Myths and legends

King Arthur in The Winter King

The Winter King: the true story of the King Arthur drama

An illustration of King Arthur's coronation, from the 13th-century Flores Historiarum

Was King Arthur real? Discover the legend of the ‘once and future king’

King Arthur and his knights return to Camelot (Photo by: Christophel Fine Art/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Q&A Where was Camelot?

Mordred duels King Arthur with swords as they stand over the bodies of fallen men

Who killed King Arthur?

An illustration of a crow chasing a silhouette of a man running away in the distance

General Early Modern

The supernatural signs that unmasked murderers in early modern England

Illustration of the Children's Crusade of 1212, from the Story of the British Nation, Volume 1, by Walter Hutchinson, c1920 (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

What was the Children’s Crusade, and did it actually happen?

A 1950s illustration imagines a group of mountaineers catching sight of a large Yeti in the Himalayas

General History

The hunt for the Abominable Snowman: what’s the history of the Yeti legend?

A mermaid combing her hair

General Early Modern

Tails from the deep: separating the real folklore of mermaids from Disney stories

Elsie Wright, who with her cousin Frances Griffiths took photos of sprites, gnomes and fairies, 1917 (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

Fake news: 8 of the most notorious photograph hoaxes, from fairies to UFOs

Illustration by Cat O'Neil

David Ingram: the Tudor sailor who hiked across pre-colonial America

Tyr was the god of justice and war who, according to legend, lost his hand in sacrifice to the binding of the wolf Fenrir

Viking gods, goddesses & tricksters: 12 figures from Norse mythology

Hitler and Eva Braun pose with their dogs in 1942

Second World War

Fake news and Nazis: Richard J Evans on the spectre of conspiracies

Perhaps the most charming idea about the origins of the festive tradition of kissing under the mistletoe derives from a Viking myth of Frigg, goddess of love and marriage, and her ill-fated son Balder. (Photo by Jurg Waldmeier/StockFood Creative/Getty Images Plus)

Q&A Why do we kiss under the mistletoe?

A man goes into a village at night on the eve of Samhain

What is the history behind the Celtic festival of Samhain and what does it have to do with Halloween?

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Pod Paul Cartledge WL

Troy: everything you wanted to know . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.