I appeared on the podcast Bildningspodden from Sweden in December 2025 talking about medieval pigs. A description of the podcast: Grisen är intimt förknippad med julen, och inte bara som julskinka. Men så har svinet en lång och vindlande kulturhistoria, från Odysséen till Hollwood. Också som djur är de ovanligt …
I had the chance to talk with the folks over at the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) about medieval pigs. There are two podcast episodes to listen to: Medieval Pigs and The Meaning of Pigs
The pig was a common sight in the Middle Ages. They might be eating under an oak tree, or out in a field. They might be in the street, with the swineherd close behind at their heels. They might be dismembered, for sale by a butcher. They might be represented …
Domesticated pigs (Sus scrufa) were an integrated component of medieval food production in both city and countryside. This chapter examines strategies for managing pigs in a sustainable fashion in the Middle Ages, with a focus on England and neighbouring Normandy. The chapter argues that limitations were placed on where, when, …
The late medieval period has complex and contradictory developments in the thinking about animal blood from butchery. It is both a potential pollutant to watercourses and soil, as well as a valuable ingredient in food for human consumption as blood pudding. It is a practical necessity, but also infused with …
There are objects and practices we would not know existed if we relied only on written texts or archeological evidence to piece together medieval agricultural history. These ephemeral aspects of the agricultural past are sometimes, however, captured in art. This essay explores some of the possible ways to recover fleeting …
I have discussed medieval environmental history as a discipline and my own work in the field in two podcasts: 2013, Umeå Group for Premodern Studies and 2009, Environmental History Resources (scroll down to podcast #28).
Rather than historical ecology, which is the study of what the environment was at a particular moment in time, this chapter presents an environmental history, which is the study of the interactive relationship between humans and non-human nature in the past. This chapter does not attempt to reconstruct the quantity, …
This paper examines the great building phase of the Anglo-Normans in England from an environmental rather than the more common architectural standpoint. THe construction of massive cathedrals, modern monasteries, and ubiquitous parish churches resulted in environmental consequences for medieval England after the conquest. Extracting construction resources sculpted enduring marks on …
Swine as agricultural products were extremely common in the medieval townscape, but pigs are also notoriously damaging if allowed to run amuck. This article explores how local governments tried to regulate pig rearing as an integrated element in the urban space, arguing that the authorities attempted to control the movement, …
