Serendipity

Where do words come from? In this episode of Monkey Mind, Sophus Helle wonders about the history and etymology behind the word "serendipity". His monkey mind jumps from the gothic classics like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to fairy tales and letter writing, and he explores the dawn of literary genres like crime fiction and horror. In the second part of the episode, Sophus explains how the story of The Three Princes brought us "serendipity", and lays out the connection from this fairy tale to Voltaire, Poe and Conan Doyle, bringing us some genre defining classics.

Host: Sophus Helle

Written by: Sophus Helle

Sound editing: Simone Nystrup-Larsen

Editor: Andreas Lindinger Saxild

Monkey Mind

Combining wit and wisdom, silliness and seriousness, the podcast Monkey Mind by Sophus Helle takes the audience on a weekly jaunt through the jungle of the mind. Each episode throws a new and unusual light on the issues of everyday life—trees, typos, taxes, and much more besides—making the audience look again at a world they thought they knew. It tells stories that are designed to make the listener chuckle, then reflect, drawn from both the host’s own life and from the deep well of history.

Sophus Helle is a writer, translator, and cultural historian. He is an expert in the Babylonian epic Gilgamesh and the ancient poet Enheduana.