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PODCAST

Penny Wagers

Instead of analyzing myths and folklore, I prefer to help you walk through "em. There are also essays about perambulations, poetry and other cool stuff. Come on in. The water"s nice, so feel free to take your shoes and socks off. pennywagers.substack.com

fiction drama

All Episodes

25:46

The Red Silk Ribbon

Penny Wagers ·

2026/04/06

There’s a lot in this story I like to sit with.For starters, I wonder if anyone out there can relate to the fisherman father. Actually, no I don’t. I wonder if in this place and time there’s anyone who can’t.All the fish in all the world are nothing compared to the one thing you don’t even know you have. Yeah, that sits with me, too.It’s interesting that Lucas decides to be a cooper. Why a cooper? There aren’t too many of those in the old stories. But here are a few things I know about coopers:*

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4:06

The Gospel Written for the Mead-Hall

Penny Wagers ·

2026/04/03

Hey, happy Good Friday! I have something I’d like to read for you that I think you might find interesting. Let me know if anything here sounds familiar...Definitely not a version of the Gospel most folks would be familiar with today, is it? This is the Heliand, sometimes referred to as “The Saxon Gospel.” There are two versions I’d recommend: The prose translation by G. Ronald Murphy I’d pick up for the commntary. For a poetic translation that has some hiccups but is still excellent, check out

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11:46

Fionn Meets Scathach, the Shadowy One

Penny Wagers ·

2026/03/30

The fun thing about myths is that they’re great for visual thinkers. You aren’t to narrow them down and flatten them into any lesson or actionable takeaway. In their dreamlike narratives, the images are the thing.In this story, I find myself sitting with the last few scenes the most. It seems we have a tendency to personalize iron string music these days. It’s often all we listen to. We watch overseas tragedies, domestic troubles and political outrage and take everything very seriously. Fair enough,

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11:09

Simon Greene and External Imagination

Penny Wagers ·

2026/03/23

My daughter’s got this chart in her classroom.It’s a two-column thing that teaches kids the difference between fiction and non-fiction. According to the chart, fiction is anything that isn’t factual. It’s made up, and its purpose is entertainment. Non-fiction, on the other hand, is truthful.Look, you gotta start somewhere, I get that. But there’s a reason that my daughter at second grade feels far more confident discussing “author intent” than she does whether or not she even likes a story. I’m

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8:48

Ireland's First Satire

Penny Wagers ·

2026/03/17

To commemorate the feast day of the Shamrock Saint, I figured I’d share this story with you. Please do send it to the poets you know if they haven’t heard it already (and may it also serve as a reminder to be nice to people during job interviews). Get full access to Penny Wagers at pennywagers.substack.com/subscribe

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19:08

Fionn mac Cumhaill and Aillèn Mac Midgna

Penny Wagers ·

2026/03/16

It was a bad line from the start, that much was obvious. We had been good about setting the raft square into the rapids, but this approach looked bad, this looked dangerous. Expletives started rising.There’s a huge gap in my memory. But I do remember that at the bottom, our raft started taking in hundreds of gallons per second from the falls. Everyone was gone and my side rising up, up, up, out of the water. I slid backwards, head-first, into the drink.I swirled around down there for a good long

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9:16

Fionn Meets The Tooth

Penny Wagers ·

2026/03/09

I knew two twins growing up: Hank and Mr. Weatherby.Mr. Weatherby was my high school Computer Applications teacher. He always wore a bowtie, a pocket protector and what can only be described as NASA glasses. He also founded and ran the school’s Robotics & A/V club. I’m sure Mr. Weatherby had a first name, but by his students, his family and everyone who ever knew him, he was always and forever known as Mr. Weatherby.Hank was his twin brother. He lived in the apartment complex owned by my uncle. Hank

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12:57

Fionn's Madness and the Nature of Friendship

Penny Wagers ·

2026/03/02

“Friendship is the greatest of worldly goods,” C.S. Lewis told us. “Certainly to me it is the chief happiness of life. If I had to give a piece of advice to a young man about a place to live, I think I should say, ‘Sacrifice almost everything to live where you can be near your friends.’”We may read that today as Lewis being cute with hyperbole. But that’s because we aren’t talking about the same things anymore.Friendship today sets rather low and shallow bar. We feel called to join our compatriots

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21:19

Fionn mac Cumhaill goes to Loughlin

Penny Wagers ·

2026/02/23

Y’know, I wasn’t going to start this. The plan wasn’t to record and put these on Substack; I was just going to share ‘em at in-person venues here and there. But three things have been nagging on me and got me to change my mind.* It would be dishonest, in a way. These stories continue to take up a great deal of my time and attention. I can’t treat this here Substack as some kind of curated persona in which I only share what would scale well; I don’t have the energy for that. This is what I’m into, so

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6:45

Lacing Back Up

Penny Wagers ·

2026/02/16

My dad started running just a few years before I did. Living 45 miles away from his job at the planetarium, he was inclined to wake up around 7 o’clock to get me and him out the door by 8.But then he started waking up a little earlier.I heard the front door slam around 6:15, but after that I didn’t hear the snowblower like I thought I would. Okay, so if it wasn’t the snow, what was he doing out there?He’d go out every day, earlier and earlier. It was just a couple miles at first. Then he started

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3:12

The State of Middle Earth

Penny Wagers ·

2026/02/09

I’m going out to clean the pasture spring;I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):I sha’n’t be gone long.—You come too.I’m going out to fetch the little calfThat’s standing by the mother. It’s so young,It totters when she licks it with her tongue.I sha’n’t be gone long.—You come too.—Robert Frost, “The Pasture”The Easterlings are passing through the wallThe Land of Golden Domes is falling inThe Cradle of the East is soon to fallBy mutual destruction from

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13:54

Ice Giants and the Missing Half

Penny Wagers ·

2026/02/02

This week’s story is “The Ice Giants,” recorded by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth. This cold snap is really something else, man, I’m telling you. Cailleach Beara ever tightens her icy grip on the long-shadowed land.I ventured out for a bit of social severance in the midst of this icy nonsense, but I didn’t stay out for long. The Old Hag plastered the forest in rimy sheets of cellophane; no surface was spared for miles. Walking down the Old Valley Trail, I saw hoof marks made before the ice was

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3:20

The Wrath of Winter

Penny Wagers ·

2026/01/26

Take care you find it's not inside the house where winter hits hardest. Get full access to Penny Wagers at pennywagers.substack.com/subscribe

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8:27

Black Aggie

Penny Wagers ·

2026/01/19

Did you know that Grief has a twin? Around here, she does. Some have even sat in her lap. Get full access to Penny Wagers at pennywagers.substack.com/subscribe

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5:08

The Hunter’s Bowl

Penny Wagers ·

2026/01/12

All local histories contain curiosities—even when absence tells most of the story. Get full access to Penny Wagers at pennywagers.substack.com/subscribe

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6:09

My Voyage with Bran

Penny Wagers ·

2026/01/05

Myths will sometimes walk with you if you invite them along. And sometimes they'll keep pace for reasons of their own. Get full access to Penny Wagers at pennywagers.substack.com/subscribe

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8:55

Why I’ll Never Use a Keurig

Penny Wagers ·

2025/12/29

Modern living requires more deliberate lines in the sand if you're not to get swept up by modernity. Get full access to Penny Wagers at pennywagers.substack.com/subscribe

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6:46

St. George Rides Again

Penny Wagers ·

2025/12/22

Where does St. George get his courage from? The same place we get our own. Get full access to Penny Wagers at pennywagers.substack.com/subscribe

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2:42

Ka-ZAM!

Penny Wagers ·

2025/12/16

Get full access to Penny Wagers at pennywagers.substack.com/subscribe

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11:29

The Legend of Moll Dyer

Penny Wagers ·

2025/12/08

Was the hand upon the stone ever present? Or rather, did it ever leave? Get full access to Penny Wagers at pennywagers.substack.com/subscribe

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