About Episode One

From the Sea of Tethys to the Cold War waters of the Baltic, from C10th Norway to C20th harengophiles in the UK government, the curative powers of the herring to herring cravings in pregnancy, the origins of the herring to the origins of Rigby’s Encyclopaedia of the Herring, aka The Herripedia. And, as a bonus, a performance of the scurrilous C16th tale of how Pope Vigilius canonised a red herring as the King of Fishes. Eyvind Skaldaspillir, Arthur Samuel, Paul Neucrantz, Thomas Nash and others weave their ways between shoals of farting herrings. What more could anybody want?

00:00 Titles & two smelly fish;

04:45 A thunderous seizure of the bowels;

09:23 Concerning the squeaking of herrings whilst they do not breathe;

12:13 Two herring poets;

15:47 An Ig Nobel prize;

16:56 Thomas Nashe & his Lenten Stuffe;

21:13 The red herring: an origin story;

37:24 Epilogue with submarines;

40:43 End.