Celtic Myth Podshow
Interview with Gary and Ruth By Christopher Blackwell

Ellen Hopman alerted me to a nice review of her last book on the Celtic Myth Podshow. That was how I came to find out about this place for all the old Celtic myths. Knowing how popular all things Celtic are with many of our Pagan readers, I asked Gary and Ruth if I could interview them and find out more. They were kind enough to take a bit of time out of their busy schedule to answer the questions.

Christopher: What draws you to Celtic myths?

Ruth: I have always had a interest in folklore, spawned I suspect by fairy tales that were read to me as a child, but my true love is faerie folklore, and Europe abounds with tales of faeries and magical beings of all kinds. So when I discovered Celtic myth and the mythical faeriefolk, I was hooked.

Gary: My interest came from a childhood love of the works of Tolkien. I wanted to learn Runes. Secret writing for a kid – how magical! I wanted to learn all about the Elves and the Dwarves and Wizardry and, of course, the more I learned the more I realized that Tolkien drew a lot of his imagery from the Norse Myths. As I grew older, my parents taught me about my own Celtic ancestry and I discovered that the Celts had their own Elves, Dwarves and Wizards. So, I had found my way home.

Christopher: Why did you decide to create this podshow and what is its purpose? Did you have background experience?

Gary: Do you want to answer the 'why' and I'll answer the technical question?

Ruth: Sure. We have managed to get hold of quite a few books about Celtic mythology packed with lots of marvelous tales, but they are really quite hard to read and understand. What we couldn't find was a simple and complete account of all the tales. You'll find Irish Tales or Welsh tales or whatever, and occasionally books with tales from each of the Celtic Nations but nothing with all the tales from all the countries. So, we thought that the best way to learn all the tales was to read them ourselves. And if we were reading them to each other, why not share them with others who might also find it a useful way to learn the myths.

Gary: That's right, and a lot of our audience are saying that our shows are helping them to learn the myths. We've never done anything like this before and it was pure chance that enabled us to discover podcasts and podcasting on the Internet and it seemed like the perfect tool for the job. We read “Podcasting for Dummies” which was a superb starting place and gathered knowledge and equipment from there. I suppose it must have taken three to four months before we launched.

Christopher: When did you put it on the air and how long do you expect it to run?

Ruth: The first show we produced was in January 2008, and we release a new show every two weeks. We are now up to show number 21, plus the special shows we produce for the Celtic fire festivals, solstices and equinoxes. We have worked out that it will take us approximately five years to cover all the Celtic myths, and a couple more years to cover all the folklore as well.

Gary: Yes, we intended from the very beginning to build up a complete collection of Celtic myths. As much information as possible in one place and presented in as entertaining a manner as we could manage. The trouble is that the more we learn and research, the more tales we are finding! We could still be here at the turn of the next century!

Christopher: How has the response been to your show so far? What's been the audience's favorite shows?

Ruth: Amazing! It continually stuns us.

Gary: We were hoping that people would love the stories just as much as we do, but many are finding the shows a positive help in their own spiritual paths. We get some lovely emails.

Ruth: We do and, in fact, we made some wonderful friends through the show.

Christopher: What do you think the audience's favorite show has been?

Gary: Well, judging from the number of emails and downloads we've had it looks like Episode 9, Let Fly the Crows of Battle. This show tells the story of the Battle of the Tuatha De Danaan against the Fomori and culminates in the hero- battle between Lugh and Balor of the Evil Eye.

Ruth: That's true, and almost every holiday special is well received. These are the shows when we accept contributions from our audience, so that we read them modern stories and play some beautiful music.

Gary: Yes, and we always finish off with some outtakes of the mistakes we have made. It seems that listeners like these a lot.

Christopher: What have been your own favorite shows?

Gary: I think Episode 5, Girding the Loins for Battle, was fun and definitely one of my favourite shows. In it, the mighty Dagda has, shall we say, bowel problems so I had to spend some time finding the correct body noises. Ruth was watching me very curiously for a while as all she could hear from my headphones were toilet noises!

Ruth: I love all of the shows, but if I had to choose one it would be the Midsummer Special shows, featuring the beautiful poem “The Shadow House of Lugh” and the Wonderful Lady chant we recorded with some young friends of ours :)

Christopher: What other features do you have on your site besides the podshow?

Ruth: We have a forum in which fans of the show can get together and talk about all things Celtic – they're fun. We have a section on the forum for listener's stories, poems and artwork as well. We have a news/blog section in which we try to keep our listeners up to date with all the breaking news in the world of the Celts. Generally, there is at least one new post there every day. We also have a growing set of galleries from listeners and famous artists of Celtic or Fairy related art.

Gary: We also have a Resources section which includes some biographies of the main characters in the stories and some maps of the locations – although I am a bit behind in updating these. We've got lists of Celtic fiction with a non-fiction list coming soon. We also have got a section for our contributors so that listeners can find out more about them and have just started a section for Celtic-based charities.

Ruth: But I guess the most important section is the Shownotes. Each episode has a web-page associated with it that not only gives all the sources used in creating that story, but lists all of the hard-to-learn- and-say names and any other information that would go with an episode.

Christopher: You have quite a crew involved in creating it. Care to tell us a bit about them and what they do?

Ruth: These are our family and friends. We rope them in to do a bit of voice acting whenever we can. Our sons and daughter have all taken part as well as some of their friends. It has turned out to be a whole family affair. You can even hear the dog and cats in a few recordings.

Christopher: What are some of your plans for the future of Celtic Myths Podshow?

Gary: One of the things we are thinking about is to produce enhanced podcasts in the future, which would run in parallel to our main show and enable our listeners to see images while the show is playing. We've also considered maybe adding stories to YouTube.

Ruth: Another thing we would like to do, is to go out and interview people such as authors and musicians who are inspired by Celtic mythology. We are interested in how the Celts affect our modern world as well as the ancient tales.

Christopher: The Internet has spawned a lot of alternate media. How do you hope alternate media might develop?

Gary: One of the most amazing things about New Media is that is has brought the ability to publish to everyday folks. Everyone can have a voice that can be heard now. Even in the last year, in the podcasting field, there have been so many new podcasts covering every niche interest, that we cannot fail to find new information about the things we love all the time. We love the Celtic Tales – the Gods, the Heroes, the Druids and the Faeries - and we are so proud and privileged to be able to make our show. We are even more over-joyed every time we see a new podcast on these subjects. There are so many Pagan, Wiccan, a few Druid and Fairy podcasts that no one in the world who has Internet access has to miss this fast-growing community; it is available to all. I hope that the exchange of knowledge, that the kindred-spirit communities continue to grow and that the myths we all hold so dear, that are such an integral part of our own heritage and that move us so dearly in our spiritual paths will thrive around the fireside rather than just become history on dry pages in a forgotten library.

Christopher: Where can our readers find out more about your podshow and do you ever seek ideas from your audience?

Ruth: That's easy. If you use iTunes on your computer, you can go to the Store and search for Celtic Myth – you will find the Celtic Myth Podshow. Just click on the subscribe button and you will get every new episode when it's released. Alternatively, you can pop along to our website at http://celticmythpodshow.com where you can listen or download the episodes directly.

Gary: The website is also where you'll find the Shownotes, forums and so on. There is also a 'Help' page on our website that tells you all about podcasts and the whole RSS thing – which should hopefully make the whole process a piece of cake.

Ruth: We love getting feedback and encourage our listeners to make suggestions for the show, and we take any feedback we get from listeners seriously. It was a listener's suggestion to add the maps to the website, and also the lists of names you'll find in the Shownotes. We are always open to new ideas and ways to improve the website and the show.

Christopher: Anything else you would like to tell us?

Ruth: There are two other things that are worth mentioning. We believe that these stories are the ancestral right of all Celts. For that reason, our shows will always be free. They will also always be kid-friendly – Celts live in families, after all.

Gary: We'd also like to say 'thank you', Christopher, to you and AREN and wish safe travels to you and your readers.