Bardskull (unabridged)

Written by Martin Shaw

Narrated by Martin Shaw

Bardskull is the record of three journeys made by Martin Shaw, the celebrated storyteller and interpreter of myth, in the year before he turned fifty.

It is unlike anything he has written before. This is not a book about myth or story. It is a sequence of incantations and a series of battles.

For each of the three journeys, he walks alone into a forest in the heart of Dartmoor and waits.

What arrives are stories - fragments of myth and folk tale that he has carried within him for decades: the deep myths of Dartmoor itself, tales from distant family members, Arthurian legend, folk tales from India, Persia, Lapland, the Caucasus and Siberia.

But these stories and their tellers don't arrive as the bearers of solace or easy wisdom. They come to challenge, to undermine, to sow doubt.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Unbound
• Release date: Feb 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9781800182097

Martin Shaw

Dr Martin Shaw is an acclaimed teacher of myth. Author of the award-winning Mythteller trilogy (A Branch from the Lightning Tree, Snowy Tower, Scatterlings), he founded the Oral Tradition and Mythic Life courses at Stanford University, and is director of the Westcountry School of Myth in the UK. He has introduced thousands of people to mythology and how it penetrates modern life. For twenty years Shaw has been a wilderness rites of passage guide, working with at-risk youth, those who are unwell, returning veterans as well as many women and men seeking a deeper life. His translations of Gaelic poetry and folklore (with Tony Hoagland) have been published in Orion magazine, Poetry International, Kenyon Review, Poetry magazine and Mississippi Review. Shaw’s most recent books include The Night Wages, Cinderbiter, Wolf Milk, Courting the Wild Twin and his Lorca translations, Courting the Dawn (with Stephan Harding). His essay and conversation with Ai Weiwei on myth and migration was released by the Marciano Art Foundation.