Medieval Obscenity

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 August 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode contains obscene and sexual language throughout

The medieval world was far from prudish, it was positively bawdy. Writers, preachers, and even everyday neighbours used blunt, often hilarious language to talk about sex and the body—not just for laughs, but to make sharp points about morality, hypocrisy, and power. Dr. Eleanor Janega is joined by Prof. Carissa Harris to celebrate Medieval obscenity, from bawdy verse to barbed sermons, explicit language was a tool: it punctured vanity, exposed corruption, and brought lofty ideas down to earth with a thump.

Expect double meanings and razor wit. Wordplay was a medieval superpower.

Sex: The Medieval Rules

https://open.spotify.com/episode/04dWeyQsk50eXP0dNNWQrK

Gone Medieval is presented by Dr Eleanor Janega. The audio editor is Amy Haddow. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Matt Lewis.
0:02.6	And I'm Dr. Eleanor Yonaga.
0:04.2	And we're just popping up here to tell you some insider info.
0:08.0	If you would like to listen to Gone Medieval ad-free and get early access and bonus episodes,
0:13.3	sign up to History Hit.
0:14.5	With the History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries.
0:20.6	Such as my new series on everyone's favorite
0:22.8	conquerors, the Normans, or my recent exploration of the castles that made Britain. There's a new
0:29.9	release to enjoy every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com forward slash subscribe, or find a link in the show notes for this episode.
0:45.0	Hello, I'm Dr. Eleanorianica and welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit, the podcast that delves into the
0:55.2	greatest millennium in human history. We uncover the greatest mysteries, the gobsmacking details,
1:02.7	and the latest groundbreaking research from the Vikings to the Normans, from kings to popes, to the Crusades.
1:10.5	We delve into the rebellions, plots and murders
1:14.0	that tell us who we really were. And how we got here. Before we get started today, a word of warning.
1:28.9	Our topic is obscenity, and as a result, well, there's rather a lot of it about.
1:34.7	The language is very strong, and there's a lot of literature that is specifically about sex.
1:41.0	So this might be one for younger listeners to give a miss. Ah, the medieval period. A time of
1:51.3	religiosity, courtesy, and chivalric poetics. A time before the intrusion of the modern
1:58.6	coarseness that we are all so inured to now.
2:02.7	This delicate beauty can be found everywhere.
2:06.9	Take, for example, this lovely rhyming riddle from a Cambridge Library manuscript.
2:13.1	A pasty of red deer cold, and a loaf of bread of a day old, and a cunt of the first
	...

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