Bitching about Medieval Literature

Bitching about Medieval Literature is a podcast that reads medieval literature in translation with accompanying commentary, complaints, explanatory notes, and, well...bitching. In season 1, we read The Decameron, a 14th century Italian story collection set during the Black Death. In season 2, we read a collection of 12th-14th century Welsh stories that draw on folklore, Arthuriana, and Celtic mythology. There's also bonus episodes!

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Episodes

In those clothes, you look just like my dead husband!

In this episode, we embark upon the second day of the Decameron, which has the theme of 'people who get into trouble, then have an unexpected stroke of good fortune'. Our two stories (2.1, 2.2) describe a guy who pretends to be paralysed, gets the shit beaten of him, and then gets out of trouble because a rich guy thinks he's funny; and a guy who gets robbed and left for dead on a snowy night, before a widow takes mercy on him and gives him a hot bath, a good supper, and a 'satisfying' night. CO...

May 05, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 7

Unjustified Deduction From Leeks

In this episode, we bring Day 1 of The Decameron to its conclusion with stories 1.8, 1.9, and 1.10. Hear about a miser shamed into virtuous wall-art, a cowardly king turned vengeful by a noblewoman's bitching, and an old dude who justified his crush with an argument about the best way to eat a leek. You can also hear about fourteenth century gift culture, changing attitudes to tolerant rulers, courtly love, and my impatience with Pampinea as she (once again) is a mouthpiece for Giovanni's bad at...

Apr 28, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 6

"A Sitting Target of Evil"

This episode features a record-setting FOUR stories (1.4-1.7), with hypocritical abbots, lecherous kings, miserly friars, and uncharacteristically parsimonious princes all being set in their place by appropriately deployed wit. Also misogyny, and a weird bit of dialogue about chickens... CONTENT WARNING: The first story in this episode (running from 1:30-9:40) has some issues with sexual coercion (not that Giovanni seems to notice). A character who agrees to sex with one guy gets trapped with an...

Apr 21, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 5

From the Mouths of Jews

In the second and third stories from Day 1, Boccaccio uses learned and virtuous Jews as mouthpieces for controversial statements about religion: first, that the entire Papal Court is full of shitbags, and second, that Jews, Muslims, and Christians all have equal reason to think they've got the right of it. Meanwhile, I drop in a lot of comments with remembered tidbits from my time studying medieval history at uni, and my cat makes her presence known.

Apr 14, 2020•22 min•Season 1Ep. 4

Mister Little-Hat

At last, we hear our first story: how an utterly reprehensible person lied so thoroughly in his last confession that an entire town became convinced he was a saint.

Apr 07, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 3

A Plot Device Appears!

In this episode, we meet the protagonists of our frame tale: seven young women and three young men, who decide to hide out from the plague in a palace outside the city. The organisation of this venture, for some reason, requires several lengthy speeches that don't so much 'betray' Giovanni's misogyny as 'parade' it...and after a while, I quite lost patience with him.

Mar 31, 2020•17 min•Season 1Ep. 2

The Prologue

In which Giovanni Boccaccio tells us why he is writing this story, that the beginning is going to be miserable but worth it, and regales us with details of the Black Death in Florence that cannot possibly be omitted (in his opinion). Meanwhile, we complain about his attitudes towards women and his miserable beginning.

Mar 24, 2020•16 min•Season 1Ep. 1

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