KnotWork Myth & Storytelling

Our Story Marisa reads an excerpt from her 2020 book, The Sovereignty Knot , in which she imagines three Irish goddesses, Brigid, the Morrígan, and the Cailleach all walk into a bar and have a chat about what women really want. After the story, Marisa explores: Marisa reads an excerpt from her 2020 book, The Sovereignty Knot , in which she imagines three Irish goddesses, Brigid, the Morrígan, and...

Our Story The Cailleach is the longest living supernatural woman in the Celtic tradition. This goddess is a world builder who consorted with kings and is still associated with the landscape today. Our guest, Kate Chadbourne, brings us a story from County Mayo about a man who chose to test himself by setting out on a walk with the Cailleach. She weaves the threads of many other Cailleach stories th...

Our Story This trio of stories about holy wells, faith, and illness traces the evolution–or perhaps the devolution–of folk belief and the power ascribed to sacred waters and places. Our guest Elizabeth Stack begins with two stories from Tipperary: a teenaged boy cured at St. Patrick’s Well in Clonmel and a weeping statue of Mother Mary in Templemore during the Irish War of Independence. Elizabeth...

Our Story Before Ethne became a queen of Tara and married Cormac mac Airt, she was a foster child to Buchet, a man known for his tremendous hospitality. In this story, Marisa Goudy imagines Ethne’s perspective on this 12th century Irish tale. Our Guest Elizabeth Shaw is an author, consultant, speaker, and facilitator who brings her core philosophies of practical optimism and radical hospitality to...

Our Story In a departure from our usual format, our guest Christian Bolden tells a personal story of visiting Ireland for the first time as a graduate student. He describes his experience as an African American in Dublin in 2016, a moment when three events captured attention: the US presidential election, the killing of Alton Sterling, and the death of Muhammad Ali.  Christian’s story echoes...

Our Story This is a story of a cheerful, fearless farmhand named Fred who lived in the Fens, the marshy, bogs of East Anglia. He was at home in himself and on the land, and that attracted the jealousy of the other young men on the farm. This story, inspired by a tale called "The Syleham Lamps," collected in Kirsty Hartsiotis’s Suffolk Folk Tales , features the mysterious will-o'-the-wisps, the mys...

Our Story The story of Deirdre or the Exile of the Sons of Uilsliu is a pre-tale of the Táin, the greatest epic in Irish mythology. At her birth, Deirdre is prophesied to bring ruin to Ulster. It is a tale of a despotic king, love at first sight, betrayal, and includes a brief mention of suicide. Our Guest Melinda Laus is a grief counselor and educator who understands grief as a normal, healthy pa...

Our Story There’s a long, strange tradition in Irish mythology and folklore in which a powerful man tries to steal a valuable cow from an old woman ( cailleach ). Maybe it’s not so strange… It’s just one more example of how independent older women are considered a threat to the status quo. Marisa Goudy tells the story of Mona, the Cailleach who lived upon a hill that bore her name (Cnoc na Móna/Kn...

Our Story This original story of the Irish goddess Bóinn was written by Laura Murphy and is being offered for the first time here on KnotWork Storytelling. Laura takes what we have from the medieval manuscripts from the Christian monasteries and then follows her own divine inspiration, or the imbas forosnai you’ll hear so much about in our conversation. If you hear a phrase that plucks at the stri...

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Our Story A Irish sovereignty goddess whose origins lie with the mythical Tuatha Dé Danann, Áine is also a sun deity, a bean sidhe (woman of the Sí), and fairy queen. Our guest Jen Murphy comes to KnotWork with a collection of Áine tales.  In a story from the mythological period, Áine has an ill-fated meeting with the unjust king Aillil Ólomm, who strips the land bare and threatens the goddes...

Our Story Storyteller Maura McMahon offers us a clip from her show, Launching Ships: A User's Guide for Your Face. She took to the stage at Green Kill Art Center in Kingston, NY in spring 2022 and was accompanied by musician David Gonzalez. You’ll hear the events in the final moments of the Trojan War, as that infamous horse full of Spartan warriors is allowed into the city gates after a ten-year...

Our Story Probably the precursor to the King Arthur tales, the story of Tristan and Isolde includes star-crossed lovers, castles and the wilds, as well as questions of loyalty, duty, and truth. The versions we can access today are set in a fractionated England in the time after Roman rule. Ireland, still unconquered just across the sea, is key to the plot as well as the spirit of the saga. Our gue...

Our Story  You must meet Maeve, the Celtic Magdalen, the heroine of the four novels in Elizabeth Cunningham’s The Maeve Chronicles. From her beginnings on the Celtic Island of Women Tír Na mBán , to “Druid School” on the Isle of Mona, and then on to Rome, the Galilee, southern France, and then back to Britain when Queen Boudicca of the Iceni was battling for her tribe and her sovereignty, Mae...

OUR STORY Your KnotWork Storytelling host, Marisa Goudy, reads a brief excerpt from her novel-in-progress, Above In the Bog. You meet two women of first century Ireland, Móna and Síle, who are out collecting tansy on a dark moon summer night. Their mission: gather the herbs to help a woman in their village abort an unwanted child. OUR EXPLORATION Marisa wrote this section of the book sometime last...

Our Story “Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor” appear in a ballad from the 17th century that has been passed across Scotland, England, Ireland, Canada, and the US for centuries. Marisa Goudy’s retelling of the tale is inspired by a version collected in the 1930s Irish Schools Collection of Folklore, found at Duchas.ie. It’s the tale of a love triangle with a bloody end. It’s the tale of a heroine caught...

Our Story Our guest Seán Pádraig O’Donoghue tells the story of his legendary ancestor, Donal O'Donoghue. O’Donoghue Mór was a great warrior, a generous chieftain, a man who kept the Old Ways. He conspired with the Otherworld and became an initiate of the deepest mysteries and the forbidden knowledge. As a result of showing his powers to his wife, O’Donoghue Mór was pulled back to the Otherworld. B...

Our Story Cana Cludhmor was a banfhile, an Irish woman poet of great renown. We know her story from only a few lines in Imtheacht na Tromdháimh e or The Proceedings of the Great Bardic Institution, found in the fourteenth century Book of Lismore. Only mentioned briefly in the manuscript, we know that Cana Cludmor walks away from a dissatisfying marriage, and finds herself at a beach where the wind...

Our Story Inanna, Goddess of the Upperworld, is at the core of a 6,000 year old myth from ancient Sumer. Upon the request of her sister Ereshkigal, Inanna pays a visit to the Underworld. As she passes through each of the seven gates, more of her symbols of power, intellect, and wealth are stripped away. Upon arrival, Inanna is sentenced to death by her sister Ereshkigal. As is the way of myth, dea...

Our Story At a céilidh , a home-based social gathering in the Highlands of Scotland, a young man is asked to follow the custom of sharing a song or a story. He doesn't think he has anything to offer, but then he sets off on an incredible journey across the loch. This is a story of gender fluidity, transformation, and community. Our Guest Dr Michael Newton, who holds a Ph. D. in Celtic Studies from...

Our Story This story, written by Marisa Goudy, is inspired by a piece simply named “A Story,” found in the Irish Schools’ Folklore Collection from the 1930s. It was collected by a student named Annie McLaughlin, as told by her father John Joe McLaughlin for St. Mary’s National School in Buncrana in County Donegal. The original tale, found at Duchas.ie, offers a retelling of a traditional story of...

Our Story Elizabeth des Roches tells her own story of La Quaintrelle and welcomes you to a gathering of four of the most elegant women you can imagine. This may seem like the stuff of fairy tales, but that doesn’t make this a children’s story. Ultimately, it's about calling in all aspects of the self and celebrating the power of delight and pleasure. Our Guest Elizabeth des Roches is a Creatrix, s...

Our Story Irish mythology offers us a tale of a pagan hero named Oisín who left his companions, the warriors of the Fianna, and followed a fairy woman named Niamh to her home in Tír Na nÓg, the land of eternal youth. After three hundred years, Oisín returned to Ireland and found that a man named Saint Patrick had arrived and brought along a faith called Christianity that changed everything . The s...

Our Story Leah and Rachel are two sisters from the Book of Genesis who were both married to the patriarch Jacob. Our Guest Blair Glaser is a writer, leadership consultant, and licensed therapist who has led many workshops for women, including "Women Writing to Change the World," at the renowned Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. These days, she works primarily with women executives on developing ef...

Our Story This is the story of Macha, a goddess, a fairy woman, a woman of the Sidhe , who took a human lover for a year. This story sets the stage for the greatest epic in Irish mythology, the Táin Bó Cúailnge. This story is often remembered for its curse, but really, it's the story of a birth. "The Birth of a Heroine" was written and performed by Marisa Goudy. Sources: The Metrical Dindsheanchas...