Old Norse Literature

Greg Jenner is joined in 19th-century China by historian Professor Yangwen Zheng and comedian Sophie Duker to learn about the Qing dynasty ruler Empress Dowager Cixi.A contemporary of Queen Victoria, Cixi rose from low-ranked concubine to de facto ruler of China for nearly half a ...  Afficher plus

For our 150th episode, Greg Jenner is joined by historian Professor Iwan Morus and comedian Catherine Bohart to learn about the history of the telephone on its 150th anniversary.The inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, was granted the American patent for his new comm ...  Afficher plus

Vikings have long been depicted as that stereotype of the hairy, nameless warrior, leaping ashore from his longboat, ready to terrorise a hapless local population in a northern European country. But there were also seers, artisans, travellers, and writers, too whose stories ca ...

The saga of the legendary Viking Arrow-Odd contains trolls,ogres, giants, magic arrows, and a sorceress getting smacked in thenose. The mistakes of one Viking's past...or just a Viking being aViking, haunt him. There's a dangerous Viking teddy bear, and if anangry, famed warrior ...  Afficher plus

<div>This week, it's the Saga of Göngu-Hrolf, from Icelandic folklore. It starts with a king getting one, solitary, five-foot-long, apparently super attractive hair wrapped in a scarf...and only gets better from there. There are evil wizards belching (yes, belching) fire and pois ...  Afficher plus

In today’s episode, Tom and Dominic are joined by Dr Eleanor Barraclough as they sail across the Atlantic in a dragon-ship, bound for the epic world of the Norse sagas. What society did the Vikings set up in Iceland? How did they get to America? Why were they always so violent? ...  Afficher plus