@folklorewales.com
Welsh folklorist • Author • Honorary Research Fellow, Amgueddfa Cymru • Antiquarian book collector • Rheibio'n Gymraeg • The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts (2023) • Represented by jonathanclowes.co.uk folklorewales.com
For those of you, like me, who prefer to dog ear, scribble over and highlight their books (but draw an arbitrary line at defacing hardbacks), a newly edited paperback edition of ‘The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts’ is now available to pre-order!
www.uwp.co.uk/book/the-fol...
Ar raglen Aled Hughes ar BBC Radio Cymru bora ‘ma i drafod cewri Cymru.
Ewch draw i @bbcsounds.bsky.social i wrando (tua 1:12 i mewn i’r rhaglen).
*****
A pleasure to be back on Aled Hughes’s show this morning on BBC Radio Cymru, this time to discuss the folklore of Welsh giants. Fee-fi-fo-fum.
folklorewales.com has a shiny new look 👀
Find my books, book an event, or share your own ghosts and folklore with me.
Link in bio ☝️
Dim fersiwn Cymraeg - it’s part of an English language series.
My interview with @nation.cymru following the publication of the Collector’s Editions Welsh Folk & Fairy Tales.
We briefly discussed the art of storytelling in Wales, and the importance of sharing these tales with a wider audience.
#Welshfolklore
nation.cymru/culture/new-...
Not sure about the US release date, I’m afraid, but the ISBN-13 matches. Thank you!
Yes, it’s from the same series 🙌
It was an honour to be asked to write the introduction for this beautiful new hardback volume - with gilded edges, no less - of Welsh Folk & Fairy Tales by Flame Tree Publishing as part of their Collector’s Editions series.
Available in all good bookshops as of today 💫
Wishing a belated blwyddyn newydd dda from our favourite little snowed-in farmhouse in Sir Gâr ❄️
The book "The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts" on a gravestone, in front of a gnarly tree in sunny winter weather
According to British #folklore ghost activities are heightened at #wintersolstice & #Christmas 👻
This new book in our collection by @folklorewales.com & @folklorepod.bsky.social presents & categorises some #Welsh #ghoststories now available in English for the 1st time!
#WelshCulture #ghosts
Always a pleasure to join @owenstaton.bsky.social at the fire pit for another episode of Time Between Times.
We discuss The Welsh Fairy Book (1907) and my favourite legend.
An exciting first for TBT: this discussion is 🏴 BILINGUAL 🏴. Come for Owen’s Burton-esque tones, stay for the extra vowels.
It’s the ghostly part of the year… 16% of people in England today say that they have had an extraordinary experience of some kind, including witnessing the presence of a ghost. Fascinatingly, almost one in five of those people have not shared that experience with anyone, not even family or friends.
Apparently my dulcet tones could be heard across all Global radio stations throughout yesterday discussing various Nos Galan Gaeaf traditions.
Here’s a quick excerpt from @lbc.co.uk 🎃
For the love of Owd Scratch, someone give this woman her own series - I could honestly listen to @g0blinegg.bsky.social wax lyrical about the restless dead all day long 👻
A spooky Nos Galan Gaeaf to you all 🎃
While lacking ancient provenance, this winter’s eve was the eeriest of the ‘tair ysbrydnos’ (three spirit nights), where the veil between worlds was at its thinnest and the wind blowing over the feet of corpses bore sighs to the homes of those destined to die…
I hope fans of stiles know that they are notorious for attracting ghosts and malevolent spirits on Halloween, as such creatures are drawn to boundary lines. Many mentions in @folklorewales.com book on Welsh ghosts!
Roedd hi’n tu hwnt o braf cael siarad am rhywbeth twtsh yn wahanol efo Aled Hughes ar BBC Radio Cymru ddoe - llên y milod ac ofergoelion bwystfilaidd.
Here’s an interview for BBC Radio Cymru from yesterday, all about the folklore of birds and beasts in Wales (in 🏴).
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
It just so happens that two further pieces of Price memorabilia have also arrived:
Another copper token Price commissioned to mark the cremation of his son in 1884.
An exceedingly rare pamphlet from an exhibition of Price’s life in 1896. Among its many strange items was his preserved right foot 🔥
Can’t quite believe it’s done but it’s done.
Two years of translating and unpicking (and growing a human somewhere in the middle) the most bizarre yet brilliant manifesto by Dr William Price: Gwyllllis yn Nayd.
Spoilers: these aren’t the ravings of a lunatic as previous biographers have concluded.
Quick stop over in Cardiff to talk The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts with the lovely staff at the National Museum this week.
Lovely to chat spooks, as always, but the highlight was getting up close and personal with Catrin here behind the scenes in the painting conservation studio. Phenomenal.
Cowlyd was thoroughly checked over by a professional rehabber and given a clean bill of health before he was released.
Getting an expert on board meant we were able to release him earlier than perhaps I would have had the confidence to do had it been my decision alone - a much better outcome.
Bonding was something we were worried about for Cowlyd’s release. As I was the one who rescued him and fed him, he quickly became very comfortable around me, but we took great care to limit our interactions with him as much as possible. He’s a wild animal, not a novelty.
Unfortunately birds of prey sometimes die because water is syringed into their airways by well-meaning but inexperienced rehabbers. Much easier to soak their food in the sugared water instead, which we also did.
Grisly aside: this also keeps the levels of fluff down which makes feeding them easier.
As he was dehydrated when he arrived with us, and as owls don’t drink, I also fed him sugared water via a syringe for the first few days.
BUT this is where having an understanding of anatomy comes in - this is not advisable unless you know *exactly* what you’re doing and have a compliant owl.
Initially, sick wild owls almost always have to be force-fed. I used this website👇 to learn the technique. We avoided owl burrito by having my husband hold him instead, which Cowlyd much preferred…
… though he still hated @elidirj.bsky.social.
www.barnowltrust.org.uk/picking-up-a...
Owls need a varied diet, but day-old chicks (a by-product of the egg industry) are a good source. I panic-bought 250 as I had no idea how long Cowlyd would be with us. So now our outdoor freezer looks like a Boschian binfire. He was also fed any fresh mice (never rats) our neighbourhood cat caught.
Also increasing the number of perches as his strength increased so he could practice gripping / jumping from one branch to the next. He went from having a rigidly curled-up claw that I struggled to open at all to it being completely indistinguishable from his good limb within 3 weeks. We were lucky.
The improvised owl physio involved gently flexing and extending each talon in short bursts to avoid any distress. Three times daily. While carefully avoiding the working claw…
Felt ridiculous but it worked, and Cowlyd was thankfully a very compliant and gracious patient.
I’m also a medical doctor (a red-headed pathologist who researches ghosts - yes, I’m a walking cliché), so had some transferrable skills. We probably wouldn’t have risked it if I didn’t have this background knowledge (albeit not directly owl-based). As I’ve said, safe rehab is complex and hard work.
We don’t have any specialist wildlife vets near here. Our local vet is a small centre that does exemplary work caring for pets / livestock, but doesn’t have the resources to care for birds of prey. I’d assumed they would pass him on to a rescue centre, but the nearest owl charity is way out of area.
