The Middle Ages are ever-present and oft-remembered in modern life, but… not very accurately, especially in fiction and TTRPGs like D\&D. How can we set that right, and why does it matter, even when you create fictional worlds? This week, we’re hosting Professor Kristin Leaman as she walks us through medieval misinformation and why so many of us have incorrect ideas about the Middle Ages. Plus, we'll talk about how the medievals contributed to their own era of misinformation, too!
Listeners with follow-up questions may contact Kris...
The Middle Ages are ever-present and oft-remembered in modern life, but… not very accurately, especially in fiction and TTRPGs like D\&D. How can we set that right, and why does it matter, even when you create fictional worlds? This week, we’re hosting Professor Kristin Leaman as she walks us through medieval misinformation and why so many of us have incorrect ideas about the Middle Ages. Plus, we'll talk about how the medievals contributed to their own era of misinformation, too!
Listeners with follow-up questions may contact Kristin Leaman (Assistant Professor, Purdue University) at leamankb@purdue.edu.
Join our discord community!
Support us on patreon!
Get your copy of Marginal Worlds, a deck of 50 magic items pulled directly from medieval manuscripts, built for any TTRPG system here!
Socials:
Tumblr
Website
Bluesky
Instagram
Facebook
Citations & References:
Listeners with follow-up questions may contact Kristin Leaman (Assistant Professor, Purdue University) at leamankb@purdue.edu.
- Armitage, David. “In Defense of Presentism.” History and Human Flourishing , edited by Darrin M. McMahon, Oxford UP, 2002, pp. 44-69. DOI .
- Blair, Ann. “Information in Early Modern Europe.” Information: A Historical Companion , edited by Ann Blair et al., Princeton UP, 2021, pp. 61-85.
- Blair, Ann. Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age . Yale UP, 2010.
- Bores, George. A True Discourse Declaring the Damnable Life and Death of One Stubbe Peeter, a Most Wicked Sorcerer, Who in the Likeness of a Woolfe, Committed Many Murders, Continuing This Devilish Practice 25 Yeers, Killing and Devouring Men, Woomen, and Children. London, Edward Venge at the Signe of the Vine, 1590.
- Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Franklin’s Tale.” The Riverside Chaucer , edited by F. N. Robinson and Larry D. Benson, 3rd ed, Houghton Mifflin, 2008, pp. 178-89.
- Ellard, Donna Beth. Anglo-Saxon(ist) Pasts, PostSaxon Futures . Punctum Books, 2019.
- Freelon, Deen, and Chris Wells. “Disinformation As Political Communication.” Political Communication , vol. 37, no. 2, 2020, pp. 145–156. DOI .
- Fahey, Richard. “Misappropriating the Medieval: How Ignorant Nationalists Reify Whiteness.” Medieval Studies Research Blog: Meet Us at the Crossroads of Everything , Medieval Institute, U of Notre Dame, 5 February 2021. Link .
- Fahey, Richard. “Marauders in the US Capitol: Alt-Right Viking Wannabes & Weaponized Medievalism.” Medieval Studies Research Blog: Meet Us at the Crossroads of Everything , Medieval Institute, U of Notre Dame, 15 January 2021. Link .
- James VI & I. Daemonology . London: Printed by Arnold Hatfield for Robert Wald-Grave, 1603.
- Jones, Lori, and Richard Nevell. “Plagued by Doubt and Viral Misinformation: The Need for Evidence-Based Use of Historical Disease Images.” The Lancet , vol. 16, no. 10, Oct. 2016, pp. e235-e240. DOI .
- Kim, Dorothy. Digital Whiteness & Medieval Studies . ARC Humanities Press, 2019.
- Kim, Dorothy. “Teaching Medieval Studies in a Time of White Supremacy.” In the Middle , 28 August 2017. Link .
- Kim, Dorothy. “White Supremacists Have Weaponized an Imaginary Viking Past. It’s Time to Reclaim the Real History.” Time , 12 April 2019. Link .
- Kramer, Heinrich. Malleus Maleficarum . Strassburg?, Johan Pruss?, 1486.
- Kramer, Heinrich. The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum . Translated by Christopher S. Mackay, Cambridge UP, 2009.
- Kuo, Rachel, and Alice Marwick. “Critical Disinformation Studies: History, Power, and Politics.” Misinformation Review , Harvard Kennedy School, 12 August 2021. DOI .
- Leaman, Kristin. “Medieval Misinformation and Disinformation: Filling a Gap in Medieval Studies.” S tudies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching: SMART , vol. 32, no. 2, 2025, pp. 7–22.
- Leaman, Kristin. “Disinformation in John Foxe’s Edition of Ælfric’s Easter Homily, 1570–1684.” Journal of Documentation , vol. 82, no. 7, 2026, pp. 187-205. DOI .
- Menache, Sophia. “Deconstructing Medieval Disinformation: A Critical Analysis of Constructed Narratives". The Medieval Chronicle , vol. 17, no. 2, 2025, pp. 123-154. DOI .
- Neville, Jennifer. “Talking about Our Generations.” Section. “Twenty-five Years of ‘Anglo-Saxon Studies’: Looking Back, Looking Forward,” authored by Catherine A.M. Clarke et al. Disturbing Times: Medieval Pasts, Reimagined Futures , edited by Catherine E. Karkov et al. Punctum Books, 2020, pp. 341-5. DOI .
- Otaño Gracia, Nahir I., and Tiffany N. Florvil. “Introduction to ‘Race, Racialization, and Whiteness before and after The Invention of Race’.” Publications of the Modern Language Association of America , vol. 140, no. 5, Oct. 2025, pp. 857–862. DOI .
- Pettegree, Andrew. The Invention of News: How the World Came to Know about Itself , Yale UP, 2014.
- Ramos, Eduardo. “Confronting Whiteness: Antiracism in Medieval Studies.” Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies , vol. 11, no. 4, Dec. 2020, pp. 493–502. DOI .
- Ring, Nicola A., et al. “Healers and Midwives Accused of Witchcraft (1563–1736) – What Secondary Analysis of the Scottish Survey of Witchcraft Can Contribute to the Teaching of Nursing and Midwifery History.” Nurse Education Today , vol. 133, Feb. 2024. DOI .
- Rubin, Victoria L. “Disinformation and Misinformation Triangle: A Conceptual Model for ‘Fake News’ Epidemic, Casual Factors and Interventions.” Journal of Documentation , vol. 75, no. 5, 2019, pp. 1013–1034. DOI .
- Scot, Reginald. The Discoverie of Witchcraft . London, William Brome, 1584.
- Scot, Reginald. The Discoverie of Witchcraft . London, Printed for A. Clark, and Are to Be Sold by Dixy Page at the Turks-Head in Cornhall near the Royal Exchange, 1665.
- Sturtevant, Paul B. “Leaving ‘Medieval’ Charlottesville.” The Public Medievalist , 17 August 2017. Link .
- Weller, Toni, et al., editors. The Routledge Handbook of Information History . Routledge, 2026.
View more
