![]() ![]() When Vikings sack the town of Dorstadt, Joan miraculously escapes death. At this point Joan is still known as a female, and has to combat discrimination, teasing, and shunning based on her gender. When her tutor leaves, he secures a place for Joan in a boarding school in Dorstadt, where she is taken in by a wealthy knight and his family. She impresses a visiting Greek scholar, who convinces her father that she should be tutored. ![]() She persuades her brother to teach her to read and write in secret. As she grows up, she is fascinated by both the pre-Christian Norse myths that her Saxon mother tells, as well as the Latin her older brother is learning. ![]() A map of the region would have been helpful. Joan was born in Ingelheim, which is in present-day Germany. Donna Woolfolk Cross brings Pope John (or Joan) to life, from her birth to her death, and constructs plausible and engaging scenarios to explain how Joan became educated and was able to hide her gender until she reached the pinnacle of power in medieval Christianity. Did you know there may have been a female Pope in the 800’s? According to Pope Joan, which is based on historical clues, such a person could have existed. ![]()
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