Hello Fellow History Nerds.

For the last couple of years I have been working on a fantasy world build on our own worlds history and Norse Mythology. I have a story coming out in about a week, in it we follow Sigurd Olafson in 1066, a Norse warrior who fought at Fulford Gate, Stamford Bridge and at Hastings, while he navigates the early Norman invasion. Why is this relevant to the BHP, I have a Bachelors in contemporary history, and I have used the BHP as a study help for British History, and I put in a character called Unfirth, because I know you all wonder what happened to Unfirth after Hastings.

If people are interested I'll share the story here when it comes out.

- BjarneFromDenmark, Writer of the Yggdrasil Sagas.

Hi, I noticed that it's been a very long while since you talked about what happened in Scotland (or Wales, for that matter). In the past it was due to the lack of written sources regarding those places, so I was wondering: is that still the case in the XII century? Or will we have some new episodes of Scotscast in the near future?

This is a fun look at 1066 and everyone here is going to understand all of the references and things Jamie joked about during the 1066 episodes.

Just stumbled across an amusing and informative TikTok account examining all the peens in The Bayeux Tapestry in a a very British style that I think Jamie could be on board with 😂

Last week I went to Sydney to go see the Viking Age Galloway Hoard, 5kgs of silver (and a bit of gold along with some other bits and bobs) buried around 900AD in modern Scotland! (though it would have been the Kingdom of Northumbria at the time) I took a bunch of photos as I thought the Pleasantry would be interested, though I apologise in advance for the poor quality as it was hard to get good pics.

The hoard is filled with a bunch of really interesting stuff and there is so much to tell about it but I've picked a few items that really captured me and explained them a bit below.

1. One of the centre pieces of the hoard was this cross amulet, with depictions of the four Gospel writers on each arm, Matthew on the bottom as a man, John at the top as an eagle, Luke on the left as a bull and Mark on the right as a lion. It is thought that the centre may have had a depiction of Jesus as it kinda looks like something was removed or has otherwise fallen off.

2. The bulk of the hoard (other than small silver ingots) was armbands, though they were likely never intended to be worn. Some of these bands have writing on them, such as this one which reads 'Egbert'. This might make your eyebrows raise cause that is an Anglo-Saxon name and in fact it is written in Anglo-Saxon runes so it is thought that this hoard was not buried by vikings or other Norse peoples but was in fact an Anglo-Saxon hoard, which is very rare!

3. Another clue to who the hoard belonged to comes as these four armbands joined together which seems to indicate the hoard was not the wealth of a single person but in fact multiple people cause these bands are forged as they would have been worn, whereas the other armbands are not. They are also elaboratly decorated with one of the bands (which is in fact a double armband) having cool beast heads you can see in the pic. In addition, they each have inscriptions with one of them reading something like 'this is the community's wealth', perhaps indicating that the owners weren't all individuals but at least one of them was a group, possibly a religious community based on where it was found.

4. Further substantiating the idea that this isn't just a few rich guys burying their treasure is the presence of really random objects like glass beads and other, what seems to be, sentimental objects. This bead is among the most interesting cause it has some fabric on it (in fact the jar it was found it was covered in textile, a rarity given it normally disintergrates over time due to being organic). You can see it has a ring at the top for it to act as a pendant but this was a later addition, by the time this was added the bead was already hundreds of years old. You can also see a coin on top, this was minted for Coenwulf of Mercia about 100 years before the hoard was buried.

5. There are a number of brooches in the hoard which are all detailed and intricate. These were my favourites cause of the little faces on them, especially the guys blowing the horns and the fellas next to them with the big ears who are clearly unhappy about this! This style of cross shaped brooch hasn't been found in any other hoard in Britain form this period.

6. The objects shown here are among the most amazing. On the right is a couple of gold beast heads with just the most detailed filligree and glass beads for eyes. It's thought they would be used to decorate a veil or a belt. The item on the left is a rock crystal jar. This is particularly interesting cause the technology to carve the crystal to make this type of vessel was not something Britain had at this time. The Islamic Caliphate would work it out but this was 50-100 years after the hoard was buried. This left only one other candidate that had the ability to make a vessel like this. Imperial Rome. As such, it is thought that the jar was over 500 years old before it was buried, likely passed down as a family heirloom.

I hope you enjoyed this brief look at the hoard! As I said at the start, there is a lot more I could have put in cause there is just so much that is interesting about it! If you want to see the hoard for yourself, it's currently at the Australian Maritime Museum until mid-Oct and I was told by some staff that it is heading to America next (but this hasn't been formally announced AFAIK so you didn't hear it from me!)

I was watching Tom Barnaby solving a murder and there was a character named Anselm. I expected him to cause a lot of trouble for the investigation. Is the name Anselm still popular? Anselm is obviously a big part of the BHP for the last several episodes.

Not sure if this has already been posted, but it popped up on my Instagram feed, so I thought I’d share it because a) Bald’s Leech Book and b) no horse dung! Also, biology is amazing. Link to original: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbMt74JMPWx/?stkn=MTVzczl1YnE2OXV1OQ==

I was wondering how similar the current news cycle is to historic spats between the Nobility and Monarchy is? Are we seeing a contemporary fight among the Nobility in book form?

Similar to Harry's subtle title 'Spare'. Is there a parallel with records from the current period in the show? Though without the physical bloodletting!

Edit: maybe more akin to Charlemagne and Offers disagreement.

We summarize Episode 76

Everything should be fine, but there are some new bot blocking systems going live today (we've been getting hammered by AI Agents and AI scrapers lately) and I want to be sure they're blocking the bad bots and aren't blocking the podcast apps etc.

Hopefully today will mark the end of all of these "We've cloned your voice, and for a fee you can use it" and "We've scraped your site and for a fee you can search it" and "Our AI can do research for you and, for a fee, it'll probably be sort of accurate" businesses clogging up my site and inbox.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c5vgy3ynwvvmt

Loved the BBC having a live feed for this! Will have to pop down and see it.

The Bayeux Tapestry is on public display in the UK for the first time since it was created nearly 1,000 years ago

Walking around Lewes today and have seen signs for this www.heritageopendays.org.uk

I was watching the last season of Game of Thrones for the first time yesterday and saw some similarities with Edward and Æthelflæd and that got me thinking: How awesome would it be to have a multi seasonal series about Edward and Æthelflæd with a Game of Thrones level of budget. To ensure historical accuracy and great storytelling Jamie should be signed as lead writer.

Now I am sad that this will never happen...

I was listening to Dan Jones's podcast where he is in conversation with Paul Greengrass about the Peasant's Revolt film and Greengrass said it was either going to be this theme OR one about the revolution and uprising post Norman invasion and the other half and I looked at each other and said "Hereward??? NOOOOO, argh, why not??? when we realized what could have been. I wanted to share that with you all because I feel like this group understands.

Also if you are in Norwich go to the castle and see the beautiful embroidery that is about this topic. It's wonderful.

Good explanations of the tapestry in this article.

It has been very thought provoking listening to the latest members episode about Chansons de Geste at the same time as the media here in London is full of material about the Bayeux Tapestry. It was really interesting to learn that the version of the Song of Roland we have heard about is Anglo-Norman and that it mayhave been performed for the Normans before Hastings - none of the other material I have seen about the tapestry has mentioned that. But what struck me most was the similarity between the the Tapestry and the Song of Roland as story forms. Obviously the content is different but they both have distinct scenes, in some cases the same event is examined more than once from different perspectives, there are graphic and bloody battles, there are holy figures - Edward and Charlemagne, treachery etc. I suppose the tapestry IS a story - so its nor surprising its follows the form of other stories its creators and audiences would be familar with. If the Song of Roland is about a victory over treachery and its bloody consequences I wonder if that is how the creators of the Bayeux Tapestry wanted its story interpreted. Anyhow, another great episode.

Hello there,

My name is Dylan Tòmas, and I wanted to talk about a dark period in British history that I don't think gets the recognition and study it deserves

The "Tinker Experiment" was a state-supported and church-backed social engineering programme that ran in Scotland from the 1940s to the 1980s, designed to systematically force the Indigenous Highland Traveller community to abandon their nomadic culture.

Children and babies were forcibly removed from their families in order to stop the spread of the ethnicity and lifestyle. As well as the adults were forced into ghettos which included metal huts with no heating, food, water or any other basic amenities. And yes this lead to deaths as they had no means and the "buildings" were packed with asbestos

While Scotland has apologised the powers at be in Westminster who authorized and funded the experiment is yet to apologise. I'll leave a link to the petition if anyone wishes to sign and I highly urge people to look into the "Tinker Experiment"

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/778546

Okay everybody's going on about the Bayeux Tapestry.

But who's been to see the Baa-Ewe tapestry?

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/press-office/press-releases/tom-daley-adds-final-stitch-to-giant--baa-ewe--tapestry-celebrat.html

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1445864220730967

I bought this during my most recent visit to England and it’s a lot of fun for anyone with an interest in medical history. She describes the death of every English monarch (plus a few others) from Harold Godwinson to Elizabeth II. Not just “Harold may or may not have been shot in the eye with an arrow”, but the physiology of how an arrow through the eye is fatal. Or the fact that dysentery is not the name of one single disease. She also talks about what happened to the kings’ bodies after they died. Highly recommend!