Mythos Podcast

It is a strange thing to think of death as nutritious, that death can make living things into the elemental stuff of life. But as summer’s verdant life begins to succumb to an inevitable end, as death transforms the landscape, the strangeness of that thought recedes, becoming something full of sense and meaning.

This is especially true as I walk through a local woodland and beneath my feet are the remains of arboreal death - humus, ...

Eggs are an ancient symbol. The magical properties, burial rites and folk beliefs surrounding eggs are many.

In this first episode of Earth Lore, a Mythos series that retells ancient myth and traditional folklore surrounding the cosmos, earth, flora, fauna and natural phenomena, we will look at cosmic origin myths that feature magical primordial eggs.

With a brief introduction, there will then be two retellings of myths from Finland...

In Baltic folklore, birds are mediators of heaven and earth, between the living and the dead. Their music is heraldic and their song a prophetic chanting. Birds inhabit and embody the dynamic force of space, soaring through the invisible ether of the atmosphere.

In this story, we will journey to the thrice-three realm, to the garden of a Baltic King, where, amidst bone white birches and tall meadow grasses, there dwells a bird only...

October, in much lore, is a spiritually potent time and the oft stated idea that the veil between worlds is thin at this time holds true in traditional Latvian practice. The living would prepare their homes for a visit from deceased ancestors, with the house cleaned and table laden with food for the occasion. To open this feast, an elder of the home would call the names of all the ancestral dead in living memory, inviting them to e...

The mythic origin tales of Baltic amber are full of magic, and the pre-history of the golden-umber resin-stone is no less awe-inspiring. This pine-tree resin was fossilized 45 million years ago, during a period of intense warmth that caused the pines to exude huge amounts of sap. There is an inherent enchantment in handling something that warms to the touch and is the remnant of a prehistoric coniferous forest. Even more otherworld...

In this episode, we journey again to Lithuania: we will go to the noble hall of an ignoble count and to a sylvan lake, to meet a washerwoman of great spirit, whose patrons are full of earth and water magic.

A massive thank you to Co-Ag Music and Jēkabs Zariņš for their permission to use their music.

'Meža diesma,' 'tehniskas variācijas,' and 'Grandparent's Blessing' by Jēkabs Zariņš

In this episode’s panorama of ancient woodland, northern seas and shamanic underworlds, the world-traversing magic of the grass snake clashes with the bone-deep force of ancestral longing and family drama. From forest pools to pearl-white sands, from black-deep ocean caverns to a verdant underworld, we will explore the magic landscapes of Lithuania, in one of her most famous pieces of folklore.

This story was brought to life by th...

Goddaughter of the Rock Maidens. The name of the story lit up my imagination, as did the brief outline of a plot in W.F Kirby’s 1895 English translation of famous Estonian tales. In just a few sentences, I sensed a powerful narrative: nature spirits and underworlds; a young girl tutored by powerful female fey-folk and enchantments and serpent kings.

For all my listeners, consider joining my upcoming Story Heritage Webinar on Power...

It is November in an Estonian village and it is the Time of Souls, when dead ancestors return and roam, visiting homes and enjoying the pleasures of life in the sauna

In this time of extended night, there are forces afoot, and not just those of deceased ancestors. There might be Nututaja: the evil eye, whose envy distresses and disturbs the new-born, and is one amongst a number of supernatural threats around the globe...

Welcome to episode 1 of 'Folklorica Baltica' - the fourth season of Mythos focusing on The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

In this episode, follow the journey of a young girl who dares enter the dread Wood of Tontla...and who discovers strange magic and hidden blessings.

Music credit goes to some fine Estonian folk musicians who very kindly allowed me to use their music in this episode. Do explore their music for ...

Welcome to Story Therapy, a Mythos mini-series exploring the relationship between narrative and mental health, particularly traditional tales as a therapeutic space where difficult emotions and circumstances can be acknowledged and explored. In this series, experts, mental health practitioners and storytellers will share stories from folklore, myth and legend and we will explore to what extent such tales provide space for delving i...

This short episode is a part of the Lockdown Lore series - a short story published bi-weekly for a bit of escape and respite.

The story was inspired by the idea of avenging forest spirits - creatures made of the forest itself (much like the recently released 'Birch' from indie folk horror online station Crypt TV), as well as more traditional monsters like the Slavic Leshy.

For more information on the guest storyteller, Jason Buck...

Welcome to Story Therapy, a Mythos mini-series exploring the relationship between narrative and mental health, particularly traditional tales as a therapeutic space where difficult emotions and circumstances can be acknowledged and explored. In this series, experts, mental health practitioners and storytellers will share stories from folklore, myth and legend and we will explore to what extent such tales provide space for delving i...

The Sami are the Nordic region's indigenous people: though they share a similar ethnic identity, they inhabit a vast geographical area - from the Atlantic coast of Norway, the lakes, rivers, mountains and forests of Norway, Sweden and Finland to the Kola peninsula of Russia. These stories were collected by a Danish ethnographer, who lived among Swedish Sami. Here is what she has to say about their storytelling tradition:

‘In the p...

From Norway’s verdant mountain pastures where lonely dairymaids tend the seter, or summer farm, to the shadowed forests of Sweden and Denmark, we will encounter the strange beings of the summer wilds. This episode will focus on folktales whose backdrop is the summer season, when the lush reproductive potency of the world is obvious and abundant. Across the Nordic world, Midsummer is celebrated with huge bonfires, and...

In Scandinavia’s most ancient literature, there exists primordial giants whose actions - and very being - are identified with the origin and creation of the world. Engendered in the great chasm called Ginnungagap, where the frozen waters of the cold-realm Niflheim and the hot breath of the fire-realm Muspel met, the frost giant Ymir and a cow named Audumla were the first created beings. In this creation story, the co...