Bardskull

By: Martin Shaw

Narrated by: Martin Shaw

Bardskull is the record of three journeys made by Martin Shaw, the celebrated storyteller and interpreter of myth, in the year before he turned 50. It is unlike anything he has written before. This is not a book about myth or narrative: Rather, it is a sequence of incantations, a series of battles. Each of the three journeys sees Shaw walk alone into a Dartmoor forest and wait. What arrive are stories–fragments of myth that he has carried within him for decades: the deep history of Dartmoor itself; the lives of distant family members; Arthurian legend; and tales from India, Persia, Lapland, the Caucasus and Siberia. But these stories and their tellers don’t arrive as the bearers of solace or easy wisdom. As with all quests, Shaw is entering a domain of traps and tests.

Bardskull can be listened to as a fable, as memoir, as auto-fiction, or as an attempt to undomesticate myth. It is a magnificent, unclassifiable work of the imagination.

©2023 Unbound (P)2023 Unbound

Amazing Narration

Nice to learn from fiction. Martin Shaw is a special guy and look forward to reading more of his masterpieces

I am changed by this Story Teller

Martin Shaw has not invited the listener to be obsessed with his narrative, but that is almost where I have arrived after listening to this first of I know will be many of his stories. I appreciate the curtain. He pulls back to look to a way of life that is hard to find regardless of it being a realization during the time of Covid or afterwards. People have lost the joy and fear of mystery. Martin Shaw has done us the wonderful turn of stumbling into where he has always lived– in the bell of the acorn tip that is the husk of the ancient oak of stories.

Shaw is fantastic

Bardskull is a great read, but an even better listen. The oral tradition, my dears!

Bardskull

I have a hard copy of Bardskull. I thoroughly enjoyed it with my eyes. I've listened to Bardskull here twice. I'm budding hare ears now. I'm starting my third listen now.

Wild and woolly!

No one, I mean no one, boogies like Martin Shaw. A true master work. Bravo!