The Last Kingdom — BBC-Netflix

The Last Kingdom Is A Gothic, Historical Story

Sometimes history hides heroes deep in the art and leaves a battlefield without a name. The Last Kingdom is about one of those men.

Where It Came From

The Last Kingdom is a gothic, historical story. But where to begin? History is an infinite source of ideas for authors.

It is becoming a series that has people glued to their small screens. Netflix didn’t waste time and jumped on Bernard Cornwell‘s work of The Saxon Stories and called it The Last Kingdom.

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Medieval — Plague Doctor

The Black Death History Of The Middle Ages

When the words Black Plague come together, we automatically think of the Middle Ages. Most recently, the term Dark Ages turned inappropriate but remained used, as it has another meaning for us goths, the Bubonic Plague.

The Overall Meaning Of The Black Death

The term Black Death resonates with an outburst of bubonic plague turned into a pandemic. It occurred in Western Euroasia and spread down to North Africa. Its period of spread was between 1346 to 1353.

This era was the most brutal and fatal death-spreading pandemic in human history to this day. Nothing has ever come close to the number of deaths related to a disease. 

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Romania — Transylvania — Fortress Castle

An Epic Wallachian Battle In Most Gothic Times Won By Basarab I of Wallachia

Many battles occurred during the Middle Ages, often due to pride or religion. Some of the epic battles were between Wallachia and Hungary. This is the story of the Battle of Posada.

Wallachia Was Small, But Mighty

Between November 9th and 12th of 1330, the Battle of Posada took place between Basarab I of Wallachia and Charles I of Hungary, who shared the name, Charles Robert. Wallachia, known today as Romania, had a small army with Basarab at the head. The cavalry and archers lived in a land of mountains and would mostly travel on foot.

Historians claim that the Turks’ nomadic people, the Cumans, helped Wallachia in their battle. However, because of the substantial number of Cuman-Hungarian people, there is no proof to back the claim. Charles referred to Basarab as Voivode, a Romanian word and term translating as Warlord, but nothing above it. Charles did so due to Wallachia being a vassal to Hungary in 1324.

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Medieval Dungeon - Torture

The First Witch Trial In The British Isles

In the history of witch trials, we can go as far back as the beginning of Christianity and later on Catholicism. Being part of the church didn’t even ensure your safety among your people. History is cruel to those who dare be just a little different.

Women And Witchcraft

Throughout history, we have read about the various women who, back in the early days, suffered persecution and accusation of witchcraft. When anything wrong seemed to happen, they were the ones to blame. 

The women were at fault, and they viewed it as suspicious if it happened more than once. The suspicion turned towards the idea that the female must be at fault and a witch.

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Angel Wings

Is Belial A Fallen Angel Or A Simple Demon

When watching the popular Netflix series Lucifer, Belial is one name Lucifer mentions to refer to himself. However, Belial is a character of his own rights. Here’s the story…

The Technicality Of Belial

Belial is not just a name, but a Hebrew word linked to wickedness and worthlessness. If digging deeper into the word’s etymology, we get ‘lacking worth,’ some even go as far as ‘may he have no rising.’

In King James‘ version of the Bible, Belial would be ‘a naughty person.’ However, in the Hebrew version, we see phrases such as ‘sons of Belial’ or simply put as ‘sons of worthlessness.’ When phrases use ‘sons of,’ it is a way to describe a group of people.

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Knightfall

Knightfall Is The Underrated Medieval Series Deserving Of More Seasons

When I finished watching The Last Kingdom, I was looking desperately for something to satisfy my Dark Ages addiction. Knightfall showed up, and quickly I found myself hooked on the last years of the infamous Templars.

The Official Summary

In 1306, the Knights Templar were winding down their run as one of the most powerful organisations in the Christian world. Acre, the Templar’s last stronghold, has fallen, and years later, a rumour is heard that the lost Grail is still in that area.

The Templars, led by the courageous, headstrong, but noble Templar Knight Landry, have shifted their attention to regaining a foothold in the Holy Land. They take their battle back to the Holy Land, and their battles become the Crusades.

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The Moosham Castle The Cruelest Trial In Witch Hunt History

When we think about the European witch hunt, we think about the mediaeval period, but what if I told you one castle hosted children as its primary victims?

The Moosham Castle Purpose

The Austria spur castle can sit over a Roman fortress’ foundation. A spur castle is a term used to indicate a mediaeval fortress resting on the spur of a hill or mountain as a defence mechanism.

Another example is the Poenari Castle in Romania, which belonged to Vlad the Impaler. Usually, the only weakness of such a castle resides where the hill links to the spur from which it projects. It also means that the spur castle would have three sides by steep hillsides for the best protection.

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Knights Templar Fan Art

The Knights Templar Downfall At The Hands Of A French King

The Dark Ages weren’t magic. They were unforgiving. It was a time for kingdom divisions and assertions of power for lands. But Kings and Queens weren’t the only sources of power. So were the Church and their most powerful Order, the Knights Templar.

What Do We Know Of The Knights Templar?

I am an ancient history nerd. My favourite era is the Iron Age and the Dark Ages. Because of my passion for history, the Assassin’s Creed video game franchise from Ubisoft became an obsession of mine. Their accuracy and storytelling are compelling, and so are their villains. 

The Assassin’s Creed might not be real in history—or maybe it is, and it’s all part of the conspiracy!—Joking aside, the assassins aren’t real, but the Knights Templar were and still exist to this day. Most of what we know about them comes from conspiracy theorists or fiction. In fact, the most accurate depiction of the Order comes from Assassin’s Creed and the History Channel series, Knightfall.

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Skeleton - Bones

Anglo-Saxon Dangerous Dead Burial In Nottinghamshire

In the Middle Ages, the rise of many beliefs creeping out of ancient folklore surfaced. One of them is the vampire, alongside witches that were common and werewolves. In modern times, when digging in the ‘old country,’ one might find rather strange burials.

The Middle Ages Fortune-Tellers

Back in Medieval Times, people didn’t have meteorologists to explain Mother Nature’s behaviour. They didn’t have the luxury of biologists telling them not to drink stagnant water. Instead, people had other ways to explain diseases and poor crops.

People of the Middle Ages often tried to find someone to blame, and it would come from dark places. With the Church spreading its wings across Europe, witchery was the popular belief. 

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Viking Axe

An Evil King In A Most Unforgiving Time

In the Dark Ages, technology and discoveries were stagnant. Yet, to this day, creative minds dive into history to grab a piece of its history. While some things stood still, the battle for kingdoms had begun. Reign of Mad Kings roared over lands, and Æthelred II was one of them.

Dark Ages Fun Fact & Warning

A Dark Ages fun fact: people had no surnames or family names. In fact, they had either sobriquets or a nickname to separate them from others wearing the same first name. For that reason, many last names today carry words that once meant something different.

I should warn you that this article is about Æthelred II, ‘the Unready’ from later in history and not based on the fantastic character from the television series, The Last Kingdom. Those are two different Æthelred II. While native from the same kingdom apart in time.

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Blood - Plasma

The Vampire Disease From The Dark Ages To Today

The Vampire Disease. Many people heard of it but do people really know what it is? Or what it means to the people who live with it? I have the illness at a mild level. Here’s how it goes!

Beware, Vampires Are Out Of The Coffin! Really, Read The Warning!

This article contains graphic descriptions of the medical condition widely spread as ‘Vampire Disease’ and its symptoms. The following article is an in-depth dive into the illness and what it implies, and what it is like for people like me to live with this condition.

If you are sensitive to medical tools, treatment, and physical descriptions of diseases, I recommend skipping this article. Because the illness can relate to mental disorders, I also recommend ensuring all readers are comfortable with the nervous system and brain illnesses.

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Looking For A Haunted Castle?

When you hear the term “haunted castles” you automatically start thinking about tragic lovers, royalty, and those who died in combat.

However, there is so much more to a haunted castle than those few categories. Sure, there are castles that are FULL of royal ghosts, and they can be found easily with a Google search.

So Many Ghost Stories

Why do we love a good haunting? Everyone loves something that is going to cause the hairs on their arms to stand up. Whether you believe in ghosts, or just love to read a good ghost story – then this is something that you are going to LOVE!

When you begin traveling, you are going to discover that every place has stories. Each has a piece of history that is going to evoke those feelings of loss. After all, that is where true ghost stories start.

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Alleged Vampire Witch

A vampire is a being from folklore that subsists by feeding on the vital force of the living. In European folklore, vampires were undead beings that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighborhoods they inhabited while they were alive. — Wikipedia

Debunking History

Throughout human history, the word vampire spread around the world since the dawn of humankind. Legends and myths from different civilizations nowhere near connected, share the same type of creature. Originally meaning: forceful bite, in my cultures, the creature itself seems to share common grounds. Its number one being the taste for blood.

We can blame the existence of vampires on the lack of knowledge around the deceased. Often people that were dead were accused of vampirism. Recently deceased people would show blood around their mouths, bloating, blush, and growth of hair and nails.

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Grey Wolf

The Werewolf Trials — A Horror Story

When the Dark Ages ended, slowly, the witch hunt started and it led to werewolf trials too.

The Dark Ages Ended

Back in the late Middle Ages and early Modern period, witches were being hunted down. It didn’t matter if it were true or not. If someone didn’t like their neighbor, they could be accused of witchcraft.

That started the witch trial time period. And like that wasn’t enough, werewolves emerged. And the werewolf trials begun and that is a horror story.

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Wolf's Eyes

Once In A Full Moon

What if we told you that werewolves are a lot older than you think and that lycanthropy was real?

Gothic Bite

We all know the monster that is the werewolf, but what do we really know about the creature itself and its origin?

Don’t worry, Gothic Bite Magazine has you covered! I have done the research and I am positively spooked to let you know that I’ll deliver articles more often than once in a full moon…

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Austria - Moosham Castle

Moosham Castle – A Horror Story

Travel the country sides of Europe and you are bound to see a castle. To date there are over ten thousand known castles in Europe and Asia.

Many of the oldest castles in the world are in Germany. With age comes history and not necessarily a pleasant history at that.

Europe’s Middle Ages were plagued with turmoil. The Crusades, witch-hunts (and werewolf hunts) vampire hysteria and war torn through the old world. Leaving in its wake tears in the fabric between this world and the next.

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