Half Man, Half Myth - Storyteller

13/06/2025

WORD HOARD.

NORSE MYTHS:
The Creation, Asgarð’s Wall, Sif’s Hair, Skirnir’s Journey, Thor’s Duel with Hrungnir, The Lay of Thrym, The Winning of the Mead of Inspiration, Thor’s Journey to Utgarð, Thor and the World Serpent, The Binding of the Wolf Fenrir, The Abduction of Iðunn, Thor’s Journey to Geirroð’s Garð, Loki’s War of Insults, The Death of Balder, The Ragnarok, The Necklace Brisingamen.

TALES FROM THE POETIC EDDA: The Song of the Mill (from Grottasǫngr), Ottar Insteinsson’s Epilogue to Hyndluljoð, The Spite of a Spae-Wife (from Voluspá), The Word-Wise Dark-Elf (from Alvissmál),

TALES FROM FAMILY SAGAS AND THE SAGAS OF OLDEN TIMES: The Never-Ending Battle, Hervor’s Quest for Her Dead Father’s Sword, The Guest of the Norns (Nornagestr), Sigrun and Helgi Hundingsbane, Nine Black-Clad Horsewomen (Þiðandra Þáttr ok Þórhalls), Iron Words and the Wooden Man (Þórleifs Þáttr jarlsskáld), Maelbrigte Buck-Tooth (from Orkneyinga Saga c. A.D. 895), Egill Skallagrimsson’s Feud with Eirik Blood-axe: Youthful Exploits; In Longship and Law Court; The Horse-Headed Curse; The Head Ransom.

FOLKTALES FROM ICELAND: The Ptarmigan, The Deacon of Myrká, The Golden Whorl.

CELTIC TALES: The Three Noble Retinues, The Three Chieftains Brought Low by Misfortune, The Three Fair Womb-Burdens of the Island of Britain, The Wooing of Isolde, The Battle of the Trees (Cat Goddeu), Five Denials on Merlin’s Grave, Thomas the Rhymer, The Coming of Angus and Bride, The Seal Maiden, The Mysterious Beggar-man, The Four Branches of the Mabinogion: Pwyll Lord of Annwn; Branwen Daughter of Llyr; Manawydan Son of Llyr; Math ap Mathonwy.

ANGLO-SAXON TALES: Edric the Wild, Hereward the Wake, Wayland the Smith, Dunnichen Moss A.D. 685, The Story of Offa, The Fight at Finnsburgh, Hengist and Horsa’s Tale, The Wonderful Wood, Beowulf: Grendel; Grendel’s Mother; The Dragon Fight.

GHOST AND HORROR: The Bloody Bride of Featherstone Castle, The Berwick Werewolf, The Vampire of Croglin Grange, Madge Figgey the Wrecker, The Silver Table, The Priest of Forvie, One Tree Hill, The Elder Tree Witch, The Deacon of Myrká, The Screaming Skulls of Calgarth Hall, The Amazing Adventure of John Sturtridge, The Lovers’ Cove.

MISCELLANEOUS: The Ballad of Don, the Black-coated Retriever.

11/06/2025

I am a teller of traditional tales, that is, I tell them to live audiences from memory. The tales below are all stories which I love. I think you have to love a story to be able to tell it. If someone commissioned me to compose a version of a traditional story that didn't move me in some way, I don't imagine I would do it very well. I published these because I don't get to tell them orally as often as I would like.
They are a collection of Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse tales and legends. The second half of the book comprises notes on the origins, themes and academic debate on each tale:
The stories are:
The Legend of Nornagest - from the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, a mysterious stranger arrives at Olaf's court just before Xmas; Olaf was a Xtian, his guest on the other hand… stories within a story.
The Waking of Angantyr - from Hervor's Saga
The Never-Ending Battle. - this is still ongoing of course, on the Isle of Hoy in Orkney.
The Lay of Wayland the Smith.
Edric the Wild - the English resistance fighter against William the Conqueror; his wars, his marriage to an elf-woman and his post mortem fate.
The Fight at Finnsburgh - this episode is referred to in 'Beowulf'.
Helgi and Sigrun - a conflation of the three Helgi lays in the Poetic Edda.
The Song of the Mill - Grottasongr in the Poetic Edda.
Nechtansmere A.D. 685 - Ecgfrith of Northumbria's disastrous expedition against the Picts.
Þiðranda þáttr ok Þórhalls. a ghostly tale of Iceland's conversion.

A shield-maiden conjuring her dead father from his burial mound, a widow embracing her revenant husband’s cold form, a deliberately mutilated and lamed smith presenting to his tormentor silver-chased drinking vessels made from the skulls of his tormentor’s young sons, two spectral armies doomed ...

11/06/2025

The mythic world of the Norsemen continues to unfold with tales ranging from: the burlesque yarn of Thor’s cross-dressing to him meeting his match in a master-magician; the horror of Loki’s three hideous offspring; Óðinn seeking knowledge from a dead seeress - and getting a mouthful ...

29/04/2025

“An Ash I know, Yggdrasil its Name….” Hear Viking tales as you have never heard them before, mouth to ear, face to face, from a seasoned saga-man. For 40 years P D Brown has been learning the myths and legends of the North for live oral recitation, just as the bards, poets and saga-men would h...

17/03/2025

The tales below are all stories which I love. I think you have to love a story to be able to tell it. If someone commissioned me to compose a version of a traditional story that didn't move me in some way, I don't imagine I would do it very well. I published these because I don't get to tell them orally as often as I would like.
They are a collection of Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse tales and legends. The second half of the book comprises notes on the origins, themes and academic debate on each tale:
The stories are:
The Legend of Nornagest - from the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, a mysterious stranger arrives at Olaf's court just before Xmas; Olaf was a Xtian, his guest on the other hand… stories within a story.
The Waking of Angantyr - from Hervor's Saga
The Never-Ending Battle. - this is still ongoing of course, on the Isle of Hoy in Orkney.
The Lay of Wayland the Smith.
Edric the Wild - the English resistance fighter against William the Conqueror; his wars, his marriage to an elf-woman and his post mortem fate.
The Fight at Finnsburgh - this episode is referred to in 'Beowulf'.
Helgi and Sigrun - a conflation of the three Helgi lays in the Poetic Edda.
The Song of the Mill - Grottasongr in the Poetic Edda.
Nechtansmere A.D. 685 - Ecgfrith of Northumbria's disastrous expedition against the Picts.
Þiðranda þáttr ok Þórhalls. a ghostly tale of Iceland's conversion.

A shield-maiden conjuring her dead father from his burial mound, a widow embracing her revenant husband’s cold form, a deliberately mutilated and lamed smith presenting to his tormentor silver-chased drinking vessels made from the skulls of his tormentor’s young sons, two spectral armies doomed ...

16/03/2025

My fourth stone.

09/01/2025

Not long until the full moon now, which for those of us who believe that the Swedish archaeo-astronomer Andreas Nordberg was correct in his theory that the Norse people followed a solilunar calendar, this moon will be the full moon of the first new moon after the winter solstice and therefore the festival of Jól (Yule). If you incline to that view - I wish you all a Merry Jól!

Recently, I have been researching þórliefs þáttr jarlaskáld to work up as a story for oral recitation, and came across the following word: aðfangskveldjöla. 'kveld'means 'evening', 'jöla'is the genitive of 'jól' and the rest seems related to the modern Icelandic verb 'at fanga' - 'to provide' (victuals). I think this would be when the local goði would be required to provide a feast at Yule.

06/12/2024

New story (for me) in the pipeline; 'Thorleifs thattr jarlaskald' - 'The Short Story of Thorleif the Earl's Poet'. Found in the Greatest Saga of Olaf Tryggvasson, this short story tells of the revenge of the poet who declaims an insult poem to his enemy Jarl Hakon. The poem has magical and dramatic effects.

To gain access to the Earl's presence he has to go in disguise as a beggar, wearing a goat's beard. He visits Hakon on 'aðfangskveld jóla'; 'að fanga' is a verb meaning 'to provide', so this means probably something like 'the evening of Yule when food is provided'. Any Heathen Norwegian chieftain, or 'góði', a function both secular and religious, would have had to provide a feast for all comers. So everyone who turns up is feasted. Thus Thorleif gains access along with all the other beggars who understandably wish to take advantage of the Earl's hospitality. Hakon's subsequent humiliation is thus very public, local rich and poor are present.

I have not come across the phrase 'aðfangskveld jóla' anywhere else before.

06/11/2024

My first stone; Old Norse in Younger Futhark. Caithness slate. The first sixteen runes from the black serpent's head are the Younger Futhark. This stone commemorates the Icelander Egill Skallagrimsson.