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This is the second half of a two-part series about the legendary medieval outlaw Robin Hood. In the first episode, my co-host Dr. Jennifer Paxton and I discussed the evidence for a historical basis for the legend. In this one, we look at how Robin Hood has been portrayed in film and television from the silent era to the present--and how each generation has gotten (in Jenny's words) "the Robin Hood that you need in your particular time."

Because there are so many films and television shows featuring Robin Hood, Jenny and I had to be very selective.  From the fifty films and eight episodes we chose the best, the most influential--and the worst. We consider them as entertainments, but because we are historians, we also discuss how the film makers and show runners dealt with the Middle Ages.  I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it.

This episode includes sound clips from:
"The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938), including Erich Korngold's magnificent musical score for that movie
"The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962)
"Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves" (1991)
"Oo-De-Lally," composed and sung by Roger Miller, from Walt Disney's Robin Hood (1973)
The television show "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1955-9): exit theme by Carl Sigman, sung by Dick James

The podcast's intro music is composed by the talented and generous Alexander Nakarada (https://alexandernakarada.bandcamp.com/album/collection-celtic-medieval).

If you are enjoying "'Tis But A Scratch: Fact & Fiction About the Middle Ages," please let friends, family, and students know about the podcast. Subscribing to the podcast doesn't cost anything and you will get a notification when a new episode is released. If you have the time and inclination, write a review. High ratings and good reviews will help new listeners find us.

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Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada

If you have questions, feel free to contact me at [email protected]

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In this episode Richard and Dr. Jennifer Paxton of The Catholic University of America   search for a historical Robin Hood and explore the medieval and Tudor stories about the heroic outlaw and his band of merry men. This is the first of a two-part series.  The follow on episode will be on Robin Hood in movies and television.

Credits
The podcast's intro and exit music is composed by the talented and generous Alexander Nakarada (https://alexandernakarada.bandcamp.com/album/collection-celtic-medieval).
The opening to the folksong "Lord Randall, My Son" is by Ewan MacColl from his album, "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Child Ballads)"  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0dRGi4rx0c)
The modern English translation of "A Geste of Robin Hood" is by Robin Landis Frank (https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~ohlgren/gesttrans.html)

Listen on Podurama   https://podurama.com                                                                    

Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada

If you have questions, feel free to contact me at [email protected]

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In this episode Richard and his special guest and co-host Dr. Christine Senecal of Shippensburg University discuss the 2022 Viking movie "The Northman."  Director and co-screenplay writer Robert Eggers' avowed goal in making this movie was to recreate the material and mental world of the Vikings. Please join Richard and Chrissie as they assess how well he succeeded in accomplishing this.

[My apologies to the 110 listeners who have already downloaded this, but I added five more minutes toward the end to cover some historical points that I left out in our discussion of the movie "The Northman." A transcript of the missing material is posted in the transcript section. ]

This episode includes sound clips from the movies "The Vikings" (1958) and "The Northman." The composer of "The Vikings" theme music is Mario Nascimbe. The composers of "The Northman" music are Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough.  Alexander Nakarada composed the podcast's intro and exit music.

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Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada

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In this episode, Richard and Ellen discuss who and what vikings were historically, and how they were depicted in the Middle Ages and modern times. The episode focuses upon the first century of the Viking Age, roughly from the late eighth to the early tenth century. 

(This episode marks the first anniversary of 'Tis But A Scratch: Fact and Fiction About the Middle Ages.  Ellen and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you, our listeners. If you are enjoying the podcast, please let friends, family, and (if you are a teacher) students know about it. And if you are listening on one of the platforms that rates and reviews podcasts, like Apple, please take the time to rate us. It is a great way of spreading the word. I should also add my sincere apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein and to all French speakers for butchering the pronunciation of the names of French towns.)

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Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada

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This is a short end of the year episode.  It's exactly what the title says, just some thoughts about the role of Hanukkah in contemporary America and the Middle Ages. Happy Holidays from Ellen and me to you and yours!

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Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada

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Few English kings have had a worse popular reputation than Æthelred the Unready (r.978-1016), the king who lost England (at least temporarily) to viking invaders. But does he deserve that reputation?  Was King Æthelred really "unready"?  My co-host for this episode is the person most qualified to answer that question, Dr. Levy Roach of the University of Exeter in the U.K, author of Æthelred the Unready (Yale University Press, 2016).  Please join Levy and me as we explore the troubled reign of a much maligned king.

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Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada

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In this episode Ellen and I discuss three "wicked" medieval women and the monastic authors who loathed them.  We begin with the Anglo-Saxon Queen Ælfthryth, a champion of the Tenth-Century Benedictine Reform movement in England,  who appears in the twelfth-century Liber Eliensis as a lascivious witch responsible for the murders of her stepson King Edward the Martyr and Byrhtnoth, the first abbot of Ely.  We then turn to an early twelfth-century French countess, Sibyl of Porcien, a lascivious beauty whose adultery, according to Abbot Guibert of Nogent, caused a war between her first and second husbands, and who plotted the ruin and death of her stepson. We conclude with a late eleventh-century Norman female robber baron, Mabel of Belleme as she appears in Orderic Vitalis's Ecclesiastical History.  In each case, Ellen and I discuss whether these women deserve their notoriety, and consider why the monks who told their stories portrayed them as wicked.  The larger issue in this episode is, of course, medieval misogyny. 

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Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada

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Today’s episode concludes our three part series about King Arthur in history, legend, and popular culture.   Our jumping off point for this episode is Sir Thomas Malory’s late fifteenth-century Le Morte D’Arthur, the work most responsible for the popular conception of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.  We then trace how the legend has been repeatedly reinterpreted down to the present day in literature, films, comics, and even video games. 

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Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada

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In this episode Ellen and I with the help of my longtime friend and colleague Dr. Jennifer Paxton of the Catholic University of America trace the development of the Arthurian legend during the Middle Ages, as Arthur was transformed from the chieftain of Welsh stories into the exemplar of medieval French and English chivalry.

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Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada

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This episode features a guest co-host, my old friend and colleague Dr. Jennifer Paxton, director of the Honors Program at The Catholic University of America and one of the best historians of medieval Britain. Jenny, Ellen, and I examine the evidence for a historical Arthur in the aftermath of the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the fifth century. We begin with the historical context, the "Fall of Roman Britain" and the coming of Germanic mercenaries and migrants to the British Isles. If Arthur existed, he would have been a military leader in the Romano-British resistance to the conquest of England by these newcomers from northern Germany and Jutland. The big question here is "if he existed."

Listen on Podurama   https://podurama.com                                                                    

Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada

If you have questions, feel free to contact me at [email protected]