I am really pleased to have had the chance to talk to the Cardiff based storyteller Cath Little and find out more about her practice and how she gets herself into the strange material that is the Mabinogi. Cath runs the Cardiff Storytelling Circle, runs events that celebrate the turning year and is warm and generous storyteller with a great singing voice.

In this interview Cath talks about…

Cath frolicking with the Mari Lwyd

• Her connection to the infrequently told Romances of the Mabinogion, particularly Iarlles y Ffynnon / The Lady of the Fountain and Enid a Geraint.
• The inspiring courses run by Hugh Lupton and Eric Maddern at Ty Newydd in Llanystumdwy in North Wales. 
• The haunting image of the flaming tree that dies and lives again   
•  Animism and the old dieties    
• The importance of Caerleon as part of the landscape and her  personal connection   
• Annwfn, the Welsh Otherworld, as a place of deeper learning and knowing, mystery and beauty, awe and wonder   
• Women in the Mabinogi and the heroic female   
• The Mabinogi and Welsh identity

That’s quite a lot in fifteen minutes so don’t  forget the more informal and shorter bonus interview that follows.