A Podcast Exploring the Wit and Weirdness of Medieval Texts

MDT Episode 01: Concerning Poisoning By Toad

Welcome to the first full and proper episode of Medieval Death Trip. This episode examines a tale of pirates, prisons, and poisonous toads, and the gruesome aftermath of combining those three elements together.

The text for this episode is taken from The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich, written by Thomas of Monmouth in the late 12th century. This translation is from the edition by Augustus Jessopp and M.R. James [London: Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1896], which is available on Google Books.

Yates Thompson MS 13 f.145r

Image from the British Library: Yates Thompson MS 13 f.145r

3 Comments

  1. Errol

    Dear Patrick,

    Thank you for putting together this gem! I am looking forward to kosteninflatie to more of your podcasts and hope that you will continue to produce these fine pieces of learned goodness for a very long time to come.

  2. Julia

    I’m one of those listening years into the future, but I’m enjoying your podcasts and wanted to let you know! I am particularly appreciative of how you are teaching us to look at these archives from the collective memory perspective in order to discern how accurate it is rather than dismiss too much as fanciful fiction.

  3. Johnny

    Back in uni I was an English grad with a focus in linguistics and the history of the English language. I had always wanted to study the actual old texts, but didn’t have the opportunity to study Latin or Old English. That was a decade ago, and recently I got the urge to study a little more about the medieval period again. I looked up “medieval podcasts” and someone recommended this one. The name caught my eye and then I listened to the prologue and first couple episodes and fell in love.

    I know it’s been a long time since your first episode aired, but I just want to say that I really enjoyed listening to it. I’m working through your catalogue, oldest episodes to newest. Thank you for sharing this with the world!

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