Orkneyology Podcast

On this December "cold"full moon we have a visit from a new friend, who recently visited us in Stromness: the creator of Morph, Creature Comforts, Wallace and Gromit and many more animation favorites. Please do forgive the less-than-perfect sound quality in the first half hour. We did our best, recording from a distance on a dreich night with interference from the rumbling ferry across the street. Such is life on a northerly island, but this chat was worth persisting with. We hope you agree! If you're inspired to do so, you can buy us a dram on Ko-fi, with our hearty thanks: https://ko-fi.com/orkneyology Tonight, Tom Muir and Peter Lord have a talk about these things and much more:Early days with good friend David Sproxton, and a fondness for plasticine - schoolboys on a kitchen tableRay Harryhausen inspirationsMorph in Orkney and elsewhere: almost 50 years, and forever youngA new career in advertising: fun and lucrative!Enter Nick Park, "brilliant and stubborn" geniusThe return of the evil penguinAcademy AwardsWar StoryFilming Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer video ... amongst decaying fish and chickensChicken Run, plasticine on the big screen: The Great Escape ... with chickensWallace and Gromit - when Gromit had a mouth!Curse of the WarerabbitHandmade, human animation in a world of AIAnd last but not least, Shaun the Sheep, who has "many more stories to tell". Aardman's website: https://www.aardman.com/about/Our deep thanks go to Fionn McArthur for permission to use the musical interludes between dropped calls to Peter. Fionn recorded these lovely peedie musical bits for us a few years ago to use in a story app set in the Orkney West Mainland landscape. You can find out more about the Orkney Foklore Trail app on Orkneyology.com: https://www.orkneyology.com/orkney-folklore-trail.html Fionn has many more talents other than music. His professionalwebsite for his photography and film work is here:https://www.startpointmedia.co.uk/about-us

We have a visit on this full November frost moon from BBC presenter and author Sally Magnusson, who gives us a few readings from her writings, including her newest book The Shapeshifter's Daughter. Join Tom Muir and Sally Magnusson for a fascinating blether on the eve of the Stromness launch of her latest novel, set in Orkney. "Before she was a hideous monster, the Queen of the Underworld was simply Hel ..." If you're inspired to do so, you can buy us a dram on Ko-fi, with our hearty thanks: https://ko-fi.com/orkneyologyTonight, Tom and Sally have a talk about these things and much more:Sally's father, the "proudest Icelander"- Magnus Magnusson - journalist, translator of sagas, writer and television presenterAbout Sally's journalism work and being a presenter on Scottish TV since the 1980sIcelandic sagas and the Icelandic landscapeSagas as "extremely good historical fiction"Are small communities isolated, or are big cities isolated - who is more remote?The importance of knowing your kinThe literature of Iceland: was it the adition of Celtic dna that brought it to flower?The tendency to romanticize the Viking eraViking women - strong and scary!The Flying Scotsman: The Eric Liddell Story - Sally's first biographyDreaming of Iceland - a personal account of the geography, history and legends of Iceland, written by Sally and her fatherOther books of fiction, non-fiction and children's booksMarketing books and making choices about how to spend one's creative timeWriting as a way to work out what we think about thingsSally's mother's dementiaSally Magnusson's charity, Playlist for Life - music as positive therapy for dementiaAbout inhabiting the characters you're creatingHave we lost the more fleshed-out female characters from old Norse mythology?"When everything is lost to us, the stories in our heads allow us to continue."Sally Magnusson's website: https://sallymagnusson.com/about/ Playlist for Life: https://www.playlistforlife.org.uk/

If you're inspired to do so, you can buy us a dram on Ko-fi, with our hearty thanks: https://ko-fi.com/orkneyologyTonight, we'll have a blether about these things and more:How Dennison first heard the stories from the old crofter folk of OrkneyHow he recorded and published themAnd - maddeningly - hints of many stories that got awayAssipattle the VikingWho pulled the roof off Noltland Castle?And who on earth would burn a boat burial?!Making a cog for Time Team in SandayThe story of the mester shipThe Mither o' the Sea - a goddess who rules Orkney's seas in the summertimeFind out what Valkyries weave with ... if you're not squeamish.The story of Assipattle and the StoorwormThe terrible Nucklavee, description by DennisonWhat Dennison recorded about sea trows, the finmen and EynhallowHow Tam Scott Lost his SightBeauty amidst poverty: the story of Arthur Deerness and the MermaidAnd of course, a selkie storyOther writings of Dennison, including the first written Orkney dialectLink to Historic Environment Scotland's film about the Sanday shipwreck, featuring the voice of Orcadian Tom Muir MBE

Tonight we have a moonlit blether about these things and more ...  • Guising traditions in Shetland, masks, ceremonies, folklore, the hidden people of Iceland, storytelling around the world and how all is connected to performance - even (or maybe especially) politicians!  • Walter Traill Dennison - the first person to write in Orkney dialect - and his importance to preserving Orkney's stories, customs and traditions  • How is an Orcadian different from a Scot?  • Iceland/Scandanavian connections to Orkney/Shetland?  • Why the national spirit lives within the working classes and what national tales have to do with creating culture  • Why the Danes were annoyed with the brothers Grimm, and are Swedish stories really "better than the Danes"?  • Collectors from many lands - searching for identity  • "The broken isles of Orkney" and Viking romancticism  • The "varden" spirit in Orkney and its similarities to the banshee  • Orkney at the Scandanavian/Celtic crossroads, how the stories are shared and Orkney's own myths  • Do Orkney stories emphasize the supernatural/witches as evil, vs simply supernatural?  • Book of the Black Arts stories in Orkney and Iceland  • The difference between mermaids and finnwives in Orkney  • Tom and Terry swap and compare Scandanavian/Orkney folktales: Witches, magicians, beach creeps, sea creatures, selkie, hidden folk, mermen and mermaids, trolls, land and sea nature spirits; spirits in the mounds, changelings, hogboy/hogboon, the nucklavee, land trows and sea trows  • About Terry's project, the Icelandic database of 10,000 Scandanavian legends to be found in writing, with maps tracing the spread of the tales; also a sound archive to listen to on location - bringing stories back to the land.  • What has the Black Death got to do with communications bewteen the Nordic lands?  • Are Orkney stories more Nordic or Scottish?  • Terry tells about Iceland's Wild Ride  • Wintertime as darkness, earth, knowledge of past present and future, and women  • Bibles, light, mullaca beans (Mary beans) and salt, and how they were used in protecting vulnerable souls in transitional states; in Iceland, it was silver and steel  • Icelandic beliefs in ghosts, power points, premonitions, hidden people, protective animal spirits and dreams; haunted families vs haunted houses; and other supernatural beings  • Three Orkney stories of unbaptized babies  • Trolls in Orkney, and how they developed from Norwegian trolls  • Stories as maps of behavior  • Finding drowned people and the connection with revalatory dreams  • The liminal, dangerous place between high tide and low  • Are the finfolk a reference to the Sami?  • The seen but unseen within the landscapeLinks: Sagnagrunnur folklore database: https://sagnagrunnur.arnastofnun.is/orkney/More about Terry Gunnel: https://english.hi.is/staff/terryTerry Gunnell's lecture on family ghosts: https://isfnr.org/2025/08/the-next-online-lecture-terry-gunnell-17-september-2025/ Earlier lecturer on nature of belief: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-3_Gq7iSsg Terry Gunnell on Shetland guising traditions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lC4O46oyFQ Support Orkneyology on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/orkneyologyOrkneyology shop: https://shop.orkneyology.com/Orkneyology on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHQSp7iqejatLV9g5OAF7FA

August 9, 2025 - On this full "sturgeon" moon, Tom Muir of the Orkney Islands talks with dear friend and internationally-known archaeologist, Professor Colin Richards.If you'd like to, you can buy us a dram on Ko-fi one-time or regular: https://ko-fi.com/orkneyologyTonight we have a moonlit blether about these things and more ...How early educational prejudice and discouragement ("You'll never amount to anything, Richards.") led to Colin's early career as ... a television repairmanPutting the lie to the misaprehension that only "really clever people" can get a degreeIndiana Jones as archaeological inspirationBalanced judgements of voices writing from the pastWhen Tom met Colin, summer of 1985, Broch of Howe, OrkneyHow Colin (and partly due to his friend Miranda) discovered the Neolithic village of Barnhouse, and other Neolithic settlementsDescriptions of how an archaeological site is excavatedStories from Colin's many archaeological digs in OrkneyOngoing discoveries: re-evaluating and changing assumptions in Orkney Islands archaeologyBarnhouse, Skara Brae, Maeshowe, Ring of Brodgar, Stones of Stenness, Ness of Brodgar, Knap o' Hower, Stonehall ...Why were these settlements abandoned? What were they up to?What happened when Colin Richards spent the night inside Maeshowe?Guardian spirits in the mounds!What will Tom never forgive Colin Richards for? (Hint: It involves archaeology.)The Spirit of the Corn"We're all Jock Thomson's bairns" - people are the same, through space and timePodcast theme music courtesy of Fionn McArthur."Ower wi' the moon" artwork created by Jenny Steer.Support Orkneyology on Ko-fi one-time or regular drams: https://ko-fi.com/orkneyologyTom Muir's Tales in the Landscape Crowdfunder: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/tales-in-the-landscapeOrkneyology shop: https://shop.orkneyology.com/Orkneyology on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHQSp7iqejatLV9g5OAF7FA

Episode 19: July 10, 2025 - On this full "buck" moon, Tom talks with environmental storyteller, poet and artist, Gordon "Creeping Toad" MacLellan.Tonight we have a blether about these things and more ...  • Why we need to react creatively to the world around us   • Finding the right stories to tell with heart   • Exploring stories of the natural world and its features   • Finding inspiration from the Scottish landscape  • The joy of writing poetry  • Lending a helping hand with our non-human neighbors, the wee hoppy people, via the toad bus  • Gordon shares a story told to him by a nine-year-old boy  • Working with children and imagination  • Who owns the selkie stories, anyway?  • The violence inherent in old tales  • Keeping vigil with the unknown dead  • Tom tells the true story of Betty Corrigal, Hoy  • The story of the hundred-handed giants  • Similarities between the story of Odysseus and an Orkney finfolk tale  • A story-swap between two Scottish storytellers  • Ragna, the AI Viking woman at Orkney Museum ... and what's she got to do with Tom?  • Raven tales through different cultures  • About the London Creativity ConferenceSupport Orkneyology on Ko-fi one-time or regular drams: https://ko-fi.com/orkneyologyTom Muir's Tales in the Landscape Crowdfunder: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/tales-in-the-landscapeOrkneyology shop: https://shop.orkneyology.com/Orkneyology on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHQSp7iqejatLV9g5OAF7FAMore from Gordon MacLellan: https://creepingtoad.com/https://creepingtoad.blogspot.com/2024/05/witches-snow-and-wonderful-creatures.htmlhttps://giftsfromcrows.bandcamp.com/album/whisper-along-the-windhttps://www.creativityconference.is/gordon-maclellan

Be part of Tom Muir's Tales in the Landscape crowdfunder: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/tales-in-the-landscapeEpisode 18: June 11, 2025 - full "strawberry" moon with Angus Konstam, naval historian and author of The Pirate Menace: Uncovering the Golden Age of PiracyTonight, Tom is joined by his friend, Naval historian and writer Angus Konstam. Interestingly, this full moon night coincides with the 300th anniversary of the hanging of Orkney's pirate, John Gow.Hear about:   • The Valient Book of Pirates - early days   • Unraveling the difference between pirate fact and fiction   • Cuddly pirates?   • Why not to use a live parrot at a pirate event   • Orkney's most-known pirate, John Gow - not the stuff of legends   • Did an oppressive system create piracy?   • The pirate John Gow's early days in Stromness   • Privateering - the big business of licensed piracy   • The difficulty of tracking down information about a pirate's early life   • Gow, a navigator and a literate pirate   • Gow's first failed attempt at a life of piracy   • Dire happenings on the Caroline, and the birth of the Pirate Gow   • Re-imagining the Caroline, according to pirate tradition; enter the Revenge   • About drying fish for transport by ship   • The Navy's pirate pardon scheme   • Gow the fish pirate?   • Finding a place to lie low when the scene got too hot - Stromness! - and how Gow's story came to an end   • Love pirate-style: Helen Gordon, the Odin Oath, and what happened to Gow's hand?     The pirate press gang   • The attack on the Hall of Clestrain - pirates soundly defeated by clever women   • Where was the original Hall of Clestrain?   • Final bungled attempts at Carrick House, the home of Gow's old schoolmate   • The pirates' come-uppance "sooth"   • Where was Execution Dock in London?   • Twice-hang-ed Gow   • How Pirate Gow's telescope came to the Stromness Museum and a shoe buckle from James Fea the pirate-catcher in the Orkney Museum   • What is known about John Fullerton: Orkney's other pirate?   • Mrs Captain Mary Jones the pirate-killer   • A bit about the dread pirate Blackbeard and psychological warfare, and how many times did hid headless body swim around his ship?   • Women pirates from the Bahamas, who "pleaded their bellies"

Episode 17: May12, 2025 - full "flower" moon: friends and colleagues, Tom Muir and Ellen (Baikie) Pesci, have a fascinating blether about Ellen's father, Orcadian artist and professional musician Jim Baikie.The Jim Baikie exhibition is showing at the Orkney Museum in Kirkwall from May-September, 2025.Help preserve Orkney's stories by joining our Tales in the Landscape Crowdfunder: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/tales-in-the-landscape Tonight we have a visitor! Ellen Pesci, Orkney lass and Social History Curator at the Orkney Museum, talks with Tom Muir about the life of her father, the celebrated comic book artist and all-around good guy, Jim Baikie.Among other things, you'll hear about:Jim's early years: the war years in OrkneyThe post-war landscape, and how it garnered inspiration and adventure for the bairnsJim Baikie's The Dome painting (on display at Lyness' Scapa Flow Museum) and what it represented to Jim"The phony war" as experienced from London, contrasted with what was happening in Orkney at that timeWhat washed up on the shores of Hoy that changed the course of Jim Baikie's life?Where do science and art meet?How poor families in Orkney used to be discouraged from attending art college, and how Jim Baikie overcame that early evilThe "jaw harp" and getting started in the music sceneJim meets Wendy: "sex on legs!"Bonus: Ellen shares a genuine 1970s recipe for Potato Jane!The modern disturbing fashion for changing historyJim and Wendy's early married life; the Cyprus and London years"Ready, Steady, Win!" and running from screaming teenagersJim's musical life, the opportunities he had and the folk he met: Eric Clapton, Screaming Lord Sutch, Brian Jones, John Ford, Jimmy Hendrix, The Eagles, The Kinks, Deep Purple, Spike Milligan, Santana, Jack Bruce ...The Baikies return to OrkneyJim's father, and his strong link with Hoy and the Scapa Flow MuseumJim's avant garde idea (at the time) of remote workingComic book art at last: doing what he loved and being able to feed his familyThe wisdom to know the life that will make you happyThe full family circle at the Scapa Flow Museum, HoyLinks:An article that Tom wrote for an earlier Jim Baikie exhibition, with photos can be found here: https://www.orkneymuseums.co.uk/orkney-artist-jim-baikie/The Jim Baikie Facebook page, tended by his family: https://www.facebook.com/taucetiorkneyShow notes: https://www.orkneyology.com/orkneyology-podcast-show-notes.html#episode17Orkneyology Press books: https://shop.orkneyology.com/collections/orkneyology-press-books/booksOrkneyology on Youtube: (Tom's Orkney stories collections) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b54G57-vLc&list=PLzYF_h_h5O1GsxP7DuhKGKQ8oEfSp-AxzTales in the Landscape Crowdfunder: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/tales-in-the-landscape

Episode 16, April 12, 2025 - full "pink" moon: The Orkneyinga Saga part II: Christian Era Jarls - Orcadian storyteller and historian Tom Muir, MBE, tells the old stories of Orkney's jarlsTales in the Landscape Crowdfunder: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/tales-in-the-landscape WARNING: Tonight's chat involves some descriptions of gore and violence, as you might expect with the Vikings. Tom will tell us a few very old family stories by the light of tonight's full moon. We'll look deeply into Orkney's Viking history, as preserved in the Orkneyinga Saga. If you've ever considered reading the sagas, this episode of Ower wi' the Moon will set you up for a more informed first reading. You'll get a condensed overview of the myth, the stories, the culture and the thinking behind these tales, to prepare you to tackle the Orkneyinga Saga in full. This is part II of III.Tonight we discuss: What happens after the last pagan Jarl of Orkney dies at the Battle of Clontarf in Ireland in 1014?We hear about some rather unlikeable, greedy and grasping sons of Sigurd the Stout - Einar Wrymouth among them, who wasn't a very successful VikingHolding a Thing at Dingieshowe in Orkney's East Mainland (the assembly mound), where a young farmer, Thorkel, makes a bold move ... and lives to regret it.Sigurd's youngest son, Thorfinn Sigurdsson, gets involved in the fight for the family jarldom of OrkneySpecific locations in Deerness where treacherous events took placeA promising two-year-old hostage, RognvaldKings being killed and Vikings getting around: Constantinople and Russia, for instanceWhat Olaf's Wynd in Kirkwall has to do with the VikingsHow Kirkjavagr (Kirk Bay, Kirkwall) got its namePapa Westray or Papa Stronsay - where did the malt for the Yuletime ale come from?The perils of a slip of the tongueA Pictish monastery on PapaWestrayThe old Christchurch in BirsayMaking a bid for the English throneAnd along comes Magnus Barelegs - another great Viking nameThe early days of Saint MagnusTreachery in Egilsay and a mother's pleaThe connection between St Magnus and Orkney's skald, George Mackay Brown Tales in the Landscape Crowdfunder: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/tales-in-the-landscape