Let's look at May Day and Beltane traditions across Britain and Ireland, from ancient fires to seasonal folk customs.

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SOURCES:

Carmichael, Alexander, *Carmina Gadelica*, Vol. I (1900).

Cormac mac Cuilennáin (attributed), Sanas Cormaic (c. 900–1000).

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, Faust. Part I (1808).

Gregor, Walter, Folklore of the North-East of Scotland (1881).

Guest, Lady Charlotte, trans., The Mabinogion (1849).

Jones, Gwyn and Thomas Jones, trans., The Mabinogion (1949).

Lomax, Alan, *Padstow May Day / Obby Oss Ceremony*, field film recording (1953).

Pepys, Samuel, The Diary of Samuel Pepys (1660–1669).

Pennant, Thomas, A Tour in Scotland (1771).

Praetorius, Johannes, Blockes-Berges Verrichtung (1668).

Phillips, Alan Robert, “The Rituals surrounding Calan Mai – the Welsh May Day – and their Functions” (modern essay / unpublished paper, c. 2020s).

*The Irish Folklore Commission*, National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin: 20th-century field collections.

Bromwich, Rachel and D. Simon Evans, eds., Culhwch and Olwen: An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale (1992).

Walk across the sea with me. From legends of angels and giants, to a mysterious ley line known as 'the dragon line'... to a bizarre discovery made inside the chapel... let's explore the history and folklore of Cornwall’s most iconic landmark.

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MORE INFO AND CREDITS

Anna Berska

Paul Weston, The Michael Leyline https://bit.ly/41UGtpX

Yuri Leitch, The Dragon Line map

Ithell Colquhoun, The Living Stones (1957)

Jack The Giant Killer (1962)

Featuring folktales of Tom Hickathrift (East Anglia, England) and Red Ettin the Giant (Scotland)

Poetry on the mount by Humphrey Davy (1799), John Davidson (1909), Richard Carew (1602)

Both William Bottrell and Robert Hunt collected Cornish folklore and made accessible overviews in the 1800s. Without these two folklorists' work, many classic Cornish stories would be lost.

Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall (Bottrell, 1870) and Popular Romances of the West of England (Hunt, 1865) are highly recommended.

Something different! The show has talked a great deal about deity and ancestral veneration in the past tense, with the aim of understanding it within a historical context. But what about those with a living practice today? How does it work? Here is just one example, looking at Nordic Paganism (other examples likely to come the future!)

So... with the intention to banish some winter blues, enjoy this warming chat with Fiona Aedgar on the old gods and the ancestors.

• Who are the old gods?

• How do we approach them?

• How does an ancestral practice in general fit into this?

• What about the ancestors we DON'T want to connect with? 🚫

• And most importantly... What's the point? How can this practice improve our lives?

(Video title taken from my favourite Sin Eater tshirt!)

https://fionaaedgar.com/

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*Image credit:

Niren Sengupta: Ancestors

Julia Jeffrey (@StoneMaidenArt):

The Tradition

Meetings in the Smoke

Queen of Stones

Arthur Rackham collection

Photographs of London graveyards:

Paul Hudson, David Holt*

Let's explore a mystery that has hovered over the Downs since the 1970s. We visit Chanctonbury and Cissbury Ring, then head into the notorious Clapham Woods...

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🐈 Let's take a seasonally-appropriate trip to a mysterious cave in County Roscommon, said to be Ireland's 'gateway to hell', and also the origin of Halloween...

We meet Queen Maeve, monstrous cats, the Morrigan, and of course... the sidhe!

📍 Oweynagat, Co. Roscommon, Ireland

Featuring the texts:

Táin Bó Cúailnge

(1. Queen Medb's Revenge)

Fled Bricrenn / Bricriu's Feast

(2. The Cats' Test)

Echtra Nerai (Adventures of Nera)

(3. Samhain's Threshold)

The Metrical Dindshenchas

(4. Meet the Morrigan)

🌟 Related episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠(S4E7) Stone and Sidhe with Thomas Sheridan⁠⁠

💎 Related bonus episodes:

1. ⁠⁠Are The Fairies The Dead⁠⁠?
2. Norah and the Fairies (specifically the second half looking at the sidhe/sithean)

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Folkways welcomes back esteemed guest Thomas Sheridan! 🍻

Today we talk about the Irish Sidhe, and the stone circles and hills associated with them.

The circle on a roundabout mentioned is The Abbeyquarter stone circle, Sligo.

Featuring Darby O' Gill and the Little People, 1959. A place called Knocknasheega features in the film, which is likely based on the hill Knocknashee (Irish: Cnoc na Sí), county Sligo.

💎 Bonus episode: Thomas and the Sardinian fairy experience

🌟 Related episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠(S4E4) Christmas Ghost Stories with Thomas Sheridan⁠

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‘Jesters, clowns, shamans and poets belong to this border realm...’

An extract of the introduction to Boundaries and Thresholds, by Hilda Davidson.

📖 Boundaries and Thresholds from The Folklore Society

Davidson, H.E., Stroud, Thimble Press (1993), Boundaries and Thresholds, Papers from a Colloquium of The Katharine Briggs Club

🌟 Related episode: ⁠(S2E5) Places Between Places⁠

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In 1929 an occultist was drawn to the Scottish Isle of Iona, her eerie story contributing to the island's already substantial mythos. 🌀

💎 Enjoy no less than 3 bonus sections created for this episode!

1. ⁠Norah and the Fairies⁠
2. Dion Fortune talk on the Green Ray, 1933
3. ⁠⁠⁠⁠Are The Fairies The Dead⁠⁠⁠⁠?

🤝 Become a valued ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Friend of Folkways⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://bit.ly/34awiDB

🎧 Soundtrack especially scored by ⁠⁠⁠@⁠⁠big.big.sky⁠⁠: https://spoti.fi/47jvok6

📺 F⁠⁠olkways ⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3rUs9PF

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FEATURING:

Phillipa Cookman: Dion Fortune

Casper C: Norah Fornario

Gaz Kerr: John Duncan

Conor Charlton: Calum Cameron