Half Man, Half Myth - Storyteller

02/09/2026

I'll be telling tales in Wales 16th - 18th October: The First Branch of the Mabinogion, The Battle of the Trees and the historical tale of Gwenllian verch Gruffydd. Get to Mekonsville! You'll hate yourself if you miss it!

The First Branch of the Mabinogion will be told outside on a story-walk. As the Branch divides into three sections, we'll walk to different settings for each section. Gwenllian verch Gruffydd, "The Welsh Joan of Arc", is told in narrative verse, trochaic tetrameter to be precise. I tried adapting one of the twenty-four Y Pedwar Mesur ar Hugain according with the rules of cynghanedd but the complexity defeated me and wouldn't have sounded good in English; I don't think these old Welsh metres were ever used for narrative anyway.

29/08/2026

Fruits of the forest.

28/08/2026

Last night, on the full of the moon, I gave a talk entitled "What is a Rune?" for Jacqueline's YouTube "Magic Tool Box", where speakers are invited to talk about various occult and spiritual matters, and here it is:

This talk will take us through what runes were in the past and how ...

12/08/2026

Back from the Oakleaf Festival Camp. Here's photos of F***y Hill, the camp, the Ash and the Elm where I told stories on the Saturday. On returning home, the teensy-weeny leaves on the little oak I had planted, watered religiously, but which had still dropped its leaves but had grown three more (pictured) had definitely increased in size over the weekend. A big thank you to all who came to my story-tellings on Friday and Saturday.

06/08/2026

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bright-Browed-Oak-Hearted-Memory-Ancient-Isles/dp/1919512225/ref=sr_1_1?crid=17VXKHNUKZPD7&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.giXYJB80YCyAMIwIHOdtHA.4VbE15wxyM4-uyFYQSjaOBGMEq_vtOhvbvPMgHx8D3A&dib_tag=se&keywords=Bright-Browed%2C+Oak-Hearted&qid=1786013883&s=books&sprefix=bright-browed+oak-hearted%2Cstripbooks%2C123&sr=1-1

Stone circles, barrows and henges can be seen across the British Isles, they evoke a sense of wonder for a people about whose culture and beliefs we know next to nothing. Later cultures, that still lived when writing arrived in Britain, have had preserved some of their myths and memories, told by...

28/07/2026

More staves I've made. Every staff tells a story! Holly, linden, ash and blackthorn. Inscriptions are from the Anglo-Saxon Rune-poem, Llyfr Talesin (The Book of Talesin) and the Trioedd Ynys Prydein (The Triads of Britain).

18/07/2026

Upcoming performances:
7th - 9th August Oakleaf Pagan Camp Ravenstonedale
16th - 18th October Mekonsville Portmeirion
24th or 25th (TBC) October Bede's World Jarrow
31st October Angels Cut Bar Darlington
17th November Airedale Valley Pagan Moot Shipley West Yorkshire.

01/07/2026

Sometimes called the Matterhorn of the Dales, Roseberry Topping is only 1,049 feet (320 metres), however, it certainly stands out in the landscape. A C12th charter records it as "Othenesburg" and was surely once dedicated to Odin by the Danes of Northumbria. I think it was also a "horg". These were more than just piles of stones for fire offerings, the dead would be buried there or their ashes placed there; places in Denmark that archaeologists have identified as a horg are raised extensive areas of land overlooking the landscape. I discuss these in the notes to my narrative poem 'Epilogue of Ottarr Insteinsson' in my book 'Nine Runes of Mead-Speech'.

25/04/2026

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1919512225/ref=sr_1_1?content_source=fb&fb_content_id=Q9-wBQHybz7ZlLg2rYDJTRaoxN5YPHZcK7OclEhH4UENXix5uFpdd87OxcuoANJRpQ&channel_type=fb&fbclid=IwY2xjawRZyX1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBhVWw4S1FrMnVPcDRzT0RSc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHs2XRMJ0MwcnriV0ULFKN7_gD1sF1QsioJesR3s5ln5r5BkwYJOsiXjBGtXE_aem_iSgGpZWI_y1zihyoUJ7ztg

Stone circles, barrows and henges can be seen across the British Isles, they evoke a sense of wonder for a people about whose culture and beliefs we know next to nothing. Later cultures, that still lived when writing arrived in Britain, have had preserved some of their myths and memories, told by...

20/04/2026

ᚪ Ac, Oak. A as in ‘father’, ‘acorn’.

The Seasons’ doors, like twilight’s, made of oak,
The best of woods for doors, not in, not out,
Liminal threshold, home to Hidden Folk.
Guardian even out at sea, the stout
Ship’s wooden walls, the best of wood for all.
This tree, once spread by acorn-caching jays,
Is now undone; being best, to axe did fall
But loved no less and in our hearts it stays.
Yet there’s far more to oaks, it has been found:
Chemical signals sent by air from leaves
Warn of incoming insects; sugar stash
Flows to the sick by root tips underground.
All this and more we know of oaken trees,
Like oak attracts the stroke of thunder’s flash!