On this week's episode we're headed back to Warwickshire, and Martin is telling his take on the legend of Lady Godiva!

We start off chatting about St Ethelbert, and the rather severe haircut he received from King Offa of Mercia, after which we wander to Warwickshire!

In addition to discussing some parts of Warwickshire that are no longer considered part of the county, including Coventry and Birmingham, along with the likes of Warwick Castle and Stratford Upon Avon, we then debate the merits of a couple of possible County Dishes - Warwickshire Stew and the much more traditional, if possibly dangerous, Pickled Pigeon...

After some folkloric chat about topics like the mysterious Mickleton Hooter, the highwayman Bendigo Mitchell, and a one-handed Jacobean poltergeist, plus some excerpts from this week's Local Legends interview with author of Warwickshire Folk Tales Cath Edwards, it's onto the main event: Martin's take on the story of Lady Godiva's life and naked ride, "The Hand of God."

Speak to you again on Thursday for our new Magic and Medicines bonus episode all about Amulets!

The Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.

Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...

Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays (Magic and Medicines about folk remedies and arcane spells, Three Ravens Bestiary about cryptids and mythical creatures, Dying Arts about endangered heritage crafts, and Something Wicked about folkloric true crime from across history) plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.

With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?

Learn more at www.threeravenspodcast.com, join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeravenspodcast, and find links to our social media channels here: https://linktr.ee/threeravenspodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode of Local Legends, Martin gathers round the campfire to chat about County Durham, a writer's life, and so much more, with storyteller and author of over 40 books, including County Durham Folk Tales, Adam Bushnell.

Born and raised in County Durham, Adam knows and loves the county where he now resides - and he has perspective on it. His work regularly sees him travelling all over the world, delivering workshops in Asia, Africa, and America, as well as all over the UK. As you’ll hear, he knows so many of the stories of the place, and is always acquiring more. A story magpie, drawn to shiny things, he is a compulsive tale-teller and so friendly – the North East could hardly have a better ambassador!

As we discuss, Adam’s career has been exciting – his degree was in philosophy, and he was a primary school teacher for many years, including in several boroughs of inner city London, where a chance meeting with beloved author Michael Murpurgo steered him towards life as a writer.

His first book, Snakes’ Legs and Cows’ Eggs, was published in 2007, and since then ink has flowed from his pen like an ocean surging to get free. His new series, Kid Detectives, launched this month, and his academic books, including the Comprehension Ninja series, and the Descriptosaurus books, are beloved by teachers all across the world.

With our chat ranging from Medusa to the Lambton Worm to friendly ghosts, horrible murders, and vampires staked under childrens' playgrounds, it's a good one. So settle in for an hour of talk with a master storyteller, and if your workmates ask you to go through a haunted field to get extra beer, there's advice within about exactly what to do...

Learn more about Adam and his work here: https://www.adambushnell.co.uk

The Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.

Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...

Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays (Magic and Medicines about folk remedies and arcane spells, Three Ravens Bestiary about cryptids and mythical creatures, Dying Arts about endangered heritage crafts, and Something Wicked about folkloric true crime from across history) plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.

With a range of exclusive content on Patreon too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?

Learn more at www.threeravenspodcast.com, join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeravenspodcast, and find links to our social media channels here: https://linktr.ee/threeravenspodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's bonus episode, Martin talks us through the ghastly crimes of Burke and Hare - with a side serving of the history of medicine!

Part of the "Something Wicked" series, we start by chatting through the headlines of the Burke and Hare killing spree, including the Enlightenment-era craze for celebrity surgeons and 'anatomisation.' We then discuss how Scotland's fraught religious history enabled leaps forward in natural philosophy, necessitated the invention of things like 'mort safes,' and how ideas like Humorism and Sensibility had their roots in Ancient Mesopotamian and Ancient Egyptian concepts like 'Flow Theory,' curses, and exorcism.

After chatting through Ancient Greek and Roman developments in medicine, including the Hippocratic Oath, and Medieval concepts like Leechbooks, we then loop back to the popularity of "operating theatres" - places where surgeries were performed for paying customers - and how the profit motive drove demand for corpses. Ideally ones that were still warm. And why this, in turn, inspired Burke, Hare, and the surgeon Robert Knox, to make some ghastly leaps in logic, the consequences of which were still being felt well into the 20th century...

The Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.

Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...

Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays (Magic and Medicines about folk remedies and arcane spells, Three Ravens Bestiary about cryptids and mythical creatures, Dying Arts about endangered heritage crafts, and Something Wicked about folkloric true crime from across history) plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.

With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?

Learn more at www.threeravenspodcast.com, join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeravenspodcast, and find links to our social media channels here: https://linktr.ee/threeravenspodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode we're headed back to County Durham, and Eleanor is telling her chilling take on The Cauld Lad of Hylton Castle!

We start off chatting about The Blessing of the Boats, Old May Day, and a quite unlikely miracle, after which we head north, to County Durham!

In addition to discussing the strange afterlife of County Durham's most famous resident, St Cuthbert, the strange powers of the Prince Bishops, and some very large cows, we talk about the local delicacy Leek Pudding in County Dishes, and duly consider our waistlines...

After some folkloric chat about topics like Durham's really mean fairies, its lumbering giants, and its mythical, rampaging boar, plus some excerpts from this week's Local Legends interview with author of Durham Folk Tales Adam Bushnell, it's onto the main event: Eleanor's rendition of "The Cold Lad." And fair warning - it's a spooky one...

Speak to you again on Thursday for our new Something Wicked bonus episode all about Burke and Hare!

The Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.

Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...

Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays (Magic and Medicines about folk remedies and arcane spells, Three Ravens Bestiary about cryptids and mythical creatures, Dying Arts about endangered heritage crafts, and Something Wicked about folkloric true crime from across history) plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.

With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?

Learn more at www.threeravenspodcast.com, join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeravenspodcast, and find links to our social media channels here: https://linktr.ee/threeravenspodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode of Local Legends, Martin gathers round the campfire to chat about Cornwall, Medieval music, King Arthur, and so much more, with expert storyteller and author of Cornish Folk Tales Mike O'Connor.

A prizewinning competition fiddle player and a master of the concertina, Mike is the leading researcher of Cornish instrumental music anywhere in the world. He has been working as a musician since the 1970s and as a storyteller since the 1990s. He has been awarded the OBE, is a bard of the Gorsedh of Cornwall, and received the Henwood Medal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, too.

He regularly works with harper, viol player, and highly respected early music specialist Barbara Griggs. Together they perform a unique repertoire, the product of unprecedented scholarship that has led to the discovery of many early manuscripts and previously unconsidered sources in Cornwall.

Mike currently works at the Institute of Cornish Studies at Exeter University, has written for learned journals and popular magazines on subjects relating to folklore, and, as an advisor on traditional dances, tunes, folk songs and instruments, has worked on high profile TV and film projects, including, in recent years, Poldark, to which he contributed additional music and songs.

With tales varying from 5-minute fireside fancies to epics such as Tristan and Iseult, Imravoe, the Tales of the Holy Rood, and Loki, Mike is a master storyteller who has made many recordings and radio broadcasts.

Few people alive today have such a deep knowledge of Cornish legends and folk tales. And so we hope you enjoy our chat, which ranges from mermaids and giants to King Mark, the beauty of the Cornish landscape to the legacy of Cornwall's ancient mineral wealth, and far, far beyond.

Learn more about Mike and his work here: https://www.lyngham.co.uk/

The Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.

Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...

Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays (Magic and Medicines about folk remedies and arcane spells, Three Ravens Bestiary about cryptids and mythical creatures, Dying Arts about endangered heritage crafts, and Something Wicked about folkloric true crime from across history) plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.

With a range of exclusive content on Patreon too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?

Learn more at www.threeravenspodcast.com, join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeravenspodcast, and find links to our social media channels here: https://linktr.ee/threeravenspodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's bonus episode, Eleanor talks us through the history of clay and wooden pipe making.

Part of the "Dying Arts" series, we start by discussing the first recorded uses of smoking, including from Ancient Scythia and Aztec culture, and track the changes which took place from things like incense burning and Ancient Greek "Vapour Baths" through to Native American ceremonial pipes, tobacco deities, and the eventual impacts of recreational smoking on European life.

After chatting through the rise and fall of pipe smoking in particular, we then discuss various types of pipe, and the methods and materials used to make them, as well as some of the ways pipes have appeared in folk and popular culture - from Gandalf and the Hobbits honking away on 'Pipeweed' to Sherlock Holmes, as well as the strange connections between pipes and fairies, smoking tigers, and much more besides...

The Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.

Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...

Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays (Magic and Medicines about folk remedies and arcane spells, Three Ravens Bestiary about cryptids and mythical creatures, Dying Arts about endangered heritage crafts, and Something Wicked about folkloric true crime from across history) plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.

With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?

Learn more at www.threeravenspodcast.com, join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeravenspodcast, and find links to our social media channels here: https://linktr.ee/threeravenspodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode, we're headed back to Cornwall, where Martin is telling his take on The Sword in the Stone!

We start off chatting about Rogationtide, the ancient festival of 'Beating the Bounds' and appeasing gods to ensure a good harvest. After which we caper to Cornwall!

In addition to discussing St Michael's Mount, a whole bunch of paleolithic monuments, and some of the dastardly doings of Aleister Crowley, we talk about Cornish Pasties in County Dishes, and, of course, nod with respect at Stagazey Pie.

After some folkloric chat about topics like the Owlman of Mawnan and Cornwall's many giants, plus some excerpts from this week's Local Legends interview with author of Cornish Folk Tales Mike O'Connor, it's onto the main event: Martin's telling of "The Once and Future King, or; The Mad Man's Dream."

Speak to you again on Thursday for our new Dying Arts bonus episode all about Clay Pipe Making!

The Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.

Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...

Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays (Magic and Medicines about folk remedies and arcane spells, Three Ravens Bestiary about cryptids and mythical creatures, Dying Arts about endangered heritage crafts, and Something Wicked about folkloric true crime from across history) plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.

With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?

Learn more at www.threeravenspodcast.com, join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeravenspodcast, and find links to our social media channels here: https://linktr.ee/threeravenspodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the second episode of Local Legends, Martin gathers round the campfire to chat about Somerset and the life of a content creator with enigmatically anonymous internet personality The Faerie Folk.

In terms of what The Faerie Folk does, well, she has a folklore podcast for one, launched in the pandemic, which is aimed a bit more at younger children and families than Three Ravens. She has an extremely cheerful delivery, and, based on our experience, if you’re ever feeling down in the dumps, one of her episodes is all but guaranteed to cheer you right up.

Elsewhere, she also releases short documentaries on YouTube on a huge range of topics – from the ghosts of the London Underground to Shakespeare’s cursed bones to, appropriate for this week, an episode all about the fairy king who once ruled Glastonbury Tor. And who knows, maybe he still does. We’re not counting him out.

Where Faerie Folk is perhaps most busy though is on Instagram. And on Instagram, she posts short form videos, tonnes of photo guides to marvellous places around England, and things like Top 10s and Tops 5s to inspire people to visit and learn more about aspects of history and folklore from around the U.K.

In short, Faerie Folk is doing the work of her namesakes, sprinkling a bit of magic into the world.

During our conversation we talk about all this, Somerset, and more. We hope you enjoy!

Learn more about The Faerie Folk and her work here: https://thefaeriefolk.libsyn.com/

The Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.

Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...

Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays (Magic and Medicines about folk remedies and arcane spells, Three Ravens Bestiary about cryptids and mythical creatures, Dying Arts about endangered heritage crafts, and Something Wicked about folkloric true crime from across history) plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.

With a range of exclusive content on Patreon too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?

Learn more at www.threeravenspodcast.com, join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeravenspodcast, and find links to our social media channels here: https://linktr.ee/threeravenspodcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.