Boggart & Banshee: A Supernatural Podcast
So a Brit and a Yank walk into a supernatural podcast… Nattering on fairies, folklore, ghosts and the impossible ensues. Cross your fingers, turn your pockets inside out and join Simon and Chris as they talk weird history, Fortean mysteries, and things that go bump in the night.
Scares on the first of every month.
Episode 7 (Season 3): How to Create a Ghost: the Philip Experiment, 1972-1977
Simon raps once for ‘yes’ and Chris raps twice for ‘no ‘over the results of the five-year ‘Philip Experiment’. Canadian parapsychology researchers invented a fictional character, the dashing but suicidal cavalier Philip. Then they began to receive communications from Philip through rappings and table tippings. Expect to learn how you can best create a ghost at home: glasses of wine, sing-songs and wishful thinking top the list. The correct pronunciation of Tibetan tulpa (sorry sprulpa). And all hail the bronies who create anthropomorphic multicoloured ponies at will.
Episode 6 (Season 3): Fairy Gifts and Fairy Heirlooms: Treasures from the Hidden People
The first rule of fairy gifts is you don’t talk about fairy gifts. Chris and Simon recklessly flout that rule in this look at artifacts stolen from or given by the fairies to human neighbours. Some are exotic, like The Luck of Edenhall and the Fairy Flag of Dunvegan. Others, like elf shot and tiny tobacco pipes, are common field finds. Chris waxes lyrical about fairy textiles, and the connection between Huldrefolk bridal crowns and the Virgin Mary. Simon shoe-horns in a discussion of tiny footwear said to be made by leprechauns, some of which, worringly, show signs of wear. And what about that ‘leprechaun suit’ from County Louth? And should you ever amputate a fairy foot? (Only if you have arthritis…).
Episode 5 (Season 3): The Birds: A Flight into the Avian Supernatural
Simon and Chris are all atwitter over stories of supernatural birds: spectral ravens, death-predicting rooks, ghostly-bloodied doves, glass-smashing partridges and, the horror, housebound robins. Chris causes a flutter with an intolerably creepy magpie rhyme; our thoughtful pair wonder at phantom birds often being heard and not seen; and why oh why do birds keep attacking Simon?
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Episode 4 (Season 3): Medieval X-Files: Experiencing the Impossible in the Middle Ages
Chris and Simon cross swords over a medieval X-files collection: necromancers, monsters emerging from graves, an encounter with a fairy-like Woman in White, the walking dead, and, best of all, a trustworthy demon named Oliver, all found in Caesarius of Heisterbach’s thirteenth-century Dialogue on Miracles. Although Caesarius’s purpose was to instruct Cistercian novices, these stories of medieval high strangeness can still delight the Fortean, the anomalist and anyone else interested in the supernatural. So step into the cloister, dear friend…
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Episode 3 (Season 3): The Dancing Fairies of Sennen Cove: An Encounter with the Impossible in Late Victorian Cornwall
In the 1880s, two sisters had an encounter with three gyrating, squeaking, white veiled supernatural women at Sennen Cove, Cornwall. Chris and Simon dance around the topics of Cornish otherworldliness, supernatural languages and circle jigs. Were the women goddesses, fairies, vestal virgins or amorous cats? Where do fairies ‘foot it all the night’? Why do so many supernatural encounters report high-pitched voices? And most importantly did the ladies of Sennen Cove mess with Simon’s mike, which played up in parts of this episode… The booklet with the text of the encounter is Pwca’s Magicians, Red Heads and Small People: The Legends and Folklore of Sennen and Sennen Cove.
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Simon’s raving on the Sennen fairies and Walter Evans Wentz.
Accompanying booklet: Magicians, Red Heads and Small People: The Legends and Folklore of Sennen and Sennen Cove (UK, US)
Episode 2 (Season 3): Shrouded in Mystery – The Origins of the Iconic Sheeted Ghost
Chris and Simon embark on a quest to uncover the origins of the archetypal ghost in a sheet, tracing its lineage back to the death shroud. With a dash of sartorial flair, they explore sheet chic, evolving trends of ghostly attire through the ages. They muse on shroud styles, the mystery of naked phantoms, potato thieves, headless Vikings, and that all-important ‘Tailored Terror’ accessory, rusty chains. But questions linger. Why have apparitions in white draperies become a rarity? Is there a link between zombies and shrouded spectres? And why was phosphorous so important for Victorian ghost enthusiasts?
Simon’s ravings on shrouds and zombies.
Episode 1 (Season 3): Haunting Horses: Equine Ghosts, Portents and Shape-Changers
Hold your horses for the latest episode of Boggart and Banshee. Simon and Chris gallop headlong into the world of horse spirits with headless ponies, phantom hoofbeats, and equine shape-changers, including the mischievous colt-pixie and the dread shag foal. But we’re not just horsing around with were-horses. There are also serious questions to add to the neigh-rative. Why are spectral horses so often heard, but not seen? Why are trickster spirits frequently spotted in equine form? And why, on earth, do horse spirits on both sides of the Atlantic insist on coming into houses and up the stairs?
Accompanying volume: Haunting Horses: Equine Ghosts, Portents and Shapechangers from Britain, Ireland and World Folklore: Forget the ghostly rider – it’s time for the horse to take center stage. This collection features mysterious equine spirits from around the world, but especially from Britain and Ireland. Here you’ll find tales of spectral steeds galloping without riders, as well as horse spirits and supernatural shape-shifting horses. Meet Ireland’s deadly Yalla Horse, the White Devil of California, and the elusive white horse of South Africa. Learn, too, about England’s mischievous brag and colt-pixy: horse shapechangers that belong as much to the realm of fairy as to that of phantoms. These stories – some fictional folktales, some reported facts, some glorious misunderstandings – cover a range of uncanny equine encounters. But the message is clear: if you hear ghostly hoofbeats in the night, don’t stand around waiting for the horse to appear. Your best bet is to run for dear life! UK, US.
Simon’s ravings on colt-pixies.
Episode 12 (Season 2): Up Up and Away! The Mysteries of Levitation and Teleportation
Chris and Simon set the bar high in this uplifting episode on the mysteries of levitation. Watch our intrepid pair as they soar through cases of saintly and fairy levitation. Simon floats, too, the unbearable lightness of mystic beings, while Chris brings suspect Spiritualist levitations by Daniel Dunglas Home and the Davenport family down to earth. Our daring duo ponder the story of Mrs Guppy’s three-mile flight across London in her pjs and wing it on that impossible question: can humans really become lighter than air?
Simon’s ravings on the chronology of levitation.
Episode 11 (Season 2): Do You Believe in Fairies? The Fairy Census 2023
Join hosts Simon and Chris as they delve into modern fairy encounters in a special episode dedicated to the Fairy Census. The Census (freely available online) now brings together almost 1000 records of bizarre, moving and sometimes terrifying contemporary run-ins with the fey. Our fairy-ridden duo offer a sneak peek at what new experiences and patterns to expect from the forthcoming second series of the Census. Then most importantly they ask for help. Can you send in your own meeting with the fair folk and help round off Fairy Census 2? As the episode is published some ten slots are still waiting to be filled!
For Fairy Census 1 (freely available) and various articles
For the survey
For part 1.1 and 1.2 in print: (1.3 is almost ready…) Volume 2 should be out in September.
Simon’s ravings on the End Game of the Fairy Census.
Episode 10 (Season 2): The Immortals Among Us: The Wandering Jew and Other Undying Ones
Embark, with Simon and Chris, on a journey to meet the immortals who hide among us. Marvel as the duo unravel the mysteries around elusive figures like the Wandering Jew: he who defies time while indulging in cliff jumps, beer and botany. Goggle as our friends encounter undying ones scattered across the globe: from the Count of Saint-Germain to prophetic hitchhikers. And brace yourself for life-changing questions. Can consuming mercury unlock the gates to immortality? Do angels have beards? And, most importantly, did Victorian Bath host a two-thousand-year-old beggar? All is revealed in this month’s episode of Boggart and Banshee.
This number is accompanied by a source book: Meeting an Immortal: Encounters with the Wandering Jew in British Folklore (UK) (US)
Simon on itinerants and immortality…
Episode 9 (Season 2): Bride and Doom: Sex, Death, and Wedding Superstitions
For the bridal month of June, Chris and Simon discuss wedding divination and love charms both racy and grim, as well as the links between weddings and death. Unlucky wedding omens and dress superstitions, brides stolen by the Good People, trousseaux shrouds, and a special guest appearance by the versatile St Joseph. Adult content? Perhaps too much…
Simon on the wedding ritual that ended badly…
Episode 8 (Season 2): The Fairy Corpses of Arthur’s Seat: the Case for Scottish Voodoo
Chris and Simon delve into the mystery of the miniature coffins and their doll-corpses, found on Arthur’s Seat in 1836. Who made them and why? Are they murder memorials, malign magic, or outsider art? The redoubtable pair look at funerary fashions, toy soldiers, and the Odd Fellows fraternal order and bicker about how best to curse your enemy.
Simon on the soldier background of the dolls
Best article on the subject
Episode 7 (Season 2): The Zombies and Shapeshifters of Medieval Yorkshire
Zombies and Draugar and Byland, oh my! Simon and Chris discuss a series of unique supernatural tales from Byland Abbey and fifteenth-century Yorkshire. There are revenants who talk through their entrails, very busy shapeshifters, and a revolving hay-cock with a light in the middle. Questions are raised about why the soul hangs around its rotting body, and what the purgatory do all these walking dead want. Chris herself turns very briefly into a zombie and both Chris and Simon mourn a dog.
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The accompanying booklet: The Ghosts of Medieval Yorkshire: The Zombies, Shape-Changers and Ghouls of Byland Abbey (UK, US)
Episode 6 (Season 2): The Last of the Witches
In this episode on late examples of American witchcraft, Chris and Simon discuss a bewitched village, a witch trial—in Salem, Ohio, ‘calico soup’ made with a witch’s dress, and some horrifying witch murders. Unusually, the two actually agree on some of the similarities between American Witch/Hex Doctors and Britain’s Cunning Men and Women.
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Episode 5 (Season 2): Who Invented Fairy Wings?
Chris and Simon are all aflap over the history of fairy wings—when did fairy wings first appear and how did they become a standard feature of western fairies? Sylphs, putti, and Victorian prostitutes flit by as the two bicker over how images of supernatural beings change when influenced by popular culture. Strap into your stage flying harnesses–it’s going to be a bumpy ride…
An article on fairy wings…
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Chris’s new discovery
Episode 4 (Season 2): Do You Feel Lucky?
Chris and Simon talk about the folklore and Forteana of charms and talismans and ways to either attract good luck or keep off the bad: bones and blood and corpse magic for gamblers, military charms of the Great War, cauls and German submarines and the condemnation of ‘mascotitis.’ Some adult content…
For an easy download
My ravings on luck.
The source book, baby!
Christmas Special: The Phantom Hog Train
A spooky story for our listeners from nineteenth-century Ohio. Happy Christmas and please subscribe!
For an easy download
Episode 3 (Season 2): Fairy Resurrectionism in Nineteenth-Century Ireland
Chris and Simon discuss fairy food, ‘hungry ghosts’, and a little-known case of Mary Doheny, a ‘fairy resurrectionist’ in 19th century Ireland, who claimed to be able to bring the dead back to life. Transcripts from the Doheny’s trial for fraud illuminate contemporary Irish beliefs about the dead and the world of the Good People. Witnesses swore that they saw their dead loved ones in the flesh, but how did Mary do it?
For an easy download
My ravings on the subject
The book accompanying the podcast – The Fairy Witch of Carrick-on-Suir: A Source Book for a Nineteenth-Century Resurrectionist – can be found here (UK, US).
Episode 2 (Season 2): Ghosts 101
Chris and Simon ponder the fundamental question: What is a ghost? Are they merely folktales? Blots of undigested mustard? Proof of life after death? Also news of a boggart and banshee Facebook page, a t-rex ghost and a naked Icelandic zombie doing housework.
For a download
My ravings on the subject
Episode 1 (Season 2): The Fewston Coven: Seventeenth-Century Witch Attacks
Simon and Chris celebrate the first year anniversary of the Boggart and Banshee podcast by examining a little-known case of a North Yorkshire family tormented by witches and their familiars. Trances were minutely documented in a journal kept by poet Edward Fairfax, father of two bewitched and one witch-murdered daughter.
For a download
Readalong booklet with all of the Fairfax witch diaries
My ravings on the subject.
Episode 12 (Season 1): Fairy Fashions and the Paranormal
Chris and Simon discuss fairy fashions and how they have changed through the ages, in literature, folklore, fairy sightings, and popular culture. The color green, archaic fashions, wings, and a tiny pair of shoes made of mouse skin all make an appearance on the catwalk.
For a download
For my ravings on the subject and the ‘three rules’
Episode 11 (Season 1): The Nail in the Skull and Other Victorian Urban Legends
To celebrate Simon’s just released book “The Nail in the Skull and Other Victorian Urban Legends“, Chris and Simon share some of their favorite gruesome and naughty urban legends from the nineteenth century. (Note that there is adult content in this number of B&B)
For a download click here.
From a tasting of some of those delightful urban legends from the forthcoming second volume.
Episode 10 (Season 1): Spook Lights and the Headless Motorcyclist of Elmore
Chris and Simon look at the folklore of spook lights and road ghosts while discussing the story of ‘The Headless Motorcyclist of Elmore,’ a rural legend that shifted from a very traditional tale of the spirit of a dead man appearing as a ball of light to the dramatic tale of a motorcyclist we know today. Does folklore have its own standards of truth?
For download click here.
Simon’s ravings on spook lights and John Clare.
Episode 9 (Season 1): The Bathing Fairies of Ilkley
One midsummer’s morning, c. 1820, William Butterfield opened the door to the Wells, a healing spring on the edge of Ilkley Moor. He was startled to find a band of little creatures dressed in green from head to foot, who were noisily disporting themselves in the water. As he watched, they scurried over the eight-foot-high wall, and disappeared. Is there any way to determine exactly what William Butterfield saw that morning? Were they insects, lizards, or, as William believed, fairies? Simon and Chris investigate.
For download click here.
Ilkley Fairies (Simon’s rantings)
The book mentioned on the White Wells is Hunnebell, Mark That Place on Ilkley Moor: The History of White Wells
Episode 8 (Season 1): Know Your Death Omens
Chris and Simon look at a supernatural category: the death omen, or token of death, as it is sometimes known in the 19th century. Almost anything could be a death omen; hundreds were recorded by folklorists. These could include phantom funerals, the banshee’s scream, mysterious knockings, seeing shrouds, and ghostly birds. Is there any explanation for such portents? And would you want to know if you were about to die?
For download click here.
How to explain death omens (Simon’s anti pre-cognitive ravings)
Chris’s mega source file
Episode 7 (Season 1): The Wesley Poltergeist
Simon and Chris discuss the “Wesley Poltergeist” that plagued the family of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism at Epworth Rectory in Lincolnshire for over a year with an unusual variety of mysterious knockings and noises that the family blamed on “Old Jeffrey.” A thing like a rabbit and a headless badger also put in appearances. Was this a teenage girl’s prank? Or, yet another example of poltergeist activity arising in an unhappy family?
For download click here.
Headless Badger and Witchy Rabbits
The old Wesley thread on Beachcombing. I stand by most of this!
Wesley Poltergeist sources (including the Wright book for those who can’t get it in the EU!)
Episode 6 (Season 1): Adventures in Boggart Hole Clough
In celebration of the publication of The Boggart: Folklore, History, Placenames and Dialect, Chris and Simon talk about the nature of these terrifying, solitary supernatural creatures, focusing on one of their last lairs in England: Boggart Hole Clough.
For download click here.
Written discussion of the magic spell episode (Simon)
The book on boggarts (still not out two weeks after release date, sigh!) (US)
An old article on Boggart Hole Clough (Simon)
Ceri Houlbrook on the Clough.
Episode 5 (Season 1): the Wollaton Gnomes: A Nottingham Fairy Mystery
Chris and Simon discuss a bizarre encounter from 1979 when children were chased by gnomes in cars at Wollaton Park, Nottinghamshire.
For download click here.
Source file: a specially-edited book with all the sources and ten essays from fairyists, Forteans and folklorists (UK, US)
Written discussion (Simon)
Episode 4 (Season 1): the Clothes Cutting Poltergeist of Wooster
For download click here.
Written discussion (Simon).
Christmas Special: Dorchester Ghost Story
An 1878 winter ghost story for our listeners set in early nineteenth-century Dorchester. Happy Christmas and please subscribe!
Episode 3 (Season 1): Ann Jefferies and the Fairies
In 1645 a young Cornish woman, Ann Jefferies (aka Anne Jeffries), is visited by six green-clad fairies. Within a year Ann has become a fairy healer and prophetess. Then Ann is arrested… Can the fairies save their favorite from the gallows?
For download click here.
Source file (about 20000 words of the original sources) on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com
Written discussion (Simon)
Episode 2 (Season 1): The Women in Black of Pennsylvania
For download click here.
Source file (about 3000 words of the original sources)
Written discussion (Chris)
Written discussion (Simon)
Episode 1 (Season 1): The Elf Dancers of Cae Caled
A rare account of mysterious “elf dancers” seen, 1757, by four Welsh children, who were, then, chased by a threatening, copper-colored “warlike Lilliputian”. Could the fairies have taken up Morris-dancing?
For download click here
Source file (about 2000 words of the original sources)
