'tis but a scratch: fact and fiction about the Middle Ages

Richard Abels
  • 4.9 (37)
  • HISTORY
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

Talking about popular conceptions of the Middle Ages and their historical realities. Join Richard Abels to learn about Vikings, knights and chivalry, movies set in the Middle Ages, and much more about the medieval world.

  1. MAR 15

    The Knights Templar, Part 1: the Templars in History (with Steve Tibble)

    Send a text Today’s episode is the first of a two-part series on the notorious Christian military order, The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, more commonly known as the Knights Templar.  This first episode deals with the historical Templars; the second, with the Templar legend  My cohost for both is a veteran of this podcast, Dr. Steve Tibble whose newest book is Assassins and Templars, A Battle in Myth and Blood (Yale University Press, 2025).  In this episode, Steve and I talk about the evolution of Christian ideas about warfare that allowed for crusading and for military orders such as the Templars; the Templar origin story; the growth, organization, and development of the order; and the Templars' core mission and activities, in war and peace.  The second episode begins with the trial of the Templars in 1307 by King Philip IV 'the Fair' of France, and the subsequent suppression of the order by the papacy.  We then discuss the Templars' "afterlife," their transformation into a mythic secret society beloved by paranoid conspiracy theorists. And, as is the wont of this podcast, we look at how the historical and mythic Templars are represented in novels, movies, and even video games. I hope you will join us! This episode includes quoted passages from St. Bernard of Clairvaux's recruitment letter for the Second Crusade and his treatise on the Templars, The New Knighthood. Both are included in The Crusades: A Reader, ed. S,J. Allen and Emilie Amt, second edition (University of Toronto Press, 2014) It also has a short snippet from the thirteenth-century chant "Dies Irae," performed by Schola Gregoriana Mediolanensis  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU9qrdrswO8) Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1h 7m

  2. MAR 4

    Knights, Samurai, and the Myth of Japanese Feudalism: A Conversation with Professor Stephen Morillo

    Send a text Until now, "'Tis But A Scratch: Fact & Fiction About the Middle Ages" has dealt with medieval Europe and the Middle East. In this episode, we branch out to a more global perspective by comparing medieval European knights with the samurai of "feudal Japan."  And, yes, we will once again be talking about the medievalist's F-word.  I am fortunate to have as my cohost my good friend Stephen Morillo. Stephen is professor emeritus of History at Wabash College, where he taught medieval, world, and military history. His first book, Warfare Under the Anglo-Norman Kings, 1066-1135,  was published in 1994. His most recent book is War and Conflict in the Middle Ages: A Global Perspective. This pretty much sums up Stephen’s scholarly odyssey from Anglo-Norman military historian to pre-modern world historian. His focus on comparative global military history makes him the ideal person to discuss knights and samurai.  I hope you will join us. Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1h 9m

  3. FEB 12

    1066 And All That: The Significance of the Norman Conquest (with Dr. Jennifer Paxton), part 2

    Send a text It has been several months since I posted the first half of a two part series on the significance and consequences of the Norman Conquest with my good friend and colleague Dr. Jennifer Paxton of the Catholic University of America. Despite a number of challenges--not the least being a snow storm--we finally got together to record the second episode. In that first episode, Jenny and I reviewed how historians have interpreted the Norman Conquest through the ages, and broadly outlined some of the changes wrought by the Conquest.  In this one we explain how the Norman Conquest changed England politically, legally, socially, ecclesiastically, and economically--including the impact it had on diet and food custom (the newest area of research on the Conquest). In this episode I quote from: Craig-Atkins E, Jervis B, Cramp L, Hammann S, Nederbragt AJ, Nicholson E, et al. (2020) Correction: The dietary impact of the Norman Conquest: A multiproxy archaeological investigation of Oxford, UK. PLoS ONE 15(9): e0239640. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239640 Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1h 27m

  4. JAN 24

    Episode 70: What we can learn about medieval people from their bones and teeth. A conversation with Professor Alison Beach

    Send a text And now for something completely different! In this episode, we are not going to be talking about kings or popes, crusades, wars, or political events. Instead, we will be examining the life experiences of ordinary medieval people uncovered through analysis of their skeletal remains.  This field of historical research is known as osteobiography. Osteobiography is the reconstruction of an individual's life story from his or her skeletal remains. It treats bones and teeth as a text that sheds light on an individual's health, diet, disease, trauma, occupation, migrations, and social status. This might sound familiar to some of you who remember the television show Bones. But the purpose here is not to solve crimes but to understand lives.  I am very fortunate to have as my very special guest to explain what we can learn about medieval people from their skeletal remains, Dr. Alison Beach, Professor of Medieval History at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Alison is the Principal Investigator and Historical Researcher for “Word of Mouth: Embodied Stories of Premodern Women at Work”—I love the puns—or, as it is more popularly known, TeamNun. She heads a team of historians, archaeologists, and scientists dedicated to reconstructing the lives of medieval religious woman through analysis of their skeletal remains. In this episode, Alison will tell us about two osteobiographies her team is working on. What makes these individuals especially interesting is that they both suffered from disabilities that did not preclude long lives. Apparently, medieval empathy is not an oxymoron! (You can learn more about TeamNun at https://www.teamnun.org/about-1) Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1h 5m

  5. JAN 16

    The First King of England: Æthelstan (with David Woodman)

    Send a text Ironically, the most famous date in Anglo-Saxon history is that of its demise, 1066, which is why when in 1930 W. C. Sellar, a former schoolmaster, and his classmate at Oxford, the humorist R. J. Yeatman, decided to send up English history as taught in schools with a parody survey, they called it  1066 and All That. In a previous episode Dr. Jenny Paxton and I discussed why 1066 is such a significant date in English history. My very special guest, David Woodman, Professor of History at Robinson College, Cambridge, contends that the year 927 should be as memorable as 1066. And he will explain why in this episode on the first king of England. And who was the first king of England?  I would love to say that it was King Alfred the Great, but, as I concluded in my biography of Alfred, his legacy was to create the foundations for the kingdom of England. But if not Alfred, then who?  David Woodman has a clear answer, encapsulated in the title of his recent book from Princeton University Press, The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom.  In this episode David and I discuss the reign of King Æthelstan, and why David believes that 927 should be celebrated as the birthdate of the kingdom of England. Along the way, we discuss sources--or the lack thereof--and commiserate over the challenges faced by biographers of early medieval people. I hope you will join us. Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1 hr

  6. 12/29/2025

    A Florentine Pilgrimage to Bethlehem and Jerusalem in 1384

    Send a text This is an addendum to my previous episode with Peter Konieczny. One of my listeners sent me an email asking why we never covered Frescobaldi's, Gucci's, and Sigoli's accounts of their experiences in Jerusalem. As she pointed out, when asked by the Sultan's representative in Alexandria the purpose of their trip, they said that it was to visit the Holy Sepulcher. And she is absolutely right. We ought to have talked about the culmination of the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Given that we are three days into the twelve days of Christmas, I decided that I should also talk about their visit to Bethlehem.  I wanted to get this out quickly, so it is a solo effort. It is also one of my shorter episodes. I would suggest that you listen first to Peter and my more general discussion of the three pilgrimage accounts and consider this to be a continuation.  May you have joy and peace for the remaining nine days of the Christmas season!  Quotations are from Frescobaldi, Gucci, and Sigoli, Visit to the Holy Places of Egypt, Sinai, Palestine and Syria in 1384, trans Theophilus Bellorini and Eugene Hoade (Jerusalem: Franciscan Press, 1948), posted online at https://fada.birzeit.edu/handle/20.500.11889/9200 This episodes includes musical snippets from Stella splendens (anonymous late 14th century pilgrim’s song), Free Choral Music, edited by Monique Rio  https://test.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Stella_splendens_in_monte_(Anonymous) De Profundis. Ofertorio (Modo II) Coro De Monjes Del Monasterio De SilosCantos Gregorianos (Vol. 2), posted by De Profundis-Gregorian Chant, Catholic Songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwTO6oYDdZs Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    21 min

  7. 12/23/2025

    Three Accounts of A Pilgrimage To Egypt and the Holy Land in 1384-5

    Send a text In the year 1384 a company of six wealthy merchants from Florence, each accompanied by a servant, went on a ten-month long pilgrimage to Mameluke Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. Upon returning to Florence, three of them--Leonardo Frescobaldi, Giorgio Gucci, and Simone Sigoli--wrote narratives of the journey. Although there are hundreds of accounts of pilgrimages to the East during the Middle Ages, this is the only pilgrimage that produced three independent narratives. What makes these narratives fascinating is that they are as much travelogues as itineraries of visits to churches and holy places.  They are a treasure trove of information about the material culture and customs of the Mameluke east as viewed and interpreted by travelers from Italy. They also present the historian with a Rashomon-like puzzle: how do we reconcile three eye-witness accounts when they differ? Peter Koniezcny, the owner of the website "medievalists.net" and a veteran of this podcast, returns to talk about this unique source. I hope that you will join us. The passages quoted are from: Frescobaldi, Gucci, and Sigoli, Visit to the Holy Places of Egypt, Sinai, Palestine and Syria in 1384, trans Theophilus Bellorini and Eugene Hoade (Jerusalem: Franciscan Press, 1948), posted online at https://fada.birzeit.edu/handle/20.500.11889/9200 Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1h 6m

  8. 10/31/2025

    Halloween special: Three Medieval Ghost Stories and My One Encounter with a Ghost

    Send a text To celebrate my birthday—yes I was a Halloween baby—I decided to do a short episode recounting my one up-close and personal experience with a ghost. No, it was not a ghost of some one who died in the Middle Ages. In fact, I don’t know who it was.  But since ‘Tis But A Scratch” is a medieval podcast, I  start with three ghost stories from the Middle Ages.  It probably comes as no surprise that medieval people believed in ghosts, and ghost stories are scattered through medieval monastic chronicles, hagiographies, preaching manuals, and medieval literature. Ghost stories in medieval England, France, and Germany are mostly about apparitions of the sinful dead to living relatives. These began proliferating in the eleventh century, at the same time that the Catholic Church was developing its theology of Purgatory. Monks and preachers used these stories to emphasize the need to purge one’s sins, even after death. When the Church introduced the idea that the living could lessen the suffering of the dead in Purgatory by doing good deeds or contributing lands and money to monasteries and churches in return for prayers, these stories were used by preachers as fund raisers. The tradition in medieval Scandinavia was different. There the ghosts are not spirits but revenants, reanimated corpses.  I’ve chosen examples illustrating each genre. Two of them were written down around the year 1400. The first is from an Icelandic Saga, Grettir’s Saga. The second is from a collection of twelve ghost stories written by a monk of Byland Abbey, in Yorkshire. Both are about revenants, reanimated corpses, but of very different sorts.  Rounding things out is a ghost story from an earlier source, the autobiography of an early twelfth-century French Benedictine abbot, Guibert of Nogent.  I’m afraid that you might find my personal ghost story a bit dull in comparison, but I can assure you that it was anything but dull when I lived it. And just in case you are wondering: NO! I DO NOT BELIEVE IN GHOSTS!. Happy Halloween! I used the following English translations in this podcast (each of which I emended slightly): Grettir’s Saga, trans. G. H. Hight (1914): https://www.sagadb.org/grettis_saga.en2 “Twelve Medieval Ghost Stories,” trans. A.J. Grant, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 27 (1924): 362-379, posted on the “Medieval Histories” website: https://www.medieval.eu/medieval-histories-time-travelling-to-the-middle-ages/ C.C. Swinton Bland of , The Autobiography of Guibert, Abbot of Nogent-sous-Coucy, trans. C.C. Swinton Bland (London: George Routledge: New York: E.P. Dutton, 1925), which I revised somewhat following Paul J. Archambault, trans., A Monk’s Confession: The Memoirs of Guibert of Nogent (Penn State U. Press, 2004). Bland’s translation is in the public domain and posted in its entirety at  https://sourcebooks.web.fordham.edu/basis/guibert-vita.asp This episode includes a short snippet from "The Unknown," a track from KeMi's album "Shadowscapes." https://artlist.io/royalty-free-music/album/shadowscapes/13040 Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    43 min
See All (73)

4.9
out of 5
37 Ratings

About

Talking about popular conceptions of the Middle Ages and their historical realities. Join Richard Abels to learn about Vikings, knights and chivalry, movies set in the Middle Ages, and much more about the medieval world.

Information

You Might Also Like