Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Mankie Listener discretion advised. In the
Speaker 1: year nine hundred and fifty five, there was a new
Speaker 1: monarch on the throne of Wessex. Edwig, the fourteen year
Speaker 1: old son of the previous king, was the new king.
Speaker 1: After young Edwig went through his official anointing and installation
Speaker 1: as King of the Anglo Saxons, the Wessex nobility celebrated
Speaker 1: their new ruler with a feast, But as the guests
Speaker 1: gathered around the table, they noticed an important person missing,
Speaker 1: the teenage King Edwig himself, with the guest of honor
Speaker 1: nowhere to be found, the archbishop sent two high up
Speaker 1: clergy members, Abbot Dunstan and Bishop Quinnessier to the king's
Speaker 1: royal apartments to see if he might be there. The
Speaker 1: two men barged in to find a shocking sight. The
Speaker 1: royal crown tossed to the side on the floor and
Speaker 1: the young king himself in the middle of a threesome.
Speaker 1: As one account put it, quote, he was disporting himself
Speaker 1: between two women as though they were wallowing in some
Speaker 1: revolting pigsty end quote horrified, Abbott Dunstan quote told off
Speaker 1: the two women and tried to convince Edwig to come
Speaker 1: to his feast, but the king refused. Dunstan had to
Speaker 1: quote put out his hand and physically quote remove him
Speaker 1: from the couch where he had been laying, quote parted
Speaker 1: from his women only by force. One of the women
Speaker 1: was the young king's fiance, Alphabou, but scandalously, the other
Speaker 1: woman was Alphabou's mother. The discovery of the threesome would
Speaker 1: be humiliating for Edwig. He had been caught and exposed
Speaker 1: for abandoning his royal duties for an incestuous affair, but
Speaker 1: did it actually happen. Given the outrageousness of the tale,
Speaker 1: many historians suggest that it might have been an attempt
Speaker 1: to slander Edwig's reputation. After all, accounts of Edwigs's threesome
Speaker 1: only appear in narratives of the life of Abbot Dunstan,
Speaker 1: the man who heroically stepped in to stop the debauchery
Speaker 1: and returned the king to his officially sanctioned activities. These
Speaker 1: biographies have a notably pro Dunstan slant and a tendency
Speaker 1: to exaggerate. Alongside the story of Edwigs's alleged threesome is
Speaker 1: a tale of Dunstan slaying the devil twice and reorienting
Speaker 1: an entire church with only his shoulder, and Dunstan had
Speaker 1: a good motive to lie about the new king. Edwig
Speaker 1: and Dunstan were bitter enemies, and the threesome incident was
Speaker 1: just one event in a decades long rivalry which spanned
Speaker 1: multiple kings, sent Dunstan into exile and ultimately destroyed a marriage.
Speaker 1: Turns out, salacious gossip about the sex lives of people
Speaker 1: in power is not a modern invention. I'm Dana Schwartz
Speaker 1: and this is Noble Blood Abbott. Dunstan's beef with Edwig
Speaker 1: started long before young Edwig took the throne. Dunstan was
Speaker 1: born in nine hundred and nine from humble origins. He
Speaker 1: would eventually rise through the religious ranks to become the
Speaker 1: advisor to seven kings and eventually the abbot of Glastonbury,
Speaker 1: but it was a politically tumultuous time. Most kings spent
Speaker 1: three or four years on the throne, with the threat
Speaker 1: of assassination or replacement always lurking. Politically savvy operators like
Speaker 1: Dunstan often had targets on their backs. Dunstan's drama with
Speaker 1: the royal family started two kings before Edwig with Athelston
Speaker 1: Edwiggs Dad's half brother, who I suppose as edwigs half uncle.
Speaker 1: According to one of Dunstan's biographies, Athelston's courtiers were jealous
Speaker 1: that Dunstan was the king's favorite, so they spread a
Speaker 1: rumor about Dunstan that he was a heathen who took
Speaker 1: part in magic rights. Believing the gossip, Ethelstan banished Dunstan
Speaker 1: and his courtiers beat him up and left him for
Speaker 1: dead in a duck pond, which is an adorable detail. Somehow,
Speaker 1: Dunstan survived, and Ethelstan eventually welcomed him back into his
Speaker 1: court and apologized for the misunderstanding. When Athelston died, he
Speaker 1: was replaced with his half brother Edmund, Edwig's dad, who
Speaker 1: sent Dunstan into exile yet again after his courtiers spread
Speaker 1: yet another vicious rumor, but Edmund allegedly re admitted Dunstan.
Speaker 1: After he was hunting near Cheddar Gorge. While chasing a stag,
Speaker 1: Edmund came dangerously close to falling off the side of
Speaker 1: the cliff before Dunstan saved him. If you couldn't tell
Speaker 1: from Dunstan's heroic role in that story, it comes from
Speaker 1: one of Dunstan's hagiographic biographies. But anyway, after Edmund's death,
Speaker 1: he was succeeded by his brother Edred, and I genuinely
Speaker 1: apologized for these names. Dunstan had a relatively drama free
Speaker 1: stint in Edridge Court, with a plumb political position as
Speaker 1: one of the king's most trusted advisers. Edred even put
Speaker 1: Dunstan in charge of a good amount of his royal
Speaker 1: treasure and authorized him to make royal charters, which was
Speaker 1: a rare honor for a clergyman. But Dunstan's secure spot
Speaker 1: in the royal court wouldn't last loan. Edred died in
Speaker 1: nine hundred and fifty five at just thirty years old.
Speaker 1: Now Edwig, Edmund's son and Edred's nephew, arrived on the
Speaker 1: scene and immediately began to shake things up, much to
Speaker 1: Dunstan's chagrin. At Edred's deathbed, Dunstan was the only royal
Speaker 1: counselor that didn't render an account of the royal treasure
Speaker 1: he was put in charge of, which raised young Edwigs's suspicions.
Speaker 1: Edwig was incensed that his uncle's will left him nothing,
Speaker 1: instead passing along most of the fortune to Edwig's mother.
Speaker 1: Edwig and his followers suspected that Dunstan was laundering Edwigs's
Speaker 1: rightful fortune through his mother to then give to Edwigs's
Speaker 1: brother Edgar, so that Edgar could take over the throne instead.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit complicated, but the point is Edwig
Speaker 1: was convinced that Dunstan was screwing him over. Edwig rejected
Speaker 1: the stipulations of the will and took most of the
Speaker 1: money that was allocated to his mother for himself. Edwig
Speaker 1: defied his late uncle's will yet again by burying him
Speaker 1: in the Old Minister in Winchester instead of a reformed
Speaker 1: Benedictine monastery such as Glastonbury, like his uncle had wanted.
Speaker 1: Edwig was not as strict of a Benedictine as his
Speaker 1: uncle Edward Rid had been, and it's likely Edwig didn't
Speaker 1: want his late uncle's tomb to galvanize his Benedictine supporters,
Speaker 1: a number which included Dunstan. To add insult to injury,
Speaker 1: Edwig promoted his friends to high up positions in court
Speaker 1: and completely neglected the Old Guard, the Old Guard which
Speaker 1: included men like Dunstan. But the most flagrantly controversial aspect
Speaker 1: of Edwig's rule, according to Dunstan, was Edwig's marriage. In
Speaker 1: nine hundred and fifty six, Edwig married a woman named Alfievu,
Speaker 1: who was a member of the highest Wessex nobility. Dunstan
Speaker 1: had a long standing history himself with Alfhivu. Her family's
Speaker 1: land was held in the same area of Wessex as
Speaker 1: Dunstan's estate, and it's possible and likely that Dunstan had
Speaker 1: an establish rivalry with Alfivu's family. More pertinently, that marriage
Speaker 1: could have angered Dunstan because it put Edwig at a
Speaker 1: political advantage. Teaming up with Alphievu's powerful family shored up
Speaker 1: Edwig's rule against his mother, the archbishop, and Dunstan, who
Speaker 1: were all still jocking to put Edwig's brother Edgar in power.
Speaker 1: If Edwig and Alfivu had a son, that son could
Speaker 1: prevent Edgar from ever ascending the throne. The warding Dunstan
Speaker 1: and his Cohort's plans, Edwig had just one problem. He
Speaker 1: might have been related to Alfivou, which flouted the laws
Speaker 1: of consanguinity. In the tenth century, consanguinity happened if you
Speaker 1: married someone within the fourth degree of kinship, meaning you
Speaker 1: shared a common great great grandparent. It's unclear exactly how
Speaker 1: the two might have been related, since Alfievu's ancestry has
Speaker 1: not been perfectly recorded, or if it ever was, that
Speaker 1: record is long since gone, but historians have located two
Speaker 1: different great great grandfathers that they might have shared. Even
Speaker 1: though Edwig and Alfaevu knew they might be related, the
Speaker 1: political opportunity was too good to pass up. Besides, it
Speaker 1: was fairly common for couples, particularly noble or royal couples
Speaker 1: at this time, to break consanguinity laws, and the Church
Speaker 1: had a precedent for happily looking the other way, and
Speaker 1: lo and behold, the Church allowed the couple to wed
Speaker 1: in nine hundred and fifty six, around the time Edwig
Speaker 1: rose to power. At the start of his rule, Edwig
Speaker 1: had it all. He had the girl, and he had
Speaker 1: the throne, and he immediately set about exercising his new powers,
Speaker 1: is having an unprecedented ninety charters in his first year
Speaker 1: as king. But with enemies like Dunstan nearby, Edwig couldn't
Speaker 1: rest on his laurels. It was only a matter of
Speaker 1: time before Dunstan would want the power to shift. Before
Speaker 1: Dunstan could take any political revenge against him, Edwig sent
Speaker 1: him into exile, keeping Dunstan from meddling in his activities.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't just a preventative measure for Edwig. It
Speaker 1: also allowed him to reallocate Dunstan's confiscated lands to his
Speaker 1: own allies. The move was so controversial and damaging to
Speaker 1: Dunstan's position in court that historian Nicholas Brooks calls Dunstan's
Speaker 1: exile a coup. Dunstan left England at once for Ghent
Speaker 1: sometime around February nine hundred and fifty six. Dune spent
Speaker 1: his exile hanging out at the monastery of Saint Peter
Speaker 1: in Ghent, where he was offered the protection of the
Speaker 1: Count of Flanders. He spent most of his time there placidly,
Speaker 1: studying against monastic customs and admiring the recently remodeled monastery,
Speaker 1: not altogether a bad vacation. While Dunstan was bidding his
Speaker 1: time in Ghent, Edwig was struggling to maintain his hard
Speaker 1: won political power, even when his main Archnemesies was far
Speaker 1: away from court. By autumn nine hundred and fifty seven,
Speaker 1: just a year after he rose to the throne, Edwig's
Speaker 1: political power began to crumble. That summer, the kingdom was
Speaker 1: divided up between Edwig in the south and his brother
Speaker 1: Edgar in the north, with the River Thames forming the boundary.
Speaker 1: It's unclear exactly why this happened. Some think was in
Speaker 1: response to the vast number of charters Edwig was issuing
Speaker 1: during the first year of his reign, most of which
Speaker 1: reallocated land between lay people, but there's no clear reason
Speaker 1: why that would have upset the court or the church.
Speaker 1: Others think that the division was because Edwig ruled incompetently,
Speaker 1: alienating his northern territory. Dunstan certainly thought so. According to
Speaker 1: pro Dunstan sources, Edwig's ruling territory was cut in half
Speaker 1: because quote King Edwig totally abandoned by the people north.
Speaker 1: They despised him for his imprudent discharge of the power
Speaker 1: entrusted to him. The wise and sensible he destroyed in
Speaker 1: a spirit of idle hatred, replacing them with ignoramuses like himself,
Speaker 1: to whom he took a liking end quote. In any case,
Speaker 1: the split of the kingdom represented a substantial decrease in
Speaker 1: Edwig's power, and the election of him his brother Edgar
Speaker 1: to rule over a substantial portion of his former territory
Speaker 1: was a boon to Dunstan's plan to install Edgar on
Speaker 1: the entire throne. Even better, for Dunstan, his allies got
Speaker 1: him readmitted to court, and he returned to England. The
Speaker 1: next step to destroying Edwigs's political power would be to
Speaker 1: break up his marriage, which was still a powerful political alliance.
Speaker 1: In nine hundred and fifty eight, the archbishop annulled their
Speaker 1: marriage on grounds of consanguinity. There was some spiritual motive
Speaker 1: for that decision. The archbishop took care to explicitly condemn
Speaker 1: incest in his constitutions, an adaptation and compilation of older
Speaker 1: papal texts, and as one historian put it, the Archbishop's
Speaker 1: quote consideration of appropriate marriages, written perhaps a decade before
Speaker 1: ethel Veu and Edwig's marriage, would bear a considerable amount
Speaker 1: of weight against the young king and his royal authority
Speaker 1: end quote. But the archbishop's separation of the married couple
Speaker 1: now also had a political motive. The archbishop was a
Speaker 1: key ally of Dunstan's, and with Edgar ruling all of
Speaker 1: England north of the Thames, Dunstan and his allies felt
Speaker 1: strong enough to move for Edwig's divorce. We know almost
Speaker 1: nothing about what Edwig was up to after the division
Speaker 1: of his kingdom and the breakup of his marriage, but
Speaker 1: given the comparative dearth of charters he issued during that time,
Speaker 1: he was likely languishing on his smaller throne. On October one,
Speaker 1: nine hundred and fifty nine, Edwig died, just nineteen years old.
Speaker 1: He was buried at the New Minster Winchester, a church
Speaker 1: founded by his grandfather. In nine hundred and one, Edgar
Speaker 1: was made king and England was consolidated once again under
Speaker 1: Edgar's rule. As a close ally of Edgar's, Dunstan was
Speaker 1: brought even further into the fold. The archbishop consecrated him
Speaker 1: a bishop, and eventually Dunstan was appointed to the Sea.
Speaker 1: He even officiated the coronation of King Edgar in nine
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy three, a huge honour, but even that
Speaker 1: resounding victory was not enough for Dunstan and his allies.
Speaker 1: Even though Edwig was dead, Dunstan's ally's final act of
Speaker 1: retribution was to destroy what was left of the teenage
Speaker 1: king his reputation. Over the rest of the tenth century,
Speaker 1: Edwig's reign was seen as a four year blip of
Speaker 1: chaos and misrule. In contrast to the longer, more harmonious
Speaker 1: reigns of his brother Edgar and his half uncle who
Speaker 1: came before him, Edwig's time as king was brief and tumultuous.
Speaker 1: As a young king, unprepared for the demands of the throne,
Speaker 1: Edwig jockeyed for power against Dunstan, resulting in Dunstan's exile,
Speaker 1: the annulment of Edwigs's marriage, and the splitting up of
Speaker 1: the entire kingdom. While Edwigs's reputation had tarnished after his death,
Speaker 1: Dunstan's star continued to rise. Dunstan acted as a kind
Speaker 1: of proto prime minister of the kingdom, remaining a key
Speaker 1: member of the court and an archbishop until his death
Speaker 1: in nine hundred eighty eight. He was even more celebrated
Speaker 1: after his death. Immediately after he died, Dunstan's name was
Speaker 1: entered into liturgical calendars and litanies of the saints. A
Speaker 1: series of hymns, mass sets, and benedictions were composed in
Speaker 1: his name, so he was publicly commemorated in churches across
Speaker 1: the country. It wasn't until this period, in the late
Speaker 1: tenth century, after both Edwig and Dunstan had died, that
Speaker 1: the story of Edwigs's notorious coronation threesome first appears in writing.
Speaker 1: The author of this first account of the threesome, under
Speaker 1: the pseudonym B, had been hanging out with Dunstan during
Speaker 1: his Ghent exile from edwigs court. It's possible that he
Speaker 1: had heard the story back then as court gossip about
Speaker 1: this controversial new king, and had kept it in his
Speaker 1: back pocket for the rest of the tenth century. After
Speaker 1: he wrote his version of the story, it spread, appearing
Speaker 1: in other narratives of Dunstan's life throughout the eleventh century.
Speaker 1: The story certainly helped these pro Dunstan sources prove Dunstan's
Speaker 1: moral worth. Unlike the licentious, scandalous young King Edwig, Dunstan
Speaker 1: was a monk, and so he was assumed to be chased,
Speaker 1: and his biographers highlighted his commitment to abstaining from sex
Speaker 1: throughout their texts. Medieval writers considered this to be one
Speaker 1: of Dunstan's greatest sacrifices, which only strengthened his spiritual worthiness.
Speaker 1: In the story of Edwigs's threesome, Dunstan's comparative chastity makes
Speaker 1: him the moral authority of the situation, even above the
Speaker 1: king himself. After all, Dunstan had to physically break up
Speaker 1: the threesome, put the crown back on Edwig's head, and
Speaker 1: admonish the women involved the threesome. Also let these pro
Speaker 1: Dunstan writers absolve him for his exile during Edwigs's reign.
Speaker 1: One writer explicitly makes that connection by having Edwig's mother
Speaker 1: in law tell Dunstan in the middle of the discovered threesome, quote,
Speaker 1: if you are so bold as to drag the king
Speaker 1: willy nilly from the room, I shall make sure you
Speaker 1: always remember this day and me. In this context, Dunstan's
Speaker 1: exile seems like petty revenge rather than canny political maneuvering.
Speaker 1: Having his mother in law threatened Dunstan instead of Edwig
Speaker 1: also has the added benefit of making Edwig seem like
Speaker 1: a weak puppet under the thumb of the women in
Speaker 1: his life, even further discrediting his rule. But it's strange
Speaker 1: that such a salacious bombshell of a story only came
Speaker 1: out after Edwig was long dead and his political threat
Speaker 1: to Dunstan had already well been neutralized. Dunstan had already
Speaker 1: decisively won the feud. He died a Venora raed saint.
Speaker 1: There was no need to introduce a fictional story about
Speaker 1: Edwig lest we forget skipping his own coronation to have
Speaker 1: a threesome with his fiance and her mom, even if
Speaker 1: it was just as a victory lap. His historian Katharine
Speaker 1: Weygert suggests that the story also served a moral and
Speaker 1: political purpose, not just the purpose of petty revenge. She
Speaker 1: argues that the story functioned as a cautionary tale. Edwig
Speaker 1: had thought it would be a good political strategy to
Speaker 1: marry Alfelviu, a distant relative with key territory in the region. Certainly,
Speaker 1: if the marriage had flown under the radar, they could
Speaker 1: have had sons who would have ruled over England after
Speaker 1: Edwig died. Even though this marriage was long over, it
Speaker 1: still represented the biggest threat to the current regime, since,
Speaker 1: given that the Church often ignored consanguinity, other rulers could
Speaker 1: easily follow suit b The anonymous chronicler who introduced the
Speaker 1: threesome story did so during the reign of Afelred the Second,
Speaker 1: the son of Edgar, who would never have been able
Speaker 1: to come to power if Edwigs's marriage had stood unchallenged
Speaker 1: and he had had sons of his own. Afelred the
Speaker 1: Second's rule was already under threat from constant norse raiding
Speaker 1: from competing political factions, and a political rival could easily
Speaker 1: follow Edwigs's playbook to challenge him. Because of those potential
Speaker 1: challenges to the status quo, Weygart says, marriages like Edwiggs
Speaker 1: quote had to be undermined on every possible level. Wyckart
Speaker 1: emphasizes that the most effective strategy to scare potential rulers
Speaker 1: from that kind of marriage that would consolidate their power
Speaker 1: was to use sexual humiliation. This is most clearly true
Speaker 1: for Edwig. This story made his union with Alfelvoux seem
Speaker 1: like a perverse abandonment of his role as king, quite literally,
Speaker 1: since he was abandoning his coronation feast. Not only was
Speaker 1: Edwig engaging in incest by sleeping with his distant relative
Speaker 1: and her mom simultaneously, he was also abandoning his own coronation,
Speaker 1: ignoring kingly duties. The story also slanders his wife, which
Speaker 1: discourages other women from seeking out similar marriages. Wykert points
Speaker 1: out that B refers to Affelvou not as Edwig's wife,
Speaker 1: but just as a woman that the king is sleeping with,
Speaker 1: stripping her of her status. This move dishonors both Edwig
Speaker 1: and Alflavou because quote, without the shield of authority from
Speaker 1: their place in court culture. In these texts, Affelvou can
Speaker 1: become a Jezebel with whom the weak and effeminate Edwig
Speaker 1: feels compelled to fornicate. End quote. The story suggests that
Speaker 1: Edwig and Alflevou's marriage was a moral threat to the
Speaker 1: status quo, and the story destroyed both of their reputations
Speaker 1: in perpetuity. Other tenth century writers would later make up
Speaker 1: additional details about Edwig's love life to further discredit him.
Speaker 1: Burforth of Ramsay accused him of quote leading a wicked
Speaker 1: life and immoderate youth is accustomed to do by loving
Speaker 1: another woman as if she were his own wife and
Speaker 1: eloping with her, ignoring the sacred decrees of Christian law.
Speaker 1: According to him, it wasn't until the archbishop at the
Speaker 1: time Quote seized the woman and took her out of
Speaker 1: the kingdom and warned the king with gentle words and
Speaker 1: actions that he should constrain himself from wicked deeds, that
Speaker 1: the sinful union would broken up. We don't know much
Speaker 1: or anything about this alleged second marriage, but it suggests
Speaker 1: that attacking Edwig's sexuality was a winning and continuous strategy
Speaker 1: when it came to slandering him. We'll never know whether
Speaker 1: those stories were true, and in all likelihood they were not,
Speaker 1: but they represent a medieval pr triumph for Dunstan. While
Speaker 1: Dunstan's biographers presented him as a virtuous hero after his death,
Speaker 1: he was probably a very controversial figure during his life.
Speaker 1: Even these pro Dunstan writers admit that he quote inspired
Speaker 1: hatred and envy on a grand scale, as contemporary historian
Speaker 1: Michael Lappage put it. After all, Dunstan was exiled three
Speaker 1: times and even beaten and thrown into a duck pond
Speaker 1: during Ethelston's reign. Similarly, returning to the story of edwigs
Speaker 1: threesome in a more nuanced light suggests a more complex
Speaker 1: view of Edwigs's rule beyond his youthful indiscretion, short time
Speaker 1: on the throne, and bad reputation after his death. During
Speaker 1: the first year of his reign, he represented a credible
Speaker 1: threat to Dunstan's authority, even if young Edwig didn't have
Speaker 1: the political know how to know how to retain the
Speaker 1: upper hand. The story of edwigs threesome shows that medieval
Speaker 1: politicians and clergy were willing to play dirty, creating a
Speaker 1: salacious story that has stuck around for centuries. That's the
Speaker 1: end of our story about Edwigs alleged threesome, but stick
Speaker 1: around to hear a little bit more about Dunstan's epic
Speaker 1: battles with the Devil. According to Dunstan's biographers, Dunstan was
Speaker 1: not only breaking up threesums and getting thrown in duck ponds,
Speaker 1: but also literally fighting with the devil. According to legend,
Speaker 1: during his exile at Glastonbury back during Ethelston's rule, he
Speaker 1: was sitting in a cell and doing some metalwork when
Speaker 1: suddenly an old man came to his window and asked
Speaker 1: Dunstan to make him a chalice. Dunstan accepted the man's request,
Speaker 1: but as he was working, the old man began to
Speaker 1: morph into a young boy and then a sexy woman.
Speaker 1: Dunstan knew at that moment that this figure was the devil,
Speaker 1: but he bided his time and continued to work on
Speaker 1: his chalice. He laid his tongs in the fire until
Speaker 1: they got scaled hot, then grabbed them, turned around, and
Speaker 1: used them to suddenly grab the devil by the nose.
Speaker 1: The devil squirmed and shrieked and ran out of the cell, screaming,
Speaker 1: woe is me? What hath that bald devil done to me?
Speaker 1: Look at me, a poor wretch, Look how he has
Speaker 1: tortured me. People on the street heard the devil's cries
Speaker 1: and approached Dunstan the following day, asking what happened. He
Speaker 1: told them, quote, these are the tricks of the devils,
Speaker 1: who try to trap us with their snares whenever they can.
Speaker 1: But if we remain firm in the service of Christ,
Speaker 1: we can easily defeat them with his help, and they
Speaker 1: will flee from us in confusion. To be honest, if
Speaker 1: that version of the story actually happened, it kind of
Speaker 1: sounds like Dunstan just grabbed an old man's nose with
Speaker 1: flaming hot tongs. But who knows Dunstan also encountered the
Speaker 1: devil yet again, one time when he was praying alone.
Speaker 1: This time, the devil disguised himself as a wolf, snarling
Speaker 1: and baring his teeth, but Dunstan refused to acknowledge him,
Speaker 1: instead just concentrating on his prayers. The devil then transformed
Speaker 1: into a cute little fox, dancing about to try to
Speaker 1: get Dunstan's attention. Dunstan said in response, quote, you are
Speaker 1: revealing how you usually behave by your tricks. You flatter
Speaker 1: the unwary so that you can devour them. Now get
Speaker 1: out of here, wretch, since Christ, who crushed the lion
Speaker 1: and the dragon with his heel, will overcome you by
Speaker 1: his grace through me, whether you're a wolf or a fox.
Speaker 1: Those stories, true or ahem not, became popular legends, spreading
Speaker 1: throughout the medieval world. Yet another pr victory for our
Speaker 1: friend Dunstan. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and
Speaker 1: Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted
Speaker 1: by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by
Speaker 1: Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and Julia Melaney.
Speaker 1: The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with
Speaker 1: supervising producer rima Il Kaali and executive producers Aaron Manke,
Speaker 1: Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.