Round the Herne

 This was meant to be uploaded for National Dog Day two days earlier, but life got in the way with other stuff. A shisa is an ornamental dog found in Japan and China that acts as a guardian - they stand either side of a door or gateway, one with its mouth open and the other closed. There is some variation as to what the mouth means, but one chases off malevolent forces whilst the other keeps the good forces within the home. The shisa does not seem to be associated with a specific breed of canine, and (as per the one in this story) is more magical than zoological. Given that the power of the bark is often in inverse proportion to the size of the dog, it would not surprise me if the shisa is some kind of terrier. I could not identify which Japanese emperor this story is supposed to happen to, but it may be more apocryphal than historical anyway. Looking at photos of Gana-mui Woods, I think I may have somewhat exaggerate the size of the boulder. Though i anyone asks, I shall simply sa...

  Finally got round to recording the next part of my reading of the second part of the first tale (The Minotaur) in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Tanglewood Tales" (1853). This completes the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. I made a mistake at the end when showing the illustration from the book - the women in the image is Ariadne and not Aethra.

 This is my reading of the first part of the first story (The Minotaur) in Nathaniel Hawthorne's collection of Greek myths, 'Tanglewood Tales'. This part deals with the childhood and coming of age of the hero Theseus. The rest of Theseus' story will follow in due course. I am not sure why he called it Tanglewood, which has nothing particular to do with Greek mythology. It does sound like a great name for a rambling country mansion - apparently there are a number of pace in America names after this book but I could find no suggestion of where Hawthorne himself took his inspiration for the title. The original of the book was published in 1853, the version of it I have (which contains only the three of the myths - there being six in the full version) dates from 1910 and was picked up or a few pence in a charity shop. It has a dedication on the fly-leaf reading " From Joan to Mollie, Xmas 1923 ", I guess they might have been sisters, cousins, or possibly school fr...

 A few months back I gave a talk at the local pagan moot on some ideas found in Greek philosophy and how they were expressed through mythology. The two videos linked to here cover most of the ideas talked about at the moot. It would be interesting to hear of listeners views, if they have a different take on these concepts - or if there are additional ideas that people would like to hear about. The first video deals with mythos, arete, eudaimonia, and hubris. The second video goes over miasma, katharmos, eusebia, and xenia.

 My reading of the last installment of Roald Dahl's 1961 children's book "James and the Giant Peach", in which the band of friends encounter strange beings in the sky and eventually make it across to America for a new land of adventures.

 This is my reading (with accents still all over the place) of the second part of Roald Dahl's 1961 children's adventure story, "James and the Giant Peach". This time the vast fruit starts rolling downhill and the new friends must try to band together to find a solution to their problems.

 This is my reading (with some very erratic accents - at some point I will re-record this with more consistent - if not more convincing - ones) of Roald Dahl's 1961 children's adventure story 'James and the Giant Peach'. This first part goes up to the discovery of the peach's inhabitants.  For those listeners with children, please give careful thought to who would look after your children in the event that you get eaten by a rhinoceros. I believe these sorts of incidents are on the increase. Clearly lack of planning in this department of life can lead to years of unexpected misery.