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Charles Christian

Charles Christian is an English barrister and Reuters correspondent turned writer, editor, podcaster, award-winning tech journalist and sometime werewolf hunter now a chronicler of weird tales in weird times. As well as being a regular contributor to Ancient Origins Premium, on medieval history, folklore and the occult, he also writes the monthly Fabulous Creatures column for Ancient Origins Magazine. You can find him and his weekly Weird Tales Radio Show podcasts online at www.urbanfantasist.com

Saints & Sinners in Dark Age England

Five tales to take you from the misty years following the collapse of Roman rule in England, a time when it is hard to distinguish between history, myth and legend, through until the arrival of the Normans when, after over 600 years of almost constant chaos, some semblance of stability returned to English life. These are tales of murder, mayhem, treason, torture, incest and adultery in which we’ll encounter nine saints, eight English kings who met gruesome, bloody premature deaths, five scheming English queens who put the 'sex' into Wessex, and the mother of all wicked stepmothers.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087N3NB7M

https://https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B087N3NB7M

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History

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Posts

Witches' Sabbath, 1819-1823 by Francisco Goya
2 April, 2018 - 15:37 Charles Christian

Killing with Curses: Obscure 17th Century Muggletonian Sect

Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. One of the debates among fans of the ‘Potterverse’ – the fictional universe that is the setting for the Harry Potter-related novels and movies – is where did...
North Sea once formed a land-bridge between Europe and Britain.
12 February, 2018 - 15:21 Charles Christian

St Michael’s Ley-line Leading to Legendary Doggerland

Does the St Michael ley-line reach far beyond the boundaries of our imagination to a destination lost in time and shrouded in myth? Doggerland was once a land-bridge connecting Britain to Europe...
Some Saxon Queens had killer reputations. (Public Domain);Deriv.
6 December, 2017 - 15:26 Charles Christian

Killer Queen: Meet Queen Elfrida – The Original Wicked Stepmother

History has seen some incredible, cut-throat politics and lurid scandals, including the reign of Queen Elgiva: a teenage Saxon princess who was caught enjoying a threesome (along with her mother!),...
Wassailing revelers at night – CC BY-SA 2.0
26 November, 2017 - 18:29 Charles Christian

From Saxon Sirens to Sacred Orchards: The Modern Traditions and Pagan Origins of Wassailing

Every January, in parts of rural England, people still gather to celebrate Wassailing, a tradition with distinctly Pagan origins intended to bless the coming year’s apple crops and protect orchards...
Some Saxon Queens had killer reputations. (Public Domain);Deriv.
8 November, 2017 - 14:57 Charles Christian

The Wicked Queen and Her Scandalous Daughter: How Murder & Mayhem Took a Saxon Princess from Palace to Poverty

While we might be gripped by the intrigues, the machinations, and the violence of the Lannisters and the Starks in the Game of Thrones television series and the Song of Ice and Fire series of novels...
Edmund killing Sweyn by Matthew Paris, 13th century (Cambridge University Library MS Ee.3.59 p. 4)
22 September, 2017 - 01:59 Charles Christian

The Strange Death and Afterlife of King Edmund Part 2: Did the Martyred Saint Rise from the Grave to Kill a Viking King?

King Edmund was the man who died, indeed was martyred by the Vikings after enduring a tortuous death which ended in his beheading. He thus became St Edmund and was the England’s original heavenly...
Martrydom of St Edmund by Brian Whelan
21 September, 2017 - 18:49 Charles Christian

The Strange Death and Afterlife of King Edmund Part 1: The Unfortunate Friendship With Ragnor Lodbrok that Led to Edmund’s Beheading

Over the past decade, there have been two major public campaigns in the UK to drum up support for removing St George as the patron saint of England and replacing him with St Edmund, the man who was...
Medieval-themed illustration of a young woman; representative image only
4 September, 2017 - 15:35 Charles Christian

Putting the Sex Back in Wessex: The Scandalous Reign of Queen Elgiva & Her Clash with a Demon-Fighting Bishop

The Queens of England (as in the consorts of Kings) during the early Medieval periods of English history rarely receive any coverage in the history books. Hands up anyone who can name the wife of...
Witch of Eye was burned at the stake. Fire and witch
3 July, 2017 - 15:26 Charles Christian

Witch of Eye Burned Alive at the Stake: Did She Use Black Magic to Bewitch a King in a Game of Thrones-Style Plot?

For over 900 years, people have been telling stories of wicked witches who have used Black Magic to overthrow kings. Morgan Le Fay in Arthurian legends of the early 12th century is thought to have...
Yorkshire Photo Walks (Tom Marsh/CC BY 2.0), and Grey Lady. (CC BY 2.0); Deriv.
19 May, 2017 - 15:29 Charles Christian

Staked Through the Heart and Buried at the Crossroads – The Profane Burial of Suicides

I uncovered a curious tale about a scrubby patch of land while writing a book on the folklore and history of East Anglia. Marked on modern maps as Lushbush, you pass it heading eastwards out of the...
Skeletons in the Attic and Babes in the Wood: Surprising and Spooky Yuletide Traditions
5 January, 2017 - 02:21 Charles Christian

Skeletons in the Attic and Babes in the Wood: Surprising and Spooky Yuletide Traditions

Although we nowadays associate ‘Happy Holidays’ with celebrations during Advent and the run-up to Christmas Day and then on to New Year’s Eve (or Hogmanay in Scotland) not that many years ago the ‘...
The Wold Newton Meteorite: An Extraordinary Stone and the Birth of a Superhero
20 December, 2016 - 02:17 Charles Christian

The Wold Newton Meteorite: An Extraordinary Stone and the Birth of a Superhero

In a remote part of North-East England called the Yorkshire Wolds, an incident took place on Sunday 13th December 1795 that not only became talking point of late 18th century London society but also...
Features The Return of the Crusader by Karl Friedrich Lessing, and an illustration from Jack the Giant Killer
10 November, 2016 - 02:03 Charles Christian

Tom Hickathrift - the Crusader who became Jack the Giant Killer

Many of you will be familiar with the legend or fairy-tale of Jack the Giant Killer and, in England, the popular Christmas pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk . But, Jack is a relatively recent...
English Folklore: The Forgotten Death of Mischief Night
16 October, 2016 - 01:50 Charles Christian

English Folklore: The Forgotten Death of Mischief Night

In the post-war years of the 1950’s through to the late 1980’s (when it began to be usurped by Halloween) Mischief Night was the “big” night before Bonfire Night, whereas Halloween on the 31st was...
Detail of the Wenhaston Doom
1 September, 2016 - 02:07 Charles Christian

The Wenhaston Doom: A Surprising Medieval Relic, Doomsday Message—and a Reminder of Pre-Christian Traditions

A ‘Doom’ is a remarkable survival of a type of church decoration once common in the Middle Ages but largely destroyed during the iconoclastic excesses of the English Protestant Reformation during the...
Deriv; Werewolf costume and natural landscape
14 July, 2016 - 02:20 Charles Christian

Werewolf Hunting #101 – In Search of Legends, and Busting Folklore Myths

Imagine you have been invited to meet in an abandoned cemetery to go on a werewolf hunt on the night of the next full Moon but you don’t know what to pack? It may sound like something out of a cheesy...

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