Round the Herne

A final tale to mark Halloween 2020, this is my reading of M R James' short story 'Two Doctors' (the medical element seems somehow suitable to the current world climate). There have been many excellent readings of James' stories over the years - most notably by the lugubrious Sir Michael Horden and Sir Christopher Lee - and various TV, radio, and stage productions based around them. Lee's authoritative, sepulchral presence carried the stories - in my case I have to rely on silly voices to move it along. This tale is rarely recorded, possibly because the ending is a bit vague as to quite what went on and it does feel slightly rushed at times, but does feature mysterious bed-sheets - a topic which James' much more famous and nightmarish  'Whistle and I'll Come To You' includes as well. Maybe James had a traumatic experience with some hospital corners once?

A suitable story for remembering the dead at Samhain, as well as timely for Remembrance Sunday, 'The Unbolted Door' was written in 1929 by Mrs Belloc Lowndes and deals with the grief a married couple feel for their lost child. I have the story via an anthology, 'When Churchyards Yawn' edited by Cynthia Asquith (who also contributed the final story). This is my reading of the short story.

A Halloween tale for 2020. This is inspired by the Nordic legends told about the draugr (a vengeful form of undead creature much given to guarding what is theirs - much as the Morgelyn has its guardian in this particular tale), though here the setting is the Cornish coast a few centuries ago when wrecking merchant ships was a lucrative (if somewhat murderous) way for the unscrupulous to make a living.  Having enjoyed many holidays in Cornwall, this has a nostalgic air for me despite the unpleasant undertones. The coastline has a drama all of its own, not matched by our East Anglian seafront. Mrs Pencarrow discovers that everything comes at a price. Some treasures, perhaps, are not worth the cost of attaining them. If I get the time and some peace and quiet tomorrow, I might also record one of the short stories I have been reading to mark the Halloween season.

This talk was given at the IPC October Moot, looking at some vaguely connected ideas around the magical nature of language. Due to the need to edit out some "colourful comments" emanating from the audience I've used a free editing service which includes the watermark - I'm far too much of a cheapskate to pay for the upgrade and get the watermark removed.

A friend has enrolled on a Jungian course and asked about the Trickster archetype, so this video covers a few rambling thoughts about the matter - looking at how this challenging, boundary-pushing, sometimes humorous archetype can be thought of as manifesting via the four personality types that Jung describes, plus some ideas on its expression through paganism and wider culture. Towards the end I mention a little about the thoughts of Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin on the topic of carnivalesque - a chaotic, uproarious theme in a few novels, paintings, stage plays etc. as well as celebrated worldwide from ancient pagan ritual through to the Notting Hill Carnival today.

Below is a poem written in the Welsh cywydd llosgyrnog metre as an honouring of Gwynn app Nudd, the medieval name for the King of the Fairies in Welsh folklore. For some of us at least Gwynn is a later understanding of an Ancient British deity whose name has survived on some altar stones from the Romano-British period, Vindos or Vindonnus (possibly two separate beings, but my intuition is that they are different titles for the same entity). I'm not sure who the artist of the inset picture is - cannot find a name as yet! As per the explanation given in my reading of it in a YouTube recording linked at the bottom of this page (and yes, I know I misread one of the words but I don't have the time at the moment to re-record it properly), the story contained in the poem has its roots in the hagiography of a 7th century monk - the manuscript of which dates to the 1500s. The monk, Collen, sets up his hermitage on an island in the flood plains of Glastonbury that is already owned by Gwy...

In September I gave a live talk via Facebook for my publisher (Moon Books), talking about Ancient Egyptian religion as a taster for the new book. Might be of some interest to people who tune in to this blog on occasion.