A conversation with Exeter based storyteller Katy Cawkwell who delved into the Mabinogi for her Festival at the Edge Commission in 2003 with her story of Rhiannon. You can order the CD of Rhiannon, as well as other stories on the shop page on her site. We talked in Bristol just before she had to go and prepare for the show Women Who Gave No F**ks with a stellar line-up of women storytellers at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol. The video below is from a storytelling tour Katy did with the production compant Adverse Camber.

Click on the audio link below to listen to our conversation which ranged far and wide covered the following…

• The influence of Eric Maddern and Hugh Lupton’s courses at Tŷ Newydd

• The illustrations of Margaret Jones

• Understanding Annwfn - the Welsh Otherworld

• W J Gruffydd’s study of Rhiannon

• The challenges of finding the narrative line of Mabinogi stories

• The inspiration of the Welsh landscape, particularly Carn Ingli in Pembrokeshire.

We still had a few moments left before Katy had to go and prepare for her performance and I took the opportunity so show her the images of the figure on top of Carn Ingli. I had the photographs with me on my laptop and they provoked some fascinating observations. Recording in a car gives really good sound quality until a delivery lorry parks beside you. Sorry about the revving and beeping!

Here’s what we talked about in the EXTRA session

• Photographs of Carn Ingli and the pregnant giantess on its summit.

• The multivalent nature of imagination and stories in landscape.

• Getting lost and the strange relationship of strangeness and familiarity in landscape.

• The Otherworld - again!