MDT Ep. 73: Concerning a Mouse and a Frog

MDT Ep. 73: Concerning a Mouse and a Frog

Author: Medieval Death Trip May 28, 2019 Duration: 1:02:48
This episode, we turn to another genre of wisdom literature: the fable. We look at four versions of the fable of the Mouse and the Frog from across one-and-a-half millennia, with quasi-classical versions from the Vita Aesopi and the Romulus Aesop and medieval elaborations on the story by Marie de France and Robert Henryson. Today's Texts: Life of Aesop. Translated by Anthony Alcock, Roger-Pearse.com, 4 Aug. 2018, https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2018/08/14/life-of-aesop-translated-by-anthony-alcock/. "The Mouse and the Frog." The Comedies of Terence and The Fables of Phædrus, translated by Henry Thomas Riley, George Bell & Sons, 1891, p. 456. Google Books. Marie de France. "The Mouse and the Frog." The Fables of Marie de France, translated by Mary Lou Martin, Summa Publications, 1984, pp. 36-42. Henryson, Robert. "The Taill of the Paddok and the Mous." The Poems and Fables of Robert Henryson, edited by David Laing, William Paterson, 1865. Google Books. References: Adrados, Francisco Rodríguez. History of the Graeco-Latin Fable. Translated by Leslie A. Ray, vol. 1, Brill, 1999. Daly, Lloyd W., translator and editor. Introduction. Aesop Without Morals, Thomas Yoseloff, 1961, pp. 11-26. Fox, Denton, editor. The Poems of Robert Henryson. Clarendon Press, 1981. Kiser, Lisa J. "Resident Aliens: The Literary Ecology of Medieval Mice." Truth and Tales: Cultural Mobility and Medieval Media, edited by Fiona Somerset and Nicholas Watson, Ohio State UP, 2015, pp. 151-167. Academia.edu, www.academia.edu/11171687/Resident_Aliens_The_Literary_Ecology_of_Medieval_Mice. Jacobs, Joseph. The Fables of Aesop. Vol. 1, History of the Æsopic Fable, 1889, Burt Franklin, 1970. Mann, Jill. From Aesop to Reynard: Beast Literature in Medieval Britain. Oxford UP, 2009. Martin, Mary Lou. Introduction. The Fables of Marie de France, translated by Mary Lou Martin, Summa Publications, 1984, pp. 1-30. O'Connor, Flannery. "Writing Short Stories." Mystery and Manners, FSG, 1970, pp. 87-106. Skillen, Anthony. "Aesop's Lessons in Literary Realism." Philosophy, vol. 67, no. 260, Apr. 1992, pp. 169-181. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3751449. [Greek text of the fable in the Vita Aesopi, Ch. 21:] Vita Aesopi. Edited by Antonius Westermann, Williams and Norgate, 1845, p. 54. Google Books. [Romulus Latin Text in:] "Mus et Rana." Phaedri Fabularum Aesopiarum libri quinque, quales omni parte illustratos publicavit Joann. Gottlob. Sam. Schwabe. Accedunt Romuli Fabularum Aesopiarum libri quatuor, quibus novas Phaedri Fabellas cum notulis variorum et suis subjunxit, edited by J. B. Gail, vol. 2, 2nd ed., N.E. Lemaire, 1826, p. 386. Google Books. Music by Chris Lane.

Step into the strange and vivid world of the Middle Ages with Medieval Death Trip. Each episode is built around a single primary source-a chronicle, a poem, a letter, or a legal record-that reveals something peculiar, grim, or wonderfully unexpected from the period. The chosen texts are the real draw, offering unmediated glimpses into a mindset that can feel both alien and strangely familiar. You’ll hear about bizarre miracles, brutal justice, mystical visions, and the quiet, odd details of daily life that history books often overlook. After presenting the document in full, the host provides context and personal reflections, piecing together what the story might tell us about the people who wrote it and the world they inhabited. This isn’t a dry academic lecture; it’s more like a guided tour through the archives, pointing out the bloodstains and the marginal doodles with equal fascination. The podcast lives in the intersection of several genres, pulling from history, literature, and cultural study to examine how medieval people made sense of their reality. Listening feels like uncovering a series of forgotten artifacts, each one a conversation starter about belief, violence, humor, and humanity. For anyone curious about history’s shadowy corners and the raw, unfiltered voices of the past, this series provides a consistently engaging and thought-provoking journey. The approach is both serious and accessible, treating these centuries-old accounts with respect while never shying away from their inherent strangeness. Tune in for a deep dive into the archives, one unsettling and fascinating story at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Medieval Death Trip
Podcast Episodes
MDT Ep. 94: Helmbrecht v Sheriff: Eve of Justice [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:31
This episode we conclude the story of the peasant lad who spurned a humble farming life to go off live the high life with a robber knight and, as we shall see, did not ultimately get the life he expected. Here is the fin…
MDT Ep. 93: Helmbrecht Returns, or The Dark Robber Knight [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:13:24
We continue with Part 2 (of 3) of the 13th-century peasant epic Meier Helmbrecht, in which Helmbrecht returns to his family after a year as squire to a robber knight, and cultures clash accordingly. Today's Text: Wernher…
MDT Ep. 92: Helmbrecht Begins, or How to Become a Robber Knight [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:08
In this episode we learn how important good hair is to becoming a medieval cattle rustler with part one of the 13th-century poem Meier Helmbrecht. Today's Text: Wernher der Gartenaere. Meir Helmbrecht. In Peasant Life in…
MDT Ep. 91: Concerning Wage Warfare after the Plague [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:39
This episode, we follow up on a question from Ep. 90 about why the wandering worker Thomas Fuller might have fallen in with a criminal shepherd by looking at a pair of vagrancy and labor laws from the economically disrup…
MDT Ep. 90: Medieval True Crime IV: In the Shadow of the Gallows Pole [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:01
We finish off our Medieval True Crime miniseries with a look at two hangings from the year 1484 and explore some of the practices surrounding and meanings of hanging as a mode of execution in medieval Europe. Today's Tex…
MDT Ep. 89: Interview with a Devil [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:11
In this (belated) episode marking our seventh anniversary, we learn about the infernal realms, straight from the devil's mouth, going from a 11th-century Old English text to the 16th-century stage. We also learn why you…
MDT Ep. 88: Concerning the Plight of the Paterfamilias [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:35
In this slightly belated Father's Day episode, we return to the snarky wit of Walter Map as he explains why it's so hard to be the man of the house. Today's Text Map, Walter. De Nugis Curialium. Translated by Montague R.…
MDT Ep. 87: Medieval True Crime III: Death in the Countryside [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:56
We return from an unplanned semester hiatus with the third installment of our Medieval True Crime miniseries, continuing to explore the 13th-century coroner's rolls of rural Bedfordshire (plus one item from 14th-century…
MDT Ep. 86: Concerning the Meaning of Stones [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:52
As we kick off the New Year, we take a brief diversion from our Medieval True Crime miniseries to explore the world of precious stones and the extraordinary properties attributed to them through a look at the Lapidary of…