EARLY EPISODE: The Battle of Lake Peipus
We visit the 13th century Northern Crusades and examine what happens when Alexander Nevsky and the Livonian Order go head-to-head for a battle on the ice. No, not like that—no pucks, no skates, and way more bog mud than could possibly be healthy.
WORKS CITED
EBSCO. “Alexander Nevsky | History | Research Starters | EBSCO Research.” Accessed February 9, 2026. https://www.ebsco.com.
Fennell, John. "The Crisis of Medieval Russia 1200-1304." Longman History of Russia. Taylor and Francis, 2014.
Gore, Terry. “Lake Peipus: Battle on the Ice.” Military Heritage 7, no. 1 (2005). https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/lake-peipus-battle-on-the-ice/.
Hellie, Richard. “Alexander Nevskii's April 5, 1242 Battle on the Ice.” Russian History 33, no. 2/4 (2006): 283–87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24664445.
Smith, Jerry C., and William L. Urban, eds. The Livonian Rhymed Chronicle: Transl. with an Hist. Introd., Maps and App. Indiana University Publications. Uralic and Altaic Series 128. Indiana Univ, 1977.
Comments (68)
On the topic of soldiers leaving their guns in places they shouldn't... My dad was stationed at Knox from 1999-2003, and my brother and I went to school on base. Immediately after 9/11 we had soldiers patrolling our schools, because America is insane, and there was an incident where one idiot left his gun in the restroom of the elementary school. It was a whole thing, and all of us kids got talked to about what to do in that situation (to not touch said gun, and immediately tell an adult).
*Text convo between my dad and me just now* Me: Did I fever dream soldiers patrolling inside the schools at Knox, and one of them sitting down a gun in the bathroom once, or did that actually happen? Dad: It happened, I saw the soldier sit down the rifle, we immediately changed it to making soldiers in the school had a lanyard to them and their rifles. Me: 🤦🏻♀️ Dad: We had HMMVS's patrolling the housing area with 50cal machine guns. Armored personnel carriers in front of all command bldgs, and the exchange.
She Lake on my Peipus until Alexander Nevsky Burns down the church organ
The New England Jimmies thing has a dark racial background.
Lake Peipus is a bit of an odd one. Most estonian places have a german name like the capital tallinn used to be reval. We don’t use those names anymore but for some reason we still translate the lake to Peipus in english. Estonian would be Peipsi (pronounced almost like pepsi but like pay-psi)
Very important to know the depths of Lake Peipus before you dive in it. In this talk, I'd like to introduce the operational importance of Sounding the Peipus---
New Englander here, pretty sure "Jimmies" is racist, sprinkles were originally just the little brown chocolate ones. You see where this goes 😅
I really like nate and this show but sometimes on nate heavy episodes he derails the podcast to a point where it becomes very difficult for me to follow any sort of narrative and I learn very little
Agreed, he can be too much at times
Tom and Nate seem like the kind of “music” guys to bully the shit out of you for not knowing some random obscure LP from a one off 90s band.
Why does Joe sound like he's speaking into a empty can of SpaghettiOs?
The story about lost military items reminded me of the pic of the NODs lying on the ground outside the parliament building after the Korea coup last year, and a bunch of people on Twitty were like "ohhhh some guy is soooooo fucked".
Will Lions led by Robots review First Squad, a bunch of children in a NKVD Suicide Squad fights Nazis and undead knights of Livonia?
Holy crap I can't wait for the Grunwald coverage!
106 beers….in 45 minutes
Nate on That Good ADHD Shit™️ on a Middle Ages episode is peak. I don't care that he lies to me about getting on track. Never change.
As an ADHD person myself, yes
How does someone lose a TANK!
I was with Nate going after Joe about Artax lmao.
I cant wait for the American warlord era so we can see a f350 with an organ bolted to the back leading a pack of hiluxes
I love cavernous mic Joe
She lake the peipus till I squeakus
Hoes from different area codes
Big bag in Finnish sounds like "Mega Pussy" so checking out at the grocery shop there was fun as an American exchange student...ironically Finnish is most closely (linguistic wise) related to Hungarian.
Guys start talking about Scrooge McDuck cumming in his money pool and I just started singing "Might solve a mystery. He'll jizz on currency! Duck Tales!"
lake PIPE US??
The Peipusee!
Night vision is legal to own as a civilian. Even the high dollar L3 Harris panoramic stuff the military uses. I am actually in the process of purchasing a pair.
Nate I say this with love. But, bro I am positive you where at a show where it was you and one other person there. You take this time to kill the other person at the show then the band. Just so no one else can see them.
Chud Saracens is just the Syrian and Turkish governments.
Bloody White Baron coded.
Rich medieval Europeans tended to use a fair amount of spices in their cooking, use of a spices in European cooking started to decline in the mid 17th century, we know from shipping manifests that they started to transport fewer spices, and one writer from the period satirizes "excessive" use of spices in earlier cooking. Also it's pretty unlikely that 13th century lute players would have been playing chords.
While not a Main Battle Tank, my unit (C Company, 1/8 USMC) lost 4 or 5 mortar rounds in Afghanistan on an op that started with the Osprey we were on crash landing. They had been divvied up amongst us boots, but no one kept track of who had what until we turned them all back in, and they found out we were short. We also briefly lost a MATV (A kind of light-weight MRAP); we ended up having to police call an entire base to find it, only to find out that the SNCO who was in charge had just miscounted them.
This is a certified V-22 Osprey classic.
Also, I am constantly envisioning the Doof Warrior. Fury Road was the last movie I ever saw in a theater, and I see no reason to change that.
When I got the notification on my phone of the release for a sec I thought it was The Battle at Lake Changjin. Was excited because I look forward to you guys covering that battle one day.
I gotta fight for my boy Nate here - Neverending Story's horse/bog scene was totally on topic. It was downright illustrative, in fact!
Exposure [bad]
Me in Alaskan: Three.. two.. one.. Nate: I was stationed in Alaska Me: Bingo! That said, breakup is the strangest season because it objectively sucks but subjectively is so warm and lovely I'd be out there in a tshirt enjoying the mud.
Also, they missed a BIG ONE. The old German name of the lake is... Der Peipusee.
Has Joe ever said which chapter he is getting into for warhammer. If not a potential question for the legion is “if they were to found their own space marine chapter, what would be their name and specialty”
I play guard
Nevsky died on his way to placating the Golden Horde. This was due to some of his nobles pissing off the Mongols (again).
Man Joe, you are on a roll. Fantastic episode
Where I grew up jimmies are the long rods, sprinkles are the balls or the colored sugar
As a Nokia engineer, fuck you specifically
The ”Flashing Alexander Nevsky sign" reminded me that the Soviets play a restored version of Sergei Eisenstein's movie to psych up the Russians in the beginning of Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising". Clancy was a nut, but he had some eye for detail.
I had that same thought as soon as I read the words "Alexander Nevsky." Literally the only thing I know about him.
Goddammit Nate, the Duck Tales theme song is now playing in my head on a loop.
Are night vision goggles illegal?
No, they are totally legal, at least in the US. So is body armor.
Turkish guitar center; Baglama Center
When you guys said peipus,you guys are saying it like pipis. So i am just imagining spamton doing ads for crusaders and pilgrims. Given the business of the tectonic and templars, it would be fitting.
I haven't listened yet so I don't know if I'm pronouncing it right, but my first thought on seeing the title was "hehehe peepus"
New englander here. We had sprinkles which were multi colored ice cream topping. Jimmies specifically were the chocolate sprinkles… and yes, its exactly as racially coded as it sounds
Literally paused the episode to run here and say the same thing.
Hell yeah Teutonic Knights
Oh, the Pruss people got fed up with being raided and kicked Herman's ass so hard he had to move his capital city because it got razed. And since he was so tied up in dynastic infighting, he just told the Order they can have Prussian lands if they can take them. And gave them a lease on an area that was basically a war-torn wasteland as a homebase. That was the "Ziemia Chełmińska" area, which the Order then conspired with the German emperor to include in his bull as a permanent giveaway. This has become the focal point of the Polish-Order conflict, and the order's complete defeat in the famous battle during the war that ensued. We're a tour guide of the Order's Castle-Capital, and it was extremely refreshing to hear it's history being told in the context of colonialism, which is still a big no-no among the geezer historians here in Poland. Because it implicates us fully, as the first phase of conquest was done with mostly Polish forces...
“We’re only gonna be strictly business from now on.” > checks timestamp > significant amount of podcast left
I love how he said that and then like within 2 minutes it’s back of the rails. lol
2:45 I'm dying at "There goes the bike-sexual." Never have I felt so attacked. Hilariously I was interviewed yesterday for a bike-related documentary. 3:48 lol Joe pointing out how it's always fine and good to make fun of passport bros followed by Tom's astute observation that women really just want a skinny, chainsmoking line cook that can get them cocaine followed by Nate making the observation about baby formula being locked up like it's a person who was arrested for shoplifting baby formula might be the most relatable neurospicy stream of consciousness I've heard.
I aspire to bikesexuality.
Oh fuck yes, it's time. https://youtu.be/xyDKezDLGTM?si=zvrAfbCkTScfwtAQ
"The Ones Who Get Pulled Apart by Horses in Omelas" fucking killed me. Can't wait to read Isabel J Kim's response to it in 50 years.
Absolutely incomprensible. Fantastic job
I'm a simple person, I hear Joe say "But, boys!", I laugh
The inner European crusades are a criminally disregarded part of the whole thing. Thanks for sharing.
Uh… first? Thanks for the phenomenal pod for all these years, joe & company.