Curious Myths of the Middle Ages
1866
The medieval imagination produced stories so strange they barely resemble the tales we think we know. William Tell was likely a fabrication. The Man in the Moon began as a medieval murder ballad. The Wandering Jew may have been a confused response to Jewish persecution. In this 1866 collection, Victorian polymath Sabine Baring-Gould treats popular legends not as charming relics but as puzzles to be solved, tracing each myth back to its surprising origins in misinterpretation, political propaganda, and outright invention. His approach is methodical yet gleeful, treating the reader to the strange archaeology of belief: how a local bandit became a national hero, how a mistranslated prophecy sparked centuries of apocalyptic hope, how Christian scribes quietly absorbed pagan myths and dressed them in saints' clothing. For anyone who has ever wondered why certain stories persist, and what they reveal about the people who told them, this remains a marvel. Baring-Gould writes with the infectious curiosity of a man who has found something wonderful in the attic of history and wants to show you exactly what it is.
