Paul Robichaud 🪨🐐
@pjrobichaud
Literature, myth, folklore • Stories of the Stones: Imagining Prehistory in Britain, Ireland, & Brittany • Pan: the Great God’s Modern Return • Contributor to Hellebore • Poems in NewPoetry.ca and The South Shore Review • Canadian in Connecticut • /|\
I love much of Heaney’s poetry, but this unwieldy volume of poems and commentary (1,252 pages) has been sitting by my bed since Christmas. I think what one would like is a ‘collected poems’ of Heaney’s published volumes, or an updated selection like ‘Opened Ground’ (1996).
This is a wonderful book to just flip through, but absolutely essential if you’re researching Scottish folklore. I tracked down the source of a tale today that I couldn’t otherwise locate anywhere.
'Stories of the Stones' is available to order from your favourite bookseller or at the links below! 'A highly rewarding and immensely rich read.' — Duncan Garrow, author of 'The World of Stonehenge' 🇨🇦 🇺🇸 press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo... 🇬🇧 & ROTW reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/stories...
‘Hookland Fragments’ is a must-read for anyone who’s found themselves under the spell of England’s forgotten county. The introductory essay alone makes the book worth having, but I also loved the background on some of Hookland’s denizens and the alphabet of inspiration for this misremembered county.
When John Wood surveyed Stanton Drew in 1740, ‘A storm accidentally arose just after, and blew down Part of a Great Tree near the Body of the Work, the People then thoroughly satisfied that I had disturbed the Guardian Spirits of the metamorphosed Stones.’ #WyrdWednesday 🎨 William Stukeley
The opening to West Kennett Long Barrow, Wiltshire, June 2023. #TombTuesday
The ‘Table de Sacrifice’ lies 100 meters north of the stone alignments at Kerzérho, Erdeven, Brittany. In local folklore, this stone is ‘where the blood flows.’ #StandingStoneSunday 📷 June, 2023
Miss Rosie, our rescue dog from Tennessee, is really a southern porch hound.
Today is the North American release day of ‘Stories of the Stones’! ‘A highly rewarding and immensely rich read.’ — Prof. Duncan Garrow, author of ‘The World of Stonehenge’ Order through your favourite bookseller, or here: 🇨🇦 www.indigo.ca/products/sto... 🇺🇸 bookshop.org/p/books/stor...
‘You may think all this strange nonsense; it may be strange, but it is true, and the ancients knew what lifting the veil means. They called it seeing the god Pan.’ — Arthur Machen, ‘The Great God Pan’ (1894) 🎨Aubrey Beardsley, frontispiece, ‘The Great God Pan’ (1894)
Now listening: @warringtonruncorn.com, ‘Public Works and Utilities’ (2025). Great record.
On my walk today, the first monarch butterfly I’ve seen this year.
Three years ago today I was visiting the Roman ruins in Caerleon!
St-Michel tumulus at Carnac-Ville in Brittany, built in the fifth millennium BCE. The tumulus is now closed to visitors to aid preservation. #TombTuesday
The North American release date for 'Stories of the Stones' is this coming Friday, July 10th! You can pre-order through your favorite bookseller or directly from University of Chicago Press: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo... #StandingStoneSunday
In Susan Cooper's 'Over Sea, Under Stone' (1965), some standing stones loom over the village of Trewissick. Mr Penhallow tells the children that ‘people thought the rocks were haunted, and unlucky, and he sounded as if he believed it himself. He said they call them the Gravestones.’ #BookWormSat
Loved ‘Dead the Long Year’ by @oldweirdalbion.bsky.social, a moving evocation of bohemian London just before the Great War, centred on the dancer known as Ione de Forest. Hauntology, psychogeography, and temporal dislocation, with appearances by Arthur Machen, and Victor Neuberg!
I’m fortunate to live not too far from an amazing record store here in Connecticut, Redscroll Records. They stock records from smaller labels from the UK, including Ghost Box and Clay Pipe. I recently picked up ‘Easel Studies’ by Cate Brooks, who also records as The Advisory Circle. Great record.
Love the mellow folky vibe of Marc Huw Bennett’s ‘Heol Las.’ Maybe this is my album of the summer?
Wayland’s Smithy, Oxfordshire. In English folklore, if you left a coin and an unshod horse, Wayland would shoe the horse while you were gone. He was originally the Germanic smith god Wēland, mentioned in the Old English poems ‘Waldere’ and ‘Beowulf.’ #WyrdWednesday 📷 July 2023
I pre-ordered the limited hardback edition of 'A Walking Flame: the Selected Magical Writings of Ithell Colquhoun' from @strangeattractor.bsky.social, and it has arrived! A beautifully produced and illustrated book, edited by the excellent Amy Hale.