Medieval Death Trip

In Part 3 of Kormak's Saga, we complete the story of Holmgang Bersi and introduce a new rival for Steingerd's affections. There's also a magical sea beast, more slanderous poetry, and we discuss Norse names.

Today's Text:

The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald. Translated by W.G. Collingwood and J. Stefansson. Viking Club Translation Series, no. 1., Wm Holmes, Ltd., 1902. Google Books.

Kormáks saga. Icelandic Saga Database, edited by Sveinbjörn Þórðarson, 2007. https://www.sagadb.org/kormaks_saga.is.

Audio Credits:

"Cincinnati Kid." The Kids in the Hall, Season 2, Ep. 16, 2 April 1991. YouTube.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Directed by Peter Jackson, New Line Cinema, 2002.

The Big Lebowski. Written by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Gramercy Pictures, 1998.

"Kormak's Theme" and "Harpish Improvisations" composed and performed by Patrick Lane.

Chapters

00:00:00 Enclosure Acad Reminder

00:00:22 Introduction

00:01:19 Norse Bynames

00:09:24 New Characters with Bynames

00:18:11 Níð, Poetry. and the Law

00:23:43 Recap: The Saga So Far

00:25:16 Other Prefatory Notes

00:28:10 Text: Kormak's Saga, ch. 15-21, translated by W.G. Collingwood & Jón Stefánsson

00:57:09 Commentary

01:10:51 Riddles

01:12:22 Outro

We continue with Kormak's Saga as a new lead character is introduced, Holmgang Bersi, who soon becomes ensnared in the drama of the cursed romance of Kormak and Steingerd. We also learn the basic of Viking duelling and its weapons, and also try to get a grip on the slippery terminology of Norse magic.

Today's Text:

The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald. Translated by W.G. Collingwood and J. Stefansson. Viking Club Translation Series, no. 1., Wm Holmes, Ltd., 1902. Google Books.

Kormáks saga. Icelandic Saga Database, edited by Sveinbjorn Thordarson, 2007. https://www.sagadb.org/kormaks_saga.is.

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction

00:02:44 Holmgang

00:14:13 Shields

00:18:12 A Sword Named Skofnung

00:25:56 Other Prefatory Notes

00:30:35 Text: Kormak's Saga, ch. 7-14, translated by Collingwood & Stefánsson

01:08:00 Commentary

01:32:23 Mystery Word: níðvísa

01:34:24 Outro

We inaugurate our first "Saga Summer" a bit late this year, but starting with an early poet's saga, a tale of love and betrayal, duels and magic. This is Part 1 (of 4) of Kormak's Saga.

Today's Texts:

The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald. Translated by W.G. Collingwood and J. Stefansson. Viking Club Translation Series, no. 1., Wm Holmes, Ltd., 1902. Google Books.

Kormáks saga. Icelandic Saga Database, edited by Sveinbjorn Thordarson, 2007. https://www.sagadb.org/kormaks_saga.is.

Egil's Saga. Translated by W.C. Green, 1893. Internet Sacred Texts Archive.

Egil's Saga. Translated by Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards, Penguin, 1976.

Egil's Saga. Translated by Bernard Skudder, The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection, Penguin, 2001, pp. 3-184.

Chapters

00:00:00 Enclosure Academy Course Promo

00:00:49 Introduction

00:02:31 About sagas

00:06:31 Poets' sagas

00:12:15 Skaldic verse

00:22:07 Translating skaldic verse: Egil's Saga, verse 4

00:31:15 Immigration

00:33:42 Whales and sausages

00:35:28 Notes on the translation

00:38:18 Text: Kormak's Saga, ch. 1-6, translated by Collingwood & Stefánsson

00:59:22 Commentary

01:09:50 Skald: A Game of Viking Verse-Making

01:12:12 Riddle

01:15:37 Outro

As vacation season kicks off, we revisit 14th-century traveler Friar Odoric at the very start of his journey, as he crosses from the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf, passes through the Strait of Hormuz, and makes shore in India.

Today's Texts:

Odoric of Friuli. "The Eastern Parts of the World Described, By Friar Odoric the Bohemian, of Friuli, in the Province of Saint Anthony." In Cathay and the Way Thither, edited by Henry Yule, vol. 1, Hakluyt Society, 1866. Google Books.

"Viaggio del Beato Frate Odorico di Porto Maggiore Del Friuli." Edited by Ramusio, Delle Navigationi et Viaggi, vol. 2, Venice, Giunti, 1583. pp. 253-257. Google Books.

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction

00:19:25 Text: "The Journey of Friar Odoric" Ch. 1-5

00:33:42 Commentary

00:49:36 Mystery Word: méscola

00:53:08 Outro

We complete our look at epilepsy in the Middle Ages by considering how religion and medicine intersect in surviving medical texts and how classical learning was reintroduced by looking at the example of John of Gaddesden, possibly the model for Chaucer's Doctour of Phisik.

Today's Texts:

John of Gaddesden. "John of Gaddesden on Epilepsy." Edited by William G. Lennox, translated by Adrian P. English, Annals of Medical History, vol. 1, no. 3, May 1939, pp. 283-307. Semantic Scholar.

Origen. Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, translated by John Patrick, in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 9, edited by Allan Menzies, Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1896. New Advent, revised and edited by Kevin Knight, www.newadvent.org/fathers/1016.htm

Herbarium. In Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, translated by Thomas Cockayne, vol. 1, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1864, pp. 1-325. Archive.org.

Leech Book. Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, translated by Thomas Cockayne, vol. 2, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1864. Archive.org.

"Life of St. Winefred." Lives of the Cambro British Saints, of the Fifth and Immediate Succeeding Centuries, from Ancient Welsh & Latin MSS. in the British Museum and Elsewhere, with English Translations, an Explanatory Notes, edited and translated by W. J. Rees, Welsh MSS. Society, 1853, pp. 515-529. Google Books.

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction

00:02:34 Text: Gospel of Mark (NIV), Ch. 9:14-29

00:04:36 Commentary

00:10:12 Text: Origen, Commentary on Matthew

00:11:44 Commentary

00:13:58 Flashback to Life and Miracles of St. Winefred

00:14:41 Commentary

00:18:33 Text: Bald's Leechbook

00:19:44 Commentary

00:22:17 Text: Anglo-Saxon Herbarium, "On Asterion"

00:23:11 Commentary

00:24:03 Text: Anglo-Saxon Herbarium, "On Artemisia"

00:25:05 Commentary

00:34:28 Text: John of Gaddesden, Rosa Medicinae

00:56:59 Commentary

01:00:42 PSA: Seizure First Aid

01:04:03 Riddle

01:04:39 Outro

This episode we begin a two-part exploration into the understanding and treatment of epilepsy in the middle ages. But to get to the medieval, we have to start with its ancient antecedents, so here in Part 1, we look at texts produced by the Hippocratic school and its later followers.

Today's Texts:

Lucretius. On the Nature of Things. Translated by John Selby Watson and John Mason Good, George Bell & Sons, 1893. Internet Archive.

Wilson, J.V. Kinnier, and E. H. Reynolds, translators. "Translation and Analysis of a Cuneiform Text Forming Part of a Babylonian Treatise on Epilepsy," Medical History, vol. 34, 1990, pp. 185-198. National Center for Biotechnical Information, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1036070/

Hippocrates. "On the Sacred Disease." The Genuine Works of Hippocrates, vol. 2, translated by Francis Adams, Sydenham Society, 1849, pp. 831-858. Google Books.

Galen. "Advice for an Epileptic Boy." Translated by Owsei Temkin, Texts and Documents, reprinted from Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine, vol. 2, no. 3, May 1934, pp. 179-189. Archive.org.

Paulus Ægineta. The Medical Works of Paulus Ægineta, the Greek Physician. Vol. 1, edited and translated by Francis Adams, J. Welsh, 1834. Google Books.

Image Credits:

Babylonian tablet on epilepsy (British Museum, Tablet 47753, obverse, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Papyrus fragment of Hippocratic oath (Wellcome Collection, via Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY 4.0).

Printed engraving depicting Galen, Avicenna, and Hippocrates from a 16th-century medical book (Wikimedia Commons).

00:00:00 Introduction

00:13:53 Text: from the Babylonian Sakikku

00:15:26 Commentary

00:23:21 Text: from Hippocrates, "On the Sacred Disease"

00:34:21 Commentary

00:41:09 Text: from Galen, "Advice for an Epileptic Boy"

00:45:57 Commentary

00:50:23 Text: from Paulus Ægineta, Medical Compendium in Seven Book, Book 3

00:57:36 Commentary

00:59:06 Mystery Word: λαπακτικός

01:00:04 Outro

As a follow-up to our 2025 saint's-life generating Advent Calendar game, we hear an actual medieval saint's life and discuss how we get some of our saintly terminology. You'll also find out where you can get a downloadable version of the Advent Calendar game!

Today's Texts:

"Life of St. Winefred." Lives of the Cambro British Saints, of the Fifth and Immediate Succeeding Centuries, from Ancient Welsh & Latin MSS. in the British Museum and Elsewhere, with English Translations, an Explanatory Notes, edited and translated by W. J. Rees, Welsh MSS. Society, 1853, pp. 515-529. Google Books.

"The Miracles of St. Winifred's Well." The British Medical Journal, vol. 2, no. 1762, 13 Oct. 1894, p. 829. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20230146

The Rule of St. Benedict. Translated by D. Oswald Hunter Blair, 2nd ed., Sands & Co,m 1907. Google Books.

Music credit: "Ton y botel (Ebenezer)." Performed by the Wilkes-Barre Quartet, Victor, 1922. United States Library of Congress.

00:00:00 Introduction

00:18:01 Text: The Life and Miracles of St. Winefred

00:47:36 Commentary

00:53:55 Riddle

00:54:52 Journaling Game Now Downloadable

00:57:23 Outro

In this prelude appendix to our episode on saint's lives, we hear versions of the life of St. Valentine from three different medieval sources.

Today's Texts:

First English edition of the Nuremberg chronicle: being the Liber chronicarum of Dr. Hartmann Schedel. Edited and translated by Kosta Hadavas, U of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, 2023, https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/3SXNV3NHBQLFQ8J [used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.]

Jacobus de Voragine. "Life of S. Valentine." In The Golden Legend, or Lives of the Saints. Translated by William Caxton, edited by F.S. Ellis, vol. 3, J.M. Dent, 1900, pp. 42-45. Google Books.

Bede. Martyrologium de Natalitiis Sanctorum. In Patrologia Latina, edited by J.-P. Migne, vol. 94, col. 840A-842B, 1862. Google Books.

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction

00:07:34 The Nuremberg Chronicle's account of the 8th Persecution

00:13:57 Commentary

00:15:28 "St. Valentine" from Caxton's Translation of the Golden Legend

00:19:02 Commentary

00:19:59 from Bede's Martyrology

00:21:20 Commentary

00:23:37 Outro

As we enter the season of elves and Christmas spirits, we follow up on our fairy theme from last episode with a look at the famous 16th-century German hausgeist, Hinzelmann the Kobold -- but don't call him that to his face!

Today's Texts:

Keightley, Thomas. The Fairy Mythology. E.G. Bohn, 1850. Google Books.

Der vielförmige Hintzelmann oder umbständliche und merckwürdige Erzehlung von einem Geist, so sich auf dem Hause Hudemühlen, und hernach zu Estrup im Lande Lüneburg unter vielfältigen Gestalten. Leipzig, 1704. Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen.

Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. Deutsche Sagen. Berlin, 1816. Google Books.

00:00:00 Introduction

00:13:22 "Hinzelmann," translated by Thomas Keightley from the Brothers Grimm

00:48:03 Commentary

00:57:23 Mystery Word: kalamâr

00:58:52 2025 MDT Advent Calendar

01:02:33 Outro

For our eleventh anniversary episode, we follow the fairy path of the redcap, from recent cinema through tabletop gaming, into Victorian folklorists and Romantic balladeers, and finally hunting up their ancestry in medieval manuscripts.

Today's Texts:

"Redcap." Monster Manual III, edited by Greg Collins, John D. Rateliff, and Gary Sarli. Wizards of the Coast, 2004. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/monster-manual-iii/page/n137/mode/2up

Henderson, William. Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders. W. Satchell, Peyton, & Co., 1879. Internet Archive.

Leyden, John. "Lord Soulis." Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, vol. 2, edited by Walter Scott, James Ballantyne, 1803, pp. 353-388. Google Books.

Leland, Charles Godfrey. "Etrusco-Roman Remains in Modern Tuscan Tradition." Congrès International des Traditions Populaires, Première Session, Paris 1889, Société d'Èditions Scientifiques, 1891. Google Books.

Gervase of Tilbury. Otia imperialia: Recreation for an Emperor. Edited and translated by S.E. Banks and J.W. Binns. Clarendon Press, 2002.

Thomas of Walsingham. Historia Anglicana. Edited by Henry Thomas Riley, vol. 1, Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1863. Google Books.

Croker, Thomas Crofton. Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland. 2nd ed., John Murray, 1838. Google Books.