Stones & Bones: Recent Episodes
Deborah Brezina
A thousand years ago Emma of Normandy was on trial for adultery, treason and murder. The Stones & Bones podcast tells the tale of the first woman styled Queen of England who stood at the center of a dark era of history. And changed it.
Almost two-thousand years ago, a Celtic queen proved the truth of the famous saying “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
Samuel Johnson, considered England’s greatest man of letters, famously said: “When a man is tired of London, he’s tired of life.” London’s fascinating history is one reason why.
Any mentor can only go so far. Eventually the hero – or heroine – MUST face the unknown ALONE.
Of Emma of Normandy, Sir Winston Churchill wrote: “Few women in history have stood at the centre of such remarkable converging forces.” But another powerful woman stood in her way.
How did one of history’s most famous kings come to be? Yet without Emma of Normandy, he would be a fleeting figure through time.
This figure is indispensable to British history and to Emma's story. But he didn't last long on her chessboard.
A woman desperate for her bloodline to continue fights at every turn for her sons to rise as kings. But first, she needs the oath.
As the Vikings carve a path of fire and blood through Saxon England, its weak king flees at the first shout of battle. Is this the work of
history’s first recorded wicked stepmother?
From her first days in England, young Emma of Normandy had a formidable adversary. She could not imagine then how formidable. Soon she would know. The proverbial Fox and Hedgehog are about to square off.
Queen Emma wishes everyone NOEL! The holiday greeting she likely would've given. As a French import herself, NOEL originated in France but became a favored traditional greeting in the medieval era. Let's join Emma for Christmastide. A joyous time, a joyous greeting, a joyous wish to all!
Dr. Daniel Gerrard is a British historian of the High Middle Ages and the author of three books. Professor Gerrard teaches medieval history at Regents Park College, Oxford University and specializes in the biography of Emma of Normandy, the first biography of an English queen, the Encomium Emmae Reginae.
This interview focuses on the early days of Emma of Normandy in England and the trauma she experienced just months after her arrival as young bride and queen, the St. Brice’s Day Massacre. Flashpoint for the Viking conquest of England.
Oxford. Key hub at the crossroads of Roman roads. And the flashpoint of the Viking conquest of England. The Saxon king orders a massacre of all Danes, his queen’s kith and kin. As England sinks beneath the Viking yoke, she asks, is this why she came?
One creature is instantly recognized the world over. Remarkably similar in all cultures. To Queen Emma, these creatures were not mythical. They were real. But they don’t exist, do they? So why are they everywhere?
Lord, what fools these mortals be! Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream transports us to the Otherworld. For Emma of Normandy fairies and elves were never far below the surface. There are countless stories of their origins. This is one.
A 1000 years ago a treasure was buried. Not of gold. A chess set. A Viking chess set. How do we know? Berserkrs. Vikings who’d go berserk and kill and kill ‘til there was no one left to kill. Who said chess was just a game?
From the fury of the Northmen, oh Lord, deliver us! A prayer not for deliverance from a bunch of long-haired tourists who roughed up the neighbors. But a merciless scourge who executed the Blood Eagle.
Bonnie and Clyde, Jesse James, John Dillinger. They robbed banks. But it was the most accomplished robbers in history who showed them where the banks were.
A figure arose from the shadows. A crafty survivor who became more powerful than kings for he was a maker of kings. No one stood in his way. Not even the Queen of England.
Emma of Normandy prepares to sail across a narrow sea to wed a famous king. But is she ready to wed a king unready to fight, unready to rule, unready to save his kingdom?
What was crazy bread and why was it eaten by peasants to stave off hunger and give them a summer of love? Welcome to Y1K and the world of young Emma of Normandy.
For a half century she bent history to her will. Everything that turned touched her. And she turned everything she touched. But first, she had to put away her playthings.
They sought her blood. They readied the rope. They dug her grave. What would remain as cold death beckoned her to churchyards filled with stones and bones?
A scholar, a fighter, a passionate lover and a cunning political manipulator. The very model of a medieval ruler. But this medieval ruler was not a man. This power player was a woman. And England was her chessboard.