Europe's Last Pagan Peoples with Francis Young
The Medieval Podcast

Europe's Last Pagan Peoples with Francis Young

B2Upper-intermediateJune 4, 202646 min

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the practices of ancient and medieval Celts, and how those practices were transformed and integrated into Christianity over time. Today, we’re shifting the lens eastward to investigate some of the last Europeans to accept Christianity. What did these people believe before the missionaries arrived? And how did their pre-Christian beliefs shape their eventual practice of Christianity, itself? This week, Danièle speaks with Francis Young about who the last pagan holdouts on the continent were, why Christian missionaries struggled to convert these regions, and how pagan traditions were integrated into this new...

Play episode

Opens the player: the full transcript, every word clickable, with translation and flashcards.

Try it: tap any word

Real sentences from the start of this episode. Every word is marked with its level.

Sentence 9 of 12 · 0:44

shape their eventual practice of Christianity itself?

, . .

Francis is the author of more than 20 books, including Pagans in the Early Modern

Hear this sentence

Tap a word to see its meaning in your language.

Do you know these words?

8 harder words from this episode. Tap one to see what it means, then mark it.

  • B20:44
  • B28:14
  • C115:01
  • B219:36
  • B226:58
  • B235:47
  • B237:54
  • C146:40

Mark a few words and we'll tell you how this episode fits your level.

Is this episode right for you?

B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 20%A2 36%B1 20%B2 18%C1 5%
  • 77% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 188 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 255 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.

0:00

Hi everyone and welcome to episode 344 of the Medieval Podcast. I'm your host, Danielle Siboski. A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the practices of ancient and medieval Celts and how those practices were transformed and integrated into Christianity over time.

0:29

Today, we're shifting the lens eastward to investigate some of the last Europeans to accept Christianity. What did these people believe before the missionaries arrived, and how did their pre-Christian beliefs shape their eventual practice of Christianity itself?

0:44

This week, I spoke with Dr. Francis Young about Europe's last pagan peoples. Francis is the author of more than 20 books, including Pagans in the Early Modern and Baltic, magic in Merlin's realm, and twilight of the godlings. His new book is Silence of the Gods, the untold history of Europe's last pagan peoples.

That was the opening. The rest of the episode (45 min) is in the player: every word clickable, with translation, saved words and flashcards.

Continue in the player

Automatically generated from the audio. May contain errors. Audio belongs to its publisher and is played from their feed. Rights holders can request removal — copyright & takedown policy