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How Loki Shapeshifted From Nordic Folklore to a Marvel Icon
There are more than 800 years between the stories of Viking god Loki first being written down and his arrival (in the superb Tom Hiddleston) in the Marvel cinematic universe in 2011’s Thor. The new Disney+ series Loki, set to be released on June 9, is primed to explore more antics of Thor’s trickster brother…
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How Medieval People Tried To Dance Away The Plague
It was a warm June day in 1374 in the medieval town of Aix-Ia-Chapelle, present-day Aachen, Germany, when the dancing started. It was the holy feast of St. John the Baptist, which aligns with the pagan celebration of Midsummer during the summer solstice. Traditionally, St. John’s Day was a day of rest and worship for…
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A Medievalist’s Guide To Decoding The Creatures In Godzilla: King Of The Monsters
The recent release of Godzilla: King of the Monsters and the introduction of a whole new “monsterverse” has got this medievalist thinking a lot about the creatures that are coming to define our time, and their origins both as kaiju monsters developed in the 1950s and ‘60s by Japan’s Toho Studio and their far older…