Weird Medieval Guys

Happy New Year to all our Weird Medieval Guys podcast listeners and welcome back to our annual Q&A session! We solicited questions about history and the podcast from our Discord community and answered as many as we could for you. Listen on to hear about why we do silly voices, whether medieval people played drinking games, and more!Join our Discord server to be part of a wonderful community of weird medieval enthusiasts and for the chance to submit questions next year! https://discord.gg/6GzvXdWX23

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/viewThe 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 Pearsonhttps://www.jstor.org/stable/2865862Join the official WMG Discord server!! https://discord.gg/6GzvXdWX23Music 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 Lemayhttps://www.jstor.org/stable/230317Robert Grosseteste on Light, Truth and "Experimentum" by Simon Oliverhttps://www.jstor.org/stable/41963724Foretelling the Future: Arabic Astrology and English Medicine in the Late Twelfth Century by Roger Frenchhttps://www.jstor.org/stable/235980Make 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_contentsPeter 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%20emergedEdward, Duke of York, "The Master of Game": https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43452/43452-h/43452-h.htmSome 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-nicerThe Laws of Hywel Dda: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Laws_of_Howel_the_GoodJoin the official Weird Medieval Guys Discord: https://discord.gg/ZwHz5JDKky