PODCAST REVIEW Into The Mythic - Ancient Irish Stories for Modern Times
This fascinating podcast looks deeply into what traditional folklore can tell us and helps us interpret stories instead of just learning them.
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This week I could tell you all about the travails of importing a car into Ireland. How you need to co-ordinate between Revenue, Customs and the National Car Testing Service and list all the documentary evidence required - but to be honest I’ve royally messed it up and the story is dull! I could tell you what it’s like to live in a rural area when Storm Isha hits and knocks out the power for 18 hours which means not just no light but also no water - but who wants to hear about water pumps ? Instead I want to share something much more joyful and much more rooted in the region
Last week, before the storm, I was chatting with Pol O Colmain who is the co-owner of Ballydehob’s Working Artist Studio (WAS) art gallery. Pol and his wife Marie are both incredible creatives who curate wonderful shows at WAS and work hard to support local creative life and the lives of local creatives.
During our chat Pol told me about a podcast series he had recorded called Into The Mythic. He made the series together with award winning documentary maker Leeanne O’Donnell who has worked with Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE as well as a stint with BBC Radio 4. The podcast looks at how ancient Irish stories have much to tell us about how we live today and with a little unwrapping it is easy to see what they explain about the world and the human condition.
This was fortuitous because I had written the draft of a fairy story about a miniature viaduct, hawthorn bushes and a stream that feeds into the Bawnaknockane river near my house. This is not a natural theme for me so I was keen to listen to the real myths.
Into The Mythic looks at six different ancient Irish stories. The atmosphere for each story is set with original music composed by Pol and his son Dubhaltach O Colmain. Pol expertly recounts the stories and their meanings using a variety of translations and interpretations of each tale to find a consistent narrative line. Leeanne reflects and interrogates helping us all discover the creative and psychological underpinning of each story.
But this is no leprechaun-stuffed Finian’s Rainbow look at Irish culture. The presenters pull out the deep personal and emotional challenges that characters in each story face. They look at every story through a jeweller’s loupe turning them over, examining their different facets and observing how every tale reflects light back on how we live today. Into The Mythic achieves the double prize of intellectual rigour and a hugely entertaining listen with surprises running through every episode.
In the legend of Diarmuid and Grainne we learn of the similarities between Japanese and Irish warrior honour codes and how love triangles are a tale as old as time. However, as the presenters unwrap the story and speak of ancient kings, worthy maidens and healing magic we learn that this story talks of physical attraction and female sexuality. The lovers are escaping King Fionn who Grainne is promised to in marriage. Diarmuid is a warrior and younger than Fionn who is his boss. Basically Grainne fancies Diarmuid and challenges him ‘on his honour’ to take her away from having to marry the older man. As the story is explained in Into The Mythic, Grainne is keen for their relationship to get physical but Diarmuid is wary of both stealing the king’s wife and sleeping with her. As they cross a river, Grainne lifts up her skirt to reveal how a splash of water has landed at the top of her thighs. She tells her young warrior that the river has dared to touch her there which proves it must be braver than Diarmuid who, she says, has not yet had the courage to do the same! Seriously this is not the way myths were told when I was at school! As well as the sex there is forgiveness, revenge and tragedy for the characters to contend with before one of the most romantic endings you can imagine - but no more spoilers here! This story has relatives in other cultures, most notably the legend of Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere.
But the legend of King Sweeney or Buile Shuibhne in Irish is a tale that is unique, disturbing and revelatory. As Christianity is arriving a King tries to expel a Priest who is building a church and is rewarded with a curse. After a particularly violent battle the King is forced to wander Ireland either in the form of a bird or living like a bird. He is an ancient Rambo living off the land and his wits, always moving and unable to settle or fit in to human society. At one point in the story he is caged like a bird and at another he sits in a tree and looks through a window at his wife and her new lover.
Into The Mythic discusses how Sweeney’s madness was reported. The presenters leave us considering if today we would define the King’s condition as PTSD and also asks if the tale is an allegory about living closer to and more in harmony with nature. There is another reading of the tale that suggests it is a story told by the Christian victors of the battle between the old beliefs and the new organised religion because in the end the King has to accept Christianity. With such a strong belief system already in place it made me think about how those early Christians were able to convince so many people to take up a new belief system. But, of course, any belief system is founded on its stories and maybe the Christians had new tales to replace the old.
There is much to learn from this series and it explores depths that will inspire your thinking. Throughout, Pol and Leeanne reflect on how we hear stories as children but are taught to learn them rather than interpret them. Into The Mythic encourages us to look under the outer fabric of the stories we know and in a way it has much in common with Sondheim’s treatment of fairytales in Into The Woods. Both remind us that these stories were not told to just hold our attention through eight episodes, but they were created to help us make sense of human behaviour, nature and the world we inhabit. And surely by gaining a better understanding of our world we can start to make our world better.
Thank you for reading this post. To listen to Into The Mythic or find out more about the people mentioned just click on the links below. To support The JasonWard Creative Substack please consider taking out a subscription. Thank You / go raibh maith agat - Jason
Into the Mythic is produced by Wild Goose Studio and is available on all major podcast platforms.
Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-mythic-ancient-irish-stories-for-modern-times/id1674642296
Click here to find out more about Working Artist Studios
Click here to find out more about Wild Goose Studio