To wrap up the podcast, this episode celebrates the wonderful work of translators, in particular, the wonderful work of Maria Devana Headley in 'Beowulf: A New Translation'. With a mixture of poetry extracts and prose summaries, we tell the story of Beowulf, AND nerd out about translation, all in under an hour. WARNINGS: Some gore in the various monster fights
The final episode of the Mabinogion has everything: curses, magical disguises, trickery, women made out of flowers, secret love affairs, betrayal, poetry, hero children, shoemaking, riddles, gory revenge, and of course, misogyny. Join us, for the second last time, as we wrap up the Fourth Branch. WARNINGS: A woman is publically asked to undergo a magical virginity check, which reveals she is not a virgin by causing her to instantly 'drop' a healthy baby and a 'small something'....
This week, we have the first half of the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, in which we meet the ruling family of Gwynedd, in the north. One of the king's nephews is wasting away for love of the king's footholder (no, literally, that's her job), so the king's OTHER nephew starts a war to get the king out of town. When the king comes back and uncovers the whole story, he demonstrates why you shouldn't piss off magic users and assault their household. WARNINGS: Rape. The plot of this episode revolves ...
Pryderi and his wife are hanging out with Rhiannon and her second husband, Manawydan, when suddenly all the people, domesticated animals, and signs of civilisation disappear from Dyfed. They proceed to do not very much about it for several years, until Manawydan gets cranky about his wheat disappearing and decides to take revenge on a mouse. WARNING: Animal cruelty. Protagonist intends to (but does not actually) hang a mouse. Like, from a mini-gallows.
In this story, the king of Ireland comes to visit the king of Britain to ask for his sister's hand in marriage. This would have been fine, except the king's half-brother Efnysien exists. There's no happy ending for this one - by the end of the story, almost all of the named characters are dead. WARNINGS. Animal cruelty: A character maims a large number of horses - I give verbal warning before this happens. Horrifying execution methods: in a story told by Matholowch, a group of people are trapped...
We return to the adventures of Pwyll and Rhiannon: how their firstborn child mysteriously disappeared, Rhiannon got framed for it, and a random nobleman eventually worked out that his mysterious foundling might be Pwyll's kid. WARNINGS. Animal cruelty, gaslighting, innocent people getting punished, weird punishments: When the baby goes missing, the women who were supposed to be watching him and Rhiannon decide to kill a puppy and make it look like Rhiannon ate the baby. They insist to Rhiannon t...
The prince of Dyfed pisses off the king of the otherworld and swaps places with him to earn his forgiveness. It also teaches him a few lessons about kingship. Later, he decides to go to a place where mysterious things happen, a mysterious woman shows up, and he manages to almost completely ruin things before she salvages the situation on his behalf. WARNINGS: Risk of sex by deception. A character in disguise does NOT sleep with the wife of the guy he's impersonating, which surprises both the guy...
In which a dude called Rhonabwy has a weird dream. CONTENT WARNINGS: Unhygenic environment: the protagonist takes shelter in a hut where the floor is covered in cow droppings and urine, which is described in more detail than necessary. Gore/Violence: a battle between people and ravens where both are described getting injured, dismembered, killed in a fair amount of detail.
In the final part of Geraint's adventures, he defeats a few more people, nearly gets killed by some giants, and then realises he's been an ass when he hears Elen's distress at his injury. He doesn't apologise, though. CONTENT WARNINGS: Gore, in the various combat scenes. Also, when Elen thinks Geraint is almost dead, a dude gets frustrated and hits her. Geraint is generally not much of a shit to Elen in this episode, but he also doesn't apologise.
Geraint's dad calls him home to take over his kingdom, and after a few years of glorious tournaments, Geraint runs out of people to fight and slips into a life of decadent idleness. When Enid mourns this change in him, Geraint completely misinterprets her, decides she's cheating on him, and starts a new quest out of spite. CONTENT WARNINGS: Controlling relationship. Geraint decides (without evidence) that Enid is unfaithful, makes her go on a quest with him into the wilderness with basically no ...
In this episode, we begin the story of Geraint, who sleeps in on the morning of a hunt, and thus happens to be with Gwenhwyfar when she is seriously insulted by the attendant of a strange knight. He goes on a quest to confront the knight and avenge the insult...as soon he can borrow some armour. CONTENT WARNINGS: A character (who is unpleasant and rude) is described only as 'the dwarf' and is otherwise unnamed. Violence & Gore. Two characters approach a stranger to ask a question, and each a...
And now, for the second half of our live session! In our first story, from Sermones Feriales et Communes (a collection of fables from the sermons of a 12th century Frenchman), a monkey demonstrates its powers of discernment. In the second, from Il Trecentonovelle (14th century Italian), a disgruntled painter's apprentice tricks his master into thinking he is beset by demons in order to get a good night's sleep. In the third, also from Il Trecentonovelle, a painter makes a visual pun to mock a cl...
We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for a bonus LIVE episode, recorded with a group of friends to celebrate the anniversary of the podcast. Today's stories are from "Medieval Tales and Stories" a collection edited and translated by Stanley Appelbaum. The first, from the 14th century Italian collection Il Trecentonovelle, features a man whose glorious dreams were followed the next morning by an odiferous reality. The second, from Disciplina Clericalis, an 11th century Spanish collec...
In this, the final part of the tale of Peredur, a strange woman comes to Arthur's court, insults Peredur, and sends him on a quest. In the process, a lot of things happen that are left completely unexplained, but it seems to end well? CONTENT WARNINGS: The story begins with description of a woman of monstrous appearance, which dwells on her having black skin, being fat, and having various physical differences (e.g. 'back like a crutch'). Her appearance is never mentioned again, and she's not an ...
In this episode, Peredur finally gets his vengeance on Cai, joins Arthur's court, and immediately disappears on another quest. As usual, he defeats hundreds of knights (as well as two different monstrous serpents), assists many ladies, and rights many wrongs. CONTENT WARNINGS: In Peredur's fight with Cai, Cai is thrown from his horse and breaks his arm and collarbone. (He's fine.)
This episode, we begin another tale of an Arthurian knight - although this episode precedes his knighthood. Peredur, son of Efrog, is raised without knowledge of war or fighting, decides to become a knight, and proceeds to defeat absolutely everyone he encounters. CONTENT WARNINGS: Gore. In several fights, injuries are graphically described. Two characters are consistently referred to as 'the dwarf and she-dwarf', and there is implication they 'belonged' in some way to the protagonists father....
After three years happily married to the Lady of the Well, Owain is sought out by the knights of King Arthur, almost all of whom he defeats handily. Then, after another three year interlude, he descends into wildness, and gradually redeems himself through a series of vaguely connected adventures in which his ego trips him up, and an inexplicably devoted lion makes sure he survives. CONTENT WARNINGS: Gore. In various combat scenes there are vivid descriptions of serious injuries, including head w...
Today, we begin a new story, featuring Owain, one of King Arthur's knights. After a friend tells Owain how he went looking for an ass-kicking and got his ass kicked, Owain decides to try it for himself. CONTENT WARNINGS: Gore. When Owain summons the knight of the well and fights him, he gets him in the head with a sword, and it is described in great detail. Shortly after, he pursues the knight on horseback to a castle, and the portcullis coming down cuts Owain's horse in half....
In this episode, the members of Arthur's court continue to work on the impossible tasks set by Ysbaddaden Bencawr as a condition of Culhwch's marriage to Olwen - most notably, the hunt for the great boar Twrch Trwyth, which takes them all over the British Isles and involves an enormous number of previously unmentioned characters, most of whom die immediately. (After the end of the episode proper, there is a bonus fifteen minutes of me reciting a list of names that I courteously excised from the ...
Ysbaddaden Bencawr gives our hero Culhwch a list of forty impossible (or highly improbable) tasks he must complete before he will be allowed to marry Olwen. This takes the first fifteen minutes of the episode. After that, Culhwch's companions slay a giant to steal his sword, and get advice from a series of ancient animals to solve a missing persons case. CONTENT WARNINGS: A sub character was kidnapped as a newborn and is found by the protagonists, having been imprisoned his whole life....
This episode is the first of three parts telling the story of Culhwch, King Arthur's nephew, who is cursed to marry no-one other than Olwen, daughter of the great and terrible giant Ysbaddaden Bencawr. In this part, we hear Culhwch's backstory, his request for assistance from King Arthur, and meet various characters with weird superpowers that are never explained or returned to. WARNINGS: A lot of weird shit happens in this story. Culhwch's mother goes mad for the duration of the pregnancy, his ...
In today's story, Britain is afflicted with three plagues: an invasion by enemies who can hear whatever is spoken where the wind blows; a horrible scream every year that damages everyone's health; and the mysterious disappearance each night of all prepared food and drink in the king's court. The king, Lludd, consults his brother Llefelys, and with his advice, is able to remove these three oppressions from his kingdom. WARNINGS: The injuries caused by the horrible scream include spontaneous misca...
Welcome to Bitching about the Mabinogion! This season, we will be reading a set of approximately 12th to 14th century Welsh stories, with much more of a fairy tale vibe than the Decameron. In today's episode, we hear about an emperor of Rome, Macsen Wledig, who was inspired by a dream to seek out and marry Elen, a noble lady of northern Wales. CONTENT WARNING: Brief mention of genocide/mutilation. Near the end of the episode, two characters are taking a conquering army all over Europe. It is bri...
This is the longest and last episode of Bitching About The Decameron - but fear not! There will be a second season, with new stories to tell. This episode begins with some information about what's coming next, then has the last (and most fucked up) story of the Decameron (10.10), before concluding with the end of the frame tale and Giovanni's commentary on how anyone who doesn't like his work is welcome to skip it. If you do not want to listen to story 10.10 (and I don't blame you), I recommend ...
In this, the penultimate episode of Bitching About the Decameron, I summarise all of the stories I skipped, and why I skipped them, and discuss what that means for how we approach the text. WARNINGS: Mentions of domestic violence, violence against children, cruelty to animals, violence and physical assault in general, various kinds of non-violent rape (through deception, exploitation of power, etc), exploitation of trust, mention of slurs about the intellectually disabled. All of the above are m...
Today's story (10.9) is a lovely (if long) tale of chivalrous munificence, in which Saladin tours Europe disguised as a merchant, and encounters an incredibly generous and courteous knight. Later, when the same knight is captured in the crusades, Saladin recognises him and repays his generosity several times over. The lines between knightly brotherhood and courtly love are...a little blurred.
After skipping 10.6, this episode continues with two more stories on the theme of generosity. In 10.7, an apothecary's daughter falls in love with a king, and though she has no hope of requital, the king treats her kindly and honourably. In 10.8, set in the distant past of ancient Rome and Athens, a man falls in love with his best friend's betrothed, and the friend decides to help him marry her instead (not that they tell her about that). Much later, the strength of their friendship is once agai...
In this episode, two men decide not to demand sex from women they have power over, and are inexplicably praised for it. I get VERY bitchy about all this. In 10.4, a man goes to steal a kiss from the corpse of a woman who didn't requite his love, and discovers she is alive. In 10.5, a woman says she will sleep with a man if he does something impossible for her, and he actually manages it. CONTENT WARNINGS: Fortunately, not actual rape. However... In 10.4, intended kissing and groping of a corpse....
In the first story (10.2), a genteel highwayman captures an abbot, cures him of his illness, and lets him have his goods back when it's time to leave. In return, the abbot leaves the highwayman most of his goods, and puts in a good word for him with the pope. In the second story (10.3), a man seeking a reputation for generosity is stymied by the even more generous Nathan. When he goes to meet Nathan, he discovers that his generosity is even greater than the man's reputation suggested.
This episode sets a new record for stories NOT told. Skipping stories 9.5 (abuse of trust), 9.7 (gore), 9.8 (violence without cause), 9.9 (domestic violence), and 9.10 (too explicit), I tell only story 9.6 before moving on to day 10. In 9.6, four people in one tiny bedroom give a new meaning to bed-hopping. In 10.1, a worthy nobleman is offered a generous gift, only to be thwarted by his own bad luck.
