Hello and thank you once again for joining us down at the crossroads for some music, magick, and Paganism. Where witches gather for the sabbath, offerings are made, pacts are signed for musical fame and we cross paths with today’s most influential Pagans, occultists, and deep thinkers. I am your bewitching, bald headed, host Chris Orapello and tonight Tara and I welcome Damh the Bard back to show to discuss his new album Y Mabinogi: the First Branch of the Mabinogion a wonderful bardic adaptation by Damh himself with new music created to build upon the story of the first branch. Along with exploring the creation and music of his new album we learn more about his background and his former life as we discuss pagan leadership and community. You might be as pleasantly surprised as we were. The Mabinogion (Welsh pronunciation: [mabɪˈnɔɡjɔn]) are the earliest prose stories of the literature of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. The two main source manuscripts were created c. 1350–1410, as well as a few earlier fragments. These stories offer drama, philosophy, romance, tragedy, fantasy and humour, and were created by various narrators over time. The title covers a collection of eleven prose stories of widely different types. There is a classic hero quest, "Culhwch and Olwen"; historic legend in "Lludd and Llefelys" glimpses a far off age; and other tales portray a very different King Arthur from the later popular versions. The highly sophisticated complexity of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi defies categorisation. The stories are so diverse that a leading scholar has challenged them as a true collection... - Wikipedia Featured Songs: "Rhiannon" by Faun "Fire in the Head" by Sharon Knight "Glashtyn Shanty" by S.J. Tucker "Spirit of Albion" by Damh the Bard "Devil's Nettle" by Horse Cult "Who is Coming" by Damh the Bard "Tides" by Eivor "Annwn" by Damh the Bard "These Hollow Hills" by Damh the Bard Links: Damh the Bard: Nature, Myth, Magic, and Music "Y Mabinogi: The First Branch" in Damh's store The Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids ***Support the show on Patreon!*** Receive special benefits, show swag, extra content, and more!