On this full moon night we had a visit from a young Scottish-Dutch storytelling friend, who is also a great grandneice of Orkney's beloved poet, George Mackay Brown. Please enjoy our blether with stories.

In this episode you'll hear about:

• Ailsa's experience of learning about her heritage from Tom
• Orkney stories and their histories
• letting folk stories continue to grow in our own time
• encouraging new storytellers
• the delights of spontaneity in storytelling
• a wee tale from Aberdeenshire - Fittie's Portion
• "young" storytellers, and how not to be defined by age or other labels
• Ailsa's School of Storycraft for kids
• telling stories about things you care about; defeating apathy and reconnecting emotionally
• local history storytelling
• stories about kindness; "heart stories"
• Ailsa tells her heart story, Kate Crackernuts, which is not - as is commonly misunderstood - an English tale, but was collected in the Orkney Islands
• finding earlier versions of folktales
• Gaelic waulking songs
• ... and a bonus story, which Ailsa first heard from her granddad, Fraser Dixon: The Story of Tam Bichan - from Dingieshowe, Orkney
• contact Ailsa Dixon here: https://tracscotland.org/storytellers/ailsa-dixon/

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Join Tom and Rhonda as we continue our discussion around old Orkney customs and traditions. This time you'll hear some quite surprising and amusing details of marriage and death customs in Orkney.

A few things you'll find out in this Ower wi' the Moon podcast:

• Signs and dangers around the Orkney wedding celebration: good luck, bad luck and how to evade the trowies
• The costs of speerin' night, when the prospective groom asks the bride's father for her hand; warning: don't show up empty handed!
• The exact nuances of arranging the marriage banns in Orkney and its surrounding legalities
• About the Westray "dons" of the Spanish Armada, and what allegedly happened if they married "outside" the dons
• What did the moon, the tide and the "airt" of the wind have to do with the fortunes of an Orkney marriage?
• Old-style wedding invitations ... and drams (naturally)
• All about the Orkney foot-washing ritual, and the general hilarity that ensued
• Withershins - "going against the sun"
• The dangers of bodily bits as relating to curses; and what's this got to do with the king's poop?
• A wedding story from Noltland Castle in the island of Westray
• How to make your hogboon part of the wedding celebration, and why it's important to do so!
• The wedding walk - much longer than a walk down the aisle; hijinks along the way; and the importance of wiping out your tracks
• The origins of pre-wedding blackenings in Orkney
• The mesterhousel, the hansel wife, the bride's cog and other Orkney wedding celebration rituals
• Orkney wedding games, bog cotton (Loki's oo) stockings and feminine divination mysteries
• Baking. brewing, eating, drinking and dancing!
• 
  
• Different kinds of Orkney cogs
• Curses, ill omens and selkie abductions: dangers to watch out for during weddings
• The tragic story of Henry Graham and his love
• Orkney death customs, traditions and beliefs
• Omens of death: rainbows, ravens and angels' music
• Wailing vardens and ganfers in Orkney
• The story of the Bokie Hound of the Balfours
• Forebodings of death in dreams
• The leekwak, touching the corpse and of ladies losing their senses
• The danger of grieving too much
• Supernatural Orkney death customs: good luck and bad, and getting the biggest blessing
• What did you do with a drowned sailor?
• The posh end of the cemetery
• Unbaptized infant stories
• ... and many more interesting Orkney traditions.

Encourage us in our heritage preservation work on Ko-fi

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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 brew
• 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
• Orkney schooldays in earlier times: What was it like boarding in the hostel for school in Kirkwall Grammar School (and a year in Holm) as a bairn the old days, when they only returned home on rare occasions? Powdered milk, snowball fights, freezing "digs" and unmarried teachers.
• And what about those hair-raising postboat rides before the 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 most 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:

A Letter from North Ronaldsay - buy it direct from the publishers, Orkneyology Press (if you'd like to purchase the book in the way that best rewards the author and publishers) :https://rebrand.ly/2e9qpuf

Ian Scott's author page on Orkneyology: https://www.orkneyology.com/ian-scott-orkneyology-press.html

Don't Tell Bab! - Annie Harcus (Annie Rousay)

The Longhope Lifeboat Memorial - https://hoyorkney.com/attractions/hoy-history/lifeboat

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On this full moon 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 stories related to these customs and give a bit of history to help folk understand the very sensible reasons for these early Orkney 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)
• Natural 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 (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: https://www.orkneyology.com/isobel-gunn.html

In Part 2 of Orkney Customs: Hatch, Match, Dispatch Tom will tell us more about "match" customs - courtship and marriage - and also Orkney death customs. See you on the next full moon!

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Tonight, Tom and Rhonda Muir of Scotland's Orkney Islands have a moonlight visitor - our very dear friend, author, researcher and storyteller Dr Erin Farley of Dundee. Those who love stories and Scotland will find much of interest, among these:

• Erin's abiding passion for worms: 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 lanlord
• 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. https://sfdh.org.uk/project/the-twins-of-edzell/

So come thee wiz, pour yourself a dram and settle in for a good old-fashioned blether among friends.

Orkneyology website: https://www.orkneyology.com

Podcast theme music courtesy of Fionn McArthur.

"Ower wi' the moon" artwork created by Jenny Steer

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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 muse about life lessons embedded in all good stories, look at some differences in stories originating from inland areas as compared to tales told by those whose lives are constantly endangered and controlled by the sea, how Orkney differs from Shetland and how folktales in this area of the world were influenced by the Vikings. 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.

Be sure to drop by on the NEXT full moon, when we'll be having a blether with Scottish storyteller, researcher and author of Angus Folk Tales, Dr Erin Farley of Dundee.

Show notes: https://www.orkneyology.com/orkneyology-podcast.html

Podcast theme music courtesy of Fionn McArthur.

"Ower wi' the moon" artwork created by Jenny Steer

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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. They talk about the culture and lifestyle that created the bothy ballads, a bit about the bothy system in the Orkney Islands and reminisce about "Bothy Nichts", an old Scottish bothy songs television show. Tom and Scott speak about 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!

So pull up a chair, pour yourself a dram and settle in for a good, old-fashioned blether among friends.

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!

Drop by again on the NEXT full moon, when Tom will talk about Scottish coastal culture and stories and tell a few tales from his new book with History Press, Scottish Folk Tales of Coast and Sea.

Podcast theme music courtesy of Fionn McArthur.

"Ower wi' the moon" artwork created by Jenny Steer

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Well, it's a full moon again and time for another moonlit blether coming to you from the Orkney Islands. This month, Tom and Rhonda Muir talk about:

• the difficulties of childhood dyslexia (before there was a name for it)
• beloved childhood storybooks that helped Tom overcome traumatic school years
• how Tom stumbled into storytelling and overcame 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
• and Tom tells a local Orkney story that took place in a mound site he once dug as an archaeologist!

Drop by on the NEXT full moon, when we'll be having a blether with award-winning Scottish bothy ballad singer, Scott Gardiner.

Podcast theme music courtesy of Fionn McArthur.

"Ower wi' the moon" artwork created by Jenny Steer.

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