Undertowers Podcast

The once and future king has come again to your ears as the round table boys are discussing TH White’s Arthurian masterpiece The Sword in the Stone being the first of the four books compiled as The Once and Future King. The book is so full of magic, humor, and heart that it was impossible to not have a delightful conversation about it. We dive into some speculative 80s era casting for a film that never was as well. 

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The music you heard was Greener Pastures by Hole Dweller from their Crossroads EP. 

#TheSwordInTheStone #THWhite #OnceAndFutureSing #OnceAndFutureKing #ArthurianLegend #ClassicLiterature #BookPodcast #LiteraryAnalysis #MedievalFantasy #UndertowersPodcast #LiteraryPodcast #BookTube #MythologyPodcast #KingArthur #LiteraryReview #FantasyLiterature #BookTok

Spirals and giants galor! We explore the wonderful and terrible worlds of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki and the excellent Attack on Titan. While very different in approach and scope, there are some very interesting parallels to explore and are otherwise but exemplary in their storytelling and overall effect. 

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The music you heard was Greener Pastures by Hole Dweller from their Crossroads EP. 

#Anime #JapaneseManga #UzumakiAnime #AttackOnTitan #AnimePodcast #MangaDiscussion #ShōnenAnime #HorrorAnime #AnimeReview #MangaAdaptation #JujutsuKaisen #DemonSlayer #NarutoAnime #AnimeComparison #MangaCulture #AnimeFans #OtakuLife #AnimeAnalysis #MangaWorld #PopCulturePodcast

Prepare to make a circle and focus all your aura into your ears as we are diving DEEP into the wonderful worlds of Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa (published 2001-2010) and Hunter x Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi (published 1998-present). We also dip into the anime adaptations of both stories, both the 2003 FMA and Brotherhood and the 1999 and 2011 HxH. 

Next week we will dig into Attack on Titan and Junji Ito’s Uzumaki. 

And as always, we stan our boy Ikalgo and the short king Edward: https://youtu.be/GhuhI_kbhbI?t=143 

Give us a like and subscribe! You can follow us on x / tiktok / instagram: 

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The music you heard was Greener Pastures by Hole Dweller from their Crossroads EP. 

#MangaComparison #AnimeExplorers #MangaDeepDive #ShōnenShowdown #AnimePodcastReview #HunterxHunter #HxH #Gon #Killua #MangaAnalysis #AnimeTheory #ShōnenManga #PodcastReview #MangaCommunity #FullmetalAlchemist #FMA #EdwardElric #AlphonseElric #MangaTalk #AnimeDiscussion #ShonaManga #AnimePodcast #MangaRevi

Travel back in time with us to both the 19th and 6th centuries as we discuss Hank Morgan’s exploits in the dark ages of ye olde England in Mark Twain’s masterful science fiction satire A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. One of our most fun conversations yet. 

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The music you heard was Greener Pastures by Hole Dweller from their Crossroads EP. 

#MarkTwain #ConnecticutYankee #ClassicLiterature #BookDiscussion #AmericanLiterature #TimeTravel #KingArthur #Camelot #SocialSatire #HistoricalFiction #BookReview #LiteraryAnalysis #TwainBooks #VictorianEra #MediaevalTimes #BookTube #Literature101 #BookishYouTube #ClassicBooks #AmericanClassics

We welcome back author and friend of the pod, JB Jackson to discuss his recently released novel, Ursula of Ulm, the second installment in the De Re Doridica series of which five are planned. It’s hard to adequately express how much we’ve enjoyed getting to know JB through these interviews and dive even deeper into the weird world of 1977’s Fort Worth, TX. We absolutely adored Ursula, the sequel to Shagduk. The novel is a clear step up but also a satisfying and natural continuation of everything that was enjoyable about Shagduk. 

Give us a like and subscribe! You can follow us on x / tiktok / instagram: 

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The music you heard was Greener Pastures by Hole Dweller from their Crossroads EP. 

#jbjackson

#ursulaofulm

#authorinterview

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In this episode we dive into the horror filled 14th century French landscape that is Between Two Fires. We conduct a thorough plot overview and then work through themes of the book. 

This episode was dedicated to the memory of our dear friend Alyssa Lokits, who we toast at the beginning of the episode. Please support The Mary Parrish Center in her honor: https://maryparrish.kindful.com/ 

 Give us a like and subscribe! You can follow us on x / tiktok / instagram: 

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The music you heard was Greener Pastures by Hole Dweller from their Crossroads EP. 

Sir! It is time to have passing good cheer ‘round the (small) round table as we dive head first into the vast plentitude that is Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur. This conversation twists and turns into many a blind alley as we reckon with the mighty weight of Malory’s telling of the birth, life, and death of the Once and Future King. Morte is the first known telling of the entire story of King Arthur and we had a blast digging into it. 

We also discussed the trailer release for Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu as we patiently await it’s release this Christmas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nulvWqYUM8k

For the curious here is some light reading on the Morte manuscripts and some images of the two extant versions: https://sianechard.ca/web-pages/caxton-and-winchester/

Images of the Winchester Manuscript

http://www.maloryproject.com/image_viewer.php?gallery_id=8&image_id=131&pos=1

Images of the Caxton Manuscript 

http://www.maloryproject.com/image_viewer.php?gallery_id=4&image_id=978&pos=1

Give us a like and subscribe! You can follow us on x / tiktok / instagram: 

https://x.com/undertowerspod 

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The music you heard was Greener Pastures by Hole Dweller from their Crossroads EP.

We wanted to take a moment to highlight Samaritan’s Purse and the work they are doing to help the recovery in Eastern Tennessee and North Carolina after the devastating flooding that took place. Donate here: https://www.samaritanspurse.org/article/pray-for-those-in-helenes-path/ 

Also, all proceeds from the sale of these shirts available from the Bitter Southerner will go to disaster relief: https://bsgeneralstore.com/products/south-disaster-relief-t-shirt

Between me and God, we will discuss these tales! Into the bowels of Welsh history and myth we plummet to revel in the lush wonders that is the Mabinogion, consisting of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, the Four Native Tales, and the Three Romances. We run through each story presented highlighting our favorite moments from this treasure trove of magic and surprise. 

We open the show with a discussion of a recent Screen Rant article on the need for “world-building” and “hard magic systems” in the new Chronicles of Narnia movies. We also discuss the announcement of Saoirse Ronin’s casting in the new films to be directed by Greta Gerwig for Netflix. 

If so inclined, these tales come from the Red Book of Hergest and the White Book of Rhydderch. More information and images are available for the curious here:

The Red Book of Hergest

Background - 

https://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/ctexts/hindex.html

Images - 

https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/9bf187bf-f862-4453-bc4f-851f6d3948af/surfaces/7001c89c-4a3f-4e8a-beaa-f46961c24706/

The White Book of Rhydderch

Background - 

https://www.ancienttexts.org/library/celtic/jce/rhydderch.html

Images - 

https://www.library.wales/discover-learn/education/learning-resources/the-white-book-of-rhydderch

Give us a like and subscribe! You can follow us on x / tiktok / instagram: 

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The music you heard was Greener Pastures by Hole Dweller from their Crossroads EP.

From the confines of Smoker’s Abbey in East Nashville, Steven and Daniel (Sam is unfortunately away for this one) discuss Robert E Howard’s Sword & Sorcery masterpiece The Tower of the Elephant and then Gene Wolfe’s Six from Atlantis which is an homage to Howard and collected in the Sword & Sorcery anthology. 

Give us a like and subscribe! You can follow us on x / tiktok / instagram: 

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The music you heard was Greener Pastures by Hole Dweller from their Crossroads EP.

In this episode we each reveal our authorial Godhand, giving the thumb, index, middle, ring, and pinky (basically a Berserk themed “top 5”). As we share a universal love of Tolkien and Gene Wolfe, those authors were highlighted by left out of the exercise (our Guts and Skull-Knight you could say). 

Give us a like and subscribe! You can follow us on x / tiktok / instagram: 

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The music you heard was Greener Pastures by Hole Dweller from their Crossroads EP.