Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is episode 423,

Hair Award, The Lion, The Witch and The War Hero.

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Okay, when we left off, William hired a witch to help him with his rebel problem. And

Hair Award disguised himself as a potter and infiltrated the Norman camp while William

was out hunting. And in the end, a bunch of Normans were slain and Hair Award barely

escaped with his life thanks to the speedy hoops of his trusty horse, Swallow. And also

as we talked about last episode, that story was a lot to, well, Swallow. And it's understandable

if you're feeling a little suspicious at this point. It's certainly true that our sources

for these events are imperfect. But at the same time, all our sources are imperfect. And

the truth is that seemingly impossible things happen in war all the time. And ultimately

hiring a witch is no stranger than having an astrologer consult for the White House,

or William digging up a corpse to boost morale. And even if this story is pure legend, it's

a legend that was circulated for centuries, and one that was likely told around campfires

during William's reign. The legend of Hair Award, true or not, gives us an invaluable window

into the culture and beliefs of this time. And there's another thing to consider here

about the veracity of these reports. The fog of war. It's well known that even the people

fighting in a war don't have a perfect understanding of that same war. They don't know everything

...