Written by Luke Greensmith
Originally published on January 28th, 2022
For 2022, I want to dig down into the pagan revival of old festivals, and how they morphed into a more modern form as the Wheel of the Year for modern paganism. With that comes Imbolc, on the first of February.
I already intersect three of these eight points with Easter, Halloween, and Christmas being Ostara, Samhein, and Yule respectively but I’m looking to hit all 8 this year as well as continue to expand upon seasonal shows done so far. These Wheel of the Year episodes will be a little history facing in their opening sections, but it’s pretty wild history and I’ll segue from there into some cool seasonal folklore.
I will warn everyone, we have Irish and Welsh pronunciations to get through today. Being geographically near these places does NOT qualify me to get them right in spoken word form, but I will do my best.
Without further ado, let’s jump into…
SECTION BREAK – The Festival of Imbolc
Imbolc is the first Celtic bonfire of 2022, although the Celtic New Year is actually Samhain. The death of the year being where the fresh start can begin, Halloween is then kind of the pagan New Year, making it even cooler in my book. (although there is also a theory that the height of Summer was the Celtic New Year, which seems less cool and given how fragmented the world was in earlier times the real answer is probably “Both, depending on where you are, with probably more options besides”. Samhain is the most common theory though.
Hang on, rambling about Halloween. Back to Imbolc!
One of four Celtic bonfire festivals, Imbolc is the beginning of life returning to the world. The Celtic world as we understand it is mostly what was passed down written by the victors, the Romans who invaded the North of France and British Isles which made up these peoples, plus the neopagan revival starting in the 1960s which began to try and piece together the pre-Roman history along with the cultural remnants which endured. While still Winter, and a part of the dark time of the year, Imbolc was the beginning of lambing season, which also meant the beginning of milking ewes. The milk and cheeses this would bring would be vital as the stores from the last harvests are dwindling, and full spring is yet to come. Imbolc is a turning point where fresh sources of food become possible. The bonfire festivals here were not the death and renewal of Samhain, but were instead supposed to help enthuse the divine with energy. Only being the halfway point of Winter, some writings suggest this was to help keep a god, goddess, or gods going through the dark times.
As a Wiccan Sabbath, Imbolc is a popular time of year to clear house. Deep clean everything, and throw away what is no longer useful in their lives. It begins the evening of the first of February and ends the evening of the 2nd of February. Celtic days beginning at sundown instead of midnight making modern revivals of older traditions cross into two days as we now track them.
Brigit, The Shining One or Exalted One, is the traditional goddess associated with Imbolc. She is a mother-goddess, being a symbol of fertility and motherhood the lambing season was dedicated to her. Brigit is also the goddess of brewing beer, an additional connection to old ideas of witchcraft before the Christian Monks took over the booze trade. Brigit cycles through the aspects of the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone, Imbolc being a turning point of Winter she is still working through the Crone aspect ahead of Spring rebirth as the Maiden, which appears to link to the idea of the Imbolc bonfires being to support the divine. These celebrations being a way to help the goddess get to the Spring renewal.
Symbols of Brigit include lambs, milk, the colour white, and swans. Surviving pagan traditions of the festival include the making of Corn Dollies from the last bundles of harvest in honour of the maiden aspect of Brigit. Assorted other roles of Brigit include being the goddess of healers, poets, smiths, childbirth, inspiration, protection, domesticated animals, waterways, wells, fire and hearth, plus warfare. The soldiers of Brigit traditionally being called Brigands.
Because language becomes more a suggestion than a rule the further back in time you go, Brigit may also be encountered as Brid, Brig, Bride, Briganti, or Brigantes.
As with pretty much all things related to the expansion of the Holy Roman Empire, a lot of these old traditions got folded up into the Christianity soup. The goddess became Saint Bridget or otherwise mashed up with the Virgin Mary, the lamb got folded in with Capital L Lamb as in Jesus, and Imbolc became Candlemas. With the Christian rebranding, came the demonising of the old. Witches become accused at Imbolc of performing black rites to renew their ties to the devil, as well as having hilltop orgies around their bonfires. This demonization strikes me as jealousy at the idea of the orgies, which may or may not have a basis in history. Wouldn’t put them past some neopagan sects doing them though, if only to wind up traditionalist Christians. Early Holy Roman and Celt squabbling aside, there are some aspects of Candlemas that are exclusive to Christianity. It is supposed to be the purification of the Virgin Mary, something which matters most to Catholicism as branches of Christianity go, and is also known as the Presentation of The Lord, or the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. These centring on traditional Jewish rites which would have been observed at the time of the events depicted in the bible. The earliest references to the practice seem to be in the late 4th century were the pilgrim Etheria attended the celebration on the 14th of February. That a Roman Emperor decreed it be moved back gets us into Christianity soup territory again, and the blending of older traditions into the newer order. A candlelit procession is a part of Candlemas where it is still observed, and it is the time Roman Catholic institutions will bless the candles which are to be used for the year ahead. There is some research suggesting the candles were adapted from pagan traditions, but looking at the years involved it may just be branches of traditions got married to make it all work. As we’re discussing a cultural shift starting from about 2,000 years ago it’s all pretty muddled.
There are a lot of alternative names for Imbolc, beyond the obvious shift to Candlemas, and while I haven’t dug too deep into any one of them they are pretty evocative as is. Other names which stood out to me being: Feast of Pan, Feast of Torches, and Feast of Waxing Lights.
As interesting as this all may be, it’s starting to feel a little heavy, so let’s get on to some Imbolc adjacent folklore stories!
SECTION BREAK – King of the Swine
The Goddess Brigit, being among her many duties the goddess of domesticated animals, had some significant pets. A pair of oxen called Fe and Men, who to this day are the inspiration for the name of the field Mag Femen in County Kildare. Cirb, the King of Sheep. Plus (Twrch Trwyth) Torc Triath, the King of Boars, who appears to cause no small amount of havoc in Arthurian myth.
Torc Triath himself appears to have been a greedy king who was cursed by God into the form of a wild boar, along with seven retainers who become pigs. Saying “boar” and “pig” may be underselling what happened here, as at the time these swine enter Arthurian myth they have trashed a full third of Ireland. Torc Triath himself was a giant boar with poisoned bristles, bristling with them you could say, and they have tangled among them on top of their head between their ears three items. A razor blade, a pair of scissors, and a comb. These happen to be magic, whether that’s why Torc Triath collected them or else it could be from proximity to a magical creature changing them. Either way, the scissors and the comb became a part of a quest…
This leads us to the tale of Culhwch and Olwen. Culhwch is a prominent figure of Welsh legend, a cousin of King Arthur who has his own legendary feats that overlap with Arthurian myth at times. Culhwch became infatuated with the princess Olwen the moment he meets her, only there was something of an obstacle to love at first sight: Her father was a giant, which is worrying enough for a start, but he was a cranky old giant prophesied to die should his daughter be wed. Ysbaddaden Bencawr, or “Ysbaddaden, Chief of Giants”, is a whole thing of his own. It’ll return to him at some point in either a Wales or Giants episode, but the short version (which leaves out a whole lot of murder, cruelty, and epic battling) is that Culhwch eventually gets Ysaddaden to relent and offer Culwhch an anoethau to complete. A series of tasks which should be impossible, but should they be completed the one who set them would be obliged to concede defeat. This covers more than just dealing with Brigit’s pet, but that’s our focus for our Imbolc special. Now, ordinarily sending someone to kill the magical poison bristled giant boar would be certain death, even when faced by someone who can tag in the Legendary King Arthur, but Culhwch was mythic kryptonite for any pig based monster. His name means “sow run”, and this cousin of prophetic royalty was born in bizarre circumstances. His mother wandered away while pregnant, something having caused her to lose her senses. This led to her ending up giving birth when frightened by a herd of swine, the swineherder finding newborn Culhwch in the pig run and making sure the child got returned to the family home. From birth, Culhwch comes with porcine plot armour.
The goal of this task of the anoethau is to get the tools from off of the Torc Triath’s head. The chances of doing this peacefully are zero, even if you rule out the fact that someone needs to stop the furious proto bacon from wrecking every settlement they come across as part of a wider quest for peace. So we skip to the part where Culhwch has his loyal companions, a special sword, a legendary hound only a single person can handle with an unbreakable leash picked up along the way, the tusk of an unrelated magical boar, and King Arthur personally heading an army with some of the Knights of the Round table. It’s all about to kick off.
The army led by heroes wielding assorted widgets of myth head to Ireland, where the giant boar Torc Traith and his seven pig retainers promptly kick their asses in the first encounter.
From this point King Arthur takes a leading role in this part of the story, rallying their forces and driving Team Murder Pig across the Irish Sea landing in Dyfed. This then turns into a rolling war between many men and a small number of angry magical piggies across the South of Wales. Arthur’s army suffers constant casualties as they drive Torc Traith across the unsuspecting scenic Wales as part of some serious Hard Mode wedding planning. A fight at Dyffryn Llychwr drives the tiny yet lethal cursed herd to Mynydd Amanw where three of the pig retainers are finally slaughtered. Continuing to battle their way across Wales two more pigs are killed at Dyffryn Amanw in the Amman Valley area. Too angry to be cornered and turned into ham by a mere valley trapping them, the Twrch Trwyth and his two remaining pig bros bust out and make it to the River Severn before finally being caught again. At this point, the final two retainers are slain and the Twrch Trwyth is wrestled to the ground. The razor and the shears are seized before uncontainable rage does what it says on the tin and the giant boar is off again, barging his way across Cornwall with Arthur and army in hot pursuit. Eventually the Twrch Trwyth runs out of land, the comb is wrested from between their ears and they are driven into the sea never to be seen again.
The body was never found either, though… And the Twrch Trwyth is magical…
Arthurian myth can’t half be wild, everyone! This ends with a giant being groomed to death using the hard won magical items, resulting in a marriage between Culhwch and Olwen that actually lasts. Not a guarantee in legends like these which tend to turn into tragedies.
There doesn’t appear to have been any fallout from the Goddess Brigit over killing, or at least defeating, her pet, but given that Torc Triath and the magical pig boys were well on their way towards demolishing half of Ireland it probably just saved her the job of answering a whole load of prayers dealing with the enchanted boar.
SECTION BREAK – The Good Flock
Since we’re doing an Imbolc episode, a festival linking to the start of lambing season, this is a good chance to squeeze in the story of Sheegarah. The Fairy Sheep.
So the story goes, there was an old woman who kept a flock of sheep. Shepherding is notoriously hard work, and as an old woman making do, her flock had a habit of roaming. This had the knock on effect of annoying a rich landowner who lived close enough that his farms would get unexpected inspections from woolly invaders who would bellweather their way in to try The Good Stuff.
One day, the rich landowner set his two hounds on the ovine invaders, driving half the flock to their deaths in a fit of spiteful glee. Confronted by the poor old woman, the landowner demonstrated the usual lack of warmth and empathy of the filthy rich met with The Poors who have annoyed them, and it culminated in the old woman having such a fit of rage she fell to her knees cursing her neighbour. And I’m talking literal curse here, the old woman doomed the rich landowner to have her sheep one day come between him and his dearest wish.
The years went by, the old woman died, then eventually the rich farmer himself would be on his death bed. The sun set, the light died, and the night of his death upon him, the local priest was sent for. This being the olden days long before Uber, and not much in the way of roads at all for that matter, the priest had to set off across the fields on foot to reach the home of the dying landowner. Despite the dark the priest was making good time until he got within a few fields of his destination. He comes around a corner to be met with sheep. Not a sheep, not some sheep, not even merely a lot of sheep, the entire field was packed so dense you couldn’t walk between them! All for the rest of the night the priest tried to struggle through the surprise hoard of woolly jumpers but nothing would work. Try to go around? More sheep. Try to go back? More sheep. Try to fight your way through? THOUSANDS OF SURPRISE SHEEP! An hour before dawn the hoard vanish as suddenly as they appeared, and full credit to this priest he pressed on through the now clear two final fields to his destination instead of turning back to go in search of something strong to drink.
Upon reaching the door of the landowner’s home, the staff who answered informed the priest that he was all of five minutes too late. The rich man died crying out for a priest for the hours leading up to his end. The old woman’s curse was carried out by thousands of fairy sheep that appeared to prevent his last wish from coming to pass.
The moral of the story being don’t be a vicious dick to an old shepherdess, or sheep based doom shall one day come for you.
SECTION BREAK
That’s all for the first Wheel of the Year episode of 2022! Regular entries will probably follow their own format, as something like Halloween doesn’t need TOO much explanation, although I’ll flag them as Wheel episodes as we come around to them for the sake of completing the pattern. Beltane, Litha, Lughnsadh, and Mabon will be similar to this though. A history lesson for the date, followed by finding some wild myth and folklore that can be linked to it. The Wheel of the Year isn’t the only festival I intend to dig down into though, as the next episode should hopefully be Wolves for Valentines. I have some outstanding stuff to bring to everyone’s attention this year!
Any artists out there? Please do get in touch if you have a good idea for a Team Murder Pig design. I quite got to like the rampaging magical pigs. I might need to dig out some pig based horror like Boar to watch now… So, speaking of getting in touch, usual outro time!
LukeLore is a Ghost Story Guys production.
If you do want to contact me there’s the show’s dedicated email lukeloregsg@gmail.com, and the general show email ghoststoryguys@gmail.com. Both myself and the main show are really easy to find on Facebook and Twitter if you want to make day to day contact, as well as a very active Instagram account a lot of the community gets involved with. The LukeLore Instagram is out there too awaiting me finally leaping into action making use of it. There’s also a Discord server on the horizon, specifically a Discord related to my assorted misadventures which I intend to give a LukeLore section that has a general channel plus a Patreon VIP zone.
If you want to support the show directly check out our Patreon at Patreon.com/ghoststoryguys.
As ever though, the absolute best thing anyone can do to support the show is to give it a listen. Share this around if you think you may know someone who may be interested, leave a review if you get the chance to help signal boost me, and most of all I simply hope you enjoy what I’m doing here.
Goodbye for now.
For 2022, I want to dig down into the pagan revival of old festivals, and how they morphed into a more modern form as the Wheel of the Year for modern paganism. With that comes Imbolc, on the first of February.
I already intersect three of these eight points with Easter, Halloween, and Christmas being Ostara, Samhein, and Yule respectively but I’m looking to hit all 8 this year as well as continue to expand upon seasonal shows done so far. These Wheel of the Year episodes will be a little history facing in their opening sections, but it’s pretty wild history and I’ll segue from there into some cool seasonal folklore.
I will warn everyone, we have Irish and Welsh pronunciations to get through today. Being geographically near these places does NOT qualify me to get them right in spoken word form, but I will do my best.
Without further ado, let’s jump into…
SECTION BREAK – The Festival of Imbolc
Imbolc is the first Celtic bonfire of 2022, although the Celtic New Year is actually Samhain. The death of the year being where the fresh start can begin, Halloween is then kind of the pagan New Year, making it even cooler in my book. (although there is also a theory that the height of Summer was the Celtic New Year, which seems less cool and given how fragmented the world was in earlier times the real answer is probably “Both, depending on where you are, with probably more options besides”. Samhain is the most common theory though.
Hang on, rambling about Halloween. Back to Imbolc!
One of four Celtic bonfire festivals, Imbolc is the beginning of life returning to the world. The Celtic world as we understand it is mostly what was passed down written by the victors, the Romans who invaded the North of France and British Isles which made up these peoples, plus the neopagan revival starting in the 1960s which began to try and piece together the pre-Roman history along with the cultural remnants which endured. While still Winter, and a part of the dark time of the year, Imbolc was the beginning of lambing season, which also meant the beginning of milking ewes. The milk and cheeses this would bring would be vital as the stores from the last harvests are dwindling, and full spring is yet to come. Imbolc is a turning point where fresh sources of food become possible. The bonfire festivals here were not the death and renewal of Samhain, but were instead supposed to help enthuse the divine with energy. Only being the halfway point of Winter, some writings suggest this was to help keep a god, goddess, or gods going through the dark times.
As a Wiccan Sabbath, Imbolc is a popular time of year to clear house. Deep clean everything, and throw away what is no longer useful in their lives. It begins the evening of the first of February and ends the evening of the 2nd of February. Celtic days beginning at sundown instead of midnight making modern revivals of older traditions cross into two days as we now track them.
Brigit, The Shining One or Exalted One, is the traditional goddess associated with Imbolc. She is a mother-goddess, being a symbol of fertility and motherhood the lambing season was dedicated to her. Brigit is also the goddess of brewing beer, an additional connection to old ideas of witchcraft before the Christian Monks took over the booze trade. Brigit cycles through the aspects of the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone, Imbolc being a turning point of Winter she is still working through the Crone aspect ahead of Spring rebirth as the Maiden, which appears to link to the idea of the Imbolc bonfires being to support the divine. These celebrations being a way to help the goddess get to the Spring renewal.
Symbols of Brigit include lambs, milk, the colour white, and swans. Surviving pagan traditions of the festival include the making of Corn Dollies from the last bundles of harvest in honour of the maiden aspect of Brigit. Assorted other roles of Brigit include being the goddess of healers, poets, smiths, childbirth, inspiration, protection, domesticated animals, waterways, wells, fire and hearth, plus warfare. The soldiers of Brigit traditionally being called Brigands.
Because language becomes more a suggestion than a rule the further back in time you go, Brigit may also be encountered as Brid, Brig, Bride, Briganti, or Brigantes.
As with pretty much all things related to the expansion of the Holy Roman Empire, a lot of these old traditions got folded up into the Christianity soup. The goddess became Saint Bridget or otherwise mashed up with the Virgin Mary, the lamb got folded in with Capital L Lamb as in Jesus, and Imbolc became Candlemas. With the Christian rebranding, came the demonising of the old. Witches become accused at Imbolc of performing black rites to renew their ties to the devil, as well as having hilltop orgies around their bonfires. This demonization strikes me as jealousy at the idea of the orgies, which may or may not have a basis in history. Wouldn’t put them past some neopagan sects doing them though, if only to wind up traditionalist Christians. Early Holy Roman and Celt squabbling aside, there are some aspects of Candlemas that are exclusive to Christianity. It is supposed to be the purification of the Virgin Mary, something which matters most to Catholicism as branches of Christianity go, and is also known as the Presentation of The Lord, or the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. These centring on traditional Jewish rites which would have been observed at the time of the events depicted in the bible. The earliest references to the practice seem to be in the late 4th century were the pilgrim Etheria attended the celebration on the 14th of February. That a Roman Emperor decreed it be moved back gets us into Christianity soup territory again, and the blending of older traditions into the newer order. A candlelit procession is a part of Candlemas where it is still observed, and it is the time Roman Catholic institutions will bless the candles which are to be used for the year ahead. There is some research suggesting the candles were adapted from pagan traditions, but looking at the years involved it may just be branches of traditions got married to make it all work. As we’re discussing a cultural shift starting from about 2,000 years ago it’s all pretty muddled.
There are a lot of alternative names for Imbolc, beyond the obvious shift to Candlemas, and while I haven’t dug too deep into any one of them they are pretty evocative as is. Other names which stood out to me being: Feast of Pan, Feast of Torches, and Feast of Waxing Lights.
As interesting as this all may be, it’s starting to feel a little heavy, so let’s get on to some Imbolc adjacent folklore stories!
SECTION BREAK – King of the Swine
The Goddess Brigit, being among her many duties the goddess of domesticated animals, had some significant pets. A pair of oxen called Fe and Men, who to this day are the inspiration for the name of the field Mag Femen in County Kildare. Cirb, the King of Sheep. Plus (Twrch Trwyth) Torc Triath, the King of Boars, who appears to cause no small amount of havoc in Arthurian myth.
Torc Triath himself appears to have been a greedy king who was cursed by God into the form of a wild boar, along with seven retainers who become pigs. Saying “boar” and “pig” may be underselling what happened here, as at the time these swine enter Arthurian myth they have trashed a full third of Ireland. Torc Triath himself was a giant boar with poisoned bristles, bristling with them you could say, and they have tangled among them on top of their head between their ears three items. A razor blade, a pair of scissors, and a comb. These happen to be magic, whether that’s why Torc Triath collected them or else it could be from proximity to a magical creature changing them. Either way, the scissors and the comb became a part of a quest…
This leads us to the tale of Culhwch and Olwen. Culhwch is a prominent figure of Welsh legend, a cousin of King Arthur who has his own legendary feats that overlap with Arthurian myth at times. Culhwch became infatuated with the princess Olwen the moment he meets her, only there was something of an obstacle to love at first sight: Her father was a giant, which is worrying enough for a start, but he was a cranky old giant prophesied to die should his daughter be wed. Ysbaddaden Bencawr, or “Ysbaddaden, Chief of Giants”, is a whole thing of his own. It’ll return to him at some point in either a Wales or Giants episode, but the short version (which leaves out a whole lot of murder, cruelty, and epic battling) is that Culhwch eventually gets Ysaddaden to relent and offer Culwhch an anoethau to complete. A series of tasks which should be impossible, but should they be completed the one who set them would be obliged to concede defeat. This covers more than just dealing with Brigit’s pet, but that’s our focus for our Imbolc special. Now, ordinarily sending someone to kill the magical poison bristled giant boar would be certain death, even when faced by someone who can tag in the Legendary King Arthur, but Culhwch was mythic kryptonite for any pig based monster. His name means “sow run”, and this cousin of prophetic royalty was born in bizarre circumstances. His mother wandered away while pregnant, something having caused her to lose her senses. This led to her ending up giving birth when frightened by a herd of swine, the swineherder finding newborn Culhwch in the pig run and making sure the child got returned to the family home. From birth, Culhwch comes with porcine plot armour.
The goal of this task of the anoethau is to get the tools from off of the Torc Triath’s head. The chances of doing this peacefully are zero, even if you rule out the fact that someone needs to stop the furious proto bacon from wrecking every settlement they come across as part of a wider quest for peace. So we skip to the part where Culhwch has his loyal companions, a special sword, a legendary hound only a single person can handle with an unbreakable leash picked up along the way, the tusk of an unrelated magical boar, and King Arthur personally heading an army with some of the Knights of the Round table. It’s all about to kick off.
The army led by heroes wielding assorted widgets of myth head to Ireland, where the giant boar Torc Traith and his seven pig retainers promptly kick their asses in the first encounter.
From this point King Arthur takes a leading role in this part of the story, rallying their forces and driving Team Murder Pig across the Irish Sea landing in Dyfed. This then turns into a rolling war between many men and a small number of angry magical piggies across the South of Wales. Arthur’s army suffers constant casualties as they drive Torc Traith across the unsuspecting scenic Wales as part of some serious Hard Mode wedding planning. A fight at Dyffryn Llychwr drives the tiny yet lethal cursed herd to Mynydd Amanw where three of the pig retainers are finally slaughtered. Continuing to battle their way across Wales two more pigs are killed at Dyffryn Amanw in the Amman Valley area. Too angry to be cornered and turned into ham by a mere valley trapping them, the Twrch Trwyth and his two remaining pig bros bust out and make it to the River Severn before finally being caught again. At this point, the final two retainers are slain and the Twrch Trwyth is wrestled to the ground. The razor and the shears are seized before uncontainable rage does what it says on the tin and the giant boar is off again, barging his way across Cornwall with Arthur and army in hot pursuit. Eventually the Twrch Trwyth runs out of land, the comb is wrested from between their ears and they are driven into the sea never to be seen again.
The body was never found either, though… And the Twrch Trwyth is magical…
Arthurian myth can’t half be wild, everyone! This ends with a giant being groomed to death using the hard won magical items, resulting in a marriage between Culhwch and Olwen that actually lasts. Not a guarantee in legends like these which tend to turn into tragedies.
There doesn’t appear to have been any fallout from the Goddess Brigit over killing, or at least defeating, her pet, but given that Torc Triath and the magical pig boys were well on their way towards demolishing half of Ireland it probably just saved her the job of answering a whole load of prayers dealing with the enchanted boar.
SECTION BREAK – The Good Flock
Since we’re doing an Imbolc episode, a festival linking to the start of lambing season, this is a good chance to squeeze in the story of Sheegarah. The Fairy Sheep.
So the story goes, there was an old woman who kept a flock of sheep. Shepherding is notoriously hard work, and as an old woman making do, her flock had a habit of roaming. This had the knock on effect of annoying a rich landowner who lived close enough that his farms would get unexpected inspections from woolly invaders who would bellweather their way in to try The Good Stuff.
One day, the rich landowner set his two hounds on the ovine invaders, driving half the flock to their deaths in a fit of spiteful glee. Confronted by the poor old woman, the landowner demonstrated the usual lack of warmth and empathy of the filthy rich met with The Poors who have annoyed them, and it culminated in the old woman having such a fit of rage she fell to her knees cursing her neighbour. And I’m talking literal curse here, the old woman doomed the rich landowner to have her sheep one day come between him and his dearest wish.
The years went by, the old woman died, then eventually the rich farmer himself would be on his death bed. The sun set, the light died, and the night of his death upon him, the local priest was sent for. This being the olden days long before Uber, and not much in the way of roads at all for that matter, the priest had to set off across the fields on foot to reach the home of the dying landowner. Despite the dark the priest was making good time until he got within a few fields of his destination. He comes around a corner to be met with sheep. Not a sheep, not some sheep, not even merely a lot of sheep, the entire field was packed so dense you couldn’t walk between them! All for the rest of the night the priest tried to struggle through the surprise hoard of woolly jumpers but nothing would work. Try to go around? More sheep. Try to go back? More sheep. Try to fight your way through? THOUSANDS OF SURPRISE SHEEP! An hour before dawn the hoard vanish as suddenly as they appeared, and full credit to this priest he pressed on through the now clear two final fields to his destination instead of turning back to go in search of something strong to drink.
Upon reaching the door of the landowner’s home, the staff who answered informed the priest that he was all of five minutes too late. The rich man died crying out for a priest for the hours leading up to his end. The old woman’s curse was carried out by thousands of fairy sheep that appeared to prevent his last wish from coming to pass.
The moral of the story being don’t be a vicious dick to an old shepherdess, or sheep based doom shall one day come for you.
SECTION BREAK
That’s all for the first Wheel of the Year episode of 2022! Regular entries will probably follow their own format, as something like Halloween doesn’t need TOO much explanation, although I’ll flag them as Wheel episodes as we come around to them for the sake of completing the pattern. Beltane, Litha, Lughnsadh, and Mabon will be similar to this though. A history lesson for the date, followed by finding some wild myth and folklore that can be linked to it. The Wheel of the Year isn’t the only festival I intend to dig down into though, as the next episode should hopefully be Wolves for Valentines. I have some outstanding stuff to bring to everyone’s attention this year!
Any artists out there? Please do get in touch if you have a good idea for a Team Murder Pig design. I quite got to like the rampaging magical pigs. I might need to dig out some pig based horror like Boar to watch now… So, speaking of getting in touch, usual outro time!
LukeLore is a Ghost Story Guys production.
If you do want to contact me there’s the show’s dedicated email lukeloregsg@gmail.com, and the general show email ghoststoryguys@gmail.com. Both myself and the main show are really easy to find on Facebook and Twitter if you want to make day to day contact, as well as a very active Instagram account a lot of the community gets involved with. The LukeLore Instagram is out there too awaiting me finally leaping into action making use of it. There’s also a Discord server on the horizon, specifically a Discord related to my assorted misadventures which I intend to give a LukeLore section that has a general channel plus a Patreon VIP zone.
If you want to support the show directly check out our Patreon at Patreon.com/ghoststoryguys.
As ever though, the absolute best thing anyone can do to support the show is to give it a listen. Share this around if you think you may know someone who may be interested, leave a review if you get the chance to help signal boost me, and most of all I simply hope you enjoy what I’m doing here.
Goodbye for now.