On this week's episode of Local Legends, Martin chats all things Worcestershire and the surrounds with folklorist and author Hugh Williams.

Born in Worcester at the heart of the English Midlands, Hugh has gone about things the old fashioned way. Which is to say, he has spent almost his whole life physically exploring, discovering and researching the stranger places of England’s middle counties, and is deeply passionate about telling their stories.

Part of this he does through his blog, which is absolutely amazing, and he has also written three books, The Mystery of Mercia Volumes I and II, which are collections of lore and folktales centred on the old Anglo Saxon kingdom of Mercia, and, more recently, The Magic of Mercia: A History of Witchcraft and Magic in the Midlands of England.

Drawing on traditional sources as well as his own collecting and site visits, Hugh’s work paints a vivid picture of the English heartlands, from their very beginnings right through to the present day. All of which has earned him a prominent position on social media, where he posts pictures and videos of his discoveries to tens of thousands of people. Plus, he’s now moving into the world of TV presenting – he’s just filmed for the new History Channel series Weird Britain which will be released next year!

So, settle in for a chat which folds in Danish reeves being skinned and their outer layers pinned to cathedrals, Cunning Folk, giants, Wild Hunts, foliate heads, and much, much more!

To learn more Hugh and his work, do visit his website at mysteriesofmercia.com and you can find him on social media via @mysteriesofmercia

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.

The Ancient Greeks believed they existed before the dawn of time, yet they're a mystery to most, so, for this week's Bonus Episode we're exploring the long and complex history of Nymphs!

Part of the "Three Ravens Bestiary" series, we start off discussing the roles Nymphs played in the Greco-Roman pantheon, including how they were classified and eventually used, in Imperial projects, to present local and regional gods of pagan cultures, such as the Celts and Britons, as less powerful than the Olympians. This then sees us look at examples of some ancient genius loci from across England, including those found in shrines at Hadrian's Wall, where some local deities defied the odds and survived well into Christianization, later becoming recognised as Saints.

From there we head in two directions - firstly, forward, via Chaucer, Marvell and Shakespeare, into a place where Nymphs and Faeries got a little bit muddled up in the British mindset. After that, we journey back to the start, exploring how writers like Hesiod, Homer, and many others, developed and contributed to the collective idea of 'Nymph Lore' - the roles Nymphs played in city foundation, how they were worshiped, and what 'Nympholepsy' - Nymph Madness - was, and why some people sought it out!

Via discussions of the 18th century invention of the idea of 'Nymphomania' - in contrast with other misogynistic (and anti-British) ideas such as Tacitus' characterisation of the Roman Witch Empress Messalina, the vengeful Iceni Queen Boudica, and figures like Britannicus, we wash up in the present day - a time when being called a "nymph" seems to have nothing to do with nature spirits, and much more to do with systems of power and control...

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 Martin is whisking us up to Worcestershire in England's West Midlands and telling us his take on the legend of "The Malvern Ogre."

We start off chatting about what Martin calls 'a proper saint' - his namesake, St Martin - including his life as a goose-bothering wandering necromancer and the strange part-bloody, part-weather related traditions associated with today's festival of Martinmas.

After that we set off for Worcestershire, a sometimes overlooked county with extraordinarily rich history and folklore to be found in just about every corner.

We discuss topics including the very frequently-destroyed County Town of Worcester, the county's plethora of standing stones and its fractious past, then Martin grabs up his bottle of Worcestershire Sauce and chats through the county's extremely rich culinary heritage, and its offal-centred ancient delicacy, Tenbury Pie, for this week's County Dish.

As for folklore, interspersed with some excerpts from next Saturday's Local Legends interview with Worcestershire local, folklorist and author Hugh Williams, we talk about the county's resident centaur, its fairies, black dog legend, a spontaneously combusting witch from Kidderminster, and much more besides.

Then it's on to the main event: Martin's story, "The Malvern Ogre" which, in a change of pace from recent weeks, is a jolly tale about people-eating monsters, personal hygiene, and the magical power of kindness.

We hope you enjoy it, and will be back on Thursday with a new Three Ravens Bestiary bonus episode about Nymphs and, if you're a Patreon supporter, our November Patreon Exclusive episode about The Medway Megaliths, all ahead of Saturday's full Local Legends chat with Hugh!

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 is chatting about Cambridgeshire, paganism and much, much more with one of the nation’s most prominent and celebrated folklorists, author and historian Dr Francis Young.

In case you’re unfamiliar with his work, such as his frequent appearances on BBC radio, as well as his writing for magazines including History Today and BBC History Magazine, Francis specialises in the history of religion and belief. He is the author, editor, or co-author of over 20 books, including the award-winning Pagans in the Early Modern Baltic, as well as Twilight of the Godlings and Magic in Merlin’s Realm. His new book, just out, is called Paganism Persisting: A History of European Paganisms since Antiquity, which he co-authored with Robin C. Douglas.

Born in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk – the same place as Eleanor – Francis studied Philosophy at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and Classics at University of Wales, Lampeter, before receiving his doctorate in History from Cambridge University. He is a well-known authority on the religious history of Britain and the Baltic region, and is a contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as well as numerous textbooks and anthologies.

We first encountered Francis in relation to his scholarship about witchcraft, magic, and paganism, but for our purposes today he's gathering round the Three Ravens campfire to chat about the history and folklore of Cambridgeshire, a county about which he is a bit of an expert. As a Cambridge-based academic who has written books about the county’s folklore, and that of neighbouring counties, he is the perfect person to guide us through its murky earthy fenlands on the one hand, and its world-famous university town on the other.

So, settle in for a chat which encompasses fairies, wild hunts, ghostly knights, fenland drainage, some very nice cathedrals, and anecdotes about Isaac Newton, M.R. James, Edith Porter and much else too!

To learn more about Francis, his work, and his books, do check out his website at drfrancisyoung.com, and we'll be back on Monday with an episode all about the history and folklore of Worcestershire!

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 final episode in this first 13-part series of Magic and Medicines, Eleanor explains the origins and subsequent interpretations of Ogham, the ancient Irish language of cuts.

We start by exploring how we define what Ogham is, and its origins in the 4th century A.D.

From there we dive into how the system works, our earliest sources (including The Auraicept na n-Eces, The Ogham Tract, and The Book of Ballymote) some associated mythology, and points of crossover with other runic languages such as the Elder Futhark.

After that, via a bit of Medieval misinterpretation, it's onto the Neo-Pagan revivals and characters including Iolo Morganwg and Robert Graves, whose speculative works served to further muddle our understanding of Ogham, while also birthing a series of quite nice ideas!

Encompassing methods for using Ogham in divination to the Celtic Tree Months, links between Ogham and the legends of the Tower of Babel, Lebor Ogham, 'orthodox' and 'scholastic' scripts, and much more, it's a fascinating journey into a rich, technical topic which may, in truth, forever remain a little bit of a mystery...

Martin will be back on Saturday for our Local Legends interview with Dr Francis Young, and we then hope you will join us on Monday for our next county episode, in which we will be exploring the history and folklore of Worcestershire!

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.

With Haunting Season 2024 now over, we're back to our regular business, and this week Eleanor is punting us along misty waterways as we explore the history and folklore of Cambridgeshire!

We start off chatting about Guy Fawkes, St Cleer and "Ringing Night," after which we cavort into Cambridgeshire, a soggy county whose landscape today is nothing like it once was.

Aside from chatting about the draining of the fens, the county's success in the lucrative field of fossilized poop mining, and the network of secret tunnels under Cambridge itself, Eleanor uses a boar bristle to bake bread, weighs up the possibility of us eating brawn, and teaches us how to make traditional Fenland Mead for week's County Dish.

When it comes to folklore, interspersed with some excerpts from next Saturday's Local Legends interview with celebrated author and Cambridge University folklore professor Dr Francis Young, we talk about a surprisingly lively Roman skeleton, protective ghostly bulldogs, hilltop duels with Otherworldly knights, and much more besides.

Then it's on to the main event: Eleanor's story, "The Tale of a Toadman" in which she channels the spirit of Edith Porter to narrate a spooky adventure which runs the gamut from hedge magic to bodily mutilation to mythical bog serpents.

We really hope you enjoy the episode, and we'll be back on Thursday with a new Magic and Medicines bonus episode about the ancient runic language of Ogham and its connections to the trees of the British Isles, ahead of Saturday's full Local Legends chat with Francis!

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 this week's Haunting Season-themed Local Legends episode, the final of the four, Martin gathers round the Three Ravens campfire with folklorist Brice Stratford to chat all about his new book Halloween Folklore and Ghost Stories.

This new collection is Brice’s third book, following his first collection, Anglo Saxon Folklore: The Struggle for the Saxon Kingdoms, and New Forest Myths and Folklore, both of which were published in 2022.

A storyteller, historian, actor and theatre director, Brice writes on heritage, art and architectural history for Apollo Magazine, the Spectator, and various trade publications, and for 12 years he ran the award-winning Owle Schreame theatre company which is currently on hiatus.

Born and raised in the New Forest, he started his journey into folklore in the New Forest area of Southern England, engaging in folklore collecting and plenty of deep-dive research – skills which he brought to bear for his new Halloween Folklore and Ghost Stories collection.

In August of this year Brice also launched a podcast, Finding Folklore, a storytelling series through which Brice and his co-host James Carney explore the legends, fairytales, ghost stories, songs and traditions of old England, with each Finding Folklore podcast episode also coming with a companion video on YouTube which expands on the themes and ideas of the main podcast episode.

For now though, settle in for a chat which encompasses Halloween's origins, 'Blood Month' traditions, pig-faced spectral brides, Charles Dickens, the stunning Sedlec Ossuary and much more.

To learn more about Brice, do follow him on social media, we hope you enjoy the episode, and we'll be back on Monday with our first County Episode for a while, all about Cambridgeshire!

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 Three Ravens 2024 Halloween Special we've pulled out all the stops and are talking about the most infamous serial killer in history, Jack The Ripper!

Part of the "Something Wicked" series about true crimes with folkloric twists, we start by chatting through what London was like in 1888, including the boom in crime fiction that had culminated in the creation of Sherlock Holmes, the city's 58 daily newspapers, and the horrendous wealth divide between the Victorian rich and poor.

Then it's onto the Whitechapel Murders themselves, including some extremely distressing details and fringe cases, such as the grisly deaths of Martha Tabram and Emma Smith which predated the so-called 'Canonical Five' Ripper victims.

We also detail the lives of the women who were slain, as well as the awful ways in which they died, discussing what Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly had in common, the escalating nature of their killer's crimes, and how exactly the police responded to the challenges the case presented.

From the 'Dear Boss' and 'From Hell' letters to the methods Scotland Yard and the Metropolitan Police used to try and catch the killer, the case's links to antisemitism and the Freemasons, to details of the lead suspects and subsequent theories of the crimes which have developed across the 20th and 21st centuries, it's a wild and horrifying ride.

At almost exactly two hours long, we've done our best in this episode to do the topic justice, and no doubt it is a dark and deeply disturbing journey. But, as Haunting Season 2024 winds to a close, it's hard to imagine a much murkier true crime to chronicle as we head into the dark of winter...

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.