Archives: Digital Events

Welsh Fairy Tales from The Mabinogi by Viktor Wynd on Zoom

Let Viktor Wynd share a nightcap with you, tuck you into bed and tell you Fairy Tales to send you into a deep sleep of strange dreams. Be warned these are not the Ladybird or Disney versions and may not be suitable for the tenderist ears.

This evening Mr. Wynd will tell some of his favourite Welsh tales, the ancient tales from The Mabinogion featuring a maiden made of flowers, a horse that can not be caught, Arawn, Lord of The Otherworld, the beautiful Rhiannon and why she was smeared in dog’s blood, Branwen, the magical cauldron and why Bran’s decapitated head carries on talking, Pryderi, a blanket of mist and the hanging of a mouse….

Viktor Wynd, proprietor of London’s eponymous (nay infamous) Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & UnNatural History has spent the last twenty five years telling stories to audiences across the globe. Fascinated by traditional fairy tales his repetoire includes tales from The Brothers Grimm, The Arabian Nights, Scandinavia, Russia, Italy, France, Irieland, Africa, Papua New Guinea & North America – so far.

Borneo Fairy Tales by Viktor Wynd on Zoom

Let Viktor Wynd share a nightcap with you, tuck you into bed and tell you Fairy Tales to send you into a deep sleep of strange dreams. Be warned these are not the Ladybird or Disney versions and may not be suitable for the tenderist ears.

This evening Mr. Wynd will tells some his favourite tales he first heard in Borneo some years ago, disgusting, macabre and delightful tales, learn of the birth of the leeches, the reason mosquitos are always buzzing human ears, why it is best not to suckle caterpillars – or indeed strange babies and something about bedbugs that might give you nightmares.

Viktor Wynd, proprietor of London’s eponymous (nay infamous) Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & UnNatural History has spent the last twenty five years telling stories to audiences across the globe. Fascinated by traditional fairy tales his repertoire includes tales from The Brothers Grimm, The Arabian Nights, Scandinavia, Russia, Italy, France, Ireland, Africa, Papua New Guinea & North America – so far.

Norwegian Fairy Tales by Viktor Wynd on Zoom

Let Viktor Wynd share a nightcap with you, tuck you into bed and tell you Fairy Tales to send you into a deep sleep of strange dreams. Be warned these are not the Ladybird or Disney versions and may not be suitable for the tenderist ears.

This evening Mr. Wynd will choose some of his favourite Norwegian tales, strange tales filled with Trolls, that, as a rule are not very nice, either to people or each other

Viktor Wynd, proprietor of London’s eponymous (nay infamous) Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & UnNatural History has spent the last twenty five years telling stories to audiences across the globe. Fascinated by traditional fairy tales his repertoire includes tales from The Brothers Grimm, The Arabian Nights, Scandinavia, Russia, Italy, France, Ireland, Africa, Papua New Guinea & North America – so far.

Tales of Wonder & Enchantment From The Arabian Nights by Viktor Wynd/Zoom

Let Viktor Wynd share a nightcap with you, tuck you into bed and tell you Fairy Tales to send you into a deep sleep of strange dreams. Be warned these are not the Ladybird or Disney verisons and may not be suitable for the tenderist ears.

From the fabled lands of ancient Arabia come these extraordinary tales of 1001 Nights, full of Djinn, Magic, Enchantment, Great Treasure, Shape Shifting, Voyages & Even Eroticism

Viktor Wynd, proprietor of London’s eponymous (nay infamous) Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & UnNatural History has spent the last twenty five years telling stories to audiences across the globe. Fascinated by traditional fairy tales his repetoire includes tales from The Brothers Grimm, The Arabian Nights, Scandinavia, Russia, Italy, France, Irieland, Africa, Papua New Guinea & North America – so far.

Gargoyles and Grotesques – a Zoom talk with Dr Alex Woodcock

Gargoyles and Grotesques: Why are there Monsters on Medieval Churches?

Gargoyles and grotesques are an immediate and appealing feature of many historic churches and cathedrals. Typically carved into all manner of monsters, wild figures and faces, these sizeable pieces of architectural sculpture have often been dismissed as meaningless or whimsical folk art incongruous with their religious setting. In this talk Alex Woodcock will explore the content and contexts of these carvings, exploring the role of the monster in architectural sculpture and the complexities of the grotesque, and through doing so what these images might reveal to us about medieval buildings and beliefs.

Dr Alex Woodcock is a writer, stonemason and artist immersed in the worlds of medieval architecture and sculpture. Following a PhD on medieval sculpture he trained as a stonemason and worked at Exeter Cathedral for six years. His books include Gargoyles and Grotesques (Bloomsbury, 2011), Of Sirens and Centaurs (Impress, 2013) and King of Dust (Little Toller, 2019). He teaches on the Cathedrals’ Workshop Fellowship degree and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. For more information see: www.alexwoodcock.co.uk or Twitter: @beakheads

Your curator and host for this event will be the writer Edward Parnell, author of Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country. Edward Parnell lives in Norfolk and has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. He is the recipient of an Escalator Award from the National Centre for Writing and a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship. Ghostland (William Collins, 2019), a work of narrative non-fiction, is a moving exploration of what has haunted our writers and artists – as well as the author’s own haunted past; it was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley 2020 prize, an award given to a literary autobiography of excellence. Edward’s first novel The Listeners (2014), won the Rethink New Novels Prize. For further info see: https://edwardparnell.com

[Image: a carving of a mouth-puller on the church tower at Iffley, Oxfordshire. Photo by Alex Woodcock.]

Geomitica – the Mythology of Shape – Adrian Fisher

Geomitica – the Mythology of Shape – Adrian Fisher

Adrian Fisher’s Geomitica literally means “the mythology of shape”.

It creatively combines surface shapes with artistic and allegorical narrative. Parables and symbolism abound. Geomitica unleashes our spirits and lets them soar.

The essential set of shapes are capable of astonishing feats of design.

Each square and triangle in the Geomitica series only needs a few pieces to form the next size up. How do they achieve such tiny increments in size?

Regular tiling systems simply don’t do this.

What are the key geometric principles for creating tiling patterns?

Form follows function, so different applications dictate different geometric systems.

Decorative paving, vibrant tilings and acrylic paintings broaden the scope of Geometric art.

What further manifestations may we expect in future?

This is an art form whose geometric discipline becomes an underlying strength.

It reaches across the frontiers between abstract art, hidden symbolism and vibrant imagery

Bio:

Adrian Fisher MBE is the world’s leading innovator and creator of mazes of all kinds, full of challenges, discovery and fun. For over 40 years he has been transforming the traditional idea of getting lost into state of the art attractions, experiences and adventures, each with a compelling narrative and storyline. He is the world’s most prolific designer of hedge mazes in the history of gardening. His company is the world’s leading supplier of mirror mazes, with over 60 installed since 1991. His portfolio of over 700 full size mazes can be found across 42 countries. He is also an established pioneer of Geometric Art, combining the mathematics of Geometry with the vibrant art of colour, materials and texture, to produce his distinctive Geometrica creations.He is ranked by The Guardian newspaper as one of the top 50 in the UK.He lives with his wife Marie in the village of Durweston in Southern England. Their garden contains a castellated Folly Tower with mirrored chamber and spiral staircase, at the centre of a yew hedge maze.

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

Gef the Talking Mongoose – a Zoom talk with Christopher Josiffe

During the mid-1930s, British and international newspapers were full of incredible stories about Gef, a ‘talking mongoose’ or ‘man-weasel’ who, allegedly, had appeared in the home of the Irvings, a farming family who lived in an isolated, remote district of the Isle of Man.

The creature was said to have the ability to talk in several languages, to sing, to steal objects from nearby farms and to eavesdrop on local people, bearing local gossip from the neighbourhood back to his host family.

Despite contemporary documentation and evidence – written reports, magazine articles, a book, photographs, fur samples, paw prints, voluminous correspondence and signed witness statements – there was and is still no consensus as to what had happened at Doarlish Cashen, the Irvings’ farm.

Was it a hoax? Mental illness? A poltergeist?

Christopher Josiffe, author of the award-winning Gef! The Strange Tale of an Extra-Special Talking Mongoose, will discuss the strange case and his findings, based on seven years’ research, interviews with surviving witnesses, and visits to the Isle of Man farm site. For more information about Christopher and his book see: https://gefmongoose.co.uk/about/

Your curator and host for this event will be the writer Edward Parnell, author of Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country. Edward Parnell lives in Norfolk and has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. He is the recipient of an Escalator Award from the National Centre for Writing and a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship. Ghostland (William Collins, 2019), a work of narrative non-fiction, is a moving exploration of what has haunted our writers and artists – as well as the author’s own haunted past; it was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley 2020 prize, an award given to a literary autobiography of excellence. Edward’s first novel The Listeners (2014), won the Rethink New Novels Prize. For further info see: https://edwardparnell.com

[Image of a mongoose adapted from an original photo by Tony Hisgett, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license]

Early Paranormal Theories of the Late Nineteenth Century – a Zoom talk by Dr Robert Radakovic

Beyond Faith and Reason – Early Paranormal Theories of the Late Nineteenth Century

This talk explores the complex culture and history of the late nineteenth century and how the earliest theories of the paranormal were developed.

While considering the fundamental questions of nature and humanity’s place within the universe, many of the key thinkers of the late-Victorian period found science or religion alone as inadequate individual tools with which to help with the answers. Some of them, who were often from the cultural elite – scientists, academics, politicians, clergy, writers – combined these existing domains with research into paranormal phenomena, which they found provided more comprehensive and cohesive theories. This talk takes a historo-cultural look at some of what took place at the time, highlighting the key early paranormal theories, and asks what relevance there is for today’s paranormal researchers.

 

Your speaker for this event is Dr Robert Radakovic, an ex-astrophysicist and ex-management accountant who left the corporate world over a decade ago to study for an MA in Western Esotericism, followed by a PhD which considered the interplay between Science, Religion, Philosophy and the Paranormal in the nineteenth century. He has had a lifelong interest in ghosts, UFOs and psychic phenomena, and undertakes independent research in each of these. He has been a council member of The Ghost Club (1862) since 2019.

Your host and curator for this event will be the writer Edward Parnell, author of Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country. Edward Parnell lives in Norfolk and has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. He is the recipient of an Escalator Award from the National Centre for Writing and a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship. Ghostland (William Collins, 2019), a work of narrative non-fiction, is a moving exploration of what has haunted our writers and artists – as well as the author’s own haunted past; it was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley 2020 prize, an award given to a literary autobiography of excellence. Edward’s first novel The Listeners (2014), won the Rethink New Novels Prize. For further info see: https://edwardparnell.com

 

Modern Vampires – Professor Ronald Hutton – Zoom Lecture

Vampires have become key figures in the modern imagination, over three thousand works of literature and film being devoted to them in the last third of the twentieth century. Since then the momentum of that interest has if anything increased. This talk is designed to show why this is, and what forms it takes. Three patterns are very clear. The first is that all modern vampires descend from Count Dracula. The second, that before the 1970s vampire lore was dominated by cinema, and since then it has been by novels. The third is that until the 1970s the development of the mythos was a joint enterprise across the Western world, and that since then it has been driven overwhelmingly from America. These patterns are both illustrated and explained in the talk, and in the process a key question is also proposed and answered: what function do vampires have in the contemporary world, and why are they so important to us?

Speaker: Professor Ronald Hutton is a Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He is a leading authority on history of the British Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, on ancient and medieval paganism and magic, and on the global context of witchcraft beliefs.

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

The Origins of the Vampire – Professor Ronald Hutton – Zoom Lecture

Of all fictional characters, only Sherlock Holmes has appeared more often in films than Bram Stoker’s vampire, Count Dracula. Stoker, however, reworked what was already a long literary tradition about vampires, going back to the eighteenth century. Before then, this particular type of monstrous being was a novelty in most of Europe, having only appeared in its imagination from the 1720s. The vampire was in fact an amalgam of two much more ancient monsters, which came together in the Balkans during the early modern period, and broke into the rest of European belief when Austrian soldiers reached that region. This talk is designed to show how it was created, and dispersed, and to reveal the rich literary tradition that it had inspired by the nineteenth century. It will also show what was so different, and so compelling, about Dracula, which made him the most celebrated vampire of all time.

Speaker: Professor Ronald Hutton is a Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He is a leading authority on history of the British Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, on ancient and medieval paganism and magic, and on the global context of witchcraft beliefs.

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day