S2 Ep17: The Good Sword of Winfarthing

Today’s podcast is about the Magical Sword of Winfarthing, the Excalibur of Norfolk which helped women rid themselves of terrible husbands (and find their lost horses) from the safety of their village church.

We have plenty of sword play with a range of topics which see us discuss witchcraft, famous magical swords and why we can’t pronounce most of them, why the sword is associated with supernatural and magical powers and why making swords was so revered.

(Something I forgot to mention in the podcast is what some of those secrets were, such as “the virtues of certain liquids for quenching the hot iron, varying from the water of certain rivers to the urine of a red-haired boy or the juice of radishes mixed with earthworms.” Bear this in mind the next time you make a sword).

Find out why folk magic in a church might not have been the no-no it later became, why women felt the need to ask a sword for help if their husband was a wrong ‘un, a real example of a sword in a stone and how to use a sword for toothache (useful in these days of no NHS dentists).

Siofra also offers an alternative title to the five-series-long Merlin TV series which would have made it a whole lot better and Stacia wonders what excuse you’d need to come up with in order to go and ask a sword to murder your husband once a week for a year.

Both members of the Norfolk Folklore Society would like to make it very clear that they love their husbands very much and have not been visiting (a) Winfarthing or (b) a sword.

We hope you enjoy! 

Love from Siofra and Stacia