319. Heist of St Nicolas: The Medieval Mafia Who Stole Santa (Part 2)

Empire

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 December 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Who were the Italian sailors who stole the bones of St Nicolas from his church in Turkey in 1087? How was the mythology of St Nicolas combined with Germanic pagan stories of Odin riding a white horse accompanied by ravens? How did polar-mania and Coca Cola advertising transform Dutch traditions around St Nicolas into the Santa Claus we know today? William and Anita are joined once again by Sam Dalrymple to discuss his original research on the epic Heist of St Nicolas… Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com. Email: [email protected] Instagram: @empirepoduk Blue Sky: @empirepoduk X: @empirepoduk Producer: Anouska Lewis Executive Producer: Dom Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community,
0:06.7	discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, add free listening, and a weekly
0:11.4	newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at www.mpower.com.
0:18.7	The Big Tasty is back at McDonald's, but now it's a double.
0:23.9	It's the beefiest Big Tasty of all time ever!
0:28.5	Oh, got a bit intense there.
0:30.4	The new Double Big Tasty. Now at McDonald's.
0:34.2	Available to the 4th of Jan, 2026, from 11 a.m.
0:37.0	Price and participation may vary, subject to availability.
0:49.0	Hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnand.
0:52.8	And me, William Duremberg.
0:55.1	And this is the second episode with the wonderful Sam Durumple, author of Shattered Lands,
1:01.2	which we also covered in this podcast.
1:03.9	Welcome back to you, Sam.
1:05.2	Thank you very much.
1:05.9	Thanks for having me.
1:06.5	And if we had to do a little subtitle of this second episode, because in the first one,
1:11.7	we were talking about the origins of the real St. Nicholas and where his tomb is and all of
1:17.0	these different cults which kind of merge into this one character that we now know is St. Nick,
1:22.0	this one I think we would have as a subheading, Who St. Santa?
1:26.4	Because it is the story of one of the most extraordinary,
1:29.4	you couldn't believe it, heists. So by the turn of the first millennium, St. Nicholas, as we've
	...

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