Curses and Dragons

Entries tagged as ‘learn history through youtube’

Oh, you know, Helen of Troy and Whatnot.

August 2, 2011 · 3 Comments

I am usually NOT a big fan of retellings of the Trojan War, or much of any Greek myth stuff–odd, considering how much I absolutely love fairy tale retellings. You’d think I would enjoy them more, having studied quite a bit of ancient history, and having read more than my fair share of Greek tragedies, and having been the only non-Classics major or non-pre-seminary student in my Attic Greek class in college. (Seriously. I took it for fun. It was a nice change of pace from useful languages.) About the only person I trust to write engagingly about the ancient world is Gillian Bradshaw, and notably, she does NOT do retellings of the Trojan War.

Anyway, wherever my weird bias comes from, I could not tell you why I picked up Josephine Angelini’s Starcrossed.

I mean, sometimes I do like to read stuff that makes me mad, but I swear, that wasn’t my motivation here. I thought it sounded good.

And it is.

So, that’s my recommendation of… whatever random time period it will be until I reco something again.

While you’re waiting for that future date, go ahead and watch the Horrible Histories version of the Trojan War. I find this endlessly hilarious. It’s a retelling I can totally get behind.

Categories: Books!
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Fun with Medieval Food

August 2, 2011 · Comments Off

I really like the Supersizers historical food series–and they did one on medieval food that’s just too much fun.

Where else are you going to learn about how rabbit fetuses, barnacle geese, and beavers were all considered fish and therefore appropriate eating for Lenten fasts?

Well, you might find that in a book, but what would be the fun in that…

Categories: Random but Related
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