Orkneyology Podcast Show Notes
Season 1 Ep. 1:
"Ower wi' the moon"
~ Mulled wine and introductions ~
In this first episode of the Orkneyology Podcast (with the encouragement of some steaming mulled wine for Rhonda's sake) we introduce ourselves:
Tom Muir - Orcadian traditional storyteller, historian, author and publisher; and Rhonda Muir - an American expat who moved to the Orkney Islands to marry the love of her life (yes, Tom), writer, roamer in the wilderness of Orkney and publisher.
We tell the story of our delighted surprise in finding each other from across the Atlantic later in life, and how we eventually came to build a life together in Scotland's Orkney Islands.
We talk a bit about our website, Orkneyology.com, which explores Orkney life, travel, history, stories and archaeology. And we reveal a little about our plans for the Orkneyology Podcast, where we will be chatting with some fascinating folk in Orkney and elsewhere.
Mentioned in the this episode:
Rhonda's Moving to Orkney ebook
You can also listen on Youtube, with a few photos for context.
Check the platform where you normally listen to podcasts if you like. We're on Spotify and a few others, and we're working on adding more.
Season 1 Ep. 2:
"The Magic of Stories"
~ Orkney and Beyond ~
Well, it's a full moon again and time for another cozy moonlit blether coming to you from the Orkney Islands.
This month, we talk about:
- the difficulties of childhood dyslexia (before there was a name for it)
- beloved childhood storybooks that help overcome traumatic school years
- stumbling into storytelling and overcoming fear (terror, really) of public speaking
- how the Orkney Storytelling Festival first began
- warm reminiscenses involving some of the amazing storytellers and other people that Tom met through international storytelling opportuities (Lawrence Tulloch from Shetland, Bob Pegg, Donald Smith, David Campbell, Hjörleifur Helgi Stefánsson, Joseph Naytowhow, Stanley Robertson, Duncan Williamson ... and many more beloved friends)
- advice for newer storytellers
- Tom tells a local Orkney story that took place in a mound site he once dug as an archaeologist!
Other places to listen:
You can also listen on Youtube, with a few photos for context.
Check the platform where you normally listen to podcasts if you like. We're on Spotify and a few others, and we're working on adding more.
Drop by on the next full moon ...
We'll be having a blether with award-winning Scottish bothy ballad singer, Scott Gardiner.
Season 1 Ep. 3:
"A Blether with Bothy Ballad Singer Scott Gardiner"
~ Scottish bothy ballads; traditional music; the Orkney Folk Festival and more! ~
Tonight we have a moonlit chat with our very dear friend, Scott Gardiner. Tom and Scott have a lovely, wandering blether across the bothy ballad and traditional Scottish song scene, touching on:
- the history of this unique music and how it stands today
- the culture and lifestyle that created the bothy ballads
- a bit about the bothy system in the Orkney Islands
- reminisce about "Bothy Nichts", an old Scottish bothy songs television show
- reminiscences aboyt the sad passing of many of the great old singers and songwriters they both admire, including recently Orkney's own Billy Jolly
- Scott tells of some of the singers who inspired him and he even favors us with a few of his favorite bothy ballad songs, including one of his own!
In this episode, we're treated to these traditional songs:
- Guise o' Tough (traditional), 1890s
- Generations of Change, by Matt Armour, 1975
- Princie and Jean, by George Corrigall, 1959
- ... ending with a tongue-in-cheek song that Scott wrote for the Out of Doors Radio Scotland programme!
So pull up a chair, pour yourself a dram and settle in for a good, old-fashioned blether among friends.
Drop by on the NEXT full moon ...
Tom will tell us a bit about unique aspects of Scottish coastal culture and the coastal stories of Scotland. And he'll tell a few tales from his upcoming book with History Press, Scottish Folk Tales of Coast and Sea, coming out in April 2024.
Other ways to listen:
You can also listen on Youtube, with a few photos for context.
Check the platform where you normally listen to podcasts if you like. We're on Spotify and a few others, and we're working on adding more.
Season 1 Ep. 4:
"
Scottish Folk Tales of Coast and Sea
"
~ When we pose the burning question, "Are you a bookworm or a bookdragon?" ~
Tonight Tom and Rhonda Muir have a moonlit blether from their home in Scotland's Orkney Islands inspired by the publication of Tom's latest collection of folk tales: Scottish Folk Tales of Coast and Sea.
We wax lyrical about:
- life lessons embedded in all good stories
- Orkney and Shetland: Vikings at a cultural crossroads
- tips for storytellers and other creatives on finding old folktales, and how to make them your own
- respecting the tales, and keeping the meaning true
- the devil as trickster
- Travellers' stories and Tom's memories of "the tinklers"
- of mermaids and selkies
- stories of the perils of the sea
- Rhonda's favorite movie, "I know Where I'm Going"
- and Tom tells a really fun story from the book at the end!
So pull up a chair, pour yourself a dram and settle in for a good, old-fashioned blether among friends.
Drop by on the NEXT full moon ...
We'll be having a blether with Scottish storyteller, researcher, author of Angus Folk Tales and our dear friend, Dr Erin Farley of Dundee.
Other ways to listen:
You can also listen on Youtube, with a few photos for context.
Check the platform where you normally listen to podcasts if you like. We're on Spotify and a few others, and we're working on adding more.
Season 1 Ep. 5:
"Angus Folk Tales and Big Big Big Worms!"
~ Join us to find out why Erin loves giant worms of destruction ~
Tonight, Tom and Rhonda talk with a favorite moonlight visitor - our very dear friend, author, researcher and storyteller Dr Erin Farley of Dundee.
Those who love stories and Scotland will find much to chew on in tonight's visit, among these:
- Erin's strange and abiding passion for worms: especially giant worms causing creation and destruction; the The Muckle Mester Stoorworm; Jörmungandr the world serpent, Ragnarök ... and a bonus - a charm against the worm in your tooth (toothache)!
- Looking at the landscape from a seafaring position
- Researching and preserving oral history in Scotland
- Stories of the old lighthouse keepers, including our mutual friend, Lawrence Tulloch of Shetland
- The Grey (bearded) Lady; and deep storytelling
- Sir Walter Scott in Orkney
- Acedemic writing as energy vampire vs. stories of the people
- Dundee roots: slavery; sufferagettes; carving out a place through poetry; William McGonagall; and stories around the Tay Bridge disaster
- Storytelling and the pressure to achieve; the rewards of taking things slowly
- A telling of the story of Jockie Barefoot from Erin's book, Angus Folktales - a tragic Angus tale of an evil landlord
- The Twins of Edzel as performed by Tania Allan - A BSL interpretation of a Scottish folklore tale, inspired by ‘Angus Folk Tales’ by Erin Farley. The Twins of Edzell is the story of a dedicated mother of deaf twin brothers and the hearing world that is unable to accept them. Filmed on location at Balvaird Castle, Perthshire.
So come thee wiz, pour yourself a dram and settle in for a good old-fashioned blether among friends.
Drop by on the NEXT full moon ...
When, truthfully, we don't yet know who we'll be talking with, as Tom's been under the weather for a while. But that it will be someone interesting you can be sure!
Other ways to listen:
You can also listen on Youtube, with a few photos for context.
Check the platform where you normally listen to podcasts if you like. We're on Spotify and a few others, and we're working on adding more.
Season 1 Ep. 6, part 1:
"Hatch, match and dispatch"
~ Old Orkney customs around pregnancy, birth, courtship, marriage and death ~
On this moonlit night, Tom and Rhonda discuss some of the main rituals and customs necessary to safeguard important life events, from pregnancy through birth and baptisms, and onward to concerns and superstitions around courtship.
Tom will tell us a few Orkney stories related to these customs and give a bit of history to help folk understand the very sensible reasons for these early Orkney folk practices.
Join us to find out ...
- Why you should avoid insulting a witch when you're about to go sailing (which has nothing to do with our topic, but is interesting and perhaps valuable information nonetheless)
- Nature signs of an upcoming birth; precautions taken to avoid trouble during the precarious time of pregnancy and the earlierst months of life; how to avoid attracting the evil eye; keeping the trows from kidnapping mother or child
- All about the howdie wife - an important and respected woman who takes folk into the world and helps them out of it
- The Orkney meaning of "wifie"
- The story of the bairn of Langalour
- Different strengths of home brew, their names and when to drink them
- Christening stories
- Why Orcadians never let the hearthfire die
- Divining customs for discerning the identity of one's future spouse
- Why one of the Stones of Stenness has holes in it
- Tales from the Odin Stone, and the unbreakable Odin Oath (although with a handy escape clause)
- The pathetic story of Pirate Gow and the Odin Oath
Mentioned in this episode:
- The story of the Hudson's Bay Company man who was a woman, Isobel Gunn
- And Stromness' Brinkie's Brae
So come thee wiz, pour yourself a dram and settle in for a good old-fashioned blether among friends.
Drop by on the NEXT full moon ...
Tom speaks with one of our authors, Ian Scott - otherwise known as Ian o' Antabreck - lifelong resident of Orkney's most northerly island, North Ronaldsay.
We'll see you by the light of the next full moon.
Other ways to listen:
We regret that we are unable to offer the Orkneyology Podcast on Apple. In spite of arduous efforts and several failed attempts to receive help, we are sent in endless circles. If anyone would like to contact Apple and request the podcast ... well, maybe that would work?
Meanwhile, the podcast IS available on:
Orkneyology.com, Spotify, Youtube, Youtube Music, Acast, Amazon Music, Deezer, Jiosaavn, Samsung, Podverse, Audible, Curiocaster, RSS Feed, Steno.fm and probably others we know nothing about.
Please spread the word!
Season 1 Ep. 7:
"A Letter from North Ronaldsay"
~ A blether with Ian o' Antabreck - memories, the old days, life and art in Orkney ~
On this full moon night, Tom speaks with one of our authors, Ian Scott - otherwise known as Ian o' Antabreck - lifelong resident of Orkney's most northerly island, North Ronaldsay.
Ian has recently gathered together for publication his first decade of A Letter from North Ronaldsay, which he's written for The Orcadian newspaper for over thirty years. Tom and Rhonda have very proudly produced this first volume of Ian's Letters through our Orkneyology Press, which is now available for purchase through our website.
We hope you enjoy this blether among friends.
Join us to find out ...
- About North Ronaldsay toonships ... and what's a toonship anyway?
- Hogmanay traditions; North Ron as compared to Sanday (and other Orkney) traditions, where half of Tom's folk come from; where was the whisky, and what finally stopped the auld Hogmanay traditions?
- On home brewing
- Old milling and brewing practices, which Ian observed in his miller-father's life and work
- The old and new North Ronaldsay standing stone Hogmanay traditions, and what's it all got to do with the full moon?
- The reluctant uptake of the Gregorian calendar in Orkney
- Cold evenings in warm places: visiting and playing games with folk in the mill ... and other warm places
- Schooldays: What was it like boarding in the hostel for Kirkwall Grammar School (and a year in Holm) as a bairn the old days - when the bairns only came home on rare occasions? Powdered milk, snowball fights, freezing "digs" and oh, those unmarried teachers.
- And what about those hair-raising postboat rides before ferries and planes were available?
- Crops and old-style thrashing
- What it was like studying at Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen
- Orkney's thriving arts community
- Ian's paintings and sculptures, including his favorite sculpture: the Longhope Lifeboat Memorial
- Ian's lobster fishing days
- The North Ronaldsay praam, how it came about and why it's such a good boat design for Orkney sea conditions
- Ian's artistic study trips in Shetland, Iceland and Faroes
- About sculpting and Ian's well-known public works, including the Longhope Lifeboat Memorial, the statue of Arctic explorer John Rae in Stromness, the George Mackay Brown busts and the Stanley Cursitor portrait, all of which can be seen in Orkney.
- Sylvia Wishart, Ola Gorie and other Orkney artists
- The story of North Ronaldsay's Old Memorial Hall
Mentioned in this episode:
-
If you'd like to purchase A Letter from North Ronaldsay in the way that best rewards the author and publishers, buy it direct from Orkneyology Press. Thank you.
- Ian Scott's author page on Orkneyology
- Don't Tell Bab! - by Annie Harcus (Annie Rousay)
- Island Saga - Mary Scott
- Window on North Ronaldsay - Peter Tulloch
- The Longhope Lifeboat Memorial
Other ways to listen:
We regret that we are as yet unable to offer the Orkneyology Podcast on Apple, in spite of arduous efforts. If anyone would like to contact Apple and request the podcast ... well, maybe that would work?
Meanwhile, the podcast IS available on:
Orkneyology.com, Spotify, Youtube, Youtube Music, Acast, Amazon Music, Deezer, Jiosaavn, Samsung, Podverse, Audible, Curiocaster, RSS Feed, Steno.fm and probably others we know nothing about.
Please spread the word!
Drop by on the NEXT full moon ...
When Tom and Rhonda will be back with part 2 of "Hatch, Match, Dispatch". Tom will tell us more about the "match" customs - courtship and marriage - and also Orkney death customs.
We'll see you then.
The long-awaited 25th anniversary edition of Tom Muir's The Mermaid Bride is out! With new stories and illustrations added, and at the originl price, this book is a real bargain. Buy it here.
If you enjoy what we do please consider encouraging us on Ko-fi. It's a simple, safe way to support our work of preserving Orkney's stories and lore. Thank you!
Click below to hear a welcome message from Tom Muir.
Sign up for our newsletter below and we'll send you Tom's favorite story!
~ Next issue:
Summer 2024
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