Feeding The Wyrd

January's Newsletter

At the end of last year I began a mentorship with Andreas Kornevall in order to learn the Uthark rune-row, seiðr magic and how this applies to and appears in Scandinavian, Germanic and, well, most stories with teutonic roots.

Photo by Kate Russell on Unsplash

The Uthark rune-row is essentially the hero’s journey consisting of the serpent’s descent and the eagle’s ascent. You can find out more about this in Andreas’ book ‘Waking The Dragons.’ which is well worth a read, but for now we are going to take a trip to the world tree of Yggdrasil.

At the bottom of the tree, Yggdrasil’s roots sit in a well of memory and a goddess named Urd collects the water as it arrives with her and returns it to the well. This water comes from the fog, dew, rain, rivers and seas of the nine worlds and it is vital to the survival of the world tree. In order to feed the well of memory, the old ways and the old words must be remembered and spoken into the earth and these include the runes. That’s not to say we can’t have new ways, just that we should not forget what came before as it has a part to play in what will come.

By speaking these runes into the world, holding close what they represent as symbols and the intentions that are behind them we can hope to feed the good memories of the world. If they are forgotten then things start to go wrong and grow out of balance.

This all got me thinking that this doesn’t have to be runes or stories necessarily, it can be the names of our ancestors if we forget to remember them, the words we once had to describe things like cu-wearm, which describes milk fresh from the cow, and the words of animals and plants that we have lost touch with.

By doing this we are not only feeding the well of memory but also the collective conscious known in the Norse Mythology as the Wyrd; an intricate mesh of fibres sometimes thought to be woven by the Norns.

It could be said that by telling the old stories, facilitating schools projects and supporting the work of people who are working to preserve the memories of the old ways, such as The Lost Words project, that I am already feeding the Wyrd and tending the well of memory, but this year it is my intention to feed the Wyrd in a more purposeful and deliberate way.

You will start to see some of my live performances incorporating some of the rune-rows, my work with Herigeas Hundas will develop this further and I will endeavour to search for even older stories that have no author but are instead from and of the land.

Photo by Lena Borge on Unsplash

January is a quieter month for me and one where I can put in the groundwork for a busy February of stories, to wake the earth from its slumber. I have also been invited back to Brighton Metropolitan University to deliver a day workshop for their ‘Reviving Folktales’ project as well as battling on with my current manuscript . I have hit 30,000 words and I am almost through the medieval era. I have around 6 months until my deadline so fingers crossed I’m on track.

All being well, I hope to have the third episode of Season 5 of ‘Stories From Lore’ ready for you. For this episode I’m looking at creatures ‘Of Earth And Stone’ . For paid subscribers, ‘The Story Forecast’ continues.

In the meantime, I hope January brings you new growth, good intentions and a little bit of the Wyrd.

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Plant Of The Month

Birch

Birch is one of my absolute favourite trees. It isn’t really any wonder with its ethereal beauty, community mind and many uses through time.

The rune that connects to this tree is the rune barjarken, representative of new growth and the mother. In the Irish Ogham calendar it is called Beith and represents the month of January. Which is also my birth month!

It is sometimes known as The White Lady Of The Wood, which refers to the paper thin white bark on the silver birch. Taliesin, the first bard, is also occasionally associated with the Birch tree.

Its bark has also given rise to its names of paper beech in Wiltshire and ribbon tree in Lincolshire. Birch sap wine was once a regular home brew and is described as a sparkling wine boiled with honey and fermented.

In folk lore and medicine, birch tree branches are hung above the door for protection and during the month of May red and white ribbons are tied to sturdy windfall branches which are again placed by the door for protection.

Branches and twigs bundled together make excellent besom brooms and a bundle placed in the corner of a new baby’s room is a perfect blessing for a new life.

In love magic, in the Welsh tradition, spoons known as love spoons are made from birch tree and exchange by those courting.

January’s Listen :

‘Will I Vike’ it is a podcast by my good friend Craig aka The Saxon Forager. I have never known anyone work so hard to create so much fabulous content in the form of free podcasts, as Craig does.

He’s currently working on Wyrd Wessex with Andy Stevens, but before that he produced ‘Will I Vike It’, a podcast exploring the weird and wonderful diet of the Vikings and Saxons. I appeared on the Christmas 2023 edition telling Cat on The Dovrefjell and discussing the worst foods I’ve ever eaten.

There are over 60 episodes to browse, so why not while away the dark evenings with tales of feasting and strange food, safe in the memory you had a good feed in December.

Upcoming Events For January/February:

Photo by Rad Pozniakov on Unsplash

• 9th January - Workshop for Brighton Metropolitan University.

• First week in February - Second video released to schools for the Pupil Poet Laureate program. More information here.

• 13th February - Celebration event at Wildground Infant School

• 15th February - Dark Skies Festival for South Downs National Park Authority, Seven Sisters Country Park, more information here.

• 17th February - Half term Storytelling - Weald & Downland Living Museum - book here

• 20th February - Dark Skies Festival for South Downs National Park Authority, Queen Elizabeth Country Park, more information here.

• 21st February - Half term Storytelling - Weald & Downland Living Museum - book here

For more information and to book me for your event, visit my events page using the button below.

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Photo by Clark Young on Unsplash

Thank you for supporting this newsletter through 2024. Supporting my work in this way allows me to continue to find new stories and research the old ways, and I thank you from the bottom of my storytelling heart.

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Looking back at this time last year -

January’s Reads:

Above is a list of the books I am hoping to read over the next month. I will be collating the books I read into one multiple book review post called ‘The Storyteller’s Library’ and will post it towards the end of December.

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