Prester John

Prester John 10: The End is not the End

It's the end of the Prester John story, or at least the end for now. The priest-king pops up in Tibet and dives into the world of fiction and comics, and the Dalai Lama makes an appearance.

Prester John 9: The End Part One

What happens to a mythical priest-king when you get too close to him? Does he just disappear?

Prester John 8: Ambassador Mateus and his Many Doubters

In the early years of the 16th-century, Ethiopia's regent, Eleni, sent an ambassador to Portugal to propose an alliance. She sent a man named Mateus. Unfortunately for Mateus, almost nobody believed him.

Prester John 7: The Way from Lisbon

It's part 7 of the Prester John story, on the trip to Prester John's Ethiopia, and on the Portuguese crown's pursuit of the priest-king and how that story was connected to the developing ones of exploration and colonialism.

Prester John 6: The Ethiopian Prester John

This is the first of two episodes on the next jump in the Prester John narrative, as the story pivots to Ethiopia and as Ethiopian envoys and pilgrims travel in 15th-century Italy and Spain.

Prester John 5: The Mongol Priest-King

The Mongols, their conquests, and the travellers who went to see them were all going to necessitate some changes to the Prester John narrative. This episode is all about those changes.

Prester John 3: The Fifth Crusade

The crusaders make their way first to Acre and then to Damietta. Perhaps someone would be along to help them soon?

Prester John 2.5: Papal Correspondence

A shorter episode, on a letter from Pope Alexander III to Prester John.

Prester John 2: Where From and What For

On the many fantastic additions to the Letter of Prester John (Dragons! Strange Bakeries! Etc!), and on the theories around it.

Prester John 1: The Letter

The legend in its early forms: the arrival in Rome of a patriarch from the east, the chronicles of Otto of Freising, and that famous "letter."