askhistorians

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"Oh God!" How long has shouting a deity's name been seen as a way to express sexual satisfaction?	8
Taking place in pre-Christian Scandinavia, Bathory's song "The Lake" tells of a hero told by "the one-eyed old man" (presumably Odin) to cast his eyes into a lake to become all-seeing (and be able at last to face the "twin-headed Beast"). Does this have any precedent in Norse mythology?	8
We all know the clothes of well-off 18th century Western European (and Russian) men (variations of wigs/long hair, jackets, vests or waistcoats, cravats, knee breeches, stockings, etc.). To what extent was this outfit adopted (or not) in other parts of Europe?	8
Did Canterbury Cathedral continue to receive continental Catholic devotees of Thomas Becket on pilgrimage after England broke with Rome? If so, was there backlash from the Protestant locals?	8
How did Hungarians come to look pretty much the same as their Central European neighbors if they descend from the Central Asian Magyars?	8
The Salem witch trials occurred within a broader context of witch trials among (mostly) Protestant Europeans (and their New World descendents). Did other witch trials occur elsewhere in Britain's American colonies in the 17th c., or was what happened in Salem truly unique for British America?	8
1790's English Gothic novels are obsessed with bandits, whether as fearsome, quasi-demonic villains, or as rugged, romantic anti-heroes. Would bandits have been a real-world threat to traveling middle-class Brits of the period?	8
The old Rotten Library article on the Marquis de Sade showed these VERY NSFW engravings depicting an 18th-century orgy. Can anyone clarify where they are originally from and when they were made? NSFW	8
How did South Slavic-speaking countries end up entirely separated from their East Slavic- and West Slavic-speaking counterparts?	7
Universities came about in the High Middle Ages, so why didn't European kings begin attending them until (if I'm not mistaken) the 19th century?	7

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