The British History Podcast

106 – How To Kill People And Look Great Doing It

Jamie — Mon, 20 May 2013 07:01:34 +0000

Ok, today we’re going to talk about defensive equipment. What is the point of all that training if you’re going to die right away in battle. So we’ll need a way to keep you alive and healthy for as long as possible.

As you might imagine, the shield, or bord in Old English, is a key piece of equipment in Anglo Saxon warfare. And unsurprisingly, the shield is one of the most common items of found in graves from the pagan period. Though that is probably not a surprise for you, since we’ve already discussed the most widely known Anglo Saxon battle tactic: the shieldwall. But the funny thing is that you might not be aware of how the Anglo Saxon shields actually worked.

I mean, sure, they worked by blocking an attacker. And they were made up, primarily, of lathes of hardwood with a metal or leather rim. So you probably DO understand the basic bit. But it’s common to imagine shields, especially large shields, with an arm band and a handle set off-center. Like a riot shield. And that makes sense because it gives you better leverage and control. But that’s not the way Anglo Saxon shields worked. Rather, they just had a handle in the middle.

105 – War Gear

Jamie — Mon, 13 May 2013 07:01:54 +0000

Remember the Romans? God I hope you answered yes.

So those Romans and their approach to weaponry was surprisingly utilitarian. The weapons were issued by your superiors, and then returned after use. They were a tool and nothing more. It wasn’t even like the famous speech in Full Metal Jacket. “This is my rifle. There are many others like it, but this one is mine.” Nope, it was just a weapon of war. “Here’s your gladius, Paulus. Try to stick the pointy end in that German, please.”

Now contrast that with the culture that’s growing in Britain. Your weapon isn’t just an anonymous tool. It was special. It was unique. It had a story and weorth of it’s own and was probably handed down to you from your forebears or your lord, and you were probably aware of the great deeds that were accomplished with it. Your weapon was probably quite decorated and named, and often, the name will use a combination of old english words to identify it. And I wont run you through a full vocabulary of words and their translations, but members I have put up a list of some old english words of war (and their translations) on the members section of the forums if you’re interested. And the great part about these names is the fact that they’re rather poetic and descriptive… for example, beaduleoma… which is translated to “battle-light.” It makes you think that it might have been heavily decorated with garnet and filigree, and thus it sparkled (not unlike a vampire) in battle. These weapons, at least the more elite weapons, had stories of their own. Think about it, not in terms of the sword Maximus uses in Gladiator… think about it more like Excalibur. King Arthur is important, sure. But Excalibur is an important weapon in its own right, and that extends beyond it’s use by Arthur. I mean, it even has a sexy backstory with a water goddess.

104 – The Methods of War

Jamie — Mon, 06 May 2013 19:55:27 +0000

You’re probably gathering from last week that warfare is becoming a great deal more common. We had that great early era where a lot of what we were dealing with seemed mostly like farmers occasionally getting into spats that got out of control, with a few exceptions. But now we have these Werods running around, and we have the sons of Ida fighting with their neighbors, and the southern kingdoms fighting with their neighbors…

Sure, your average anglo saxon will still be a farmer. But now the Chroniclers are telling us of more and more of these conflicts between kingdoms.

Something to keep in mind is how different life in Britain was from life on the Continent. In Frankia, it seems like outright battle was generally avoided unless there was no other option and instead raiding and other non-conventional forms of warfare were employed. But in Britain, there’s a surprisingly regular amount of battles, especially when we get fully into the Heptarchy.

103 – Ceawlin and the Sons of Ida

Jamie — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:31:20 +0000

So it’s 568. And things in what will someday become England are still chaotic. Remember what was going on up north in Bernicia? Where Ida, who was probably part of some sort of Anglian group, had taken control of Bamburgh, then he died, and then his sons started taking over for him? Well, that’s still going on. It looks like Adda is probably dead. Maybe. It’s really muddy. And like I mentioned earlier, he probably was the king who was fighting with the Brits and killed a number of their kings… maybe… But sometime around now, Adda is no longer king of Bernicia and the throne is held by his brother: Aethelric. We think.

Bernicia is so chaotic, and Ida has so many sons, and they have so many problems with their neighbors that I feel like I should have a sound effect for every time that one of the sons of Ida croaks.

[Wilhelm Scream]

102 – The Warband II: A Culture of War

Jamie — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:41:25 +0000

Last time we were speaking about Hrothgar the Hypothetical and how he became a member of the Warband, and how they were probably a group apart with their own sets of morals and codes. But there’s a few bits that weren’t included in the narrative we were weaving with young Hrothgar that I think you’ll find really interesting. Let’s tackle them!

101 – The Warband

Jamie — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 01:37:32 +0000

Ok, so last time we talked about how Aethelberht of Kent invaded the kingdom of Wessex and was pushed out by Ceawlin and his army. We don’t have a lot of facts regarding that conflict, we aren’t even told why they were fighting, but we know that they were both destined to become Bretwaldas and that in the end Aethelberht was chased back into Kent. And, presumably following this moment, Ceawlin earned the title of Bretwalda. So good for him.

But there’s a lot that goes into war beyond one king puffing up his chest and the other king saying “Come at me, bro!” Much as I wish it were that simple and comical, real war is a great deal more complex than that.

So lets start by talking about the men who would be fighting these battles. Of course, you have the kings (one of the Old English terms for these kings, by the way, was þeoden… yeah. Like theoden in the Lord of the Rings). Another fun anglo saxon term for King is Cyning. In old english, “ing” means scion. Which is why you start hearing of the sons of nobles being referred to as Aethlings… they’re the scions of nobles. But in this case, Cyning is the scion of the Cynn… which translates to the Kindred, or the family. This can be taken as either the ruling family, which would call back to that families tradition of rule, or it could be taken as the larger form of kindred… as the Cyning is the son of the people.

100 – The Q&A Episode!

Jamie — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 23:34:35 +0000

We made it to 100! How awesome is that?

99 – War. What Is It Good For?

Jamie — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:39:33 +0000

So the year is 586, and Ceawlin is the leader of the men of Wessex. Wessex has been expanding their holdings to the north and the west, and have been growing in power. Conversely, in the East are the men of Kent under the leadership of AEthelbehrt, who (we are told) has been ruling since he was 8 years old. But the dates are a bit dodgy. And now AEthelbert is 16 years old. Maybe? And he’s growing in power. We know this because Kent is growing in wealth and are of sufficiently high status for the King to be marrying the daughter of the King of Frankia. Furthermore, he is a member of the Oiscingas, the ruling family of Kent… said to have been descended from Hengest himself.

So something happened, which the scribes fail to tell us of, which resulted in invasion. AEthelberht crossed into Wessex and fought with Ceawlin and Cutha, his brother. But it didn’t go too well because we’re told that two of AEthelberht’s ealdormen were slain and he was chased back into Kent.

This is the first outbreak of war between two Anglo Saxon kingdoms, so that’s huge. It’s also a demonstration of the power of the House of Wessex. If it happened. This is, of course, the dark ages and we’re hearing about this from chroniclers who were writing long after this battle took place. Furthermore, they were probably writing to please Ceawlin’s descendant, Alfred. So talking about how his mighty ancestor chased off this famous king… this man who would become a Bretwalda… would probably have greatly pleased Alfred.

98 – In Search of Unity: A Tale of Selective Memory

Jamie — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 23:46:47 +0000

Ok, we have a battle coming up but things are still changing rather rapidly and there’s some interesting stuff to cover regarding that, such as language, religion, culture, warfare, and that question that’s probably nagging you at the back of your head… if we have wealthy powerful kings in England, why don’t we have anything resembling a Roman empire… or at least a mini Roman empire?

And besides, if I just listed what was said about the battle between Ceawlin and Aethelberht, this episode would be less than 20 seconds long. And that sucks since it was the first outbreak of violence between two Anglo Saxon kingdoms… which is huge! So today I’m going you foundational background for what’s going on in England. And hopefully, that will make things easier to understand when we get to the warfare.

97 – Bloodletting

Jamie — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 21:25:19 +0000

Ok, when we left off, Ida had become king of Bernicia and we had the beginnings of regional cultural groups. These groups were the result of a whole host of influences including everything from geographical features, to political decisions, to things as simple as wealth and a sense of cool. But the point is that we have gone from an island that saw itself as essentially Roman, to post-Roman (or sub-Roman, depending on which terminology you choose to use) where the system had broken down and (while you had communities moving to hillforts) you still had a continuation of the local culture… then we went to the early migration period where you had a blend of different cultural groupings all over the eastern part of the island, and now finally we’re getting to the point where those disparate pockets were starting to take the shape of larger communities with cultures that were distinct and separate from the sub-Roman culture as well as the cultures of the Germanic tribes where the settlers would have come from.

And within that melting pot, we’ve seen the rise of the West Saxons, with Cerdic and his son, Cynric, engaging in sporadic outbursts of violence. We have seen a massive year and a half long dust cloud from unknown origins, maybe volcanic or maybe the result of an impact from space, followed by a cold spell that lasted for about a decade. And to make matters worse, it was followed by the spread of a plague, that was probably the bubonic plague. And of course, those events occurred right around the time of the end of the so-called Gildasian peace.

96 – Saint Patrick’s Day Special

Jamie — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 07:01:11 +0000

Saint Patrick’s Day is coming up and I thought you might want to know a bit about the man (or at least the myth of the man) behind the holiday.

I hope you all have a fun and safe Saint Patrick’s Day!

95 – It’s Only Natural

Jamie — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:05:50 +0000

Ok, so I’m going to wrap up the discussion of the development of regional cultures with a talk on an omnipresent (yet often ignored) influence on all of human development. This subject is often ignored in most disciplines, and it is definitely undervalued (unfairly) in many treatises on history. I speak, of course, of Nature.

Sure, you can push back against the forests with the axe and the plough. You can create farmland and settlements. You can eliminate local vegetation and create grazing lands for your herds. But the environment is there… waiting… and will come racing right back to retake it the second that you let your guard down.

In the Roman period we saw some fair extensive economic exploitation of the environment, with roads, large industrialized farmlands, Roman style towns, quarries, mines, and all manner of necessities for Roman life. The land, which was already transformed into an agrarian landscape under the Celts and the prehistoric britons, had pushed even farther towards the human end of the spectrum.

94 – Cliques: How the In Crowd Created Our Culture

Jamie — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:22:18 +0000

Ok, when we last left off, we were talking about a new class of elites in sub-roman Britain. A group of individuals we identify as anglo saxons and kings, and we also mentioned the class of nobles that was growing up around them. We also talked about how that change, the increase in social stratification, might have come about.

This week, we are going to talk about the impact that the stratification would have had on the culture that was growing in Eastern Britain. And as a way of opening this discussion, I thought we could talk about what we’ve been speaking about on Facebook.

I posed to the community a question that I was certain would result in a pretty large debate. Essentially, “do the wealthy members of our society have a disproportionately large impact on our culture, relative to their numbers?”

To my surprise, there wasn’t much debate. A lot of people responded, but the vast majority of them seemed to agree that yes, the wealthy have a disproportionate impact.

Now naturally, I agreed… but I’m a dirty Portland hippy so of course I think that the cultural influence of the wealthy is supersized. What surprised me, though, was the level of broad agreement from people from all over the place.

93 – Developing Class

Jamie — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 03:40:22 +0000

Today we start with a death.

Wihtgar, brother of beloved Stuff, warrior, conqueror of Cerdic’s-Ore, and ruler of the Isle of Wight died in 544.

Or did he?

There’s a funny thing about dying. You have to be alive first. And there’s an argument that Wihtgar might be a mythical character and was created after the fact to establish a ruling dynasty for the Wihtwara, the Men of Wight. It’s something that we might never know for certain.

But at least according to the Chronicle, Wihtgar died. Presumably someone took over… maybe it was Stuff? Maybe Wihtgar had some kids? Or maybe it went to someone else. We can’t be sure because the rulers of Wight are left unmentioned for over 100 years following Wihtgar.

And while extreme longevity is quite unlikely, I like the idea that the entire period was filled by Stuff. So that’s what’s going on in the far south. Stuff. But largely unknown stuff.

92 – Cerdic and Cynric: A Story of… well… Probably Farmers

Jamie — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 19:56:07 +0000

Alright, so when we left off, Cerdic and his son had recently arrived on the island and the Battle of Mons Badonicus had just taken place. So that’s exciting. And Gildas says that it was followed by peace, and procopius tells us that Germans were fleeing from Britannia as late as about 30 years later. And from the archaeological record, and the scattered references in written texts, it doesn’t seem like there were a lot of military warbands invading… but rather, as we will discuss in this episode, this looks more like farmers who were migrating. And this might have been happening for quite some time, since we’re told the Saxons had been landing on British shores for at least 100 years.

And actually, when we look at the written record, it seems like, even though Gildas claimed that the period after Mons Badonicus was peaceful, that things were going on. So lets go to the point after Mons Badonicus and talk about what we’re told was happening.

91 – When Neighbors Attack: A Story of “Kings”

Jamie — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 02:13:40 +0000

Right, so here we are right in the middle of all the drama and bloodshed that has been called the Anglo Saxon invasion. We have famous names such as Hengest and Aelle showing up.

And most everyone who is interested in this story is probably already familiar with the story of how (following the issue with Hengest and Vortigern) you had warlords like Aelle and Cerdic showing up and parcelling out the land. The north was taken by the Angles, the South was mostly taken by the Saxons, and then the Jutes took a little bit in the south as well.

But the thing about this story, the thing that makes telling it really difficult, is that there’s a not insignificant chance that it’s utter bollocks.

So what do we know? Well, we know that Gildas, Bede, and others have told stories about invasion. We know that at one point most of the Britons in the area were speaking Latin and some sort of Brythonic language, and it didn’t take too long before they were speaking Old English (which is a Germanic language… which comes from the same group of peoples that we’re told invaded). We know that Christianity, which was present in the lands that would become England, largely died out and paganism (which still held on in the homelands of the Anglo Saxons) became resurgent.

90 – And This Gives You Power Over Me?

Jamie — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:41:18 +0000

Today we have murder, battles, ransacking, booze, greed, and shame. No, it’s not an episode of The Tudors… it’s a return to the political story of Britain in the post-Roman period.

89 – Staffordshire Hoard: Wrapping Up with Kevin Leahy

Jamie — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:55:18 +0000

Today we’re wrapping up the Staffordshire Hoard project. We have been given an amazing amount of depth and detail thanks to the wonderful experts who took the time to talk with us. And today, we’re going to hear from Dr. Kevin Leahy. You might have read his scholarly articles or his books, some of which are about the Hoard itself. Dr. Leahy is an incredible resource and is an excellent way for us to wrap up this project.

The Staffordshire Hoard: www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk
The Potteries Museum: www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag
The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: www.bmag.org.uk

88 – Staffordshire Hoard: Psychopathic Peacocks with David Symons

Jamie — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 23:25:30 +0000

Today we’re going to learn more about the context and the craftsmanship of the Hoard. I think this will help shed some light on what makes this find so special, and also help you understand the sort of research that’s going into it and the number of mysteries it is revealing!

The Staffordshire Hoard: www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk
The Potteries Museum: www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag
The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: www.bmag.org.uk

87 – Staffordshire Hoard: Interpretation with Cathy Shingler

Jamie — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 03:15:31 +0000

Today we have more from Cathy Shingler! Now that we’ve heard about the discovery of the Hoard and how it has been excavated and preserved, we’re going to talk a bit about how it is being interpreted. And Cathy has quite a lot of fascinating theories to share with us regarding the objects that have been found!

The Staffordshire Hoard: www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk
The Potteries Museum: www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag
The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: www.bmag.org.uk

86 – Staffordshire Hoard: Conservation with Deborah Cane

Jamie — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 01:35:08 +0000

Today we’re chatting with Deborah Cane about how the Hoard is being preserved for future generations. Some of this stuff is cutting edge work. I hope you’re as fascinated by it as I was.

The Staffordshire Hoard: www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk
The Potteries Museum: www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag
The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: www.bmag.org.uk

Photographs Of The Delicate Brooch

Jamie — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 19:55:46 +0000

Over on the Members Feed there’s an interview with Deb regarding a small Brooch that was found. Here are the accompanying photographs for you to look at while you listen to the episode! Just click on the photographs to get a larger version!

85 – Staffordshire Hoard: A Bonus Update on the New Find

Jamie — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 02:45:26 +0000

Deb Klemperer took the time to chat with us via telephone today regarding the treasury inquest that focused on the 81 new objects that were found and added to the hoard including a new cross and what looks like a “cheek piece” that matches the one originally found! Also, for my money, the most exciting bit revolves around the new copper alloy stuff found and the ideas that they’re generating!

The Staffordshire Hoard: www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk
The Potteries Museum: www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag
The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: www.bmag.org.uk

84 – Staffordshire Hoard: Deb Klemperer on the Dig

Jamie — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 19:52:02 +0000

I love the way Deb Klemperer tells stories, so today we’re going to hear more from Deb on the Hoard. As you might recall from the last episode, she is the head curator at The Potteries Museum at Stoke-on-Trent. She has quite a lot to share with us on what was going on, and some rather interesting side notes (such as the involvement of the Army!)

The Staffordshire Hoard: www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk
The Potteries Museum: www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag
The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: www.bmag.org.uk

83 – Staffordshire Hoard: Receiving the Hoard

Jamie — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 02:32:46 +0000

Today’s episode features Deb Klemperer, the head curator at The Potteries Museum at Stoke-on-Trent. We will be discussing the museum side of the Hoard, theories on the objects, and what it was like to be at the center of one of the biggest events in Anglo Saxon archaeology!

The Staffordshire Hoard: www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk
The Potteries Museum: www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag
The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: www.bmag.org.uk

82 – Merry Christmas (plus listener email)

Jamie — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 18:01:04 +0000

I just wanted to record a short episode today to thank all of you (and also respond to some listener email).

Thank you very much, everyone! And Merry Christmas!

81 – Staffordshire Hoard: The Dig

Jamie — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 02:28:04 +0000

Today’s episode features Stephen Dean, the principle archaeologist of the Staffordshire County Council. We will be discussing all things related to the first dig. And then, once the inquest is over in the new year, he will return and fill us in on the findings from the newest covert Staffordshire dig!

The Staffordshire Hoard: www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk
The Potteries Museum: www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag
The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: www.bmag.org.uk

Bonus Episode – King Arthur Part One

Jamie — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:37:58 +0000

We’ve reached 3,000 likes on facebook! So as promised, here’s a bonus member’s only episode. This time, I’m releasing an episode looking into the potential beginnings of the Arthurian myth. I hope you like it!

80 – Staffordshire Hoard: Rise Up O Lord

Jamie — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 23:15:17 +0000

Today’s episode features Cathy Shingler, of The Potteries Museum in Stoke on Trent. She will be discussing with us the iconic band, possibly from a cross, with Latin inscriptions along both sides of it. We will also speak about the cultural significance of the materials used in many of the objects found in the Hoard, as well as a discussion regarding a rather intriguing Anglo Saxon god. I hope you like it!

Below you’ll see a few photographs of the golden strip we’re discussing as well as links to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, the Potteries Museum in Stoke on Trent, and the site dedicated to The Staffordshire Hoard.

The Staffordshire Hoard: www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk
The Potteries Museum: www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag
The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: www.bmag.org.uk

79 – Staffordshire Hoard: Introduction

Jamie — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 17:50:16 +0000

Today we are beginning our project on the Staffordshire Hoard. We will be featuring interviews from major figures within the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, The Potteries Museum in Stoke on Trent, and with the Staffordshire County Council.

The Staffordshire Hoard: www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk
The Potteries Museum: www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag
The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: www.bmag.org.uk

It’s July 5, 2009, and veteran metal detectorist Terry Herbert is methodically pacing through the field near Hammerwich village in Staffordshire, just a short walk from the old Roman road now known as Watling Street. He slowly swung his metal detector in front of him as made his way through the field. This wasn’t Terry’s first trip to the field. Only a week earlier he had visited the site and found nothing of worth despite spending half the day combing through the farmland. But this time was different. It was only 15 minutes until his metal detector gave off a familiar beep. There, hidden underneath mere plough soil, was a bit of twisted metal. At first he thought it was brass, but upon closer inspection, Terry realized he was holding gold. And he couldn’t have known this at the time, but this was gold that hadn’t been touched by anyone for approximately 1,400 years. He moved a little further down and his metal detector went off again, and again, and again. And with each beep, more gold and garnet objects were being unearthed. Things continued in this way until about 3pm, at which point Terry decided to show the landowner, Fred Johnson, what he had managed to discover.

78 – Cutting and Casting

Jamie — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:11:23 +0000

I’m back! I really missed this. In fact, this music doesn’t really capture how pleased I am to be recording again.

Now I know I’ve been gone for a bit. You might recall that I was over in the UK doing interviews and also meeting some pretty fantastic listeners. Well, that’s finished for now and over the next few weeks you’ll be hearing from the various experts I’ve been speaking to but for right now I think we need to bring to a close the saga of Unferth and his incredible collection of maladies.

And lets open up with a comment from Listener Claudia. You might recall the use of breast milk to cure Unferth’s eye troubles from the last episode? Well, Claudia says that using breast milk to treat your child’s conjunctivitis is common advice in New Zealand to this day. So some of these cures we’ve been speaking about live on.

Now in order to wrap up this discussion on medicine in a single episode, we’ll need to make this something of a catch all episode. We’re are going to cover surgery, magical cures, issues of contraception and family planning, and childbirthing. It’s going to be a busy one! So lets do this!

So surgery… Much of western medicine, I think many of you will agree, has been surgery focused. “Is something wrong with you? If so, can we cut if off? Then why are we still talking? Hand me my scalpel.”

77 – Unferth the Unhealthy

Jamie — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 21:31:58 +0000

Ok, so last week we chatted a bit about treatments. And from the comments that I’ve received, it seems like many of you were quite interested in the treatments and wanted to hear some more. And frankly, I had fun putting it together. So lets talk about some more.

Lets begin with trauma since there would have been a fair amount of that in Anglo Saxon britain.

If Unferth was in a fight and received a cut that went down into the senews and severed them (and lets face it, this was probably not an uncommon event)… Bald’s leechbook suggests that the physician pound some earthworms and then put them on Unferth’s open wound. Yep. Ground up earthworms. I suppose he should just be happy it isn’t the powdered fresh horse dung from last week.

But it really makes you wonder who thought worms were a good idea and why, after it undoubtedly failed on numerous occasions, they kept doing it and wrote it down.

76 – Anglo Saxon Cures: Bloody Hell

Jamie — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:34:04 +0000

Ok, so last week we spoke about medicine, but largely on the theory of practice, training, and who was involved. It was all a bit high brow and might have sounded rather impressive.

Especially when I pointed out that with Bald’s Leechbook, people in England had the potential of having state of the art medicine for the time.

Think of it. State of the art medicine! That sounds pretty good, right?

Well, now that I have you all excited about the status of English medical knowledge, I’m going to break your hearts by talking about what this medicine actually looked like and remind you that state of the art is relative.

75 – England Meetups and Award Nominations

Jamie — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 17:23:04 +0000

You should come to The Black Swan Inn in York on November 25 at 5pm to meet up with me and Jamie Redfern of A History of Hannibal!

You should also come to The George Inn in London on December 1st at 5pm to meet up with me and Roifield Brown of How Jamaica Conquered the World.

It’ll be fun!

74 – Leeches and Leechbooks

Jamie — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 02:50:11 +0000

Ok, so Anglo Saxon medicine. Before you fans of kings and war hit skip, consider this. Who are you most looking forward to hearing about from this era? If you’re all about kings, my guess is you’re excited to hear about Alfred the Great. Did you know he was sickly? Like… really sickly. There are a variety of theories of what he might have had, but what we can be sure of is that he was forced to avail himself of all that Anglo Saxon medicine had to offer… so aren’t you curious about what he had to deal with? I know I am!

Alright, to start with, if there’s medicine, and we know there was, then there must have been practitioners. But what did that look like? Who were these people and how did they get that position? In the US you have to have a 4 year degree, then go to medical school, then get through residency, pass exams, get licensed, etc etc. There are plenty of hoops to ensure that a doctor has the minimum required knowledge in his or her area of practice. And so we can be reasonably sure that doctors know what a spleen does, are familiar with osmosis, and hopefully know a great deal more than that too. And in large part that assurance is the result of the regulations that force potential doctors to overcome certain hurdles and enforce a certain level of uniformity in medical practice.

73 – The Return of the Kings

Jamie — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 18:36:12 +0000

They’re coming…

72 – The Halloween Special

Jamie — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 08:00:17 +0000

As you might imagine since I’m doing an episode on it, Halloween has a lot of British influence upon it. In fact, the name itself comes from Scotland, where All Saint’s Eve (also known as All Hallow’s Eve) was shortened in the 16th century to Halloween. And the name stuck. But as you have probably gathered, originally the day was simply the day before All Saint’s Day (also known as All Hallows or Hallowmas). And this might come as a shock to you, but All Saint’s Day was the day in which early Christians commemorated all their saints… and it is still practiced today.

But how did the day before All Saint’s Day become such a big holiday? And what’s with the costumes, candy, and jack-o-lanterns?

71 – Anglo Saxon Health

Jamie — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 22:54:49 +0000

The oldest medical text is a clay tablet from Ur from about 4000 years ago. The Kahun papyrus was written in Egypt about 150 years later. There are writings of Hippocrates of Co from about 400 BCE. And then there was Greek and latin medical texts, and those flourished, and the result is that we have a pretty good idea of what medical thinking was like in the mediterranean from an early date.

But what about the other cultures? Well, prior to around 1100 CE, there isn’t much north of the Alps. Well, there isn’t much for all the cultures except for one. The Anglo Saxons. They wrote texts on medicine in both their native language as well as latin in the tenth century and beyond, and we have quite a few that have survived! That alone should tell you how important medicine was to these people. We have lost many manuscripts over the years, so to have over a thousand pages of medical matters written in Old English, and considering how difficult it would have been to produce those texts and preserve them, it shows how serious the business of medicine was to these people.

And here’s the kicker, scholars argue that the older copies have been lost and that the Anglo Saxons had been writing medical texts in their native language since an earlier time.

Project History Cage Match – Episode 2 (Rome: Overrated?)

Jamie — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 03:24:55 +0000

Ok, it’s time for another Project History Cage match!

For centuries scholars have looked to Rome as a shining beacon of antiquity. This point of view has become so prevalent that even in pop culture Rome is treated as the pinnacle of the ancient world.

But was it? That will be the subject for today’s cage match.

Rome: Overrated?

Roifield Brown of How Jamaica Conquered the World
Zack Twamley of When Diplomacy Fails
Jordan Harbour of Twilight Histories
Jamie Redfern of a History of Hannibal and a History of Alexander
Ray Harris of A History of World War Two
And me, Jamie Jeffers (aka Attila the Bum, aka Brennus the Menace, aka Alaric the something that rhymes with Alaric), of The British History Podcast.

70 – A Tale of Three Cities (sort of)

Jamie — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:16:40 +0000

Ok, we’ve been getting pretty deep into the weeds and have been getting farther and farther from a coherent story. On the one hand, the culture is the story, but on the other hand it’s hard to get attached to a story if you forget who we are talking about and the people involved. So I thought that now would be a good time to tell a story about a community that was living in the early post-Roman era. After all, I’ve been spending a lot of time telling you how things weren’t as bad as you imagine so I might have given you the impression things were fine. They weren’t. Especially in the early parts, people were sickly, their lives were bleak, and it was a scary and violent time to be alive. That isn’t to say that people in the Roman era, especially the poor, were healthy and happy… it looks like they were also in pretty dire straights when compared to their Iron Age kin. But I think it’s important to put some of this stuff into context and remember that, while things weren’t necessarily as awful and culturally devoid as people might imagine, things were still pretty rough. Especially in the early parts.

Also, you can nominate us for Best Educational Podcast at www.podcastawards.com.

69 – The Staffordshire Hoard and BHP meetups!

Jamie — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 00:00:46 +0000

There’s a really good chance that I’ll be in the UK in November to interview experts on the Staffordshire Hoard! If it happens, I’d love to meet up with you. We’re currently looking at setting up meet and greets in London and Birmingham (and maybe York) as well as a group viewing of the Hoard. So if you’re interested, could you please contact me and let me know so I can gauge interest?

Thanks!

68 – Telling the Full Story (a Bonus Episode)

Jamie — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 21:54:06 +0000

So I’m doing a short midweek episode because something’s been irking me. I’ve heard repeatedly from a variety of people that history is a guy thing. And that’s f#*king stupid. I mean, you could say that just on sheer mathematics, 51% of history is a female thing. But that’s not the truth of it. The truth is that history is a human thing. These are everyone’s stories and while there were a ridiculous number of biased primary sources who focused on almost exclusively on men, it is our job to rise above those sources because if you are ignoring over half of the population you are ignoring the majority of our shared history. But unfortunately, many historians and narrators don’t rise above it. The easy path is to just speak about the men of society because the great man approach has been a historical trope since at least the Roman era. But it’s incomplete.

Besides, everyone listening to this episode has female ancestors. Aren’t you curious about them? Don’t you wonder how they lived? Even if it’s during the periods of history where women were relegated to the domestic sphere, doesn’t it pique your interest? I mean, even if you only want to know about kings… those powerful kings were involved in a homelife when they came home.

So how can you truly understand them as people if you cut out all this other material?

And the worst part about ignoring women in history, whether they are powerful war leaders like Boudicca, politically savvy manipulators like Eleanor, or just the simple crofter’s wife, when you ignore these people, you are disenfranchising an entire segment of the population.

When you say history is a guy thing, people hear it. People read it. And maybe the next Gibbon or the next Salway is hearing those comments, and maybe she’ll decide that she’s unwelcome in the field and seek out another area of study instead. So this stuff does damage to us all.

But it doesn’t need the be so blatant, simply telling these stories and acting like men are the only people who did anything and their stories are the only ones that matter has the effect of isolating people from history.

And we can see its effect play out in front of us… on Facebook we have thousands of listeners, but there’s a 20% split between men and women. That’s crazy! There might be mitigating factors that lead to this split, but it might also be the result of this bias of history being just for men.

So we need to tell the whole story. It’s not the easy thing to do, these stories are buried and hidden and in many cases just outright lost. But we need to do what we can to find them, because to do anything else it is, at best, lazy, and at worst dangerous.

And besides, these stories are great! And with that in mind, here is an early episode I did on a few prominent women in Celtic history for the members.

67 – Anglo Saxon Construction

Jamie — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 23:12:32 +0000

OK, So I had requests for an episode on construction. I actually had a surprising number of requests for it, actually. So we’re going to do a single episode on how things were built, and since we’ve been talking about feasts, we’ll talk about… of course… feasting halls.

Now as I’ve said with much of this material, it’s really hard to study. This is because of the materials they used, of course. Timber doesn’t keep too well unless it’s in a bog or something along those lines. And while it would have been handy if Cerdic decreed that everything had to be built in stone, he didn’t, so here we are.

And adding to our troubles is the fact that the sites for the Anglo Saxon buildings didn’t change over time too much. Which means that the sites end up being tough to analyze because other medieval buildings have been built on the same site. Not to mention modern buildings, such as Car Parks. You know, like in the case with the possible grave of Richard III.

…

66 – What Not To Wear: In The Dark Ages

Jamie — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 23:47:46 +0000

Ok, so we are basically done with feasting and food in general. I could go into the construction of the feasting hall, and I might do that at a later date if it I get in a carpenter mood (or if there is a big hew and cry for that sort of information) but in general, I think we’re done with that aspect of the Dark Ages.

So what did you think? Looking back on what you thought about the Anglo Saxons and the Dark Ages, did your view change? I’m genuinely interested in what you thought about it before these episodes and what you think now. So if you are so inclined, please tell me about it on Facebook, Twitter, or the Forums. Or if you don’t want the world to see your comments, you can also email me directly at thebritishhistorypodcast@gmail.com But seriously, let me know. Maybe I’ll put together a short midweek episode where I read what you thought before and after if I get enough responses. It could be fun, and it’s another way that we can all interact together as a community. So please consider it.

And next up we are going to have a short discussion on another area of the Dark Ages that is rather misunderstood, or just ignored in general. Clothing.

Project History Cage Match – Episode 1

Jamie — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 18:34:30 +0000

This is the pilot of a new pet project of ours that will hopefully take off. Five History Podcasters have gathered in an intellectual Thunder Dome to discuss historical questions and determine who is the greatest.

Today’s Topic: Who was the most influential character in all of history?

Roifield Brown – How Jamaica Conquered the World
Ray Harris – A History of WWII
Jamie Jeffers – The British History Podcast
James (aka Jamie) Redfern – A History Of: Alexander
Zack Twamley – When Diplomacy Fails

FIGHT!

65 – Dirty Riddles

Jamie — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 01:32:42 +0000

Ok, so we have been talking about some pretty heavy detail about food and feasts. We know what they were eating, what they were drinking, how the parties were thrown, and why. We know how food played a key role in the economy, and thus how these feasts were a huge show of power. We know about the surroundings, and what they looked like. We even know about the table manners of the attendees of the feasts.

But we’ve missed a key detail. Entertainment.

I wonder how many of you right now have images of drunken warriors playing William Tell with throwing axes as they roar with laughter. Well, I don’t want to burst your bubble, but that probably wasn’t on the schedule.

64 – All the Small Things

Jamie — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 02:06:58 +0000

Today we’re going to cover some interesting side notes regarding the feasts. Talking about the bigger aspects of history is important, but those little facts that rarely get looked at can also help us to understand these people we’ve been getting to know. So this episode is focused upon those overlooked bits.

63 – Symbel aka Fancy Feast

Jamie — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 20:19:59 +0000

So there were at least two different kinds of feasts as far as we can tell from the scattered references available to us. There was the Symbel and the Gebeorscipe.

The Symbel was the more formal version of feasts. This was the one that had significant social and religious implications and the one that will get the lion’s share of attention in this podcast because it’s just so interesting.

The Symbel was a structured and ritualized affair, rather than just a big social dinner. Now the ritual portion of the Symbel might have been only a small part of it, once the rites were concluded it could have raged on for hours (maybe even days), but those traditions were really important.

…

62 – Producing the BHP Full Time, a Proposal

Jamie — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 03:15:06 +0000

Ok, so right now I’m in a situation where I might need to make some hard choices on where my time goes. The thing is that this has been one of the best experiences of my life, but for financial reasons I might need to go back to law full time. The problem there being that law is one of those jobs that doesn’t leave room for much else.

Obviously, I would prefer to continue telling you stories. I think I have a knack for it, and I feel like discussing our shared history is important. And there’s a bunch of fun stuff that I have been working on and would love to do. Such as getting more interviews with experts, new side stories (similar to what I’ve been doing with St. Patrick) and I’ve even been looking into putting together tours. But for me to give this project the attention it deserves I need to do it full time, rather than as a hobby I squeeze in between cases.

So I thought I’d apply for the job of entertaining you. By my math, I need 150 new members in order to be able to afford to do this full time. After all, I’m not looking to get rich. I just want to be able to dedicate all my time to doing this podcast.

So if you like what I’m doing here, and you’d like me to do this full time, please consider becoming a member over at thebritishhistorypodcast.com. For around the price of a latte each month my day job could be telling you stories, hunting down new things to share with you, and bringing you interviews with experts on the material we have all come to know.

To pique your interest, I’ve got several incentives that I have listed over on the website which include a future series analyzing the tale of King Arthur, a special on Stonehenge, and even a trip to the UK with get togethers and perhaps even a group outing to the British Museum or something along those lines.

The truth of it is that I love this project. And I would really like to work for you full time. So I hope you’ll consider hiring me.

Besides, does the world really need another lawyer?

Here are the incentives, and I’ll be updating you with our progress in future podcasts.

150 new members

The BHP is my Full Time job and I spend even more time working on it for you!

250 new members

A future series on King Arthur and the theories behind the tales.

500 new members

A future Stonehenge Special.

750 new members

I’ll arrange a trip to the UK and have a couple meet and greets set up.

1,000 new members

I think this is a long shot so I’m going to make an outlandish offer…. Jim Cartwright and I will sing a duet of Total Eclipse of the Heart for you (we may or may not also be drinking Anglo Saxon Ale while this is occurring). There will probably be something else awesome as well. TBD.

MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP ($4.99 USD per month)

YEARLY MEMBERSHIP ($59.88 USD per year)

61 – DRUIDS! (Bonus Episode)

Jamie — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 19:13:15 +0000

Ok, so we’ve hit 2000 likes on Facebook. So as promised, here’s the bonus episode. We voted for it on, of course, the Facebook site and Druids won.

But beware… this is an old episode so there is a lot of “whatnot” in there. So if you’re playing the Whatnot Drinking Game, you might want to use beer… or even near-beer.

60 – Feasting

Jamie — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 01:52:24 +0000

And to begin with, lets do a thought experiment. Imagine, if you will, an Anglo Saxon feasting hall. If you have the chance, pause this and write down a quick description of what it looks like, what people were doing, what was going on, whose feast it was, and who was attending. For bonus points, write down why it was being held.

We’re going to spend a few episodes chatting about the culture of feasting and at the end, you can look back and see how close you were. It might be fun.

And today, lets have a brief overview of feasts and why they might be held.

With that in mind, it might be helpful to think about the Feast, and actually Anglo Saxon culture in general, in terms of community. Why do people form communities? It’s a near universal human experience, so why do we do it?

Well, we are social creatures (which is probably why we get along with dogs so well, since they are too) and as a result most of us seem to be hard wired to feel loneliness quite keenly. So the need for socialization might be part of why we form communities, since they insulate against that loneliness.

59 – Dark Ages Kitchens (aka “Baby, You Got A Stew Going!”)

Jamie — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 03:17:07 +0000

So I really want to talk about Feasting culture. After all, part of what people think about when they think of Anglo Saxon culture, are gigantic feasts. And there’s a lot of interesting things going on with Anglo Saxon feasting culture. So yeah, I’m really excited to speak about it.

But I realized that I left out a key part of our discussion on food. Namely, what is done with it. We’ve spoken about veggies, we’ve spoken about meat, we’ve even spoken about how beer is made. But we haven’t spoken at all about cooking, preservation, or how meals were handled. So lets chat about that, and then next time… we can get into all the feasting, drinking, and entertainment!

58 – Taxes, Tithes, and Thieves

Jamie — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 02:11:51 +0000

In the Seventh century we started to see the growth of monasteries and nunneries in Britain. Sometimes the land they operated on was rented, other times they were gifted big tracts of land in wills and such. And sometimes ancient public lands were handed over to the monasteries, such as what Eadwulf did in 746. This shouldn’t be too surprising, though. Ruling is tough business, and often times it involves a fair amount of sin. So what is a god fearing ruler to do? Well, more often than not, he would rule as he felt he needed to, and then try to curry favor with the all mighty through gifts. Obviously, if you could hand over lands after you died, or hand over lands that weren’t really yours in the first place, that was the best way to go about it. That way it wouldn’t cause you too much inconvenience and allow you to continue to focus on dealing with those troublesome neighbors of yours.

…

57 – The Denbighshire Hill Forts

Jamie — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 16:01:08 +0000

Today we have something pretty exciting. Listener Simon put me in contact with Erin Robinson and Fiona Gale, who are currently working on archaeological sites in Denbighshire north Wales, and they were kind enough to agree to speak to me via Skype. So today we are taking a break from our middle ages cultural discussion, and instead we have an interview on the Heather and Hillforts project… a project which focuses on a number of iron age hill forts.

I can’t tell you how fortunate we are to be able to talk with Erin and Fiona regarding their project in Denbighshire. The hillforts they’re working on are still somewhat mysterious and unknown. We are still learning a great deal about them and, with luck, we will be learning even more over the coming years. This is really a great opportunity for us.

If you’d like to learn more, or you like to find how to get involved, you can go to the websites I’ve listed below:

http://www.heatherandhillforts.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/heatherandhillforts

https://twitter.com/HeatherHillfort

And if you are in North Wales and see someone off-roading over one of these historic sites, please report them to the police. These are tremendously important sites and we need to do all we can to preserve them. After all, the damage these vehicles are doing can never be undone.

56 – Demanding Supplies

Jamie — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 03:20:16 +0000

Over the last month or so we’ve been speaking in detail about food in the Dark ages. Diversified farms dotted the landscape, with even the larger ones probably having a mix of cattle, sheep, pigs etc. In many ways, it’s sounded like an idyllic rural life. Actually, the Venerable Bede in particular loved the pastoral nature of England (and I’m sure he would have loved Wales, too).

And all of this food production was a key part of British life and as a result understanding it is necessary to understanding the culture.

But while much of the island was well situated for farming, and food production was a major pillar of society, it doesn’t mean that everyone lived on or worked on farms. This was a stratified society and overtime that would continue. So now that we’ve covered, in detail, the production of food and drink, we’re going to transition into the cultural aspects of how that food impacted society. And to start with, let’s talk about the issues of supply and demand by focusing on the towns.

55 – Saint Patrick (Bonus Episode)

Jamie — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 00:54:47 +0000

As you might recall, a few months ago I made a challenge. For every thousand likes the Facebook page got, I would release a members only episode to the public. Well, we’re over 1,700 likes right now and I realized something… I never released a members only episode for the first 1,000 likes. So I thought I’d do that right now.

Right now over on the members only podcast, in addition to things such as the Anglo Saxon food and drink experiments, we’re doing a series on Saint Patrick…. so I thought that you might be interested in the first part of it. So here we go… this is part one of Saint Patrick.

54 – Travels with Cerdic

Jamie — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 04:20:33 +0000

In the 11th century, Ingulf made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He was accompanied by 30 fat horsemen when they set forth, moving through Germany and Greece on their way to the holy land. When he returned he was joined by barely 20 emaciated pedestrians. Travel was serious business. And Ingulf’s trip was over 500 years after the point we’ve been speaking about. So you can only imagine how tough it must have been to get from place to place in the early Anglo Saxon period.

53 – Dark Age Dinners III: Where The Wild Things Are

Jamie — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 03:23:34 +0000

Ok, we’ve spoken about farm life… but that isn’t the only way food can get on the table. So this episode is dedicated to all the food that was left out.

So to start out, lets deal with Where the Wild Things Are.

There’s plenty of tasty wild things if you know where to look, and from the record it seems that Anglo Saxons had a vague idea of where to look.

Today we’ll be talking about hunting, fishing, and of course…. beekeeping. It should be a lot of fun!

52 – Dark Age Dinners II: BBQ

Jamie — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 20:54:53 +0000

Ok, so as some of you might remember from the member’s podcasts, Cattle was a big deal among the Celts. Well, it’s also a big deal for the anglo saxons. And actually, cow and calf are anglo saxon words, so is heffer. Anyway, beef…. Everyone loves beef. We also love cheese, butter, and to a lesser extent clogged arteries. So we are going to see a bit of emphasis placed about cattle in the Anglo Saxon world.

Today’s episode should be pretty fun! Also, tasty!

51 – Dark Age Dinners I: the Vegan Edition

Jamie — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 01:41:21 +0000

Ok, so for the last couple weeks we have been talking about drinking. And all this booze has made me hungry. And as soon as I covered beer you must have known I’d have to cover food. If Portland is known for only one thing, it’s… well… it’s probably hipsters. But if Portland is known for three things, it’s still hipsters but also beer and food. We’re a bunch of foodies here. So of course I want to talk about food!

Food production and grain were of vital importance to the Anglo Saxons. For example, even when Alfred was in the middle of his war with the Danes, he kept part of his army guarding the boroughs. This might not be news to you, since “an army marches on its stomach” is a rather old notion, but that bit of military history does shed some light on the importance of England’s Breadbasket.

So today’s episode will be focusing upon that!

50 – Dark Age Drunks

Jamie — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 01:11:13 +0000

Today we’re talking about monks getting about one to two gallons of ale a day per monk. And common people potentially brewing in a modest household brewing 200 gallons of ale every month. That’s 1600 pints (in a modest 16th century household). While it isn’t clear how much early anglo-saxon households would brew, we don’t have records indicating that the early anglo saxons engaged in temperance so they were probably brewing quite a bit at home as well. So we’re going to have a lot of drunks in this week’s episode!

Kneel Before Pod Panel II

Jamie — Mon, 28 May 2012 15:40:14 +0000

I was invited to participate in a Podcasting Panel yesterday along with Dawn, Rob, and Mikey. It was hosted by FatBoy Roberts, and honestly it was a lot of fun. I was a bit nervous being in front of a crowd, since podcasting is a pretty solitary thing for me, but it was a bunch of fun. If you’re interested in hearing it, you can listen to the Panel at this link which will take you to Hamfisted Radio.

49 – Dark Age Drinks

Jamie — Sat, 26 May 2012 02:40:24 +0000

So when we left off, we were discussed the legends of how England went from being Romano-British to Germanic. We discussed the archaeological digs we have found that support the presence of this Germanic shift in culture. And, I didn’t mention this last week, but there’s evidence that the Anglo Saxons didn’t oust all of the Britons, but rather integrated with them. So we have the arrival of unknown numbers of Anglo Saxons, probably, and then we have a provable cultural shift in England. Lets talk about that culture that they brought with them! And to start with, lets talk about a major influence in nearly all cultures. Alcohol.

48 – Was there an Anglo Saxon Invasion?

Jamie — Sat, 19 May 2012 05:31:01 +0000

Now that we’ve spoken about how unreliable our sources are from this era, and we’ve recounted the story of invasion they recorded, we’re going to analyze how much of their story we can trust. And why.

47 – Hengist and Horsa

Jamie — Sun, 13 May 2012 19:58:52 +0000

Today we launch into the legendary beginnings of Anglo-Saxon Britain. How much of this is real and how much is myth? Well, lets try to figure that out together!

46 – Breaking News on the Staffordshire Hoard

Jamie — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:19:35 +0000

Many of you know about Sutton Hoo and it’s impact on Anglo Saxon studies. But the recently discovered Staffordshire Hoard is an archaeological find that dwarfs Sutton Hoo by magnitudes. Well, thanks to the efforts of Member Rick, we might be able to have an interview or two with experts on the find. So submit your questions at facebook.com/britishhistory, thebritishhistorypodcast.com/forum/, or directly to me at thebritishhistorypodcast@gmail.com

45 – The Last Outpost

Jamie — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:20:28 +0000

Ok, today we’re going to do a forest view of what we have to come. And next episode we’re going to get down into the nitty gritty! It should be fun!

44 – Sources of Confusion

Jamie — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:37:48 +0000

Today we’re going to talk about how we study this era. The things that help, the things that hinder, and the flaws of our ancient sources! This is where the Dark Ages really get fun!

43 – Le Mort d’Arthur (Bonus Episode)

Jamie — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:50:26 +0000

Today we’re going to have a reading of Le Mort d’Arthur by Thomas Mallory, Book 1 Chapters 1 through 4. You can get a free Kindle copy of Le Mort de Arthur to read along with at Amazon.com.

Friend of the show, James Cartwright, was kind enough to do the reading for us. You can reach him at spinningturtleproductions@gmail.com.

Additionally, if you like the music that we included in the background, credit goes to Kevin MacLeod.

42 – Wait… Where Are We?

Jamie — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 20:49:40 +0000

This is a recap episode where we’re going to go over the nearly 1 year of podcasts, since it’s been quite a (nearly) year and I wouldn’t blame you if you have forgotten who Governor Scapula was.

41 – Entering the Dark Ages: a Season Two Promo

Jamie — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:45:25 +0000

Next week we will start our second season. So here’s a promo of what to expect! I hope you’re looking forward to it as much as I am.

40 – Scotcast Part Six

Jamie — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:38:48 +0000

Here we have the sixth and final episode of the Scotcast. This will bring us up to 410, where we are in the main podcast, and we will be able to continue forward into the dark ages!

39 – Scotcast Part Five

Jamie — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 02:36:50 +0000

We’re getting ever closer to uniting the two shows! Today we’re going to cover several hundred years (and about six months of podcasts) in a single show.

38 – Scotcast Part Four

Jamie — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 21:37:02 +0000

We’re closing out the BC period. Which means we’ve got iron, Celtic culture, and Brochs. Good times!

37 – Scotcast Part Three

Jamie — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 19:02:43 +0000

Bronze Age Scotland!

36 – Scotcast Part Two

Jamie — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 02:53:32 +0000

We’re still in Pre-history… there’s a lot of it!

35 – Scotcast Part One

Jamie — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:32:04 +0000

We’re catching up with what was going on beyond the Wall during all of this drama. And to start with, lets talk about how Scotland got its shape and talk a little about the early inhabitants who lived there.

34 – Cribs: Britannia Edition

Jamie — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 03:42:41 +0000

We’re nearly done with the Romans!

33 – Strength and Honor(ius)

Jamie — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:22:57 +0000

This one was a beast, but we’re finally done with the Roman occupation of Britannia! But Rome isn’t going to let us go without a serious amount of chaos and general nuttiness.

32 – Theodosius and Theocracy

Jamie — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:20:40 +0000

With special guest Valentinian II.

31 – Magnus Maximus

Jamie — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:02:16 +0000

There’s some serious name envy going on in this episode.

30 – What is Best in Life?

Jamie — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:02:20 +0000

Things in Britannia just keep getting worse!

29 – An End to Prosperity

Jamie — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:10:57 +0000

Our luck could only hold out so long. And now Britannia is getting a taste of what the rest of the Empire had already come to know.

Here’s a bust of Constantius II.

28 – Constantine and Britannia Sitting in a Tree

Jamie — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 02:20:16 +0000

Oh yeah, we’ve got a real love affair going on here.

27 – York’s Revenge!

Jamie — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:40:59 +0000

Constantius, throwing caution to the wind, follows in the footsteps of Severus.

The featured image here is a bust of Constantius… And I thought I had a big nose.

26 – Occupy Britannia!

Jamie — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 06:42:03 +0000

I’m back and so is Carausius! Here we go!

25 – Listener Questions Special Episode

Jamie — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 18:17:27 +0000

Next week we will return to the tale of Carausius and his British Empire, but today is our 25th episode and so I’ll be answering questions submitted by listeners! (I can’t believe it’s already been 25 episodes).

24 – Another British Empire

Jamie — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:49:46 +0000

This time Carausius is going to try his hand at this empire thing and see if he can do better than Albinus and Postumus.

23 – We’re In Between Emperors at the Moment

Jamie — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:03:55 +0000

Things are changing rather quickly on our little island. (This is a re-upload. The old file had some recording errors. Sorry! It’s been one of those days.)

22 – The Dim Ages – Part 2

Jamie — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:10:16 +0000

Someone turn on the light!

21 – The Dim Ages – Part 1

Jamie — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:42:26 +0000

It’s starting to get dark in here!

One of the coins of Pertinax, from the MET at NYC.

20 – Dysfunction and Sibling Rivalry

Jamie — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 02:06:11 +0000

The family of Severus brings their own particular brand of family bonding to the shores of our island.

Busts of Caracalla, kept at the MET in NYC, where he’s showing his winning personality.

19 – Britannia’s Emperor

Jamie — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 02:12:08 +0000

Ok, this one is pretty heavy on Roman intrigue. But it’s necessary to get us to the all the fun stuff in the next one. And besides, while much of what occurs in this episode is on the continent, it is still heavily influenced by the legions in Britannia. So it still counts as British History, right?

18 – Abandonment and Reoccupation

Jamie — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 02:07:55 +0000

Today we’ve got Antoninus, Marcus Aurelias, Russell Crowe… we’ve got it all!

And Members, check your email. You should have a link for how to get your Members-Only episode!

A bust of Marcus Aurelias from the MET in NYC.

17 – Advancement and Occupation

Jamie — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:38:23 +0000

Antoninus decides that he also wants a wall, and sends the legions north to build one.

Sorry about the delay on this episode, I’ve been fighting with my computer for a couple days. I recorded this episode as soon as I got it up and running. Thanks for your patience.

A bust of Antoninus Pius from the MET in NYC.

16 – Bonus Birthday Episode on the Celts!

Jamie — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 00:11:00 +0000

So it’s my birthday this weekend, and so I’m not doing one of my gigantic episodes. However, I thought I’d give you all a present (especially since we now have 500 members on the facebook page) and give you a sneak peak at the members-only content I’m putting together. So here’s the first part of the Early Origins – Celts. I hope you enjoy it!

15 – Hadrian’s Wall

Jamie — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 19:41:02 +0000

Phew! This one is done. It was a bit of a doozy, and is also on the long side, which is why it took me a bit to get it put together. So here’s the 15th episode. Beware the Ides of the Podcast!

14 – The Mystery of the Ninth Legion

Jamie — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 23:02:29 +0000

Ok, I’ll be the first to admit this one is a little confusing. After all, the whole mystery is more than a little confusing. So here is a list of the bits of evidence we’re talking about.

- The Ninth was nearly destroyed in a night assault by the Caledonians during Agricola’s northern campaign.
- The last known battle the Ninth was in was Mons Graupius.
- 108 AD, The Ninth built a gate at Eboracum (York).
- Post 117 AD (probably 119 to 121) there was a major rebellion in Britannia.
- 80′s AD or 121 AD, there were tiles at Nijmegen (Holland) stamped by the Ninth.
- Tiles similar to those were also found at Carlisle.
- A tombstone at Ferentinum references an emergency in Britannia that required 3,000 reinforcements.
- 122 AD, Hadrian traveled to Britannia to “correct many faults” and he brought with him the Sixth Legion.
- The Sixth legion took the post of Eboracum, which was the Ninth’s post. No mention is made of where the Ninth went.
- 142 AD, Governor Carus, who served with the Ninth, became the Governor of Arabia.
- Frontinus writes to Emperor Aurelius reminding him how his grandfather (Hadrian) suffered a major loss of troops to the Jews and the Britons.
- 162 AD, the Aurelian columns don’t list the Ninth or Twenty Second legions.
- The Twenty Second probably served in the Jewish wars and the Ninth was stationed in Britannia.

That should just about cover it.

Oh, and The Eagle is not a good film.

13 – Agricola

Jamie — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 05:31:03 +0000

We’re going to talk about the governorship of Agricola, the Scots, the Irish, and I’m going to say “isthmus” an unreasonable number of times!

Here’s a map of Agricola’s advance. HOWEVER the dates listed are the later of the two dates I mention in the podcast. Many historians think that these dates should be one year earlier. (That will make more sense to you after you listen to the podcast).

NOTE: I made a comment that the legions raided on their way to Eboracum in the podcast. I meant to say that they raided once they got PAST Eboracum. Eboracum and Deva were, of course, Roman towns. At least they were at this point in time. So I think it’s safe to assume they didn’t raid their own people.

12 – The Road to the North

Jamie — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:24:13 +0000

I’m back! I was delayed due to my computer kindly self-destructing last week. So for this episode we’ll be talking about how awful life under Roman Rule was in the first century, the year of the four emperors, and the events that lead up to Agricola.

If you’re a fan on the podcast, please click the “Show your support” button on the website and become a member! Membership is cheap ($2.99 a month), it can be cancelled any time, and it will really help me out! So if you can spare $2.99 a month, please consider it.

Thanks!