has gone cottagecore!

You know what clothes are, you love wearing clothes. But someone has to make them, and in the Middle Ages, they didn't have industrial-scale fast fashion sweatshops. So who made them then? Well, sit back and enjoy as Olivia spins a yarn about the medieval textile industry. It's got everything you want in a Weird Medieval Guys Podcast™ episode: gender! industrial relations! dismemberment! Ewe won't want to miss this one...

Don’t forget to join the Weird Medieval Guys discord server!

https://discord.gg/ZwHz5JDKky

Infernal covenants, black sabbaths and missing infants; dark deeds are afoot in the forests of medieval Europe... or are they?

It's a Halloween Spooktacular! When the Devil transforms Joe Mason into an angry amphibian, Olivia and Aran must venture deep into the woods* to find a witch who can restore his humanity. But first, they have to figure out what medieval people actually believed about witches. Spoiler alert: it's not what you think! Along the way, we'll meet magical detectives, pious necromancers, and a lot of people who need to stop laundering their sexual hangups as academia.

Also discussed: caked-up frogs, the historical accuracy of Warhammer 40,000, and which Better Call Saul character is most like the Devil.

JOIN THE WEIRD MEDIEVAL GUYS DISCORD TODAY: https://discord.gg/ZwHz5JDKky

*The events of this podcast are legally distinct from any and all seasonal miniseries' produced for Cartoon Network.

Olivia and Aran are back with another zinger as they begin to start to somewhat unpack some of the absolutely insane customs and beliefs that made up the Norse pagan world view!

Check out Snorri Sturlson's Prose Edda here:https://sacred-texts.com/neu/pre/index.htm

And join the official WMG discord here: https://discord.gg/ZwHz5JDKky

The music used in this episode is from Ísmús, an online Icelandic song and culture archive. The intro song, Óðinn gramur ása reið, can be found here: https://www.ismus.is/tjodfraedi/hljodrit/1031872

Subsequent musical segments are from Alþingisrímur: Nú skal byrja braginn á, which can be found here:https://ismus.is/tjodfraedi/hljodrit/1000209

In the mid-12th century, a mysterious letter was circulating the courts of Christian Europe. Its supposed author was Prester John, a powerful, immortal Christian king who purported to rule a fantastical empire in India.

Prester John was never real. But who wrote the letter and why? And why did Europeans spend centuries searching for him despite abundant evidence that the whole story was nonsense?

To answer these questions, Olivia and Aran will set out on a globe-trotting adventure, from the yurt-strewn steppe of Central Asia, to Italy’s city-republics, the highlands of East Africa, and even further afield. Along the way they’ll meet befuddled Ethiopian diplomats, fearsome warrior-khans, and maybe even the real Prester John himself…

Also discussed: Olivia’s love of big cans, the things you learn at Unitarian Universalist Sunday school, and why we can’t have cat-sized elephant friends.

Further reading:

The Letter of Prester John: http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/presterjohn.html

Devin DeWeese, "The Influence of the Mongols on the Religious Consciousness of Thirteenth-century Europe." https://www.jstor.org/stable/43193054

Matteo Salvatore, "The Ethiopian Age of Exploration: Prester John's Discovery of Europe, 1306-1458." https://www.jstor.org/stable/41060852

Marianne O'Doherty, "Imperial Fantasies: Imagining Christian empire in three fourteenth-century versions of the Book of John Mandeville." https://www.jstor.org/stable/26396423?read-now=1&seq=3#page_scan_tab_contents

Karl F. Helliner, "Prester John's Letter: a Medieval Utopia." https://www.jstor.org/stable/1086970?read-now=1&seq=10#page_scan_tab_contents

Samantha Kelly: "Ewosṭateans at the Council of Florence (1441): Diplomatic Implications between Ethiopia, Europe, Jerusalem and Cairo." https://journals.openedition.org/afriques/1858#:~:text=The%20Council%20of%20Florence%20must,vociferous%20opponents%2C%20the%20Coptic%20patriarchs.

Unfortunately, Aran and Olivia are still recovering from one heck of a summer! Regular WMG pod episodes will resume in two weeks' time. In the interim, please enjoy another dump of outtakes that we have pieced together in order to give you all a glimpse into the depths of your two hosts' sick, twisted minds.....

Several weeks after Joan of Arc led the battle to lift the siege at Orleans, she was already famous across Europe. However, it was perhaps how her story ended that cemented her status as a hero of worldwide and eternal renown.

Our series on the Hundred Years' War concludes here, with a final episode about Joan of Arc's capture, trial, fate, and legacy....

As we continue our series on the Hundred Years' War, Armagnac cause has never seemed so hopeless. An Englishman sits on the French throne, the Scottish army has been crushed, and now the Armagnac stronghold of Orléans is about to fall.

That is, until the emergence of the most unlikely hero: a charismatic peasant girl, who claims to speak to angels.

In this episode, we chart the rise of Joan of Arc, from a normal working-class life in north-west France, to the self-appointed saviour of the nation.

For more information on what we discuss in this episode:

• The transcript of the trial of Joan of Arc:
  • https://saint-joan-of-arc.com/trial-condemnation.htm
• Joan of Arc and Female Mysticism
  • https://www.jstor.org/stable/25002016

Music used in this episode:

https://archive.org/details/arn-36554-lart-du-luth-au-moyen-age-guy-robert-et-lensemble-perceval/ARN+36554%E2%80%A2f1.wav

Our series on the Hundred Years' War continues with a deep dive into the events of the conflict and the consequences of a century of violence and death across Europe. Join Olivia and Aran as they discuss how the Black Death, rapid military and social developments, and a million succession crises almost brought France to the brink of defeat by the English. Until, somewhere in northeastern France, in a sleepy village called Domrémy, a young woman begins to have visions....

Join us in two weeks' time as we continue the series by giving you a proper introduction to Joan of Arc and her exploits! Until then, enjoy the show.

For more on some of what we discuss, check out:

• The transcript of the trial of Joan of Arc:
  • https://saint-joan-of-arc.com/trial-condemnation.htm
• The Social Impact of the Hundred Years War on the Societies of England and France
  • https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1116&context=honorstheses
• Gunpowder Weaponry and the Rise of the Early Modern State
  • https://www.jstor.org/stable/26004330
• Joan of Arc and Female Mysticism
  • https://www.jstor.org/stable/25002016

Music used in this episode:

https://archive.org/details/ld-100-en-retrouvant-le-moyen-age-charles-ravier/LD+100%E2%80%A2f1.wav

https://archive.org/details/arn-36554-lart-du-luth-au-moyen-age-guy-robert-et-lensemble-perceval/ARN+36554%E2%80%A2f1.wav

And be sure to join the official WMG Discord server!!

https://discord.gg/S6tdHCDq