Medieval Beasts and Castles

Stories about giants have helped to explain landscapes that seemed too large for ordinary people to create. Ancient earthworks, dramatic cliffs, huge boulders and deep valleys have all been attributed to giants long before archaeology could provide alternative explanations. Back in the olden days giants were very, very busy creatures, particularly in England.

Five thousand years ago, the Sumerians were recording some of the world's earliest written texts, the first phase of Stonehenge was being constructed (not the famous stone circles we see today), and much of Europe was still in the late Neolithic period. Around this time, researchers believe story types related to Jack and the Beanstalk may already have been circulating.

Essex does not have the greatest reputation for castles in the UK. But I think that is a disservice to the county, it is unfair, historically inaccurate - rather like the movie Braveheart - and since the author of The Good Knight series grew up in the seaside resort of Southend-on-Sea I feel duty bound to correct this inaccuracy for his honour.

The strange medieval symbol hiding in plain sight throughout Britains churches - The Green Man.

Why is it the smallest hero who always defeats giants?

Back to the roots of the unicorn, which date back at least as far as 400 BCE, when the Greek historian Ctesias first documented a unicorn-like animal in his writings on the region of India. Ctesias was a physician who served in the court of the Persian king Artaxerxes II. A very reliable source...

When I started writing this blog, I was fairly confident the answer was going to be simple. Perhaps there had been an unfortunate period of giant snail activity across medieval Europe. Perhaps medieval snails were just built different. And perhaps we are very, very, very, very lucky with how they have evolved. Similar to the T-Rex and the chicken.

1066 was a rather big year for castles in England. Before this date there were four, maybe five, castles found in the whole country. By 1100, just thirty-four years later, there were over five hundred!

We explore the history of mythology, from Norse sagas to Scottish folklore to the ancient legends of the British Isles, is stuffed with creatures that didn't make it into the mainstream