E60 Legendary Ancestry Claims

Gladio Free Europe

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Thousands of years ago, the Egyptian princess Scota gave birth to a child who invented the Gaelic language and led his family on a journey through the desert for 440 years. Their descendants would move to Greece and then Spain, before becoming the first humans to finally conquer Ireland from a race of elves called the Tuatha Dé Danann. Meanwhile in Britain, 33 wicked Greek princess each married the Devil and gave birth to 33 terrible giants. Two exiled Trojan princes, Brutus and Corineus, would slaughter these giants and divide the island into two kingdoms called Britain and Cornwall, ruling for thousands of years until the arrival of Julius Caesar.

Join Gladio Free Europe this to find out why medieval people believed these stories just as strongly as Americans believe that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree. In this episode, Liam and Russian dig into the phenomenon of legendary ancestors: mythical and often supernatural heroes and villains once thought to be the ancestors of entire kingdoms. We recount a few of the most interesting and far-fetched of these stories and explore what this reveals about how medieval people understood their place in the world. Although nobody talks about figures like Scota and Brutus today, their medieval legends played a huge role in the formation of early modern identities and even have unpleasant echoes in nationalism today. Last, we go over why all of us are more likely to be descended from kings and heroes and mythical snake-women than we might think.

Further Listening: E04 Barbarians, E13 Migration and Memory, E36 The Franks