Joan of Arc

I'm a natural skeptic, and a folklorist. Those are the only explanations I can offer as to why for most of my life I assumed that the stories we all know of Joan of Arc must be mythical and/or improvable. An illiterate teenaged shepherdess was suddenly inspired to chop off her hair, travel through occupied territory, convince the Dauphin to let her lead his army, and end a five-month siege where veteran commanders had failed? In 1429? Riiiiiight. It sounds, I dare say, rather...