Medieval Mysteries: The History Behind the Myths of the Middle Ages

by Thomas F. Madden

Madden guides listeners through the most famous and enduring narratives of medival Europe. Beginning with King Arthur, Professor Madden peels back layers of exaggeration and fiction to lay bare the historical basis for the mythological king. Madden then examines myths of the medieval church, sexual myths of the Middle Ages, and myths about Robin Hood and the Shroud of Turin, all the time imparting an understanding of just what medieval people thought about their planet.
Contents: King Arthur: man vs. myth -- Medieval and modern mysteries of the Holy Grail -- A female Pope? The myth and legends of Pope Joan -- Burn them all: witches and inquisitors in the Middle Ages -- Medieval sexual myths: chastity belts and the Lord's "right of first night" -- Splitting arrows: the history and myth of Robin Hood -- Sailing off the edge of the world: the myth of the flat Earth -- Is the Shroud of Turin a Medieval forgery?

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Historical, Medieval, Mythology, Essays

4 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Thomas F. Madden (born 1960) is an American historian, the Chair of the History Department at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, and Director of Saint Louis University's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

He is considered one of the foremost historians of the Crusades in the United States. He has frequently appeared in the media, as a consultant for various programs on the History Channel and National Public Radio.

In 2007, he was awarded the Haskins Medal from the Medieval Academy of America, for his book Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice, which was also a "Book of the Month" selection by the BBC History magazine.

Reviews

[Amina (ⴰⵎⵉⵏⴰ) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it!!! Huge amount of information and pretty much a lot of surprises.
From the Holy Grail to the Shroud of Turin, going through the Chastity Belt, Inquisition, wiches and other myths, Pr. Madden knows how to do things, the organisation was neat, the way he linked the lectures was perfect and his voice's great, it captivates the listener and doesn't cause him sleep.

[Michael Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good lectures and good historical reasoning here, but on other topics the arguments were weaker. The 8 lectures summarized (in my words) based on Dr. Madden's views:

1. King Arthur - who knows if Arthur was even real, mostly covers the legendary stories. (See Dorsery Armstrong's Great Courses series for more of the real King Aurthur evidence.)
2. Holy Grail - an easy myth to debunk
3. Pope Joan - according to Professor Madden, the written evidence comes too late to make this believable, even though everyone believed it in the middle ages, including the popes, and they had two thrones with holes in them to check for male genitals afterwards which popes sat on in front of ALL the cardinals, and popes early on avoided the shunt way where Joan was supposedly killed. But this story can't possibly be true because those Protestants used it to insult the later Papacy!
4. Witches and inquisitors - witches were no big deal and later Protestants are at fault for burning witches. Roman Catholics are good, the inquisition turns out to be a good thing and everyone really enjoyed inquisitors coming to their town!!
5. Medieval sexual myths: chastity belts and the Lord's "right of first night" - a good lecture with plenty of historical proof debunking these myths.
6. Robin Hood - Madden says we can't know much, mostly stories. Yet people were mentioning and singing of Robin Hood very early after he may not have existed.
7. Flat Earth - the best lecture in the series, showing how silly this myth is and how bad our education system is for teaching such things.
8. Shroud of Turin - Professor Madden says he cannot even debunk this one. Methinks his pro-Catholic beliefs have influenced him in this regard. Whereas Pope Joan, Arthur, and Robin Hood do not have enough early written historical evidence to convince Madden, the Shroud of Turin is very possible in his eyes, even though a letter written 34 years after it was brought to France indicates it to be a fake. While there is no evidence suggesting this to be of pre-medieval origin, he leaves it open to actually being so.

[The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who would have known? Chastity belts did not actually exist. Neither did the "right of the first night." (Remember in "Braveheart" how feudal lords reserved the right to de-flower any peasant girl on her wedding day?) Medieval people did not believe that the world was flat, and neither did they worry that you would sail off the edge if you sailed too far out. Even the ancients knew that. They could tell from the way a ship disappears bottom-first as it sails into the horizon. Also because the earth casts a circular show onto the moon during solar eclipses. Christopher Columbus was not laughed at because he thought the world was round, but because he thought the world was smaller than it actually was. And they were right to laugh at him because his calculations were wrong! Had the Americas not existed, his crew would have starved to death before reaching Asia. The Inquisition did not condemn Galileo for thinking that the world was round, but because he was making claims about the heliocentric nature of the solar system without sufficient scientific proof (although he was right anyway). Moreover, the medieval Inquisition was created to "save lives." Prior to its establishment, suspected heretics were executed by the state without the involvement of the Church and without a fair trial. Since every European, with the exception of the Jewish minority, was Catholic, and unity depended on this, the state equated heresy with treason. In an attempt to moderate this, the Church created the Inquisition to ensure that condemned heretics were not just poorly catechized Catholics, but true heretics; and if they were true heretics, to give them an opportunity to return to the fold. The worst penalty that the Church could impose was excommunication. It could not sentence people to death; only the state could do so. Should the heretic refuse to repent, the Inquisition would hand him over to the state for sentencing. But it was the state that sentenced people. Moreover, the "iron maiden" and other horrific torture devices that we so often hear about did not actually exist in the middle ages. Finally, medieval people did not really believe in witches! The persecution of witches started in the early modern era, and it was more prominent in Protestant countries. So where do all these myths about the middle ages come from? The "Enlightenment"! The people behind the French Revolution hated the past and looked for any opportunity to paint medieval people as foolish and ignorant. And it worked! Do you think that people who lived in the past were stupid just because they lived in the past? Then maybe you're the stupid one!

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and interesting myth-busting. I had no idea the Welsh created King Arthur and that most chastity belts are forgeries because people really wanted medieval chastity belts to be real. I found it sobering to understand how the main figures of the Renaissance were so willing to dismiss their elders.

[Jan Chlapowski Söderlund · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the book.

This is an audiobook/lecture read by professor Thomas Madden. This is the second work by him that I have the pleasure of consuming (previously I have listened to Empire of Gold : A History of the Byzantine Empire, which is also recommendable). T.M. reads in a pleasant way and with an undertone of pedagogical amusement.

In "Medieval mysteries", T.M. sets out to clarify several beliefs we have regarding medieval times. The lectures might just as well be called "Medieval myth busters". Interesting and matter-of-fact, I feel I have a better knowledge about the Medieval World than before (this epoch is on my to-do-list with regards to knowledge). What I did not like about the book, was that it mainly concerned itself with mythological beliefs of the English-speaking world - like for instance King Arthur or Robin Hood, which to my Scandinavo-Slavic upbringing were peripheral to say the least. The other topics like flat-earth, the Inquisition, female pope, sexuality, shroud of Turin etc were very interesting and clarifying.

The main take-home message for me, was that many of our current beliefs about Medieval knowledge/opinions are fabrications by Renaissance people, in an attempt to make themselves look more intelligent and progressive than their immediate ancestors.

Recommendable!

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable series to listen to. The author seemed familiar, and I realized that I had listened to a similar myth-busting series by him on the Templars, The Lost Warriors of God. These various myths were all largely known to me, but it fun hearing him explain how the ideas evolved and changed with time, and just tearing apart stupid ideas that have persisted too long. I like how he brings up a point that I've seen in my own studies of history, that the Enlightenment is really to blame for many of our misconceptions of Medieval Europe, since the intellectuals of that period so wanted to set themselves apart from what they saw as the barbarism of the past that they invented lies about it, which have come to be accepted as truth.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting lectures debunking myths that still are believe to this day, from the stories of King Arthur and Robin Hood to the fictions of chastity belts and Holy Grail. I suspect Madden would be a fun professor to sit in class with, though this era was not my fondest when I was in school (though I have several medievalist friends). Much of the material I had at least heard before, though there were a few parts I was unfamiliar with. The one part that really caught my interest, however, were the Cathars. I need to read more about them.

[Joseph St Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick yet authoritative overview of a variety of medieval “myths”. Fascinatingly a lot of medieval pseudo-history was invented in the ‘Age of Reason’ often as jokes that caught on with popular audiences that enjoyed hearing about wacky medieval people. People did not believe the Earth was flat, “chastity belt” was just a medieval metaphor, and any “right of the first night” would have sounded bonkers to a medieval audience. So, this was an enjoyable read from which I felt I learned a good amount.

[Lori Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting history on medieval myths such as King Arthur, the female Pope Joan, chastity belts and Shroud of Turin (to name a few). Since many people think these are true stories, this was very informative on why these legends persist. Having seen a chastity belt in one of the mentioned museums, I was surprised to find out that it was probably a modern fake and these belts weren't/couldn't be used.

[Kalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. Fun little set of lectures.

[Zina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and informative although way too short lectures about several medieval myths.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

fun and interesting

[Ryk Stanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and exactly what I needed.

[Billy Sheppard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fine set of lectures that will bring Medieval history back to light.

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun little course. Think of it as the sort of thing you would see on the History Channel. The difference is the topics are discussed by a scholar who is an authority in his field.

It is light but well done.

[Melinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't enjoy this one as much as others by this lecturer. Seemed a little more preachy? More swung towards the christian-side, less balanced. eg: quick to dismiss myths like King Arthur, Pope Joan, chastity belts, Robin Hood - sometimes citing that they were only found in literary tomes, they were written too long after the fact, based on oral tradition, or there was too much magic..etc...and yet really,

the Bible a) was written way after Jesus, b) lots of magical thought in walking on water, c) oral history all through the bible stories.

Nothing really wrong with this series - just found that it wasn't as balanced as his previous works

[Cat. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. Got me back to thinking about Medieval History and how much of that period is completely misunderstood today. Everything from Robin Hood to the Shroud of Turin--which shouldn't even be in the same discussion, the author notes because one is provably made up while the other still has the potential for being proven "real"--and all the other legendary things that came out of the Middle Ages, most of it is just not factual.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erudite and revealing, Maddens work really illuminates these "mysteries" in an intelligent and orderly manner. Madden may ruin your presuppositions on everything from The Shroud of Turin to The Holy Grail but he does so in a calm, reasonable manner. Great for the scholar.

[Caleb Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable listen, Madden gets to the heart of these myths succinctly, but in not too light on information. Well done Dr Madden! Worth a listen.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting background on King Arthur, Robin Hood, chastity belts, flat earth, Shroud of Turin, and more.