Storytelling and Making Folklore Accessible with Three Ravens

Storytelling and Making Folklore Accessible with Three Ravens

Author: Icy Sedgwick August 20, 2025 Duration: 1:32:35

I'm talking to Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux from the Three Ravens podcast about the difficulties in defining 'folklore', the importance of storytelling, which of England's 39 historic counties has the best folk tales, why people love ghost stories, and making folklore accessible to wider audiences!

Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux are the brains behind the Three Ravens podcast, and they are a real life couple, based in Sussex. Eleanor was born in Suffolk and grew up in Sussex, and after developing a passion for storytelling and stage performance as a child, become involved in amateur dramatics and completed her BA in English Literature and earned her MA in Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama. She also founded the theatre company Rust & Stardust, which tours original work and education projects rooted in English folklore. Martin was born in Somerset and grew up in the developing world, including in Uganda and Papua New Guinea. After leaving school, he completed his BA in English and won National Student Television Awards for comedy and directing. Having been a freelance journalist, radio presenter, and English teacher, he also won the BBC Moo! New Writers Prize in 2009. He gave up teaching after the pandemic to undertake his MA in Romantic and Victorian Literature and Culture at Goldsmiths, and to launch Three Ravens.

Buy their book, The Three Ravens Folk Tales: New tellings of half-forgotten stories from England's 39 Historic Counties: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/12992/9781803999685

Visit the Three Ravens Podcast website: https://www.threeravenspodcast.com/

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Each week, Fabulous Folklore with Icy offers a compact, fifteen-minute dive into the strange and storied shadows of our world’s traditions. Host Icy Sedgwick, a writer steeped in fantasy and Gothic horror, brings a storyteller’s eye to the material, weaving together tales of local legends, deep-rooted superstitions, and ancient myths. The podcast moves beyond simple retellings to consider the cultural soil from which these stories grew-why people believed what they did, how these narratives functioned in society, and the peculiar, often unsettling details that make them endure. You’ll hear about the oddities and occult practices that textbooks often overlook, all delivered with a blend of curiosity and a slight chill. It’s a consistently engaging exploration for anyone fascinated by the weird corners of history and human belief, a weekly reminder that our world is far more mysterious than it seems. Sedgwick’s background ensures the tales are told with both authority and a palpable sense of wonder, making each short episode a perfect gateway into a larger, fabulously folkloric universe. This isn’t just a catalog of curiosities; it’s an invitation to look at the familiar landscapes around us and imagine the layers of story hidden just beneath the surface, all packed into a brief, compelling listen that easily fits into a daily routine.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Fabulous Folklore with Icy
Podcast Episodes
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Duration: 30:11
Newcastle upon Tyne is famous for many things: its bridges, nightlife, and being the birthplace of Greggs are just some of them. We've seen plenty of world firsts here, been on the frontline of science and technology, wi…
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Duration: 46:54
We're onto the final instalment in this series of Festive Folklore episodes, that are coming to you with the help of some of my Fabulous Folklore friends! This time we're turning our attention to New Year and I'm joined…
The Christmas Ghost Story Tradition with Dr Kate Cherrell [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:02
Dr Kate Cherrell is a writer and broadcaster specialising in the long 19th century and paranormal history. Her academic interests include 19th-century Spiritualism, mourning traditions, the gothic, the monstrous feminine…
A Portmanteau Ghost Story for Christmas [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:19
For this third episode in our Festive Folklore series for December 2025, I'm adding my own tale to the noble tradition of the Christmas ghost story! And it arrives right ahead of the winter solstice... With plenty of fol…