The Maniculum Podcast

What did a year of farming look like in a medieval village, and what happens when a group of adventurers come into town during harvest season? This week, we explore the yearly ups and downs of farming in a medieval village, and the various reasons that an adventuring party might be called upon to help — or hinder — the lord and his fields.

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Citations & References

Gies, Frances & Joseph. Life in a Medieval Village. Harper & Row, 1990. 

Anderson, James. “An Account of the Lammas Festival, As It Uſed to Be Celebrated in Mid Lothian about the Middle of the Eighteenth Century." The Literary Magazine and British Review, vol. 11, 1793, pp. 277–80. Link.

Bennett, Judith M. Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women's Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600. Oxford UP, 1996.

Bright, James W., editor. “The Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan.” Bright’s Anglo-Saxon Reader, revised by James R. Hulbert, Henry Holt and Company, 1948. pp. 38–44.

Ellis, Penny. “Medieval Thoralby.” Thoralby Through Time. Link.

Graeber, David. Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Melville House, 2011.

Historic England. Medieval Settlements: Introductions to Heritage Assets. Historic England, 2018. Link. [A great PDF introduction.]

The Middle English Compendium. University of Michigan. Link. [Note: this site often goes down.]

Ray, T.J. “Feudal Terminology.” T.J. Ray: The Eclectic Eccentric. Link.

Ray, T.J. “Manorial Language.” T.J. Ray: The Eclectic Eccentric. Link.

Terminology & Spelling

autumn works

by-law

fallow

furlong

glean

harvest boon

Hocktide

Lammas 

meadow

pannage

rogation day

Shrove Tuesday 

stubble

terra nullius

waste

What happens when the damsel in distress is really the one setting the trap? Erec and Enide continue to defy medieval stereotypes in this episode as Enide deals with a churlish knight who takes a liking to her, luring him into a "rescue" from Erec, only to spring an ambush on him in the end. Join us as we cross-examine this perfect questing encounter and a fantastic example of medieval romance defying our modern expectations.

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Citations & References

Blaisdell, Foster W., and Marianne E. Kalinke, translators. Erex Saga and Ívens Saga. U Nebraska Press, 1977.

Chrétien de Troyes. “Erec and Enide.” The Complete Romances of Chrétien de Troyes, translated by David Staines, Indiana UP, 1993, pp. 1–86.

Davies, Sioned, translator. The Mabinogion. Oxford UP, 2007. Oxford World’s Classics.

Gantz, Jeffrey, translator. The Mabinogion. Dorset Press, 1976.

Guest, Charlotte, translator. The Mabinogion. 1877. J. M. Dent & Sons, 1906. Everyman’s Library.

Hartmann von Aue. Erec. Translated by Michael Resler, U Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

Hartmann von Aue. Erec. Translated by Thomas L. Keller, Garland Publishing, 1987. Garland Library of Medieval Literature (Series B) 12.

Thomson, Robert L, editor. Ystorya Gereint uab Erbin. School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies / Dundalgan Press, 1997. Medieval and Modern Welsh Series 10.

Terminology & Spelling

baldachin

Bolvin

Guivret / Guivrez / Guimar / Gwiffred

Milon

Nivelles

Pulchra

Ruodlieb

sorrel

St. Gertrude’s Love

Y Brenin Bychan

The Voynich Manuscript has been a curiosity and mystery for hundreds of years — what can its strange history teach us about worldbuilding? This week, we’re joined by Lisa Fagin Davis, one of the world’s experts on this enigmatic text. Come along as we discuss the history of the text, its creation and contents, and how the sciences and humanities can come together using tools like latent semantic analysis to discover the nature of untranslatable texts.

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Get your copy of Marginal Worlds, a deck of 50 magic items pulled directly from medieval manuscripts, built for any TTRPG system here!

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Citations & References

Bowern, Claire. “Voynich.” Yale University CampusPress. Link. [List of Claire Bowern’s publications on the Voynich manuscript.]

Davis, Lisa Fagin, and Colin Layfield. “Singulion Structure and the Voynich Manuscript.” Digital Medievalist, vol. 19, 2026. DOI.

Davis, Lisa Fagin. “The World’s Most Mysterious Manuscript.” Manuscript Road Trip, 17 January 2015. Link. [Blog post with an image of the comic page mentioned.]

Guzy, Stefan. “Book Transactions of Emperor Rudolf II, 1576–1612: New Findings on the Earliest Ownership of the Voynich Manuscript.” Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Voynich Manuscript 2022 (VOY2022), edited by Colin Layfield and John Abela, CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 2023.

Voynich Manuscript. Circa 1401-1599?, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New Haven, Connecticut, Beinecke MS 408 1. Link.

The Voynich Manuscript. Edited by Raymond Clemens, Yale UP, 2016.

The Voynich Ninja. https://www.voynich.ninja/

Zandbergen, René. The Voynich Manuscript. https://voynich.nu/

We return to crafting a fantasy medieval village! This week, we cover a few staples: medicine, food, and death. What sort of medicines and ailments were common in a medieval village, and how did they handle death, whether it be from age or an accident? How can you add these details to your fantasy world to create a grounded, realistic feel, or use it in a quest and plot?

Join our discord community!

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Get your copy of Marginal Worlds, a deck of 50 magic items pulled directly from medieval manuscripts, built for any TTRPG system here!

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Citations & References

Gies, Frances & Joseph. Life in a Medieval Village. Harper & Row, 1990.

Ellis, Penny. “Medieval Thoralby.” Thoralby Through Time. Link.

Historic England. Medieval Settlements: Introductions to Heritage Assets.s Historic England, 2018. Link. [A great PDF introduction.]

Kondelik, Vicki J. Review of Portraits of the Vestal Virgins, Priestesses of Ancient Rome, by Molly M. Lindner. Lost in the Stacks, 28 March 2017, University of Michigan. Accessed 22 August 2026. Link.

The Middle English Compendium. University of Michigan. Link. [Note: this site often goes down.]

Ray, T.J. “Feudal Terminology.” T.J. Ray: The Eclectic Eccentric. Link.

Ray, T.J. “Manorial Language.” T.J. Ray: The Eclectic Eccentric. Link.

This week, we are thrilled to host Muna and Leila Salloum, two scholars and chefs who introduce us to the medieval Arab world and its many culinary delights. As the European Middle Ages got under way, the Arab world was experiencing a Golden Age — a hub of trade, knowledge, and peoples through which many new foodstuffs and customs travelled to Europe.

Apologies for the audio quality; there were multiple overlapping technical difficulties during the recording of this episode.

Sources for some specific points, found in the bibliography below:

the musician Ziryab, who comes up multiple times in the episode, is mentioned in ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah .

the source that credits al-Jahshiyari with the compilation of the Thousand Nights and a Night is ibn al-Nadim’s Fihrist .

the quotation about Cordoba being the “gem of the world” is from Hrosvitha’s “Pelagius” ( clarum decus orbis , line 12).

ibn Firnas’s experiments with unpowered flight are mentioned in al-Maqqari’s Breath of Perfume .

al-Jazari’s status as “father of robotics” comes from the automata described in his Book of Knowledge .

Join our discord community!

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Get your copy of Marginal Worlds, a deck of 50 magic items pulled directly from medieval manuscripts, built for any TTRPG system here!

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Citations & References

Works by our guests

Salloum, Habeeb, Leila Salloum Elias, and Muna Salloum. The Scent of Pomegranate and Rosewater: Reviving the Beautiful Food Traditions of Syria. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018.

Salloum, Habeeb, Muna Salloum, and Leila Salloum Elias. Scheherazade’s Feasts: Foods of the Medieval Arab World. U Pennsylvania Press, 2013.

Salloum, Habeeb, Muna Salloum, and Leila Salloum Elias. Sweet Delights from a Thousand and One Nights: The Story of Traditional Arab Sweets. I. B. Tauris, 2013.

Salloum Elias, Leila, and Muna Salloum. Celestial Dining to Entice: An Arab Food Contest in Paradise. Austin Macauley, 2024.

Salloum Elias, Leila, and Muna Salloum. The Sweets of Araby: Enchanting Recipes from the Tales of the 1001 Arabian Nights. Illustrated by Linda Dalal Sawaya, Countryman Press, 2011.

Other works mentioned or recommended

ˆal-Jazari, Abu al-Izz ibn Ismail ibn al-Razzaz. The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices. Translated and annotated by Donald R. Hill, D. Reidel, 1974.

al-Maqqari, Ahmad. The Breath of Perfume from the Branch of Flourishing Al-Andalus and Memories of its Vizier Lisan ud-Din ibn ul-Khattib. Partially translated [as The History Of The Mohammedan Dynasties In Spain ] by Pascual de Gayangos, London, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland / W. H. Allen and Co., 1840–1843.

al-Warraq, Abu Muhammad al-Muzaffar ibn Nasr ibn Sayyar. The Book of Dishes. Translated by Nawal Nasrallah [as Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens ], Brill, 2007. Islamic History and Civilization 70.

Hrosvitha of Gandersheim. “The Sufferings of Pelagius, the Most Precious Martyr, Who in Our Time, at Cordova, Was Crowned with Martyrdom.” The Non-Dramatic Works of Hrosvitha: Text, Translation, and Commentary. Edited and translated by M. Gonsalva Wiegand, 1936, pp. 128–57. St. Louis University, PhD dissertation.

ibn al-Nadim, Abu al-Faraj Muhammad. The Book Catalogue. Edited and translated by Bayard Dodge [as The Fihrist of al-Nadim: A Tenth-Century Survey of Islamic Culture ], Columbia UP, 1970. 2 vols.

ibn Battuta, Abu Abdullah Muhammad. A Gift for the Curious, concerning the Wonders of Cities and Marvels of the Journeys Thereto. Transcribed/edited by C. Defremery and B. R. Sanguinetti, translated by H. A. R. Gibb and C. F. Beckingham [as The Travels of ibn Battuta ], index by A. D. H. Bivar, Hakluyt Society / Cambridge UP, 1958–2000. 5 vols.

ibn Khaldun, Abu Zayd Abdur-Rahman. The Muqaddimah: Introduction to History. Translated by Franz Rosenthal, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1958. 3 vols.

Nicholson, Reynold A. A Literary History of the Arabs. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907.

van Gelder, Geert Jan. God's Banquet: Food in Classical Arabic Literature. Columbia UP, 2000.