Boggart and Banshee: A Supernatural Podcast

Simon has just published a book on European fairies, trolls, and other supernatural creatures, who like humans live in societies: going to war, dancing, seducing, holding weddings and funerals, burying the elderly alive....

Looking at beliefs from Ireland to Ukraine and from Iceland to the Balkans, Simon and Chris debate the merits of trying to classify supernatural beings, find chilling parallels for the ‘fairy blast’ in Croatia and Greece, and shudder at the vengeful Nixen of Germany’s rivers. They also clash about vampires and werewolves in Ohio, but that is another story...

Sometimes these social folklore beings look human, but are given away by their hollow back or a wet hem dragging in the road. They may be helpful to humans, or they may be vampiric, luring young men and women to their doom. 

Chris and Simon take a quantum leap as they ponder the mysteries of vanishing houses and time slips. Did two English ladies walk back in time at Versailles? Is there a street in Liverpool where visitors are transported to the 1950s? Did three Royal Navy cadets find themselves in a 14th century plague village? Vanishing hotels and diners, mysterious visions of medieval Paris, and inexplicable forests in Newfoundland: are faulty memories—or fairies—responsible?  

Chris and Simon, don their snorkels and flippers to explore the world of mermaids. Join them as they sail past shaved monkeys, triton hot-spots and a prized vintage tuna doll. Dive in, with our daring duo, to search out mermaid fakes in Belfast, the only living Fish woman, and a singing mer-vicar in Cornwall. Then we navigate around mermaid graves in Scotland, murdered sirens in Germany, and inexplicably, a  turnip in a bag on Tyneside. Whether you're a folklore buff, a Weeki Wachee groupie, a wet-suit-wearing cryptozoologist or just like the occasional splash this, dear listener, is the episode for you. 

Things get steamy in this R-rated episode where Simon and Chris discuss the hot topic of sex and the supernatural. The duo passionately debate the forbidden thrills of witch orgies, fairy intercourse (with one of the seven sisters), spirit marriages (generally with rich old men), randy ghosts named as co-respondents in divorce suits, and coitus in the séance room. All climaxes with succubi, mermaids and demons, oh my! You might want to listen something else if you have kids in the car...

Prepare to be haunted by the evidence as star witnesses Chris and Simon summon compelling arguments for paranormal claims in court. Our learned friends cross-examine the standard of proof for mermaid and sasquatch affidavits, exhume the details of changeling murder cases, and put a rapping medium on trial for disturbing the peace in church. The dearly departed won't escape scrutiny either, as our hosts investigate cases of defamation from beyond the grave and leave no tombstone unturned in their search for justice. Will you join the jury and decide the fate of the supernatural on the latest Boggart and Banshee podcast? 

Simon raps once for ‘yes’ and Chris raps twice for ‘no ‘over the results of the five-year ‘Philip Experiment’. Canadian parapsychology researchers invented a fictional character, the dashing but suicidal cavalier Philip. Then they began to receive communications from Philip through rappings and table tippings. Expect to learn how you can best create a ghost at home: glasses of wine, sing-songs and wishful thinking top the list. The correct pronunciation of Tibetan tulpa (sorry sprulpa). And all hail the bronies who create anthropomorphic multicoloured ponies at will.  

The first rule of fairy gifts is you don’t talk about fairy gifts. Chris and Simon recklessly flout that rule in this look at artifacts stolen from or given by the fairies to human neighbours. Some are exotic, like The Luck of Edenhall and the Fairy Flag of Dunvegan. Others, like elf shot and tiny tobacco pipes, are common field finds. Chris waxes lyrical about fairy textiles, and the connection between Huldrefolk bridal crowns and the Virgin Mary. Simon shoe-horns in a discussion of tiny footwear said to be made by leprechauns, some of which, worringly, show signs of wear. And what about that  ‘leprechaun suit’ from County Louth? And should you ever amputate a fairy foot? (Only if you have arthritis...). Our Facebook group is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1396529487421974

Simon and Chris are all atwitter over stories of supernatural birds: spectral ravens, death-predicting rooks, ghostly-bloodied doves, glass-smashing partridges and, the horror, housebound robins. Chris causes a flutter with an intolerably creepy magpie rhyme; our thoughtful pair wonder at phantom birds often being heard and not seen; and why oh why do birds keep attacking Simon? 

Chris and Simon cross swords over a medieval X-files collection: necromancers, monsters emerging from graves, an encounter with a fairy-like Woman in White, the walking dead, and, best of all, a trustworthy demon named Oliver, all found in Caesarius of Heisterbach’s thirteenth-century Dialogue on Miracles. Although Caesarius’s purpose was to instruct Cistercian novices, these stories of medieval high strangeness can still delight the Fortean, the anomalist and anyone else interested in the supernatural. So step into the cloister, dear friend...

In the 1880s, two sisters had an encounter with three gyrating, squeaking, white veiled supernatural women at Sennen Cove, Cornwall. Chris and Simon dance around the topics of Cornish otherworldliness, supernatural languages and circle jigs. Were the women goddesses, fairies, vestal virgins or amorous cats? Where do fairies 'foot it all the night'? Why do so many supernatural encounters report high-pitched voices? And most importantly did the ladies of Sennen Cove mess with Simon's mike, which played up in parts of this episode... The booklet with the text of the encounter is Pwca's Magicians, Red Heads and Small People: The Legends and Folklore of Sennen and Sennen Cove.