The Three Ravens Podcast

It's the first time we've done a Seasonal Special in a while, but this week we're celebrating the harvest and exploring the history and folklore of Lughnasa and Lammastide.We begin by discussing the Festival of First Fruits and the Eleusinian Mysteries of the Classical World, before getting into the nitty gritty of Lughnasa, or 'The Aseembly of Lugh.' From Irish festivals of games, hand-fasting rituals and ceremonial fires to a PR stunt for the Roman Emperor Augustus and all the way through to the 19th century Gaelic revival, Lughnasa has changed a fair bit over time. We have a brief brush with the Burryman of South Queensferry, then explore the king of the vegetative spirits himself, John Barleycorn and the archetype of the Dying and Rising God. The episode is accompanied by a selection of English poetry, exploring the harvest from the differing perspectives of Robert Herrick, John Donne, Thomas Hardy, Ted Hughes and William Wordsworth. We've also included a live recording of our version of the traditional song 'John Barleycorn' from Black Shuck Festival in 2025. We really hope you find the episode relaxing and enjoyable, and we will be back to reap the season more on Thursday, when Eleanor will be giving a creepy reading of Martin's story The Corn Maiden...Three Ravens is a Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on a historic county, exploring the heritage, 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 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

On this week's episode of Local Legends Martin chats with award winning singer-songwriter and progressive artist Richard Dawson. Hailing from England's northernmost city, Newcastle upon Tyne, Richard doesn't much like being pigeon-holed or for his music to be put into a genre, but across this chat he just about surrenders to Martin's insistence that he's a folk musician, and proudly avant garde.Starting with his 2017 album Peasant in particular, he has been on a near decade long run of writing, amongst other things, detailed, tender, thought-provoking story songs as a solo artist, along with experimental jazz as a member of the band Hen Ogledd and experimental rock music with Finnish band Circle.In addition to talking about his career so far and the changing nature of an artist's life in the 21st century, this conversation ranges from family stories of haunting to personal experiences with a UFO, and chats about aspects of Northumberland's folklore including The Laidly Worm of Spindlestone Heugh and the Simonside Dwarves plus much more besides. So gather in close around the Three Ravens campfire for a chat with one of Martin's favourite musicians, who also just happens to be a Three Ravens listener!Three Ravens is a Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on a historic county, exploring the heritage, 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 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?

We round out our recent completion of the Red Fairy Book by taking a deeper look at Leonora and Andrew Lang. Who were they, what were their lives like, and where did they fit into society and culture at the end of the 19th century?Looking at what we know so far about the Langs' own story, we talk about the boom in print culture after the advent of steam, and the rise of the wide variety of periodicals available to the Victorian reading public. Examining the twelve coloured fairy books through the lens of the Victorian collector mindset, we talk commercial publishing and its critics, and explore the extraordinary creative coterie the Langs cultivated in order to produce their immense catalogue of work, both personal and collaborative. We really hope you enjoy the episode! We're giving the Langs a rest for a while, though we certainly intend to return to the project in 2027. We will speak to you again on Saturday, when Martin is interviewing musician Richard Dawson.If you are unfamiliar with the Lang Fairy Tales, these seminal collections were assembled between 1889 and 1913 by a married couple, folklorists and translators Nora and Andrew Lang, with most of the work done to compile them completed by Nora, also known as Leonora Blanche Alleyne.Assembled and published in 12 colour-coded "Fairy Books," the corpus the Langs put together included 798 fairy tales from across cultures, many of which had never before been translated into English.They were amongst the most influential books of their time, changing the course of children's literature - although they're hardly just for children, and often deal with quite challenging concepts.Today, purchasing a complete set of the Lang Fairy Books in good condition costs over £4,000 ($5,000+).Thankfully, the collections are all out of copyright, meaning that we can now tell these stories, in podcast form, many for the first time, and share them with a global audience, for free.Our plan is to release the stories between main series of Three Ravens, performing them straight (though with plenty of silly voices) letting the tales speak for themselves in all their madcap, sharp-edged, often quite bizarre glory.The only edits we have made are to amend some culturally-insensitive epithets, which typically pertain to ethnicity, with any such edits made by Eleanor Conlon.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 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?

This month on Magus, for our final episode of the series, we're casting a circle and exploring the life of the last great name in British magic, Gerald Gardner!Suffering with crippling asthma all his life, we begin with Gardner's youth and young manhood overseas where, accompanied by his nurse, nanny, and personal tutor, he explored Europe and parts of North Africa and the Middle East, developing an interest in folklore, paganism, and ethnography.After a career working on tea and rubber plantations, spending his free time digging into the mysteries of Malay cultures, he then became a colonial administrator, controlling the British opium monopoly during the interwar years. It is only on his return to England, alongside his wife Donna, that Gerald's magical life really begins. Through his membership of an obscure Rosicrucian order and then the New Forest Coven, he became certain that it was his task to revive an ancient British mystery cult close to extinction.How did he do this? Well, by cobbling together a lot of occult learning from yesteryear, often as presented by Aleister Crowley - an aspect of his new, duotheistic nature religion that did not sit comfortably with its High Priestesses...From his relationships with the likes of Cecil Williamson and Doreen Valiente to his boastful courting of the tabloid press, we then follow the downward trajectory of his life - as well as his legacy, as in part embodied in the hundreds of thousands of people who identify as Wiccan today. From his books to his anthropological studies, his preoccupations with flagellation and nudism to his fiction and non-fiction books, we're digging into it all. And at the end of it, bearing in mind what we've explored across the thirteen episodes of Magus, are we to believe he was really magical at all, or whether he himself believed in the things that have since become a full-blown religious faith...We really hope you enjoy the episode, and will speak with you again on Thursday for our special episode on the literary context into which the Lang's coloured fairy books were published, changing the worlds of children's fiction and folklore forever!Three Ravens is an English myth and folklore podcast hosted by Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux.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 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?

On this week's episode of Local Legends Martin chats with British author, LGBTQ+ historian, museum researcher and escape room artist Sacha Coward.Sacha's first book, Queer As Folklore, explores how LGBTQ+ communities have historically found safety and representation in the shadows of mythology, bridging centuries of storytelling, and it won Best Non-Fiction Book at the British Fantasty Society Awards too!Sacha has had a diverse career, from giving tours of museums and archives to designing escape rooms, covering topics from Viking burials to Alan Turing's law, ancient Greek myths and RuPaul's Drag Race.So gather in close around the Three Ravens campfire for a chat about mermaids, videogames and the playfulness inherent in identity, with a true local legend, Sacha Coward.Find out more about Sacha via his channels @sachacoward.Three Ravens is a Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on a historic county, exploring the heritage, 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 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?

It's been a strange, charming, and sometimes baffling journey, but we've reached the end of the Red Fairy Book!Two very different stories finish the collection off. The Marvellous Musician is a German tale, collected by the Grimms. It's a curious tale with an extremely questionable hero, leaving a rather unpleasant taste behind. Is our musician marvellous, monstrous, or perhaps even the Devil himself?As for The Story of Sigurd - it's an epic Norse and Germanic legend, dramatised in poems, prose and a series of operas by Richard Wagner. All that ought to mean a wonderful, dramatic story - but will the Langs' version live up to the hype?After we've discussed and rated the stories, we look back at the stories in the Red Fairy Book and consider highlights, least favourites, and the collection as a whole.We really hope you enjoy the last instalment in the second Lang Fairy Book, and we will speak to you again on Saturday, when Martin is interviewing Local Legend and author of Queer As Folklore, Sacha Coward. If you are unfamiliar with the Lang Fairy Tales, these seminal collections were assembled between 1889 and 1913 by a married couple, folklorists and translators Nora and Andrew Lang, with most of the work done to compile them completed by Nora, also known as Leonora Blanche Alleyne.Assembled and published in 12 colour-coded "Fairy Books," the corpus the Langs put together included 798 fairy tales from across cultures, many of which had never before been translated into English.They were amongst the most influential books of their time, changing the course of children's literature - although they're hardly just for children, and often deal with quite challenging concepts.Today, purchasing a complete set of the Lang Fairy Books in good condition costs over £4,000 ($5,000+).Thankfully, the collections are all out of copyright, meaning that we can now tell these stories, in podcast form, many for the first time, and share them with a global audience, for free.Our plan is to release the stories between main series of Three Ravens, performing them straight (though with plenty of silly voices) letting the tales speak for themselves in all their madcap, sharp-edged, often quite bizarre glory.The only edits we have made are to amend some culturally-insensitive epithets, which typically pertain to ethnicity, with any such edits made by Eleanor Conlon.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 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?

In this final episode of our 13-part exploration of folk music history we are concluding with Death and Afterlife Songs!We welcome our musical collaborators for the series Ben and Katie to join us for this bumper-length episode, which includes a conversation at the end in which we reflect on the journey we have been on together over the last 15 months.As for the songs, we begin with Death and the Lady, a song that feels like it ought to have Medieval roots and which seems inspired by the Black Death, yet which is only recorded for the first time in the 18th century.Next, we sing and discuss one of the finest English songs of all, The Lyke Wake Dirge, with Martin deploying his shruti box and his snare drum to get the skeleton parade marching along...Lastly, we go out on a very Ben choice with Fiddler's Green, a song which is the 40th we've recorded together.We really hope you enjoy the songs, the conversations about death, the afterlife, reincarnation, and more, and remember, every new person who listens to this episode, or who joins our Patreon, enables us to be more ambitious with our projects and push Three Ravens into new and exciting places.So, thank you very much for listening, we hope to release mastered versions of some of the songs as an album (funds and time willing) and thank you for spreading the word about what we're doing so that this can be how we make our living.We really hope you enjoy the episode, and we will speak to you again on Thursday for our final stories from the Lang Red Fairy Book, featuring The Marvellous Musician and The Story of Sigurd!The Three Ravens is a Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on a historic county, exploring the heritage, 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 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?

On this week's episode of Local Legends Eleanor is chatting with the Fairy Whisperer, Karen Kay.Fairies are notoriously tricksy beings, but if there’s anybody out there with exactly the right advice for inviting fairy energies in and adding a dash of magic to your day, it’s Karen Kay. Karen’s work is all about sharing and building a kind, positive community, which reflects in her many projects - from starting Fae Magazine as a handmade zine back in 2007, to dreaming up and creating magical fairy events, from the Three Wishes Fairy Festival to the Glastonbury Faery Ball. So, gather in close around the Three Ravens cosmic campfire for a fascinating chat, in which we discuss experiences with the fae, the importance of listening to your heart - and of course, address the currently very popular theme on Instagram and TikTok - romantasy and ‘fairy smut’ with a true Local Legend, Karen Kay. Find out more about Karen at www.karenkay.co.uk.Three Ravens is a Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on a historic county, exploring the heritage, 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 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?