Episode 82 – Shapeshifting
Summary:
This time, we look at the lore of shapeshifting witches, including loup-garous, Wampus cats, and skinwalkers. We also briefly discuss the idea of hag-riding.
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Play:
Download: Episode 82 – Shapeshifting
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- Laine discusses the phenomenon of Creepypasta, and we specifically discuss the Goatman legend and Bunnyman Bridge.
- We discuss the loup-garou & Rougarou found in North American lore
- Witch-cats come up, and you can hear a tale of one in our Podcast Special – The Black Cat Murders from a few years ago
- Laine recommends Charlaine Harris’ books, which include several shapeshifting characters
- We mention several figures from folklore known for shapeshifting or hag-riding, including Betty Booker, Aunty Greenleaf, and the Bell Witch
- We discuss Navajo Skinwalkers a good bit, and you can read about them more in an upcoming article on our site
- A pair of podcasts have discussed werewolf legends in great detail recently: LORE and Sawbones have both done a fine job with covering the historical (and skeptical) side of the subject
If you’ve got a paperback copy of a book which you’d like to get bound in leather, our friend Achija Branvin Sionnach of Spellbound Bookbinding is offering our listeners a very deep discount. If you tell him we sent you, he’ll do the leather-binding for you at cost of materials plus shipping.
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Promos & Music
Title music: “Homebound,” by Jag, from Cypress Grove Blues. From Magnatune.
Music: “Were-Owl,” by S.J. Tucker, from her album Mischief. Incidental music by Brian Johnston, doing a cover of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London,” found at Soundcloud and used under a Creative Commons License.
Podcast recommendation: Laine recommends the podcast Darkness Radio, and Cory suggests the medical/comedy/folklore show Sawbones.
New World Witchery - The Search for American Traditional Witchcraft 
In regards to: Sop-Dol (Or Sop Doll) – ‘Jack and the Witches’ is what we call that story in it’s general form. This is a good example of a truly traditional lore pattern for Scot-Irish Appalachian Jack Tales. The story also has it’s place as the crown jewel of fall festival performances in NC, VA and TN since it’s the ‘proper time of the year’ for such tales. The tale has the mill owner hiring Jack to clean out the mill house for a certain amount of gold. Ironically, in the most prevalent form of that story I heard – Jack uses a silver (as in Ag) knife to cut off the dol of the offending witch-cat. However, I have heard an axe being used, but a silver axe. He lops off the ‘doll’ of the witch-cat. The next day they identify the witch based on her missing hand. The witch of the mill turns out to be the miller’s wife.