787
A woman convicted of a crime she did not commit took her case to a higher power.
Like his famous son Alexander the Great, Philip II, King of Macedon (r. 359-336 BC) was a Philhellene who aspired to the manners and language of the cultivated Greeks; but there remained a barbarian side to Philip which showed in his seven wives and his bouts of drinking.
Posted December 20 2018
788
The mayor and corporation of Hamelin outsource a rodent problem to a professional rat-catcher.
The tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin in Lower Saxony goes back to the 13th century, and has been retold by the Brothers Grimm, Goethe and our own Robert Browning. Scholars have surmised that its origins lie in the migration of Hamelin’s population to work in lands from modern-day Poland to Romania.
Posted December 18 2018
789
A woman advises her husband to entrust their modest savings to the bank of God.
This story was told to John Moschus (?550–619) by Maria, a Christian lady on the Greek island of Samos who was devoted to the care of the poor. The events occurred in Nisibis in Syria, an ancient Christian centre now just inside Turkey, whose early fourth-century church is ruined but still partially standing.
Posted December 14 2018
790
A warlike king sets out to bag another small kingdom for his realms, but a monkey gets him thinking.
The Jataka Tales are a collection of roughly fourth-century BC stories supposedly from the many previous lives of Gautama Buddha. Several tell, Aesop-like, how one may learn wisdom by observing the ways of the natural world around us. In this case, a belligerent monarch draws a timely lesson from the antics of a monkey.
Posted December 10 2018
791
Cuthbert’s friend comes asking for a priest to attend his dying wife — so long as it isn’t Cuthbert.
St Cuthbert’s miracles not only brought healing or deliverance from danger, but left others wiser and kinder for having lived through them. In this example, his friend Hildemer learnt that illness, and specifically mental illness, is nothing for a Christian to be ashamed of.
Posted December 10 2018
792
Soon after Athelstan became England’s first king, he played a trick on the King of Norway which demanded a reply.
According to the Norse chronicler Snorro Sturluson, King Harald Fairhair of Norway struck up a curious friendship with King Athelstan of England, Alfred’s grandson. It all began when Athelstan played a trick on the ageing Harald, which involved a magnificent jewelled sword.
Posted November 30 2018