The Chronicles

7.When Arabs met Vikings

Tonicha Upham (Institute of Historical Research) joins us to discuss her research into medieval Islamic encounters with the vikings. This was a time where intellectuals in Baghdad or Isfahan thought of themselves as being at the centre of the world. How did these men of letters perceive the vikings, who passed through the sphere of the Caliphate’s influence as they followed the Volga river eastwards? How far were their notes on the strange customs of these foreigners based on real experiences, and how much was repetition of bookish learning without basis in reality?Tonicha also reminds us that while we might have a preoccupation with vikings today, Arabic sources generally included early medieval Scandinavians as one of many distant peoples in Northern and Eastern Europe, as well as subsaharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent.
The Chronicles is produced by Kirsi Tilk of Tilk Sonics - kirsitilk.com
Music by Kirsi Tilk
Funded by Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond

6.Weird Little Guys of the Anarchist Middle Ages

Lars Kjær (Northeastern University, London) joins us to discuss how he has been inspired by David Graeber and David Wengrow’s book, The Dawn of Everything. What happens when medieval history is interpreted not so much from the perspective of elites, but from the perspective of peasants and other commoners attempting to escape the power of their social betters? We talk about various forms of dissent – people who worshipped unauthorised saints, people who swore allegiance to the Queen of Fairy, or simply peasants who strategically grumbled their way out of disputes with their rulers. Can anarchist anthropologists like David Graeber or James C. Scott help us understand the “weird little guys” of the Middle Ages, that is to say, the inscrutable and sometimes eccentric peasants whose forms of protest now seem puzzling to us?
 
The Chronicles is produced by Kirsi Tilk of Tilk Sonics - kirsitilk.com
Music by Kirsi Tilk
Funded by Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond

5.Lactating Robots

Laura Katrine Skinnebach (CVM) presents her research into the automatons that medieval people both imagined and actually constructed. These included statues of Christ that bled, statues of Mary that expressed holy breast milk, and statues of Óðinn that answered riddles. Visitors to churches across medieval Europe would have frequently been confronted with statues which were something between giant marionettes and massive poseable action figures, and which could bleed, weep, gesticulate, and even speak. Laura introduces us to some of these ingenious contraptions of the Middle Ages. We ask where medieval thinkers drew the line between animate and inanimate – and how far ought we to think of these machines as forerunners of robots?
 
The Chronicles is produced by Kirsi Tilk of Tilk Sonics - kirsitilk.com
Music by Kirsi Tilk
Funded by Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond

4.The Memories of Snorri Sturluson

Yoav Tirosh (CVM) introduces the Icelandic polymath, Snorri Sturluson. Assassinated in his cellar in the year 1241 (his last words were supposedly “Don’t hit me!”), Snorri was a politician, a poet, a historian, a womaniser – and the man who wrote down most of the Old Norse mythology which survives today. But the pagan tales he recorded had ceased to be held as cosmological truths for two centuries by the time he was born.
Yoav explains the varying memories of Snorri Sturluson, both in the sense of the things he “recalled” from a time long before he was even born, and how Snorri is remembered today. Yoav also makes webcomics which you can find on most social media websites under the username @RealMundiRiki.
The Chronicles is produced by Kirsi Tilk of Tilk Sonics - kirsitilk.com
Music by Kirsi Tilk
Funded by Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond

3.Sex and the Caliphate

Pernilla Myrne (University of Gothenburg) tells us about her research into sexuality in the medieval Islamic world. A blend of influences – Arab, Greek, Persian to name just a few – combined during the middle of the eighth century to create a culture which tolerated diverse expressions of desire: men with men, women with men, temporary relationships as well as concubinage and marriage.Pernilla treats us to some spicy primary sources, translated from medieval Arabic and Persian. We also discuss the tensions concerning sexuality in the Caliphate; Not everybody was on board with the swinging 700s. In closing, we explore how this sexual permissiveness during the Middle Ages gave way to increasing conservatism during modernity, when colonial forces began to intrude into the territory which had once constituted the Caliphate.
The Chronicles is produced by Kirsi Tilk of Tilk Sonics - kirsitilk.com
Music by Kirsi Tilk
Funded by Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond
 

2.Does Neo-paganism have a Nazi problem?

Lukas Rösli (Humboldt-Universität) tells us about his research into neo-paganism: The religion that emerged in the early twentieth century, worshipping Viking Age gods such as Óðinn and Þórr. The people who first proposed this new faith were frequently associated with a right-wing ideology called Völkism. What was this ideology, and how did it end up providing the seedbed for a religion?Today neo-pagan movements range from the relatively tolerant to the overtly racist. Lukas offers us a deep dive into the modern desire to resurrect the historical religions of the Viking Age. How far can neo-paganism escape its troubling past?
 
The Chronicles is produced by Kirsi Tilk of Tilk Sonics - kirsitilk.com
Music by Kirsi Tilk
Funded by Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond
 

1.Reading Machiavelli, from Corporations to Climate Crisis

Adam Woodhouse (Robinson College, Cambridge) introduces us to the man behind a name which instantly evokes skulduggery and ruthless political effectiveness: Machiavelli. Adam takes us beyond the cliches to offer a picture of Machiavelli’s life, times, and ideas. Moreover, Adam highlights a neglected facet of Machiavelli’s thought: His notion of economic growth. If Machiavelli has a theory of growth, what might he have made of the modern proposal for de-growth? And how should we read an early sixteenth-century political philosopher today, in the age of the corporation?
 
The Chronicles is produced by Kirsi Tilk of Tilk Sonics - kirsitilk.com
Music by Kirsi Tilk
Funded by Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond

The Chronicles

The Chronicles is the podcast of the Centre for Viking and Medieval Studies at Aarhus University.Richard Cole (Director of the Centre, Associate Professor of Medieval History) discusses various chapters from the sweeping drama of the Middle Ages with leading experts in their fields.The Chronicles is produced by Kirsi Tilk of Tilk Sonics - kirsitilk.com, and was funded by the generous support of Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond.