Curious Myths of the Middle Ages

Curious Myths of the Middle Ages is a book by Sabine Baring-Gould, first published in 1866 (in two parts, completed by 1868). In a twenty-four chapter compendium, Baring-Gould unpacks a wide range of medieval legends — from the Wandering Jew, Prester John, and Pope Joan to William Tell, the Man in the Moon, and tail-men — examining each myth’s origin, variation, and cultural legacy.

A prolific Anglican priest, novelist, hymn-writer (“Onward, Christian Soldiers”), and folk-life scholar, he draws on obscure European sources, medieval texts, and folklore to contextualize how these stories reflected and shaped popular belief. Curious Myths of the Middle Ages became a Victorian-era standard in mythography and folklore studies, praised by critics and beloved by readers for its engaging scholarship and its illumination of the medieval imagination and superstition.