A little poem by Robert Bloomfield, read for Librivox by Colleen McMahon. Thanks to the Librivoxians. I was going to save it until Halloween, but I’m sure I can find other ghosts before then. The Fakenham Ghost A Ballad. The Lawns were dry in Euston Park; (Here Truth [1] inspires my Tale)The lonely footpath, still and…
Read MoreVenice – A Faerie for Aprils Fool’s Day
This is a short bonus episode, to wish you a happy April Fool’s Day. There’s a brief part of Edgcumb Staley’s work, which I’m using as the current main text for the Venetian material, which suits our purposes on this day. Here’s the quote: “It was in the days of Doge Vitale Michielo II. that…
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The King of Elfland’s Daughter 7
This section is made up of a series of small chapters, and they are light on folklore. In the original plan these were cut out, but that would make the rest of the story skip about oddly. so I’ve included four this time. Dunsany waxes metaphysical in the story, so there’s not much need for…
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Venice : Marriage to the Sea and Acrobatic Games
We’ve covered this ritual in City and Guild, but time for some extra material. I thought this ritual was a pagan survival, but no, it was begun by the Pope himself. Ah, Catholics, doing pagan-sounding things right up until you research. We’ve reached the dogado of Sebastian Ziani. He’s from the richest family in Venice,…
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Some poems for Samhain
Happy Samhain dear listener. You may be thinking “Timothy, you have gone mad. Samhain is Hallowe’en, and that is in October.” to which I answer “Ah, but I am in the Southern Hemisphere. Summer’s end is this weekend.” Also, I have too many Hallowe’en poems, and some extra space in my data plan for the…
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The Pentamerone 4
Strap in for a long one, listeners. We hit some juicy folklore in these three stories. If we can’t find a use for a dragon cruising the streets of a town in a car powdered by by four golden elephants, what are we even doing here? The unbowdlerised story is very similar to the one…
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Venice – The Arrival of the Order?
We need an idea of why the Order of Hermes has developed so oddly in Venice. It’s all very well to say it’s because a powerful Faerie being is there, creating a regio, but why go into his realm in the first place? Why did several separate sets of magi set up little chapter houses…
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Three characters from the poetry of Edna St Vincent Millay
Edna St Vincent Millay was an was an American poet prolific in the 1920s, but her characters studies are brilliant for roleplaying games. I’m not sure if I want them more for Ars Magica or Magonomia. The second one, the Singing-Woman, seems to cross the realm alignment table one time too many. So, the first…
Read More2020 Annual available
The transcripts for 2020 are available. The graphics are far simpler this year. It was a heck of a year, basically…
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The King of Elfland’s Daughter 6
In this episode the parallel plot lines diverge. One is filled with useful material, the other, not so much at this stage, but we’ve gone too far in for excerpts. Thanks again to Michele Fry and the Librvioxers for this audio. CHAPTER X: The Ebbing of Elfland Next morning Alveric came up the tower to…
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Games From Folktales 