Episode 101: Just What?

Synopsis Some languages evolve from other languages, like the romance languages growing out of Latin. And some languages are constructed by humans. These conlangs as they’re called are made for lots of purposes, from fleshing out the history of a thousand-page fantasy novel to allowing people a better way to communicate across cultures. Join Em and Dr. Jesse as they look at some examples, from Hildegard von Bingem’s Lingua Ignota to emojis. Sources! Higley, Sarah Lynn. Hildegard of Bingen’s Unknown Language: An Edition, Translation, and Discussion. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Notes 1/ List of conlangs you may know: Esperanto Interlingua Klingon Dothraki Elvish Modern Hebrew Here’s a list on Wikipedia–some of these we discuss in the next episode. 2/ Link to Episode 10 on iconography. 3/ Apriori means “before experience,” and a posteriori means “after experience.” Saying “emoji language is a priori” means that no one has to teach you what most of the signs mean—you look at them and you understand. However, some signs (eggplant, peach, water droplets) have developed secondary meanings that you must be taught (or pick up from your peers). (clip of David Tennant on Graham Norton saying “eggplant? What’s an eggplant?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UztioBpKlRk) 4/ Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179): Hildegard’s Ordo Virtutum was discussed in episode 6 (see notes 17 and 23). Here is Hildegard’s Lingua Ignota. 5/ Definition of Trochee. Definition of iamb. 6/ The Wikipedia article on Damin! 7/ Iranian mystic Fazlallah Astarabadi (1339/40-1394) created Hurufism and probably Balaibalan. 8/ Enochian was created by John Dee (1527–1608/9) and Edward Kelley (1555–1597/8). 9/ Glossolalia!

Synopsis In the second part of our tour of geoglyphs, Em and Dr Jesse examine the Nazca lines in Peru. One of the best known large-scale features of the Americas, they are also one of the most mysterious, at least in the popular imagination. Join us as we discuss who built them, and some theories about why. Sources! “The Nasca Culture: An Introduction” by Donald Proulx (Originally published in German in: Nasca: Geheimnisvolle Zeichen im Alten Peru, Edited by Judith Rickenbach, Pp. 59-77. Zürich: Museum Rietberg Zürich, 1999. There are no modifications to the text but the illustrations were augmented 2007.) UNESCO Nasca Lines Nazca Lines in Live Science. The Nazca Lines are visible from the ground. Nazca Cat in Live Science. New glyphs discovered. Destruction of lines: in 2014 and 2018. Notes 1/ Uncontacted tribes is a term that includes any indigenous people who are living without sustained direct relations with the larger world, but they may have interactions with neighboring peoples or have had contact in the past. Indigenous people in voluntary isolation have decided to remain uncontacted. Which, frankly, doesn’t sound like that bad an idea all the time. Periodically people try to contact them and get killed for their trouble. 2/ Jesse recommends the recent Anaconda (2025), which is not-exactly-a-remake with Jack Black and Paul Rudd 3/ Unfortunately, tourists dying from the heat has become a regular occurrence in the summers. 4/ Actually, the Rorschach test is considered controversial, similar to claims on various “history” tv channels that the Nazca lines were drawn by aliens. (Also, the cards are supposed to be a secret! I didn’t realize that. They’re all on the wikipedia page.) 5/ A labyrinth, besides being the place you can keep your minotaur, is a pattern (often on the floor of a cathedral) that Catholics can walk as part of a walking meditation. 6/ The comic is here: https://ehlupton.com/2019/12/23/em-oi-441-o-christmas-tree/ 7/ Shapes: Spider Condor Hummingbird Cat Headless guy (scroll down to bottom of article) 8/ Puquios: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puquios 9/ Praxitieles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praxiteles 10/ Madame de Pompadour, mistress to Louis XV: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour

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 by Joshua Pollard in Antiquity 91 356 (2017): 406–420. Here is the National Trust site for the Horse. Here is Smithsonian magazine article on the dating of the horse, and here is Archaeology Magazine’s article on the Horse. Here is the main archaeology article 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/] I’m so behind. 2/ Here is the Smithsonian magazine article on the dating of the horse. 3/ Check out the horse’s picture on Wikipedia! 4/ Here is a Bodleian library blog about the Sheldon tapestries, 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. 6/ “This just came out in January 2024” Oh god I’m so behind. 7/ The Cerne Abbas Giant’s Wikipedia page has been updated! 8/ The Chair of St Peter. 9/ Cerne Abbey. St Eadwold (c835-c900). Goscelin (c1040-c1106), the possible author of Eadwold’s hagiography. Walter of Coventry (fl 1290). 10/ Here is the Long Man of Wilmington, even though he is modern!

JD Vance was wrong about Augustine. But let's talk about it.

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 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 and White Jenna 4/ 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. 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, 1974). 8/ Übermensch (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, the Völsunga Saga, the Thidrekssaga, and the Nibelungenlied. 11/ 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 is the best! Check out Discworld. Also, here’s a nice thread on the fact he isn’t a TERF. 14/ Just for fun, here’s Jon Stewart’s rant on the goblins in Harry Potter. Enjoy! 15/ Christopher Tolkien’s NYT obituary: “Christopher Tolkien, Keeper of His Father’s Legacy, Dies at 95.”

Synopsis What exactly is authority? Where does it come from? How do you get it? Can you move authority from St. Paul, MN to the south side of Chicago? Join Em and Jesse for a wide-ranging chat on the subject. Notes 1/ Of course, many people in addition to women have a hard time getting others (i.e. non-group members) to pay attention to their authority. For example, trans and nonbinary people have a hard time getting anyone to listen to them speaking about their own lived experiences. 2/ I’ve published four novels and a novella since this was recorded, and people actually do think I’m an authority on some topics for some reason. 3/ The story about Aristotle’s phony translators comes from here, I think: https://historyofphilosophy.net/translation-movement Pseudopigrapha: from pseudo, false, and epigraphe, name or inscription. A falsely attributed text. U of Michigan’s Galileo text: “After an internal investigation of the findings of Nick Wilding, professor of history at Georgia State University, the library has concluded that its “Galileo manuscript” is in fact a 20th-century forgery. We’re grateful to Professor Wilding for sharing his findings, and are now working to reconsider the manuscript’s role in our collection.” Also, “Wilding concluded that our Galileo manuscript is a 20th-century fake executed by the well-known forger Tobia Nicotra.” (The quotes are from the linked website.) 4/ According to the Virginia Woolf society, the actual quote is: “I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.” (From ch 3 of A Room of One’s Own.) Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (5th/6th century CE)) Pseudo-Pseduo-Dionysius is anyone once thought to be Pseudo-Dionysius but now recognized (by modern scholars) to be someone other than Pseudo-Dionysius. Confused? 5/ Pseudo-Bonaventure (14th century CE) wrote Meditations on the Life of Christ. 6/ I’ve become a bit more familiar with copyright law in the three years(!) since we recorded this, since I’ve published three going on four books of my own since then. A really good example of a point I think past Em is trying to make is Sherlock Holmes, who has recently passed into public domain. He’s a neat character and everyone wanted to play with him (look at the adaptations of recent memory: the Robert Downey Jr. films, the BBC’s Sherlock, the American Elementary). But because of copyright law, this was fairly difficult and confusing until very recently, despite the character’s creator having been dead since 1930. These cases raise many questions of authorship vs ownership and how long someone should really be able to make money on an idea. (Patent Law is, if anything, worse, from what I understand.) 7/ It was a photograph of Prince! Since we recorded this, the Supreme Court sided against Andy Warhol’s estate: https://www.npr.org/2023/05/18/1176881182/supreme-court-sides-against-andy-warhol-foundation-in-copyright-infringement-cas Girl Talk is awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSoTN8suQ1o I mention him because there was a really good documentary about copyright called RiP! A Remix Manifesto that discussed his work (including a discussion of it with the head of the copyright office of the Library of Congress). 8/ Just to clarify, “fair use” is kind of a complicated issue. When you are a non-commercial educational podcast (ahem), you can use things (like samples of YouTube performances) without having to pay licensing fees. You can also fairly quote sections of things for criticism, news reporting, and research. You can therefore quote lines from songs or poems in textbooks, but not in novels because they aren’t considered teaching. Parody (hello, Weird Al!) can be a weird gray area, because a parody obviously has to be somewhat transformative but still retain enough of a likeness that people will know what you’re parodying, and on this question hangs a lot of lawsuits. (Not toward Weird Al though, as far as I know. But Margaret Mitchell’s estate did try to sue to block the publication of The Wind Done Gone.) See also: Why does Ulysses (in Em’s novels) wear so many band T-shirts and occasionally mention songs and artists, but there are zero song lyrics in the books? Because you can’t copyright band names or album/song titles. Steamboat Willie has actually entered public domain since we recorded this! [So amazing!–Jesse] Peter Pan actually first appeared in 1902! Also, sorry, “Peter Pan is a psychopomp” is somehow not a sentence I had on my bingo card. I guess it has lost a bit in its translation to the screen… On the plus side, SIDS rates have dropped dramatically since 1902? “I can rewrite Macbeth if I want to.” Or a really complex riff on The Bacchae? Em of 2022 did not know what was coming, lol. 9/ Notably, Spivak also quotes primarily women. The episode on Hrotsvit: Episode 22 10/ For more on Juliana of Cornillion and the Feast of Corpus Christi, see Episode 6. 11/ Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale are HERE. (Also, Chaucer was not, as far as we know, toxic like Joss Whedon!) 12/ Incidentally, violent, in-the-moment reactions to mistreatment by another person are called reactive abuse, and they’re often used by abusers to shift the blame onto their victims. If you are being abused or wondering if you are and want to talk to someone, check out the National Domestic Violence Hotline (https://www.thehotline.org/), or look for local programs. Here in Madison, for instance, we have Domestic Abuse Intervention Services (https://abuseintervention.org/).

Summary It’s January, the first month of the year, ruled by the god Janus, who looks both ways. But a week ago it was December, the…tenth month of the year? What the heck was up with Roman calendars? Join Em and Dr. Jesse to explore why this otherwise competent civilization just fell apart when it came to tracking what day it was. Notes Jörg Rüpke, The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine: Time, History, and the Fasti, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. 1/ Rome’s famous AVC (or AUC today), the abbreviation for Ab urbe condita (from the founding of the city), i.e. 753 BCE. 2/ For example, archeology uses “BP” or “Before Present.” Geology and astronomy and similar tend to use variations on “millions of years ago“. 3/ Calends! Nones! Ides! 4/ December is such a mess! For more on December not being the 10th month of the year (maybe ever!)–and/or the possibility of competing new years (one beginning in January and one in March), see Rüpke (p. 6). 5/ Fasti Antiates Maiores, created 60s or 50s BCE (Rüpke, p. 6), from before the Julian reforms in 46 BCE. January is the first month. Here is the original and here is the reconstruction. 6/ Annus confusionis ultimus! (46 BCE) See Rüpke, p. 112. 7/ Gregorian calendar! 8/ England finally officially adopts the Gregorian calendar in 1750. (This was adopted for the whole British Empire, including the colonies in America.)

Synopsis When is Hanukkah this year? When is Lupercalia, or Easter, or Midsummer’s Eve? When is your birthday? Figuring out when big events happen is incredibly important, and humans have been doing it for a long time. But while we can see some similarities in the process of calendar evolution, many civilizations had very different ways of conceptualizing and measuring time. Join Em and Dr. Jesse for a discussion of non-Roman calendars! Notes 0/ Check out the Nerd and Tie podcast network! Official announcement here. 1/ A lot of Mayans live in Yucatán in Mexico. Between 1847–1933, the Mayan fought a long and bloody war against the government of Mexico, and for a while controlled an independent state. Eventually they won the right to break up some of the haciendas, making it a fairly successful indigenous land movement. Now in Yucatán, a lot of the land is collectively owned/managed by the Maya. 2/ St Patrick will be coming up in the future! His episode has been recorded. 3/ Sir Capricorn’s name turns out to be Sesame. He is amazing! 4/ Gobekli Tepe (settled roughly 9500 BCE) 5/ Wurdi Youang (Australia) 6/ Warren Field (Scotland) 7/ Hawaii 8/ Yoruba calendar 9/ Babylonian calendar (from the 2nd millennium BCE). See Lis Brack-Bernsen’s “The 360-Day Year in Mesopotamia” The early astronomical text known as MUL.APIN (from 1000 BCE). 10/ Ancient Egyptian calendar! And some fun artifacts from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 11/ Mayan calendar! Very intriguing. Here is the film 2012 which posits many incorrect things, not just about the Mayan calendar.

Summary Starting in the middle ages, a rumor spread of a female pope, elected because of her incredible learning, who went undiscovered until she gave birth to a child. At which point, everyone lost their minds. Join Em and Dr. Jesse to learn about the veracity of this tale and the wacky test it (allegedly) engendered. (Ha.) Notes Our sources: Thomas F.X. Noble, “Why Pope Joan?” Catholic Historical Review 99.2 (April 2013) 219–238. Eamon Duffy, Saints and Sinners: A History of Popes. Yale University Press, 2002. 1/ Jean de Mailly, 13th century Dominican chronicler in Metz, makes the first extant mention of Pope Joan in his Chronicle “Diocese of Metz” (Chronica universalis Mettensis) in 1255. Etienne de Bourbon (also Dominican) adds to Mailly’s account a few years later in On the Seven Gifts of the Spirit. Dominican Martinus Polonus (Martin Strebsky) writes down the version we all know between 1265–1277 in Chronicle of the Roman Popes and Emperors 2/ “A means of adding verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.” From The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan. 3/ The description of this (definitely fake) ritual is in Duffy, Saints and Sinners, 156–7. 4/ Ember Days 5/ The Straight Dope was an alternative weekly column (in Madison it ran in the Isthmus, I think; also in the Chicago Reader) where readers could ask questions of a guy (gender nondenominational) who was essentially a reference librarian. The nom de plume was Cecil Adams. The column ran 1973–2018. The Pope Joan column is archived here: https://www.straightdope.com/21341608/was-there-once-a-female-pope 6/ Since we recorded this, The Onion has had a renaissance. If you subscribe, you can even get a print version! https://theonion.com/

Summary Avignon! A city where there is a bridge, and a song about the bridge. And, once, the pope lived there. Why? Let’s talk about this weird century. Notes 1/ Avignon: it has a bridge! And a song about the bridge: “Sur le pont d’Avignon.” The bridge is medieval; the song dates from the fifteenth century: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sur_le_Pont_d%27Avignon 2/ Boniface VIII (Pope 24 December 1294–11 October 1303). He was…something. Definitely check out Dante’s thoughts! 3/ Dr. Jesse: we can all recognize that in the past there have been different times when a third party has interfered in an election… Em: … Em: oh my god, we recorded this in April 2024. She was talking about the 2000 election. [A lot has happened in a year. Now it could also be the NYC mayoral race!–Jesse] 4/ The episode on Catherine of Siena is number 6. Jesse and I went to Siena at one point! I don’t remember if we saw her head. I’m guessing we did? We also saw a horse race, which means we were there on August 16, 2003? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palio_di_Siena [That was a great Palio! There were many, many false starts, and then someone fell (or was pushed/tripped) off their horse during the race, and the neighborhood whose rider fell (or was sabotaged) definitely thought he was sabotaged, and they all stormed the track toward the neighborhood they thought pushed him, and we were standing in between the two groups. –Jesse] 5/ Episode Summary! Avignon Papacy: Seven popes resided at Avignon instead of Rome Pope Clement V: 1305–1314 (curia moved to Avignon, 9 March 1309) Pope John XXII: 1316–1334 Pope Benedict XII: 1334–1342 Pope Clement VI: 1342–1352 Pope Innocent VI: 1352–1362 Pope Urban V: 1362–1370 (in Rome 1367–1370; returned to Avignon 1370) Pope Gregory XI: 1370–1378 (left Avignon to return to Rome on 13 September 1376, returned in January 1377) WESTERN SCHISM: ROME AVIGNON PISA Urban VI (1378–1389) Antipope Clement VII (1378–1394) Boniface IX (1389–1404) Antipope Benedict XIII (1394–1423) Pope Innocent VII (1404–1406) Pope Gregory XII* (1406–1415) *Voluntarily resigns to end schism Antipope Alexander V (1409–1410) Antipope John XXIII* (1410–1415) *Submitted to Martin V in Florence in 1418 and died shortly thereafter. The Medici built him a huge tomb. Pope Martin V (1417–1431)