The Modern Scholar: Medieval Mysteries

The History Behind the Myths of the Middle Ages

By: Professor Thomas F. Madden

Narrated by: Professor Thomas F. Madden

Length: 4 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

The Middle Ages is not only a period of Romance, but of legends, tales, and mysteries. In this course, Professor Thomas F. Madden guides listeners through the most famous and enduring narratives of medieval Europe. Beginning with King Arthur, Professor Madden peels back layers of exaggeration and fiction to lay bare the historical basis for the mythical 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.

©2014 Thomas F. Madden (P)2014 Crescite Group, LLC

Quirky. Entertaining. Mystery

Madden is always enjoyable. This audible series is especially good because he starts off with the actual facts, say, what is truly known about King Arthur, and then carefully unspools what happened to the facts as various storytellers embellished the original scanty details.

The vast number of books, poems, and movies about Robin Hood began with a few tales of a thief, who was happy to take from the rich but had not the slightest inclination to give to the poor. And Friar Tuck? Mendicant monks like Tuck didn't even exist in the era of King Richard.

Some of the Medieval myths were just that, myths. Chastity belts? Never existed, although various Enlightenment era authors, such as Diderot in his "Encyclopedia" insisted that they did.

George Gershwin's famous line, 'They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round" was ...completely false. Enlightenment figures wanted to believe the worst of the Medieval era. One famous person in America who actually pushed the everyone-thought-the-earth-was-flat lie was Thomas Jefferson.

interesting

You should probably read if you're interested in learning about Medieval period. Well read, I was reading it in part because I was joining the SCA and needed to have a better grasp... basic argument is that the Medieval period is unfairly viewed because most of what we know about it is from Renaissance writers who critical of it and a lot of what we thought went on then didn't.

That said, I've yet to read a second source that agrees with this guys arguments

Your mileage will vary

This book comprises 8 30 minute lectures which seek to investigate some of the more well known

myths/isteries/legends of the middle ages.

The topics include; king Arthur, the Holy Grail, Witchcraft and the Inquisition, pope Joan, chastity belts,

Robin Hood, the Flat Earth and the Shroud of Turin.

Each lecture introduces us to the topic, spends some time deconstructing/investigating its veracity and

then goes on to describe how the myth or mistery evolved over time.

Naturally, the more you know about any of these topics then the less you will get out of them, since each

lecture is only 30 minutes long.
Personally I know quite a lot about the legends of king Arthur and Robin hood and am quite familiar with

the inquisition. Therefore I found these lectures less interesting than other such as the one on pope

Joan, who I had never heard of before.

The lecturers style is interesting and engaging, though at times it could tend to be a bit on the dry side.

The book is a short, light listen with enough nuggets of information to hold your attention.

Prof. Madden, professional and knowledgeable.

Every time I have listened to Prof. Madden it has been consistently professional, knowledgeable and also engaging. Even though by his delivery it is obvious that he doesn't know how to be purposefully engaging. Somehow he pulls it off, and comes across in a way that I really like, but can't quite put my finger on the exact reason why.

Also, "Venice: A New History" is great stuff. Definitely the best researched work on Venice, maybe ever. But what do I know.

¡Great Course!. Congratulations.

Clear and concise. Very well explained. Easy to follow. Surprising the disinformation about the Medieval Times.

The world needs more courses like this!

It is wonderful to finally come across a scholar who has researched so many bogus claims/common misconceptions regarding things like the Spanish Inquisition, accusations that "The Church" burned thousands of witches in the Middle Ages, and flat-out lies (pun intended) that everyone thought the world was flat until "Columbus proved it was round" (a belief which boggles the mind when considering the fact that it was proved to be round by ancient Greeks using multiple different methods and this was accepted as fact by every known civilization since that time - approximately 2,400 years ago!).

Nice

Nice as an intro to several topics, but too brief to get into any depth. Glad I listened. Now I'll look into some of the topics more throughly.

Good content, good information - I think

If you could sum up The Modern Scholar: Medieval Mysteries in three words, what would they be?

good content, information

Did Thomas F. Madden do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Not relevant here

Any additional comments?

The mysteries he selects to talk about are interesting topics and if I had to guess, I think he gave good information about them. Much of the history comes from primary sources and I am always impressed with that. I can only believe it because it makes sense. I have never been able to believe that chastity belts were a real thing!

Reality Check

Some of these lectures, like the ones on King Arthur, Robin Hood, and the Holy Grail, are illuminating, enjoyable journeys to better understanding. Others, like the lectures on Pope Joan, chastity belts, and the Medieval (as opposed to the Spanish) inquisition, while just as illuminating and enjoyable, will probably rock the world of anyone invested in popular misconceptions.

Professor Madden is a superb writer – just listen to the first chapter of his history of Venice. But at the podium he is less than stellar. He knows his stuff and his perspective runs refreshingly counter to conventional wisdom, so he is well worth your time. But the listening can get a little trying.

An interesting lecture series

A, fairly brief series of lectures on medieval mysteries and myths. Each half hour chapter covers a different topic none really new to me, nor were the elements of the mysteries but they were still presented a very engaging and interesting way. Before I retired, I taught history and I would always look for a little bit of information or trivia that could be added into a class, and this series certainly would have allowed me to add many interesting little tidbits.