Round the Herne

 To mark the summer solstice I've finally recorded (thanks to some advice from Gill on how to clean up the cluttered memory on this machine) a Norse story - my version of it, anyway - about the death and funeral of Baldr.

 This is (very loosely) a tale for the Jubilee, in as much as the main character ends up as royalty. Myrsina's history comes to us through Greek folklore. Amongst other things, there is a salutary lesson on not pampering your children to the point of their becoming useless.

 As previously mentioned, I gave the Annual Faith Lecture at the university campus in Ipswich, talking about animism and paganism and their involvement with environmentalism. The talk lasted an hour and the questions after were about half as much again. I made a recording of the talk, as near as I could remember it. Hopefully it might prove of interest to at least some subscribers to this blog.

  Lecture - Tuesday 17th May, 6pm in Lecture Theatre #1 at the Waterfront Building, Ipswich Modern forms of Paganism have undergone a revival in the last century, drawing on the polytheist and animist religions of the ancient world for their inspiration and world view (though often blended with ideas from a variety of other sources). Many, perhaps the majority, of modern pagans feel a reverence for the natural world and a wish to restore the damage done by increasing industrialisation and population growth. This talk examines some of the major influences on the development of Paganism, the relationship with the environmental movements, and how an animist worldview shapes an understanding of the Land, the living beings we share it with, the realm of spirits, and our respective duties towards them. Biography Robin Herne is the Route Leader for Sociology and Criminology at West Suffolk College, having previously been the Lead for Religious Studies and Ethics there. He regularly contri...

 This was recorded back in February as a practice for a group storytelling at the Leaping Hare convention in late March. Meant to upload it weeks ago, but forgot. It is based on the tale of how Fionn's son, Oisin, is drawn to Tir na nOg, Land of the Ever Young, for love of  a mysterious woman and how he finds the world much changed upon his return. The encounter with Bishop Patrick is much as it is in the original version, though told with a definite sympathy to the pagan viewpoint. 

 My spin on a Hindu myth (really more of a fusion of several different versions) about the deity Khandoba who rides out with his two wives Mhalsa, lined to the merchant caste, and Banai, linked to the ancient shepherding caste, to battle two demonic brothers intent on carnage. The version I have opted for here shares much with one of the stories told of Kali. The devourer of demons, in this particular story, is Khandoba's dog. Unfortunately I have not yet been able to track down a name for this magnificent beastie, but if any Hindu readers are aware of it, please let me know. Today a new dog has become part of my life, renamed Bronntanas (Irish for "gift", and he is assuredly a gift from my old boy Gwynn). Bronn is a big old Malamute with the most beautiful eyes and I am sure he could flatten a few demons if the mood took him - so this story is to welcome him in to my life and into my circle. I was going to try and get him to appear in the video, but he is a bit camera sh...

 It being April 23rd, my mind turns to dragons and the numerous folktales about them. This story from Albania features a singularly charmless family as its central characters and a reminder about why we should be careful who we let have influence over our children's minds (cranky, manipulative teachers included).  There are forty dragons featured in this tale, though it has to be said that they really don't do anything very draconian and, as is so often the case with a lot of folktales, there are many loose ends left untied - like what happens to the governess, why are forty dragons squeezed into a castle, and ought the romantic "hero" be on a police watch list? Possibly when this story was first doing the rounds, audiences would have been familiar with other stories that would have put the dragons, the governess etc. into context. I did consider doing a story about the bolla, a type of dragon that only opens its eyes on April 23rd, but aside from a few scraps of myth...