Event Category: Folklore

The Great Satanic Swindle – Justin Hopper – Zoom

The Great Satanic Swindle

In the 1980s, as the Satanic Panic took hold around the UK, a mysterious stranger arrived in a small Sussex village and told a tale of witchcraft, trapped souls and a life-and-death struggle with Satan himself. A group of church-goers, millionaires and aristocrats stepped in to save him, and things got very weird.

Derry Mainwaring Knight was an occultist and convicted con man; the Reverend John Baker was his mark. The village of Newick – a nexus of belief near which evangelical Christianity, new religious movements and the Sussex legend landscape meet – was their stage. The Great Satanic Swindle is the story of the bizarre friendship between these two and how it played out in what the tabloids called ‘the trial of the century’, involving peers of the realm and prostitutes; an Archbishop and a High Sheriff; the ‘Chief of all Satanists’ and some of the biggest businessmen in the land.

In this trial, and in this story, the question at hand came down to only one thing: What does it mean to believe? Using original archival research, unearthed audio recordings and Derry Mainwaring Knight’s own writings, the Great Satanic Swindle looks at a definitive story of a nation gripped by madness – religious mania, class conflict, fear and loathing in the ’80s countryside so odd it would make a Midsomer writer blush.

Bio:
Justin Hopper is a British-American writer whose work is concerned with the intersection of landscape, memory and myth. This includes books (The Old Weird Albion, Obsolete Spells), spoken-word recordings (Chanctonbury Rings, the Path; Ghost Box Records) and performances from the Brighton Festival to the National Gallery and many more.

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Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm? – Cathi Unsworth – Zoom

WHO PUT BELLA IN THE WYCH ELM?
These words, graffitied around the Hagley Hall estate near Stourbridge, West Midlands, have haunted the local population since a bunch of schoolboys pulled the skull of a woman out of a tree in its grounds in April 1943. Was she a local good time girl gone bad? A witch? A Nazi spy? No one has ever solved the mystery of her identity nor why the anonymous author of an 80-year graffiti trail won’t let her rest. Author CATHI UNSWORTH presents the strange true case that informed her 2018 book, That Old Black Magic.

Cathi Unsworth is a novelist, writer and editor who lives and works in London. Her most recent book is Season of the Witch: The Book of Goth (2023) She began her career on the legendary music weekly Sounds at the age of 19 and has worked as a writer and editor for many other music, film and arts magazines since, including The Guardian, Financial Times, Fortean Times, Bizarre, Melody Maker, Mojo, Uncut, Volume and Deadline.

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Monster World – Peter Bebergal – Zoom

Monster Worlds
In the 1970s, the sometimes-garish world of monster-movie pop culture was a comfort, an external expression of grotesquery and strangeness that the culture was feeling inside but had no name for. Rather than making us more afraid, monsters mythologized our own abstract worries about sexuality, nuclear war, race and the other, as well as personifying our collective sense of being untethered from mystery and enchantment. The talk will track the changing face of monsters as mythic and literary creatures as our culture’s own lingering unease began to morph, moving from the shadowed myths of the past into the daytime horrors of serial killers and gore and argue that we need monsters again to learn how to reimagine what frightens us in a way that remythologizes our anxieties and will offer a path for a re-enchanting our imaginations using monsters as a guide, looking at current examples in film, television, and comics.

Bio:
Peter Bebergal writes widely on the speculative and slightly fringe. His essays and reviews have appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, The New Yorker, The Times Literary Supplement, Boing Boing, The Believer, and The Quietus. He is the author of Strange Frequencies: The Extraordinary Story of the Technological Quest for the Supernatural and Season of the Witch: How the Occult Saved Rock and Roll, among others. Bebergal studied religion and culture at Harvard Divinity School. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Dirty Ding: Keeper of The Forbidden Library – Christopher Josiffe – Zoom

Dr Eric Dingwall was a friend, associate, rival and occasional enemy of the more publicity-hungry Harry Price. Appointed Research Officer for the Society for Psychical Research in the 1920s, his ultra-sceptical stance frustrated and occasionally infuriated his SPR colleagues, but private communications tell a different story. More than one physical medium had impressed and mystified him with their displays of apparently fraud-proof and inexplicable phenomena in the séance room.

An intelligence officer during WW2, he was later appointed Honorary Assistant Curator of the British Museum’s Private Case, a sub rosa collection of pornographic and blasphemous literature. Dingwall was an acknowledged expert in this area, especially the former, and became an unofficial police consultant, assisting their investigation of crimes with unusual sexual or occult overtones.

This talk by librarian and author Christopher Josiffe (Gef! The Strange Tale of an Extra-Special Talking Mongoose) will shed light on a most secretive and intriguing character.

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Pet Cemeteries: How We Came to Bury Our Non-human Friends – Paul Koudounaris – Zoom

 

Pet Cemeteries: How We Came to Bury Our Best Nonhuman Friends

When a little dog named Cherry died in 1881, his owners arranged for a grave in a nearby gatekeeper’s garden in London. At this time, the idea that a pet, even one that had lived as a family member, might be given a dignified burial was considered comical. But when other pet owners followed suit, the world’s first urban pet cemetery was born. More soon followed, and the idea eventually spread throughout the world. The talk will detail the history—always touching, oft times comical, and sometimes weird—of the people who fought to give birth to the ideal that an animal that has been loved as a family deserves the same care and dignity in death.

Paul Koudounaris has a PhD in Art History from UCLA. He is the author of three books on the visual culture of death, Empire of Death, Heavenly Bodies, and Memento Mori, as well as a history of domestic felines, A Cat’s Tale, co-written by his cat Baba, and named a Barnes and Noble Book of the Year in 2020. Faithful Unto Death, his book on pet cemeteries and animal burials, the world’s first definitive history of the subject, was published in October, 2024.

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Old Norse Seiðr Practice – Lena Heide-Brennand – Zoom

Old Norse Seiðr Practice

This is going to be a mesmerizing journey into the mystical world of Norse mythology with our captivating talk on the Seiðr- tradition.Seiðr was an ancient form of Norse magic and shamanistic practice that was prominent in the pre-Christian Scandinavian and Germanic cultures. Associated primarily with the goddess Freyja and later with the god Odin, seiðr involved a variety of magical techniques, including divination, manipulation of fate, and communication with spirits.

Practitioners of seiðr, often referred to as seiðkones (female practitioners) or seiðmenn (male practitioners), were believed to have possessed the ability to enter altered states of consciousness, allowing them to access hidden knowledge and influence events. This practice could include trance states, chanting, and rituals to invoke deities or spirits. Seiðr was often viewed with a mixture of reverence and suspicion, as its practitioners were sometimes marginalized due to the association with femininity and the unknown.

Historical accounts indicate that seiðr was utilized for various purposes, such as healing, predicting the future, and even casting spells to affect the lives of your enemies.

This online talk will delve into the enigmatic practice of seiðr. With stunning illustrations and a lecture that weaves together history, mythology, and magic, Lena invites you to explore the profound connection between the natural world and the mystical forces that shaped the lives of our ancestors.

Prepare to be spellbound as we dive into a talk on empowerment and the timeless quest for understanding in a world where magic was both a gift and a curse.

Bio:

Lena Schattenherz Heide-Brennand is a Norwegian lecturer with a master degree in language, culture and literature from the University of Oslo and Linnaeus University. She has been lecturing and teaching various subjects since 1998. Her field of interest and main focus has always been topics that others have considered strange, eccentric and eerie, and she has specialised in a variety of dark subjects linked to folklore, mythology and Victorian traditions and medicine. Her students often point out her thorough knowledge about the subjects she is teaching, in addition to her charismatic appearance. She refers to herself as a performance lecturer and always gives her audience an outstanding experience

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Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages – Lena Heide-Brennand – Zoom

Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages

Jump onboard the broom stick and join Lena on the journey into the past in yet another part of the online lecture series, Scandinavian Witchcraft. This time we will focus on Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages. Delve into the rich tapestry of Nordic history as we explore the mystical practices, beliefs, and cultural significance of witchcraft in this tumultuous period of the dark ages. This captivating session will not only illuminate the enchanting spells and rituals of the time but also shed light on the brutal and heartbreaking realities faced by those accused of witchcraft.

The lecture will confront the harrowing tales of torture and execution that many so-called witches endured, often subjected to inhumane practices fueled by fear and superstition.

We will journey through the dark histories of places like Vardø, Norway, known for its infamous witch trials, and the chilling events in Tønsberg, where countless lives were tragically lost. Gain insight into how these brutal episodes shaped societal views and the legacy of witchcraft in Scandinavian culture.

Don’t miss this opportunity to awaken your curiosity, expand your knowledge of a spellbinding yet sorrowful era that tragically claimed the lives of thousands of innocent victims

 

Bio:

Lena Schattenherz Heide-Brennand is a Norwegian lecturer with a master degree in language, culture and literature from the University of Oslo and Linnaeus University. She has been lecturing and teaching various subjects since 1998. Her field of interest and main focus has always been topics that others have considered strange, eccentric and eerie, and she has specialised in a variety of dark subjects linked to folklore, mythology and Victorian traditions and medicine. Her students often point out her thorough knowledge about the subjects she is teaching, in addition to her charismatic appearance. She refers to herself as a performance lecturer and always gives her audience an outstanding experience

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

Castle Arianrhod – Cath Little – Zoom

Castle Arianrhod

Castle Arianrhod is a re-imagining of an ancient Celtic myth, a retelling of one of the stories from the Mabinogion. It tells the story of the harm that comes into the world when sister and brother fight. It is a story full of magic and enchantment. Cath Little brings the strange mythic images to life with her words and her music.

Where is Castle Arianrhod? It is under the waters of Caernarfon Bay. It is in the spinning circle of the stars above. And it is in this gift of a story.

“Magical indeed. I loved every minute of it. A beautiful and measured performance with so many textured layers. Cath is a joy to listen to.”

“Enchanting. I didn’t want it to end.” Festival at the Edge

Bio:

Cardiff Storyteller and Singer Cath Little has “rough magic” in her voice, and in her words “the gift of the story comes through.” She has a strong belief in the power of traditional stories to connect us to one another, to the land, and to the people who once lived here. Cath is passionate about sharing the ancient British wonder tales of The Mabinogion.

Cath helps run the Cardiff Storytelling Circle and curate their seasonal concerts, Tales for the Turning Year. She tells and listens to stories at Oasis, a Cardiff Charity which offers a warm Welsh welcome to refugees and asylum seekers.

Cath keeps busy sharing stories in schools, libraries, museums, castles, cafes and fields. She has performed at clubs and festivals across Britain and Ireland.

www.cathlittle.co.uk

Curated & Hosted by:

Lena Schattenherz Heide-Brennand is a Norwegian lecturer with a master degree in language, culture and literature from the University of Oslo and Linnaeus University. She has been lecturing and teaching various subjects since 1998. Her field of interest and main focus has always been topics that others have considered strange, eccentric and eerie, and she has specialised in a variety of dark subjects linked to folklore, mythology and Victorian traditions and medicine. Her students often point out her thorough knowledge about the subjects she is teaching, in addition to her charismatic appearance. She refers to herself as a performance lecturer and always gives her audience an outstanding experience

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

Mythical Creatures in Slavic Folklore part 2 – Lena Heide-Brennand

Mythical Creatures in Slavic Folklore part 2

Exploring once again the Enchanted World of Slavic Mythical Creatures. Prepare to be enthralled once again as we delve deeper into the enchanted world of Slavic mythology in this highly anticipated follow-up lecture. Discover the enigmatic creatures that roam the folklore of Eastern Europe, from the elusive Domovoi to the mesmerizing Rusalka and the mighty Zmey. Building on our previous exploration, we’ll unveil new layers of symbolism, cultural significance, and the timeless allure of these mystical beings. Join us for an evening of captivating stories, stunning visuals, and profound insights that will transport you to the heart of Slavic legend. Don’t miss this opportunity to continue your journey into the realm of the spine chilling slavic myths.

Bio:

Lena Schattenherz Heide-Brennand is a Norwegian lecturer with a master degree in language, culture and literature from the University of Oslo and Linnaeus University. She has been lecturing and teaching various subjects since 1998. Her field of interest and main focus has always been topics that others have considered strange, eccentric and eerie, and she has specialised in a variety of dark subjects linked to folklore, mythology and Victorian traditions and medicine. Her students often point out her thorough knowledge about the subjects she is teaching, in addition to her charismatic appearance. She refers to herself as a performance lecturer and always gives her audience an outstanding experience

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

Scandinavian Witchcraft and Sàmi Druidry – Lena Heide-Brennand

Scandinavian Witchcraft and Sàmi Druidry

Are you ready for a spellbinding exploration into the mystical world of Sàmi shamanic druidry and the ancient spiritual practices of the noaidis, the revered shamans of the far arctic north? Discover the deep-rooted shamanism that shaped the indigenous Sàmi people’s connection to nature, their powerful rituals, and the sacred magic they used to heal, protect, and communicate with the spirit world. This captivating talk will also delve into the dark history of persecution, when these mystics were brutally tortured and executed for their beliefs during Europe’s infamous witch hunts, and how their traditions were nearly erased by colonial and religious oppression.

Prepare to be enchanted by tales of spiritual resilience, ancient rituals, and the mystical legacy that still lingers today in the Arctic.

Bio:

Lena Schattenherz Heide-Brennand is a Norwegian lecturer with a master degree in language, culture and literature from the University of Oslo and Linnaeus University. She has been lecturing and teaching various subjects since 1998. Her field of interest and main focus has always been topics that others have considered strange, eccentric and eerie, and she has specialised in a variety of dark subjects linked to folklore, mythology and Victorian traditions and medicine. Her students often point out her thorough knowledge about the subjects she is teaching, in addition to her charismatic appearance. She refers to herself as a performance lecturer and always gives her audience an outstanding experience

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day