I had the absolute pleasure of talking medieval sex, dogging, and how conferences are wild with Holly Randall the other week. Have a listen!
If you do apple, try here.
For everyone else, there’s this link here.
Continue reading “Podcast alert: Talking sex in the medieval times on Holly Randall Unfiltered”So, this week on Twitter, aka the place that Mufasa would have warned you that you must never go, we met a new dude. I became aware of him because he had some advice to world’s strongest man, and holder of the new world deadlift record Hafþór Björnsson, aka the Mountain, on how to stand next to his wife.
Continue reading “On “alpha” men, sexual contagion, and poorly disguised misogyny”There is a historical conception pioneered by Ernst Kantorowitz outlined in his book The King’s Two Bodies, which argued that medieval kings had – wait for it – two bodies. Historians refer to these as “the body natural” and “the body politic”.[1] The body natural is the king’s actual physical body. It is born, grows, has sex, gets ill, an dies. You know, like bodies do. The body politic on the other hand is a symbol of the office of the king. It transcends the king himself and instead is a symbol of his divine right to rule. It is bigger than any one actual king and is bestowed onto whoever becomes the next king when a king’s body natural dies. This is where you get the phrase, “The king is dead, long live the king.” The conception of the king is larger than any one actual person and it is a stand in for the conception of a kingship within that kingdom itself.
Continue reading “On the King’s two bodies and modern myth making”Want even more of me yammering about Black Death? Lucky you! Rebecca Rideal – who is a specialist in seventeenth century plague (It is not as good. It is still very interesting.) – was kind enough to have me on to discuss Black Death stuff even more. What, you got somewhere else you gotta be? Something you need to do?
Lovelies! I have had a bunch of requests for a Black Death reading list, which is all I have ever wanted to provide. Because there is so so much to read, I have tried to break it down for you by type of reads.
A lot of these are classics, so check with your fav local bookstore if they have them in. (That is provided that they are doing delivery! But support your local independent shops!)
Continue reading “A Black Death reading list”Permit me, if you will, a slightly rambling introduction: we are all, still, in the midst of a pandemic, and coping as best we can in whatever ways we can. Here in the UK our “government” has us on a sort of partial social distancing thing. So, if you can work from home, you are supposed to, and there are no restaurants open, and we have to line up to get groceries. One of the bright spots (other than booze – shout out to my legendary friend!) that we have in the slurry of same same days is that we are allowed out of the house for exercise. This makes a lot of sense! It is in the interest of public health generally, and in maintaining a stretched to breaking point and under assault from our ruling party. Tra la la.
Continue reading “On individual blame for global crises”Because I am a fancy lady, I have yet another read on Black Death positivisim over at The Washington Post. Please read and enjoy it. I am sorry, there is no swearing.
Continue reading “More Black Death Opinions, now at the Washington Post”So evil muckraking rag which you must never buy, the Sun, has once again ruined my life by having the absolute worst take about Boris Johnson’s release from ICU. Ready? No. You are not.
Continue reading “Emergency post: That is not what the “good” in Good Friday means”Interesting times, no? We live in interesting times. Oh ho ho the times they are interesting. By that, of course, I mean that I am very bored, but at the same time so anxious I am giving myself headaches. Pandemics are not fun! Staying in your house is not fun! Worrying that people are going to die is not fun! Watching governments debate whether rich people’s wealth is more important than people dying is not fun!
This is not as bad as living through the Black Death, or the plague generally.
Continue reading “Not every pandemic is the Black Death”Like many important historians over the ages, ya girl is broke. Very sadly, this means that I am often hustling when I should be here, creating the content that you know and tolerate. Many of you lovelies have asked over time exactly how you can help a player such as myself out, and get more stuff in the deal.
Today I am happy to answer that with, well, you can support my patreon.
Access to the blog is and always will be free, because the people need to know about medieval history, but patrons help make more content possible.
In appreciation, for their support, all patrons will receive a patron only monthly medieval history video. Said monthly video will take several forms. These include:
Pubcasts – in which I go drink a pint with another medievalist and we discuss history stuff.
Watch alongs – in which I will watch a terrible “medieval” movie and complain about it, allowing you to synch it up and watch at your own leisure.
Virtual tours – where I will virtually take you around a particular medieval place and tell you about it.
Object discussions – where I will tell you about some medieval thing I have a lady boner for.
Honest to God lectures – I am an actual lecturer. (I know.) I will do some for you sometimes.
Q&A’s – in which I will answer patron questions.
The point is, this is some good and varied content which you can strap to your veins.
Patrons will also receive a monthly round-up of all the history articles and discussions that I enjoyed, as well as sneak peaks of and updates about my upcoming projects.
Because Going Medieval believes that people with more expendable cash aren’t inherently better, all tiers will receive the same access to the same content. It’s up to you to decide how much you can afford and not screw your girl over while she’s out here hustling. The extremely big spenders will, however, receive Pubcast shout outs, cuz you are extremely down for the sesh.
Anyway, if you could see your way to supporting me, I would very much appreciate it. If not, that is cool too! I hope you are enjoying the blog.
XOXO
Eleanor
Going Medieval 