Curses Legends and Murder: Folklore and Strange Tales of Thomas Becket
The Middle Ages
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1h 7m
On 29 December 1170, four knights, believing the king wanted a turbulent Priest dealt with, confronted and murdered Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. Becket’s murder sent shockwaves across Europe and led to the establishment of one of Europe’s most popular and miraculous Cults and to his canonisation as a Saint.
Join us as we explore Becket's miracles, and the healing powers ascribed to the his Cult. We will examine church dedications to Becket made as penance by his murderers (and the lack of basis of most of them), legends and myths attached to his murderers including ghosts etc, and we will also delve into the possible origins of the story that Becket cursed a Kentish village in such a way that all newborn children would grow tales. Join us and Mark Norman as we explore all this and much more!
Mark Norman is a folklore researcher and author based in Devon. He is a council member of The Folklore Society and the creator and host of The Folklore Podcast. Starting with humble beginnings five years ago, the podcast has now been downloaded over 1.1 million times and is placed within the top 10% of shows in its genre worldwide by audience.
Mark holds the UKs largest archive of sightings, traditions and eyewitness accounts pertaining to spectral apparitions of Black Dogs. His first book, 'Black Dog Folklore' remains the only full study of the subject by an individual author. This year, Mark's latest book was published by The History Press - "Telling the Bees and other customs: The folklore of rural craft".
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