Synopsis
Geoglyphs are a worldwide artistic phenomenon. The earliest ones are prehistoric. Join Em and Dr. Jesse as they look at the origins of two well-known geoglyphs in the UK.
Sources
The Uffington White Horse geoglyph as sun-horse (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/uffington-white-horse-geoglyph-as-sunhorse/8AD3CDD85C6BE2A5C6E48FC3240DE33B) by Joshua Pollard in Antiquity 91 356 (2017): 406–420.
Here is the National Trust site (https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/oxfordshire-buckinghamshire-berkshire/white-horse-hill) for the Horse.
Here is Smithsonian magazine article (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/3000-year-old-uffington-horse-looms-over-english-countryside-180963968/) on the dating of the horse, and here is Archaeology Magazine’s article (https://archaeology.org/issues/september-october-2017/digs-discoveries/trenches-england-prehistoric-uffington-white-horse/) on the Horse.
Here is the main archaeology article (https://eprints.oxfordarchaeology.com/6999/) about the Horse: “Uffington White Horse and Its Landscape: Investigations at White Horse Hill, Uffington, 1989–95, and Tower Hill, Ashbury, 1993–4” by David Miles et al.
“The Cerne Giant in Its Early Medieval Context” by Thomas Morcom and Helen Gittos in Speculum, volume 99, number 1, January 2024 (1-38).
Notes
1/ “The horse was rechalked this year” = 2024. [https://archaeologymag.com/2024/07/britains-oldest-chalk-figure-restored/ (https://archaeologymag.com/2024/07/britains-oldest-chalk-figure-restored/)] I’m so behind.
2/ Here is the Smithsonian magazine article (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/3000-year-old-uffington-horse-looms-over-english-countryside-180963968/) on the dating of the horse.
3/ Check out the horse’s picture on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffington_White_Horse)!
4/ Here is a Bodleian library blog about the Sheldon tapestries (https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps/2026/06/18/the-sheldon-tapestries-tudor-masterpieces/), with a close up of the Horse and a full image of the tapestry fragments for context. (The Horse is in the top left of the large bottom fragment if you zoom in.)
5/ We did an episode on Beowulf! Episode 56 (http://askamedievalist.com/2022/09/19/episode-56-the-beowulfening/).
6/ “This just came out in January 2024” Oh god I’m so behind.
7/ The Cerne Abbas Giant’s Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerne_Abbas_Giant) has been updated!
8/ The Chair of St Peter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chair_of_Saint_Peter).
9/ Cerne Abbey (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerne_Abbey).
St Eadwold (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadwold_of_Cerne) (c835-c900).
Goscelin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goscelin) (c1040-c1106), the possible author of Eadwold’s hagiography.
Walter of Coventry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_of_Coventry) (fl 1290).
10/ Here is the Long Man of Wilmington (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Man_of_Wilmington), even though he is modern!
28 Sept 2026
Episode 101: Just What?
JD Vance was wrong about Augustine. But let's talk about it.
1 May 2026
Episode 100: What I’m Tolkien About
Summary
This episode is dedicated to Tolkien superfan Stephen Colbert. May he return to The Colbert Report! No matter what, we know that he will go on to far, far better things than the crumbling edifice that was once known as CBS.
Notes
1/ George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice series
2/ Tolkien (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien) was born on January 3, 1892 (and died September 2, 1973). Tolkien’s imagined etymologies are phenomenal.
3/ Jane Yolen’s Sister Light, Sister Dark (https://www.janeyolen.com/sister-light-sister-dark/) and White Jenna (https://www.janeyolen.com/white-jenna/)
4/ David Salo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Salo)–a UW-Madison Alum and Tolkien linguist
5/ Winnie-the-Pooh lives outside the Hundred Acre Wood (thank you A.A. Milne). The Forest of Arden is the main location for Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Birnum Wood “marches” against Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Scottish play.
6/ Wagner’s Ring Cycle: Der Ring des Nibelungen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Ring_des_Nibelungen). He wrote it between 1848-1874. The first opera (Das Rheingold) premiered in 1869, and all four premiered as a cycle in 1876.
7/ We miss you Tom Stoppard (Travesties (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travesties), 1974).
8/ Übermensch (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cbermensch) (defined by Nietzsche, ruined by certain WWII Germans)
9/ Nope, we’re still watching Putin teeter!
10/ Wagner is basing his cycle on the Old Norse Edda (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edda), the Völsunga Saga (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%B6lsunga_saga), the Thidrekssaga (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Ei%C3%B0reks_saga), and the Nibelungenlied (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibelungenlied).
11/ Giorgia Meloni (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgia_Meloni) was elected Prime Minister of Italy in 2022.
12/ Renee Vink, “‘Jewish’ Dwarves: Tolkien and Anti-Semitic Stereotyping,” in Tolkien Studies Vol. 10 (2013): 123-145.
13/ Terry Pratchett (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett) is the best! Check out Discworld (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld). Also, here’s a nice thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/tumblr/comments/ovtpbo/no_terfs_you_cant_have_sir_terry_pratchett/#lightbox) on the fact he isn’t a TERF.
14/ Just for fun, here’s Jon Stewart’s rant (https://youtu.be/DzffpeYnv-w?si=-CJI2ZDAc5OqfMVP) on the goblins in Harry Potter. Enjoy!
15/ Christopher Tolkien’s NYT obituary: “Christopher Tolkien, Keeper of His Father’s Legacy, Dies at 95 (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/books/christopher-tolkien-dead.html).”
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.3 / 5
17 ratings
Spotify
4.6 / 5
32 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 58 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
81
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
85
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