Oliver Lavery is an English mythologist, folklorist, traveling professional storyteller, and host of The Story Crow YouTube channel from Wiltshire County, England. For this Christmas special we focus in on one of the most mysterious Yuletide tales, the anonymous medieval poem of Sir Gawain & The Green Knight. After a reading about a royal deer hunt, Oliver opens on where he lives, amongst countryside & stone circles in south-western England. Giving us a summary of the The Green Knight legend, Oliver inspires conversations on the mythological & psychological: integrating the wild man within; hunting & ferreting; the Celtic roots behind the Arthurian legends; Cernunnos [the ancient European god of wild beasts]; Green Man; the headdress of a German shaman; and the overuse of the Jungian word "archetype." To wrap up this mythically merry chat, Oliver shares a haunting story about his own numinous experience at a burial cairn on the windy moors of Devon.

Check out Oliver's The Story Crow YouTube Channel and follow his van-life Instagram @The_Folk_Bus

Readings from Sir Gawain & The Green Knight translated by Simon Armitage

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Mark Norman is an English folklore researcher, author, lecturer and host of The Folklore Podcast in Devon, England. We begin with comparative readings about spectral road dogs in Virginia and in England. Mark tells us a bit about his county, of ship scuttlers & Wistman's Wood. Looking for the oldest written account of ghostly black dogs in the United Kingdom, we hear of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and a wild hunt of demonic hunters. From there we focus in on the lore: the Black Shuck event at Bungay & Blythburgh churches in 1577; black dog sightings as omens of death; and protective spirit dogs. We end on how landscape features become part of folklore, the future of folklore, and the winter tradition of Wassailing around the apple orchard.

Check out Mark's folkloric books and his popular podcast, The Folklore Podcast.

Painting discussed on podcast: "The Wild Hunt of Odin"

Readings from Virginia Folk Legends edited by Thomas Barden and Black Dog Folklore by Mark Norman. 

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Dr. Carla Ionescu, PhD is an ancient historian, author, traveling lecturer, Canadian university professor, founder of The Artemis Research Centre and host of The Goddess Project podcast. With hunting seasons upon us, we begin this odyssey into the Greek goddess of the hunt, Artemis, with the famous myth of the forlorn houndsman, Actaeon. Carla officially introduces Artemis/Diana & explains how Grecian hunters gave her offerings before the hunt, including sweets, animal sacrifices and large communal festivities. We hear of the goddess' symbols in art history & mythology: deer, dogs, bows & arrows, bee eggs, leopard pelts, bears, etc. What was life like 3,000-years-ago at her temples for the priestesses, pilgrims, and worshippers? From there we turn to the personal, as Carla describes some of the mountain & cave temples she's visited in Greece and tells a haunting, mystical story about visionary experiences she's had alone in an ancient cave temple on the island of Crete. We end on vocation, reincarnation, and slave boys saved by honey cakes. 

As discussed on the episode, taste some history with a recipe for Ancient Greek Honey Cookies.

Follow Carla on Instagram at @ArtemisExpert. Order her book, She Who Hunts: Artemis: The Goddess that Changed the World. And for everything else, visit her website, The Artemis Research Center.

Reading of the Actaeon myth from Metamorphoses by Ovid [Penguin Classics translation]

Music provided by SEIKILO Ancient World Music

"Mother"
Written & Performed by Thanasis Kleopas
Courtesy of SEIKILO Ancient World Music

"Initiation to Dionysus Cult, or Pendulum"
Written & Performed by Theodore Koumartzis & Evagoras Bekiaris
Courtesy of SEIKILO Ancient World Music

"Upon the High Mountain"
Written & Performed by Thanasis Kleopas
Courtesy of SEIKILO Ancient World Music

"Little Sea"
Written & Performed by Christiana Papakosta
Courtesy of SEIKILO Ancient World Music

"Odyssey"
Written & Performed by Thanasis Kleopas
Courtesy of SEIKILO Ancient World Music

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Eileen Budd is a professional Scottish storyteller, the host of the Scottish Folk podcast, and an artist & author in Angus, Scotland. After a Halloween reading about skull broth, Eileen describes where she lives in Scotland and the floods they experienced in last year's Storm Babet. Talk of weather and storms brings up the Gaelic mother goddess, the Cailleach.  From these ancestral stories comes a conversation about the diaspora of Scottish people to America aboard "coffin ships" and the suppression of their culture. Turning to the macabre mood of Halloween, we hear of folkloric and historic cannibals, Sawney Bean & the 15th-century butcher, Christie Cleek. Eileen describes what Samhain is - the time-of-the-year when traditional folk commune with the spirits of their ancestors. When it comes to personal stories from a professional storyteller, Eileen tells three haunting supernatural tales, in the best of which, a spirit saves the life of her grandmother. We wrap it up on rural poacher-lore from catching rabbits in nets to a story about a famous folk hunter who passed up a shot on a stag enchanted by fairies. 

Follow Eileen on Instagram and check out her podcast Scottish Folk

Reading of "The Death Bree" from Scottish Fairy Tales, Folklore & Legends 
 
For Hurricane Helene Flood Relief for Past Podcast Guests:

• Rebecca Beyers of Blood & Spicebush - GoFundMe
• Lupo Passero of Twin Star Tribe - Twin Star South Fundraiser 

Music Credits:

"Bonny at Morn"
Performed by The Whistlebinkies

"The Weary Farmer"
Performed by Tinkler Madgie

"The Sky Fishers Song"
Performed by Jean Redpath

"The Beggar Laddie"
Performed by Jean Redpath

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Gerald Milnes is a folklorist, fiddler, author, documentary filmmaker, ethnomusicologist, amateur anthropologist and the former Folk Arts Coordinator at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, WV.  He is the book author & documentary filmmaker of Signs, Cures & Witchery: German Appalachian Folklore. After an intro about milk witchery, Gerald talks about his passion-driven life as a self-taught folklorist. From there he lays out the history of the 18th-century migration of German settlers from the Old World to Pennsylvania and finally into the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia. Living in the region, Gerald befriended & interviewed many of the old timers who revealed to him a mysterious world of folk magic, superstition & occultism still alive on the mountain farmsteads. We hear of witch wars, witch doctoring, hunting magic, animal sacrifice, planting by the signs, selling one's soul to the devil, and the interplay between Christianity & the occult. For the last section, Gerald plays regional songs on his fiddle while telling a story about music's effect on the soul. In closing, he shares some music-lore about rattlesnake tails & a bewitched fiddle. 

Readings from Signs, Cures & Witchery: German Appalachian Folklore by Gerald Milnes.

Watch the Signs, Cures & Witchery documentary & purchase Gerald's books.

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Brian Jeffrey is a paranormal investigator in Farragut, Tennessee, who's served in the US Army and as a former Park Ranger. After historical readings about wild men & feral children, we open on Knoxville's urban sprawl. From there we get to the topic at hand, feral people of Appalachia, more specifically, within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park: from Brian's adventures searching them out & finding tracks; to rumors of cannibalism; strange tunnels; accounts from an attacked ginseng digger & a homesteader who claims she shot one. Interwoven is the mysterious local story of a boy named Dennis Martin who vanished in 1969 while on a family camping trip. Beyond the feral, Brian shares his own frightening  paranormal stories that took place on Black Mountain where we hear of portals; a witch's burned down cabin; and a nightmarish murderer. We close on Brian's ruminations on both the intoxicating & yet taxing effects of supernatural research with examples from a shocking photograph & dark memories from the US border. 

Check out Brian's Black Mass Paranormal YouTube channel where I sampled clips from his Black Mountain portal experience, witch hauntings & a paranormal attack.

Music provided by Navajo Witch

"Black Curse"
Written & Performed by Navajo Witch

"Ghost Sickness"
Written & Performed by Navajo Witch


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Tyler Estep is a local historian, former tobacco farmer & Baptist pastor at the oldest church west of Appalachia, in Adams, Tennessee; home of the infamous Bell Witch! After a reading from a 1904 newspaper that summarizes the Bell Witch mystery, we open on the region's tobacco farming culture. Then we turn to the topic at hand, the Bell Witch. We explore various explanations for the 19th-century hauntings: John Bell & an eccentric neighbor, Kate Batts; The Great Awakening & the demonic; ventriloquism & murder; an Indian curse & land-based hauntings; and lastly, a slave overseer's ghost. Throughout, Tyler openly shares his own strange encounters and spiritual battles with both mental health & the supernatural. For the official story, we hear of town folks' mysterious black dog sightings that harken back to the original accounts by the Bell family slave, Dean. We end on the area's cave systems and a potent warning not to take anything from them!

Check out the seasonal plays including Spirit in Adams, Tennessee: BellWitchFallFestival.com

Black dog story reading from An Authenticated History of the Famous Bell Witch  by M. V. Ingrim


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Bill Hardwig is a Cormacian scholar & associate professor of English at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. This episode is devoted to the early Appalachian Tennessee novels of the late, great, literary master, Cormac McCarthy [best known for No Country for Old Men, All The Pretty Horses, & The Road]. We begin by defining and discussing the literary genre: the southern gothic. From there we lay out the synopsis & inspiration behind three of Cormac's outstanding southern gothic novels: Child of God about a depraved serial killer roaming the Tennessee hills; Outer Dark about an incestuous brother & sister & their baby that's left for dead; and Suttree, Cormac's first acclaimed masterpiece about a shiftless fisherman living amongst the river & street life of 1950's Knoxville where he befriends the likes of petty-criminals, drunks, vagrants and prostitutes. Throughout we will hear of Cormac's upbringing in Knoxville with tidbits on trapping, taxonomy, hellhounds, regional flora & fauna, a folder of local stories, and city landmarks one can visit from Suttree. Bill reads us two passages to illustrate Cormac's ability to capture the region's voice, and finally, we end on highlighting the importance of ambiguity in great works of fiction.

Check out Bill's map of literary landmarks in Knoxville:  LiteraryKnox.com

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Doug Elliott is a naturalist, herbalist, storyteller, musician, author, illustrator and something of a living legend in Rutherford County, western North Carolina. After a story about deciphering the secret language of trout, we open on Doug's early career as a 1970's traveling forager. Now, no Doug Elliott conversation would be right without a 101 on groundhog-ology ranging from how to make groundhog shoelaces to understanding the medicinal properties of groundhog grease. The natural next step from groundhogs is opossums, Doug recounts the time he befriended an eccentric Alabama mayor who happened to be the president of the Possum Growers & Breeders Association of America. From there its on to folkways & more encounters with the natural world: doctoring a wounded hunting dog with strips of bark; a life lesson learned from a spruce grouse; eating poison ivy; folk names for regional plants & birds; and the inspiration for his latest book about bees. 

Purchase Doug's books at Dougelliott.com

Music by Doug Elliott

"Oh Groundhog"
Written & Performed by Doug Elliott

"West Virginia"
Written & Performed by Doug Elliott

"Aint No Bugs on Me"
Written & Performed by Doug Elliott

"Wonderful to be be Alive"
Written & Performed by Doug Elliott


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Luke Manget is an author, historian, and assistant professor of history at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. After a reading from an 1870’s newspaper about a strange race of beings known as “saugers,” we dive straight into the significance of ginseng on the American frontier [1780’s], specifically in southern Appalachia: Va, WV, NC. We get into such topics as: the commons vs private property; old world mandrake folklore; & deterring poachers with traps. Luke then describes the ginseng digger stereotype as perpetuated & mythologized by newspapers of the late 19th-century, opening a discussion about class in Appalachian society. For the last third of the episode we hear about the other roots and herbs that were dug for profit besides ginseng; the counter-medical-establishment herbalism movement of the 1800's; and lastly, newspaper accounts of The Wild Man of the Woods.

Reading from Ginseng Diggers: A History of Root and Herb Gathering in Appalachia by Luke Manget.

Check out Luke's site The Southern Highland where you can purchase his book, Ginseng Diggers.

Music:

"Ginseng Sullivan"
Written by Norman Blake
Performed by Andy & Graham Ferrell
Courtesy of Old Home Place Recordings

"Ginseng Blues"
Written by the Kentucky Ramblers
Performed by The Bird Family Band

"Weary Blues"
Traditional Song
Performed by Andy & Graham Ferrell
Courtesy of Old Home Place Recordings

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Check out my shop of shirts, prints, and books featuring my art

Contact: [email protected]