William Balderson is the Director of Living History & Historic Trades at Jamestown Rediscovery [Historic Jamestowne] in Virginia. After readings from John Smith's accounts about Pocahontas, the local fauna & corn planting, our guest describes his singular life path as a career living historian. From there Willie illustrates the events leading up to the Jamestown expedition including the infamous Roanoke Lost Colony. On this deep dive, we learn of John Smith's life as a mercenary & slave prior to Jamestown; the Pocahontas legend; John White the 16th-century watercolorist of indigenous life in the Carolinas; Powhatan's eagerness for the technological advantages of trading with the English; and other tidbits from Smith's journals such as raccoon capes, birchbark canoes and a native deer hunting technique. We end this history lesson on a reflective note, as Willie describes the feeling of interpreting the past on the actual site where it took place.

Plan your trip to Historic Jamestowne

Readings from The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, & the Summer Isles by Captain John Smith and The Jamestown Adventure: Accounts of the Virginia Colony, 1605-1614 edited by Ed Southern


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David Givens is the Director of Archaeology at Jamestown Rediscovery [Historic Jamestowne] on the James River in the Tidewater region of Virginia. After a nightmarish reading of the trials of the early Jamestown colonists, we start at the beginning of an archaeological quest to find the lost 1607 fort; the first permanent English settlement in America, where the worlds of the English Empire & Powhatan Confederacy clashed, and the legends of John Smith & Pocahontas were born. After describing the rediscovery project, we head over land and water to Chief Powhatan's village, Werowocomoco, to hear of the indigenous preservation efforts underway. Then it's on to artifacts dug up over the decades: English pipes inspired by Native American design; foodways like iguanas and corn cobs found in middens & wells; glassworks; distilling & herbalism. For his story, David tells of his involvement in the disturbing discovery of colonial cannibalism dating back to a harrowing period called The Starving Time [1609-1610]. We end this epic episode on the first English-American wagon road and musings about reincarnation, the wheel of fortune, and Terrence Malick's film "The New World."

Plan your trip to Historic Jamestowne

Reading from The Jamestown Adventure: Accounts of the Virginia Colony, 1605-1614 edited by Ed Southern

Music:

"Daphne"
Performed by The Telemann Society, Richard Schulze

"Mr. Beveridge's Maggot"
Performed by The Telemann Society, Richard Schulze


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Sissel Morken Gullord is a Scandinavian musician and singer living on a farm in Biri, Norway. We begin this enchanting musical episode by heading up to the saeter - the summer mountain farm - to hear the instruments, songs, and herding calls of the bygone milkmaids and shepherds, starting with the bukkehorn [goat horn]. Sissel describes how they're made and how livestock reacts to both the horn and a whimsical style of calling called kulning [or hujing in Norwegian]. We hear the blasting of a lur, a long wooden horn and followed by her commission by Disney. Opening up the more magical and sublime side of nature, Sissel tells a story about performing for hunters and foresters in which she spoke to them about the folkloric forest nymph known as Hulder and the accompanying huldra-folk [elves]. We wrap up this slice of Norwegian culture on folk song motifs, the nation's famous brown cheese, and bunad [the traditional rural clothing from the 1700-1800's]. 

Check out more of Sissel's music on Spotify & YouTube.

Reading from Folktales of Norway edited by Reidar Christiansen

Reference images:
- Hans Dahl romantic milkmaid painting
- Example of a traditional Norwegian home interior decorated with rosemaling
- 2nd Example of folk paintings on walls of home
- Norwegian woman playing the lur
- Bunad traditional clothing

Music by:

"Kulokk - Call On The Cattle"
Performed by Sissel Morken Gullord

"Kråkevisa"
Performed by Sissel Morken Gullord

"Lokker geitebukker med bukkehorn"
Performed by Sissel Morken Gullord

"Bukkehorn & Hujing"
Performed by Sissel Morken Gullord

"Huldrelokk"
Written & performed by Saga Sjöberg

"Till, till Tove"
Performed by Sissel Morken Gullord

"Den Bakvendte Visa"
Performed by Sissel Morken Gullord

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Mike Smith is the former superintendent of Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park, as well as an artifact & fossil enthusiast and traditional bow hunter, in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. We begin with his time at Droop Mountain, metal detecting under old oak trees and recounting the regional Civil War history. He tells of park visitors' many ghost experiences and significant archeological finds, such as three boys stumbling upon a Confederate rifle in the steep woods. We turn the pages of time back to arrowheads of the Shawnee and earlier native peoples; then even further back to 300-million-year-old fossils. Half way we switch to Mike's life, starting with his stories of an annual snapping turtle party, followed by his earliest boyhood memories of being a primitive hunter armed with only rocks.  We close on hellbender tongues, making buckskins and a proud father-son moment.

Buy the book Mike helped research, Last Sleep: The Battle of Droop Mountain

 Reading from Confederate Ghosts by Susan Crites

Music by:

"John Brown's Body"
Performed by Pete Seeger

"Mother Kissed Me in my Dream"
Unknown Artist

"In the Pines"
Performed by Dock Walsh

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Kevin Malcomb is a beekeeper, former coon-hunter, welder, and mechanic in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. After a reading about the old frontier profession of the bee hunter, Kevin describes both his own & old time methods of Appalachian beekeeping: traditional "bee gum" hives; keeping ants out; catching feral swarms with a shotgun; how to hunt for wild bee trees from water sources; bee trapping; hive threats such as warm winters, mites, hornets, insecticides, & wax moths. We move on to his unconventional mechanic business run from a used-hearse which opens up musings and intuitions on potential past lives. For the last quarter we hear about coon-hunting in his youth along with an illustrative story about a formidable coon taking on an entire horde of hounds. We end on eating raccoon & less popular wild game; eccentric bird houses; and a sliver of local folk medicine.

Reading from Bees in America: How The Honey Bee Shaped a Nation by Tammy Horn.

Music by:

"Going Across the Mountain"
Written & Performed by Frank Proffitt

"Sourwood Mountain"
Written & Performed by Frank Proffitt

"Rueben Train"
Written & Performed by Frank Proffitt

"Moonshine"
Written & Performed by Frank Proffitt


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Chris Semtner is an artist, author, lecturer & curator at The Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia. In Part II of our Edgar Allan Poe podcast, we begin with an archival recording of "The Black Cat." Then we pick back up where we left off, with "the imp of the perverse” and exploring the psychology of the criminal mind through his villainous characters. After describing a prophetic scene about shipwreck & cannibalism from Poe's only novel, Chris explains the literary genres beyond horror that Poe founded or advanced: the detective story, science-fiction, and perhaps the southern gothic. We then turn back to the biographical, with Poe's death and his mysterious last few days on the streets of Baltimore. From African-American hoodoo to spiritualist mediums, we hear what the paranormal was like in his time, and end on modern sightings of his ghost. 

Check out The Poe Museum and Chris' books.

1954 archival reading of Poe'sThe Black Cat performed by Marvin Miller

1939 archival reading of Poe’s The Raven performed by Nelson Olmsted

Music:

"The Raven"
Written & Performed by The Ivy League Trio

"Quiet Mysterioso; Diver's Dream; Four Cuts"
Written & Performed by The Crawford Light Orchestra

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Chris Semtner is an artist, author, lecturer & curator at The Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia. After a reading of Edgar Allan Poe's "A Tale of The Ragged Mountains," we hear part I of Chris' interview on Poe's life, opening on the most poetic topic in the world, the death of a beautiful woman. From there, we get biographical with Poe's upbringing: The Great Dismal Swamp; boyhood on the James River; Charlottesville's Ragged Mountains; the museum's courtyard garden; his wealthy foster family in Richmond; and southern dueling culture. Chris describes Poe's aspirations as a poet & the tension this caused with his foster father, followed by his brief stints at university & West Point. We end this to-be-continued episode on Poe's idea of "The Imp of the Perverse!" Stayed tuned for Part II...

Check out The Poe Museum and Chris' books.

Reading from The Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

Music by:

"The Fall of the House of Usher"
Written & Performed by The Ivy League Trio

"Regency Minuet"
Written & Performed by The Crawford Light Orchestra

"Annabel Lee"
Written & Performed by The Ivy League Trio

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For this holiday special we begin with a traditional English Christmas feast as described by a family friend, highlighting a strange historical black dessert called a plum pudding or simply a Christmas pudding. Being topped with a holly sprig, we then learn the origins of some ancient plant-lore. But the meat of this sumptuous episode is a reading from a deeply mysterious and haunting, 14th-century Arthurian legend that takes place at a Christmas feast; one rudely interrupted by an axe-wielding Green Knight who demands a volunteer to join him in a deadly game. Merry Christmas!

Reading excerpts from Folklore of Kent by Fran & Geoff Doel;  English Botany Or, Coloured Figures of British Plants · Volume 2 by James Sowerby; and Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics; Embracing the Myths, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-lore of the Plant Kingdom by Richard Folkard.

Main reading from Sir Gawain and The Green Knight translated by Simon Armitage.

"Sweet was the Songe the Virgine Sung"
16th-century Christmas Carol
Performed by Ernst Stolz & Katrhine Brandt

"Dove's Figary or Chestnut"
English Country Dance
Performed by Ernst Stolz

"Be Merry, Be Merry I Pray You"
Medieval English Carol
Performed by Ernst Stolz

"What Child is This? (Greensleeves)"
English Folk Song
Performed by Ernst Stolz

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Rasmus Boström is a professional hunter & outdoor gear ambassador in Älvdalen, Sweden. After readings about Scandinavian bear hunting folklore & shape-shifting in the Old Norse sagas, we learn about a regional language & the area's hunting culture. From there it's hunting history with wolf-posse laws & bear spears. Rasmus then describes the Swedish brown bear & taking part in scat-gathering studies. After some background information about the modern bear hunt with hounds, he tells a harrowing story about tracking a wounded bear. For the last third we switch to a handful of other outdoorsman topics: bird hunting from skis; Ullr the Norse hunting god; marten trapping with deadfalls; a first time hunt custom, and invasive mink hunting on small islands in the name of sea bird conservation.

Outdoor gear & apparel: Astro Sweden & Bearskin on YouTube.

Reading excerpts from The Lycanthropy Reader: Werewolves in Western Culture edited by Charlotte F. Otten and Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend edited Reimund Kvideland & Henning K. Sehmsdorf.

Art reference images:
"Return of the Bear Hunter" by Adolph Tidemand
"Wild Bird Hunters" by Knud Bergslien
Ullr [Norse hunting god] on the Böksta runestone

"Hårgalåten"
Swedish folk song
Performed by Nyckelharpa Tunes

"Vid Stormyren"
Written by Eric Sahlström
Performed by Nyckelharpa Tunes

"Säkkijärven polkka"
Finnish folk song
Performed by Nyckelharpa Tunes

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Philip Lufolk is a blacksmith in Storvik, Sweden inspired by the archeology & mythology of Scandinavia. We begin on the role of the Viking blacksmith & how bog iron was processed.  Philip describes objects & jewelry that he forges based on historical artifacts: the seeress' völva staff; a charm known as a Thor's hammer; a landowner's Viking key; and oath rings inscribed with law. We switch to mythology with the tale of Mjölnir [Thor's hammer] & the rest of the gods' treasures, fashioned by the industrious & highly-skilled dwarves. Then there's the vengeful blacksmith, Völund. We discuss burial mounds & rock art: picture stones, rune stones & a petroglyph just outside of Oslo's city center. Approaching the end Philip tells an archaic divination technique called Årsgång or "The Year Walk."

Follow Lufolk on Instagram and check out his wares at Lufolk.com.

Reading excerpts from The Viking Spirit: An Introduction to Norse Mythology & Religion by Daniel McCoy

Music provided by Lyre of the Crossroads

"Sigurd and Fafnir'"
Written & Performed by Lyre of the Crossroads

"Bass Jouhikko / Basssharpa / Bass Tagelharpa"
Written & Performed by Lyre of the Crossroads

"Helm of Awe"
Written & Performed by Lyre of the Crossroads

"Talharpa/Tagelharpa/Stråkharpa"
Written & Performed by Lyre of the Crossroads

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Contact: [email protected]