July 18th, 2017
Episode 14 – Happy (in moderation)
Things we talk about in this episode:
Opening Music:
'Ancient Whispers I' by P C III, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/P_C_III/Ad_Astra_Vol_1/03_Ancient_Whispers_I]
Closing Music:
'Round II - The Ancients' by Learning Music, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Learning_Music/An_End_Like_This/32_Round_II_-_The_Ancients]
Background fire ambience by inchadney from freesound.org
Suzanne says hello
“George...don’t do that” - the indomitable Joyce Grenfel - Nursery School Sketches - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBFA_AJvrp4
Fourteen doesn’t work
Kate is totally clear
The discussion starts with Joy (the rune Wunjo/Wynn)
What do Anakin Skywalker, Harry Potter, Marcus Aurelius, and Minions have in common?
Kate tries to work it out…
Kate thinks on the mystery of bananas
Happiness as a heathen
“To shush the noisy...” Conan the Librarian - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_the_Librarian
The Rune Poems
Having just enough
The Minions enter stage left – the concept of living in the moment (from Despicable Me (2010) Despicable Me 2 (2013) and Minions (2015))
Kate is not sorry
Jedi – living in the present
Jedi minions…
Druids and Buddhists
Marcus Aurelius (https://dailystoic.com/marcus-aurelius/) and a legion of Roman minion Jedi…
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Happiness in balance – the balance of need and want
The difference between need and want is wish
The art of correct wishing
(Examples from fairy tales – See Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 750A ‘Foolish Wishes’ - http://www.mftd.org/index.php?action=atu . The Aarne-Thompson scale is a way of classifying folk tales by trope. Head here for some examples of this type: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0750a.html)
Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (film 2001, book 1997 (twenty years?!? when did that happen?))
Anakin Skywalker – Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith (2005)
The Jedi minions return
Dragon sickness and need – from JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit (novel 1937, film trilogy 2012, 2013, 2014)
Connections in popular culture – things in moderation
How to find us online
Happy take one Happy take two (with graceful apologies to Pharrell Williams...)
July 2nd, 2017
Episode 13 The Franks Casket
Things we talk about in this episode:
Opening Music:
'Ancient Whispers I' by P C III, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/P_C_III/Ad_Astra_Vol_1/03_Ancient_Whispers_I]
Closing Music:
'Round II - The Ancients' by Learning Music, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Learning_Music/An_End_Like_This/32_Round_II_-_The_Ancients]
Background fire ambience by inchadney from freesound.org
We have coffee
‘It’s 106 miles to Chicago and we’re wearing sunglasses’ - Blues Brothers (1980)
‘Thirteen! Thirteen!’ From the TV series Rome, Season 1, episode 11 ‘The Spoils’. (2005)
What exactly did happen to the 13th legion?
An introduction to the Franks Casket
That sock: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=155676&partId=1
Kate has the power
Tangent warning – The Scottish Play. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scottish_Play
Sir Augustus Franks is awesome
The Franks Casket aka The Auzon Casket
5 panels not six…
The replica right-hand panel
The carvings and inscriptions on the panels – Roman Christian, Jewish and Germanic legend images and inscriptions in four scripts.
The Far Side (by Gary Larson) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Far_Side
An explanation of shared cultural imagery and stories through Red Riding Hood – with a nod to Hoodwinked (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443536/ 2005)
The cat makes herself known
Which sack of Jerusalem exactly?
The Northumbrian connection
‘A box on legs’ Luggage from Discworld – Terry Pratchett http://discworld.wikia.com/wiki/The_Luggage
The front panel – the two images explained
The right-hand side – the Adoration of the Magi - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoration_of_the_Magi
The cat comes back
‘The magic of radio’ - “If I stand on your shoulders and then you stand on mine...” paraphrased from ‘The Histories of Pliny the Elder’ The Goon Show, series 7, episode 25, first broadcast in March 1957. http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/thegoonshow/
The front panel inscription – an Anglo-Saxon riddle
A sideways step into The Hobbit. Argh, chapter 5 isn’t ‘Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire’, it’s ‘Riddles in the Dark’ (by JRR Tolkien, 1937)
Kate solves the riddle
Too much complicated...
The left hand side – the story of Weyland. Why are there four and a half figures?
A quick retelling of the legend of Weyland the Smith https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayland_the_Smith
Dame Celia Molestrangler – the ‘Fiona and Charles’ sketches from Round the Horne (1965 - 1968)
Mooses, Meeces…
The mystery deepens
A replica in the British Museum shop http://www.britishmuseumshoponline.org/sculpture/the-franks-casket-sculpture-british-museum-exclusive/invt/cmcr49940
Photographs of it on the British Museum website http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=92560&partId=1
To know or not to know…
How to find us online
Kate gets left on her own with the mic
Kate tells a thing about Star Wars
Suzanne gives her best Wookiee impression
June 17th, 2017
Hail and welcome to the latest episode of Frithcast!
We know you have all been excitedly awating for the next episode, and here you go!
Things we talk about in this episode:
Opening Music:
'Ancient Whispers I' by P C III, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/P_C_III/Ad_Astra_Vol_1/03_Ancient_Whispers_I]
Closing Music:
'Round II - The Ancients' by Learning Music, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Learning_Music/An_End_Like_This/32_Round_II_-_The_Ancients]
Background fire ambience by inchadney from freesound.org
“Permission to boop!” - ‘sharp tooth paddle doggo’ meme
“Roaming the valleys...” Blackadder, series 3 ‘Amy and Amiability’
The Muppet Show Theme – from the Muppet Show 1976-1981
A trip round whales and Wales
Kate bangs her elbow
Landspirits and animism
Saga of Olaf Tryggvasson – the four major landspirits of Iceland are a dragon, an eagle, a bull and a giant. These are now on the national Icelandic coins and the Icelandic coat of arms. https://eng.forsaetisraduneyti.is/state-symbols/icelandic-coat-of-arms/history/
Ibn Fadlan sees the Rus leaving offerings out for landspirits, which dogs eat.
Egil’s Saga contains an account of a cursing pole being set up to scare landspirits away - Egil's Saga, Penguin Classics, 1976, ISBN 0-14-044321-5, p. 148
Spirits of place, and house.
Nice table
Genii Loci – the Roman spirits of place
Modern spirits – spirits of glass, concrete and electricity (Kate’s phone beeps: the spirit of electricity makes itself known...)
The dragon prow: One version of the Icelandic Book of Settlement says that the ancient law of Iceland forbade having a dragon-prow in place on one's ship in harbor or coming in to land "with gaping mouth or yawning snout," because the landvættir would be frightened away - (Ulfljót's Law)
Keflavik air base, and the Icelandic foreman’s dreams of landspirits. - KveldulfR Hagan Gundarsson, Elves, Wights, and Trolls, Studies Towards the Practice of Germanic Heathenry vol. 1, New York: iUniverse, 2007, ISBN 0-595-42165-2, p. 18.
A prayer/dedication to the landspirits
Offerings for the landspirits
How to find us online
Bonus material:
Why exactly is Kate waving?
‘Thirteen! Thirteen!’ From the TV series Rome, Season 1, episode 11 ‘The Spoils’.
What legion was the 13th?
The ninth legion in Damnatio
‘defeated in detail’ - a legion and an industrial shredder
“To the trees!” - Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves (1991)
The Ents get in the way – Ents from Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
Suzanne and Kate recount The Battle of Teuteberg...
“The line must be drawn here! This far and no further!” - Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
...and sing Desumiis Luge very badly… (Desumiis Luge, from the album Arcane Dominion I by Eluveite) caution: these lyrics are based on a Roman curse tablet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamali%C3%A8res_tablet
Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-asatru-community/id1170263300?mt=2
June 3rd, 2017
Episode 11
Things we talk about in this episode:
Opening Music:
'Ancient Whispers I' by P C III, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/P_C_III/Ad_Astra_Vol_1/03_Ancient_Whispers_I]
Closing Music:
'Round II - The Ancients' by Learning Music, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Learning_Music/An_End_Like_This/32_Round_II_-_The_Ancients]
Background fire ambience by inchadney from freesound.org
Welcome to episode 11! or is it 10a, or 12b…?
A wee wifey
This episode is rated UPG
What is UPG?
The spiritual driving test
Prayer is personal
What is prayer?
Prayer doesn’t have to be words
Prayer with the Gods is not a business transaction
Posture in prayer
Prayer can be formal or informal
The ritual of prayer
Prayer can be things other than words (again)
Choosing right action as prayer
What do you use prayer for?
Warning: results may vary...
When do I use prayer? Formal and informal revisited
Spontaneous prayers
Life and annual occasions that might warrant prayer
Who can prayer be addressed to?
Prayer to your ancestors and the landspirits
One of Suzanne’s favourite prayers for opening special occasions. Feel free to adapt for a group occasion as you like.
How to find us online
Prayer is hugely subjective, and what one person likes, another might not. It’s all good. If you are looking for a prayer of praise for a specific deity, then there’s lots of sites out there with prayers or poetry on that you can adapt to your liking.
Suzanne had found A Book of Pagan Prayer (Ceisiwr Serith, 2002) really useful. Whilst it’s not a wholly heathen book of prayer, there is plenty in there, including sections on how to write your own and what things you might want to consider.
May 16th, 2017
Hail and enjoy!
Episode 10
Things we talk about in this episode:
Opening Music:
'Ancient Whispers I' by P C III, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/P_C_III/Ad_Astra_Vol_1/03_Ancient_Whispers_I]
Closing Music:
'Round II - The Ancients' by Learning Music, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Learning_Music/An_End_Like_This/32_Round_II_-_The_Ancients]
Background fire ambience by inchadney from freesound.org
The Tea Break at the Wall of Asgard…
Paracetamjolnir…
We are your bona heathens… (Julian and Sandy: Round the Horne)
Faith should be joyful and life affirming
Humour is subjective
Faith through the lens of humour allows change and growth
Humour is based in a shared understanding of culture
‘At least we won’t die a straw death’ - Arrgh where is this from? I know it’s a saga, it’s a small matter of remembering which one...I’m sure I haven’t dreamt it…
Vikings are fatalistic.
Kate likes a happy ending
Vikings are utilitarian
In a hole in the ground...
The Viking graffiti at Maeshowe
A bit of a neolithic diversion:
Maeshowe and the Viking graffiti - http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/maeshowe/maeshrunes.htm
A laser scan of the tomb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DX-OBFdUTE
The Neolithic village of Skara Brae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skara_Brae
The Tomb of the Eagles http://www.tomboftheeagles.co.uk/index.html
The two most notable inscriptions: ‘X carved these runes up high’ and ‘Ingeborg is a very fair woman’
The Lincoln Comb Case: ‘Thorfast made a good comb’ http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=65237&partId=1
Only listen to this after the 9pm watershed...
A parallel with Ibn Rustah’s translator
‘And notice gentlemen, the faster I go...’ - The Far Side, Gary Larsen
Funnies and faith go together
How to find us online
May 2nd, 2017
Episode 9
Things we talk about in this episode:
Opening Music:
'Ancient Whispers I' by P C III, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/P_C_III/Ad_Astra_Vol_1/03_Ancient_Whispers_I]
Closing Music:
'Round II - The Ancients' by Learning Music, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Learning_Music/An_End_Like_This/32_Round_II_-_The_Ancients]
Background fire ambience by inchadney from freesound.org
This is Suzanne’s interpretation of one of the stories from early on in the Myth cycle, The Building of the Walls of Asgard. We hope you enjoy it.
How to find us online
April 16th, 2017
Hail!
Enjoy Frithcast Episode 8!
Episode 8 - Archaeology
Things we talk about in this episode:
Opening Music:
'Ancient Whispers I' by P C III, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/P_C_III/Ad_Astra_Vol_1/03_Ancient_Whispers_I]
Closing Music:
'Round II - The Ancients' by Learning Music, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Learning_Music/An_End_Like_This/32_Round_II_-_The_Ancients]
Background fire ambience by inchadney from freesound.org
Kate needs more coffee
Kate and Suzanne sing the theme tune
Archaeologists use the bestest superlatives
Things that archaeologists do
Victorian gentry and the bible sites – how archaeology starts
Ogres, parfait and trifle – things that come in layers
Site surveys without excavation
Digging is destructive
Where does it all go? Archives, museums and reports
UNIT – Dr Who
The Portable Antiquities Scheme – how it works - https://finds.org.uk/
Viking hoards - Arabic coins and hack silver
The Sigtuna Box and a viking anti-theft device https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigtuna_box
Anglesey – defences and arm rings https://museum.wales/articles/2007-04-02/When-the-Vikings-invaded-North-Wales/
The Great Army – sites at Repton, Torksey and Ingleby. Repton: http://www.reptonchurch.uk/Vikings.htm Torksey: https://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/viking-torksey-inside-the-great-armys-winter-camp.htm Ingleby: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/635/1/richardsjd1.pdf
Scar – a boat burial on Orkney - http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/scarboat/
Sutton Hoo and all the shinies - https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sutton-hoo http://www.britishmuseum.org/visiting/galleries/europe/room_41_europe_ad_300-1100.aspx
Pictish combs - http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/vikingorkney/takeover.htm
Viking York and Dublin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_York https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Scandinavian_Dublin
The Braaid and the Thing Place on the Isle of Man http://www.iomguide.com/braaid.php http://www.thingsites.com/thing-site-profiles/tynwald-hill-isle-of-man
Ridgeway, Dorset http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-26453621
How to find us online
April 11th, 2017
Hail and welcome to Heathen Moments! Join us as we continue our mini series on the Nine Noble Virtues with Jeff on Episode Two! hail!
Video Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JKVKJVezbc
April 2nd, 2017
Hail and welcome to this epsiode of Frithcast presented by TAC!
We hope you enjoy!
Episode 7 – Beowulf Commentary
Things we talk about in this episode:
Opening Music:
'Ancient Whispers I' by P C III, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/P_C_III/Ad_Astra_Vol_1/03_Ancient_Whispers_I]
Closing Music:
'Round II - The Ancients' by Learning Music, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Learning_Music/An_End_Like_This/32_Round_II_-_The_Ancients]
Background fire ambience by inchadney from freesound.org
Kate mentions every detail
What makes a good story?
When the Romans leave
Linguists and sat navs
A trip around the word Caesar
A word about translations
Layers of meaning
Seamus Heaney’s version and why Suzanne prefers it
Kate loves Christmas Pudding
Kate is Barred…
A little dragon aside
Moby Dick gets mistaken for Star Trek and Shakespeare
Kate watches too much Star Trek
The 13th Warrior (film, 1999)
The Eaters of the Dead (book, 1976)
Kate misplaces Siberia
Ibn Fadlan’s account
Suzanne attempts to pronounce his full name…
We’re never flushing Star Trek out the airlock...
The pro’s and con’s of Ibn Fadlan’s account
Palm tree Vikings and personal bias
‘Elephants’ – Eddie Izzard
The difficulties of language and translation – the slave girl and paradise
The differences between the original accounts and the book/film
Ibn Rustah’s account and his tricky translator
How to find us online
More Beowulf pls…
Beowulf a new translation by Seamus Heaney- available as a single or multi-lingual edition. Also available as an illustrated edition.
Available as an audiobook read by Seamus Heaney
Also available in two parts on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaB0trCztM0 (part 1)
You can listen it in the original Anglo Saxon, performed by Benjamin Bagby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzmmPRG4smU (opening)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqnuinjk088 (lines 553b – 607)
Or the entire live performance: https://vimeo.com/40671018 (with slightly shaky camerawork)
The 13th Warrior (1999)
The Eaters of the Dead – Michael Crichton (1976)
What the slave girl does at the funeral according to Ibn Fadlan:
“Friday afternoon they led the slave girl to a thing that they had made which resembled a door frame. She placed her feet on the palms of the men and they raised her up to overlook this frame. She spoke some words and they lowered her again. A second time they rasied her up and she did again what she had done; then they lowered her. They raised her a third time and she did as she had done the two times before. Then they brought her a hen; she cut off the head, which she threw away, and then they took the hen and put it in the ship. I asked the interpreter what she had done. He answered, "The first time they raised her she said, 'Behold, I see my father and mother.' The second time she said, 'I see all my dead relatives seated.' The third time she said, 'I see my master seated in Paradise and Paradise is beautiful and green; with him are men and boy servants. He calls me. Take me to him.' " Now they took her to the ship. She took off the two bracelets she was wearing and gave them both to the old woman called the Angel of Death, who was to kill her; then she took off the two finger rings which she was wearing and gave them to the two girls who had served her and were the daughters of the woman called the Angel of Death.”
For more info on the connection between the Muslim Arab world and the Rus: http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/199906/among.the.norse.tribes-the.remarkable.account.of.ibn.fadlan.htm
March 19th, 2017
Hail and Welcome! Join Suzanne and Kate on this next episode fo the very popular Firthcast!
Dont forget to catch us on Itunes as well! Just search for us!
Opening Music:
'Ancient Whispers I' by P C III, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/P_C_III/Ad_Astra_Vol_1/03_Ancient_Whispers_I]
Closing Music:
'Round II - The Ancients' by Learning Music, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence
[http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Learning_Music/An_End_Like_This/32_Round_II_-_The_Ancients]
Background fire ambience by inchadney from freesound.org
Quote from Seamus Heaney’s interpretation of Beowulf, opening lines
Leeeerooooy Jeeeeeenkiiiins… (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeroy_Jenkins)
I clank for coffee
Introduction to Beowulf
Kate’s Beowulf in under 5 minutes – in about 11 minutes…
Hrothogar, king of the Danes. He builds the feasting hall, Heorot.
Anglo Saxon disco balls.
Warrior on a stick.
Hrothgar is married to Wealthow, and they send out a cry for help.
Beowulf comes, and fights with Grendel.
Grendel’s mum takes nark
Unferth makes a late entrance
Suzanne has to go rethink some stuff…
Beowulf fights Grendel’s mother
Beowulf is king in Geatland
Always turn left at Alberquerque
A thief steals from the dragon
Dragon attack by Michael Bay
‘He’s got the same eyes’
A kingdom dragonectomy
“It’s dangerous to go alone, take this…” quote from the 1986 action-adventure Nintendo game The Legend of Zelda
‘I am issuing you this mortal blow...’
How to find us online
Quote from Seamus Heaney’s interpretation of Beowulf – Beowulf’s funeral.
