Ceallaigh's Blog
Folklore & Fiction
The February 2020 Folklore & Fiction dispatch has been recorded as a podcast, and you can both read it and listen to it here. In this edition, I'm writing about superstition with help from scholars Ülo Valk, Torunn Selberg, Alan Dundes, and others, discussing superstition in the context of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series of books, and providing you with an exercise on the topic.
Delighted to be a speaker for The Folklore Podcast Lectures alongside an excellent lineup of fellow folklore researchers. All proceeds support the work of The Folklore Library and Archive and the podcast. You'll find more about the series at the link below.
Greetings, Friends!
I had meant to post a year-end writing recap on New Years' Eve, but I had friends over to play D&D for two days straight, and I'm the glass cannon of the party (sorcerers FTW!). Clearly, casting Tasha's Caustic Brew on invisible giant spiders was far more important than writing about writing. Anyway, here I am, and here's the recap.
But I can't really call this a "writing" recap, can I? My first publication of the year was Shatter and Rise, an EP of three songs I released into the world on May Day. Of all the work I brought to the table this year, I'm most proud of these three songs. They were a long, long, long time in coming. Welcome to the world, little musics. If you're Canadian, I hope you'll consider "Shatter and Rise" and "Cruel Johnny" for the 2023 Aurora Award in the Best Poem/Song category.
Buy Shatter and Rise on Bandcamp | Stream Shatter and Rise
One of my favourite Gáidhlig folksongs was written in Nova Scotia and tells the tale of a rough sea crossing at Christmastime. Julie Fowlis' version is slightly different from the one below, which I've heard and sung along with at milling frolics in the province, but it's beautiful nonetheless. Here are the lyrics to the version I know, and I've linked to Julie Fowlis' version of the song below.
Here are the folklore-related memes I published to social media in January 2020.
Here are the folklore-related memes I published to social media in December 2019.
Here are the folklore-related memes I published to social media in November 2019.
Here are the folklore-related memes I published to social media in October 2019.
Here are the folklore-related memes I've published to social media so far in 2019. Going forward, I'll be archiving these here and elsewhere on a monthly basis.
ani-mism noun 1 the attribution of a living soul to plants, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena (Barber 2005, 51).