Episode 02: Selkies and Kelpies
/This week on Spirits, two very different kinds of Celtic creatures from the deep: Selkies and Kelpies. There's mischief, rumors, sexual intrigue... Only the best for you, dear listeners!
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Our music is "Danger Storm" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
Transcript
AM: So Julia, we have a podcast!
JS: We have a podcast.
AM: I am so excited.
JS: Guys, last time we checked, I had, we had like 150 downloads on our first episode.
AM: It's big, so thank you!
JS: I know, you guys are great.
AM: Thank you all so much early adopters, especially our patrons on Patreon. This podcast is no longer costing me money every time we-
JS: Thank God.
AM: -make an episode. So thank you heartily.
JS: You're covering our alcohol content and it's the best.
AM: You're not quite covering our booze every time but you are covering hosting fees. So that's a great start.
JS: We're getting there.
AM: And we have some awesome behind the scenes content and we will tell you all about at the end of the episode. Today, we have one of my favorite episodes of ours. Hint, there are only two, about... what Jules?
JS: Selkies and Kelpies!
AM: That's not just an 80s band name.
JS: Is that an 80's band name?
AM: I don't know? Hall & Oates? Selkies and Kelpies.
JS: That's not even remotely close, but okay.
AM: It's not even the 80s. Guys, I'm not even drinking yet. Anyway, it's super fun. There's a sexy water monster, there's a scary water monster.
JS: There's almost Swedish lesbians.
AM: So close to Swedish lesbians. There's failures of sixth century Scottish farmchild care.
JS: And you really have to stick around because Amanda's verbal emojis this time are to die for.
AM: If I may say so myself. So hope you enjoyed this episode and let us know what you think on Twitter.
JS: Thanks!
Intro Music
JS: So today, we're going to talk about elemental spirits but like a specific kind of elemental spirit.
AM: Is it element like Avatar? Like Earth, Wind, and Fire.
JS: Yeah, exactly.
AM: Okay.
JS: Like Last Airbender: Legend of Korra kind of thing.
AM: Okay.
JS: Elemental spirits kind of existing every culture. They're spirits that like represent trees and rocks and rivers and oceans and stuff like that because everything needs to be explained in mythology.
AM: Yeah, makes sense.
JS: Everything that...
AM: Elements are, elemental, right? They're a fundamental part of every culture, they're ubiquitous.
JS: God, that was such a bad pun. Alright.
AM: It's not a pun, it’s a description.
JS: So talking about like, kind of Celtic, Irish-Scottish mythology. There's two water spirits that I kind of want to talk about that are like kind of related but also like super, super different. So do you kind of want to start with like the cute sexy kind or like the malicious rip your throat out kind?
AM: First of all, I'm really excited that this sort of shows the two sides of the sea, right? The sea can be--
JS: Oh, absolutely.
AM
--a bounty life-giving, you know? you earn your living as a fisherman, or it can like eat your sons and nephews and husbands.
JS: Yeah and drown everyone.
AM: Exactly, drown everybody, have tempest, have sea creatures from the deep that we're still uncovering. So why don't we start with the friendly sea, and then we'll get into unleashing the Kraken.
JS: Alright, so house wrecking sea mammals first, gotcha.
AM: Let's do it.
JS: Alright. So we're first going to talk about Selkies and Selkies is basically a Scottish mythology though it's kind of spread into other places.
AM: Right.
JS: It comes from the Scottish word selik which means seal which is going to kind of give away what like its abilities are.
AM: Interesting.
JS: But Selkies are basically like water spirits who live their lives as seals in the, in the seas and ocean.
AM: Right.
JS: They're pretty much like happy go lucky kind of creatures because like their seals like.
AM: So, how they differ from a regular seal? They have...
JS: Well,
AM: Oh, get it there?
JS: So, seals... they're pretty ordinary because like, you know? They're seals but then Selkies are super interesting because once a while they'll come to shore, shed their skin and take human form.
AM: Interesting.
JS: Yeah.
AM: So like the little mermaid but really committing.
JS: Really, really committing.
AM: Really committing.
JS: Like, just like...
AM: Not half and half, either/or.
JS: So like, if you're just like walking down, down a beach in Scotland and you see like a naked person, probably is Selkie or crazy person.
AM: Or a drunkard?
JS: I mean like, one or the other, really.
AM: Yeah.
JS: So now like, what did the Selkies do when they're onshore and they look like humans?
AM: They seduce people or steal children.
JS: They fuck.
AM: Oh.
JS: Yes. So Selkies are always described as having some sort of like seductive power over humans. And the cool part is is like they're kind of there's male Selkies and there's female Selkies.
AM: Oooh!
JS: A lot of times when you're looking at like, ocean spirits, it's like they're always like the seductress woman.
AM: Woman, right.
JS: Like, ruining people's lives--
AM: Yeah, Eve, kind of.
JS: --And stuff like that. Yeah.
AM: That's so interesting.
JS: So... yeah.
AM: I don… you don't hear much about dual gen, you know? or two genders of the same kind of spirit.
JS: Oh, yeah, absolutely and actually most stories that you see like the original Selkie stories, they're usually male.
AM: Huhhh...
JS: And I'll talk about kind of like why that is later on.
AM: I'm excited.
JS: So male Selkies usually, like seek out women who are like super dissatisfied with their lives like women whose husbands are like away fishing or at war.
AM: Oh my!
JS: Like, join the navy. Like, husband hasn't been home in a while, that kind of thing.
AM: Wow.
JS: Like, they're horny and they're down for it. So in these stories like, women have, it has to, the way that they can summon a Selkie is they have to shed seven tears into the ocean and then a Selkie like emerges out of it, kind of like...
AM: Oh my God that is a very reliable booty call.
JS: Yeah, like no, it's like better than like Netflix and chill. It's just like, seven tears and were good.
AM: Instead of you're seven digits, you just gotta put 7 tears and that’s all.
JS: Exactly. So then, a Selkie comes to shore and like, takes her to bed. And a lot of these stories are like probably just like, explanations for like, women cheating on their husbands--
AM: Oh sure.
JS: --with the butcher or the milkman or whatever and then like getting pre-pregnant and blame it on Selkie
AM: Wow. Yeah, because who wants to cop you know? If there's five men left in the village, everyone else is at sea. Who wants to cop to that?
JS: It'd be like, it’d be like, it wasn't the butcher.
AM: It was a seal.
JS: It was the selkie.
AM: Exactly.
JS: It'd be like, see that guy... like, the little head bobbing out of the water over there. That was the dude that fucked me.
AM: Interesting, I wonder why they, they are seals not just like sea people who come ashore. Interesting
JS: Because like, you know? You can explain where like this dude that came in fucked your wife disappeared too. It's because he like re-put on his skin and like went back into the ocean to be a selkie.
AM: Interesting.
JS: Yeah. So like, female selkies are usually just like going about their business and then have some douchey fishermen like steal their pelt when, when they're in human form. And the pelt is like super important in Selkie culture.
AM: Oh sure.
JS: Because if the selkie doesn't have their pelt, they can't return to the ocean as a seal.
AM: That’s fascinating.
JS: Yeah. So basically like, the selkie is under a guy's power and forced to marry him if he keeps her pelt.
AM: Wow!
JS: Yeah, so they become his bitch. And if the selkie finds her pellet, she's able to like leave in a heartbeat. Like, there's no like, we're Beauty and the Beast Stockholm Syndrome going on there.
AM: Oh right, yeah.
JS: Yeah.
AM: She is the key and she's out of there.
JS: She's like, out of there.
AM: That's a very interesting kind of allusion to virginity, right? The like, if you, you know? If you take the mantle as it were, then you know? The woman has to be yours.
JS: Right. But no, because she can, she can just bounce if she gets it back.
AM: That's great. What fantasy book series was it that you have to like craft the animal skin and that sort of envelope allows you to turn into that animal. I thought it was Harry Potter initially, but it's not an animagi just like--
JS: No.
AM: --you know? Willpower.
JS: And I was thinking like animorphs, but that's not it either.
AM: No, no, it's like a it's ugh, sorry. Okay, I'll think about it. It's like, it's like hours and hours of spellcraft that used to create the like, skin, the skin of an animal.
JS: If anyone knows, please like message us and let us know, because, because [inaudible 7:32]
AM: That would be great.
JS: Because we are drawing a blank right now. So occasionally, we see stories about vengeful selkies. Like if you look back into Scottish mythology, that's just like a thing that happens.
AM: Right.
JS: So like, in one story, a Selkie wife escapes her husband after getting her...
AM: Pelt back.
JS: Her pelt back. And then she returned, who like the husband, the human husband, like comes and he's like super mad that she left so he kills her Selkie husband and children.
AM: Oh my. So this is, okay. So what's happening?
JS: Okay.
AM: So human woman...
JS: No, no Selkie, selkie woman--
AM: Right.
JS: --leaves her human husband, human husband, super mad!
AM: Oh, so the human husband...
JS: Comes and kills her--
AM: Ohhhh!
JS: --Selkie husband.
AM: Oh, so Selkie’s… Oh no!
JS: Oh yeah.
AM: That’s so sad!
JS: So like, so like, murdered a bunch of seals because he was mad that his wife left.
AM: Ah, oh... whoa!
JS: Yeah.
AM: So this... that really happened? That he killed a bunch of seals?
JS: Yeah.
AM: Thinking that they were selkies?
JS: Yeah.
AM: Wow.
JS: And so, as revenge as the story goes, the lady Selkie drowns and pushes from the cliffs to their death all the men on the island that they lived on. So like...
AM: Homicide!
JS: Yeah!
AM: Patricide!
JS: So much!
AM: Killing all the men!
JS: Kill all the men!
AM: #Missandei.
JS: Yeah.
AM: Wow!
JS: Yeah, so like…
AM: Some whatever, sixth century Scottish Missandei.
JS: Right so like, I mean, the selkies are like pretty chill people but like, until you start like killing off their children like...
AM: Of course, yeah.
JS: Probably not the best situation that you could have been in.
AM: Their Selkie families.
JS: Yeah, exactly.
AM: Why would you kill the Selkie babies? I don't want to think too hard about it.
JS: It’s like…
AM: Let's move on.
JS: It's like clubbing the seals, it's terrible. We don't want to talk about it.
AM: Oh no, no!
JS: So the selkies are not exclusive to Scottish mythology. They're similar spirits that are in certain cultures--
AM: Yeah.
JS: --that I kind of want to just touch on that a little bit.
AM: I thought they'd be like a siren, right? So...
JS: A little bit. But they're... sirens don't shapeshift.
AM: Oh yeah.
JS: Like, the shape-shifting aspect is like super important to the selkies because it allows them to be...
AM: The seduction is very interesting.
JS: Yeah.
AM: You don't think of seals as being a seductive kind of animal, but...
JS: No one goes, "Sexy seal, my friend."
AM: Yeah.
JS: Sexy seal.
AM: But I mean, when you think about it, that the sea, you know? It, it gives, as I said earlier, you know? It's fertile, it gives you food and living and, you know?
JS: Right.
AM: Joy, I guess if you look at it.
JS: Yeah.
AM: But it's also it's unpredictable, tempestuous, it's, you know? it can, it can kill you.
JS: And I mean, there's a lot of stories like in mythology that are related to like the sea and like having babies and fertilization.
AM: Sure.
JS: Like, if you look at the story of Aphrodite, she's born out of the waves and sea. Like, that's just a thing that happens.
AM: LOL
JS: So there's a bunch of different other seal shapeshifters in Swedish les-legends there's a seal shapeshifters.
AM: Swedish lesbians? Tell me more!
JS: Swedish lesbian seals.
AM: That would be great.
JS: And then uhh, Native American tribe in like the Washington Oregon a-area also had like a seal shapeshifter.
AM: Really?
JS: So, yeah
AM: That's very cool.
JS: So, while the Selkies are like pretty benevolent besides that like scary revenge story where we kill all the men.
AM: Yes?
JS: There is a...
AM: Right, they just come ashore have sex, whatever go back to their seal form.
JS: Exactly. Very chill. Unfortunately, there's another Scottish water spirit that is also known for shapeshifting and kind of inhabits like, locks and pools of Scotland.
AM: Cool.
JS: But super, super different. So this...
AM: Now we're on to the rage-y part.
JS: The rage-y part. Now that we talked about killing all the men, we're going to do a spirit that kind of doesn't care who you are. We're just going to kill everyone.
AM: Great.
JS: So we're going to talk about Kelpies.
AM: Ha! Kelpies!
JS: Kelpies.
AM: Selkies and Kelpies.
JS: Selkies and Kelpies, the Scottish apparently like things that end with 'e's.
AM: The salt and pepper shakers of Scottish water spirits.
JS: Yes, pretty much. So Kelpies kind of take the form of humans but they're notably described as taking the shape of a horse. And for anyone who is wondering Amanda was like the horse girl when we were growing up.
AM: Yeah, that's true.
JS: She was like the go to. Everyone to put like I mean when you're in school there's always like that one girl who was like the horse girl.
AM: I don't, I don't know if I want to accept that mantle.
JS: Damn, okay.
AM: I don't have like, horse, horse apparel.
JS: Yes.
AM: I just rode horses.
JS: Okay, she was a horse girl but ok.
AM: Alright, we can revisit this at a later time.
JS: Alright, so the name Kelpie comes from the Gaelic word, cailpeach with either me, which either means heifer or colt, depending on what translation you are looking at.
AM: So like, a cow or a baby horse.
JS: Right but like, usually horse.
AM: Interesting.
JS: Um, so almost every notable Scottish body of water has a kelpie, uhhh kelpie story associated with it.
AM: Cool.
JS: And we're going to talk about one a little bit because it kind of makes sense when you think about it.
AM: So kelpies can be either horses or humans?
JS: Yes.
AM: Not both?
JS: Yes. Well, I mean like it...
AM: It can... there’s two forms they can take.
JS: Right, it can take those two forms.
AM: Got it.
JS: So in stories, it is described as a powerful and beautiful dark black horse, which inhabits the deep pools of rivers and streams and like basically, any other form of water.
AM: That sounds very beautiful coming out of the, ummm coming out of the--
JS: Yeah.
AM: --dark locks.
JS: Sure. The way you can distinguish it from whether or not it's a real horse is like besides the fact that it's like constantly dripping with water.
AM: Uhh, good.
JS: Because it came out of the water, is the fact that the hooves in horse form are reversed compared to our normal, normal horse.
AM: That's quite ominous--
JS: Yeah.
AM: --for some reason!
JS: No, it's kind of like weird...
AM: A clubfooted horse
JS: Yeah. It's sort of like a weird kind of almost...I want to say like almost like Christianity satanic image?
AM: Oh sure, yeah.
JS: Yeah, because like, you think of like the cloven hooves of the...
AM: Of horse, yeah. And horns kind of go like, I-I definitely get it.
JS: So the kelpie is sort of interesting in the way that it claims its victims?
AM: Okay.
JS: Because we, as we talked about...
AM: So Kelpies are just demonic or they're just like a creature, you know? That like just has to fill its needs and like...
JS: No it's like pretty demonic.
AM: Okay.
JS: Like, it's, it's not a good thing there's no like, oh, it's just like trying to eat it...
AM: Right...
JS: It's just not it.
AM: Oh no. Okay.
JS: And we'll see why.
AM: Yeah.
JS: So Kelpies, the victims of Kelpies are usually children.
AM: Terrible.
JS: Yes. So they'll see...
AM: Just going for the worst possible--
JS: Oh, absolutely.
AM: --audience for your eating.
JS: Yeah.
JS: So Kelpies like, they'll just hang out on shores and stuff like that. And like...
AM: In their in horse form.
JS: In their horse form.
AM: Yeah.
JS: And children will like, see and they'll be like, "Oh my god, a horse!" Because you know, children love horses.
AM: Sure. You want to go pet it.
JS: Yeah. So when they go to pet it or ride it, they stick to the pelt of the kelp, of the kelpie.
AM: Oh no!
JS: It's like glue. It's like, it's just like...
AM: Like a fly trap, yeah.
JS: Oh, that's really...
AM: Alright.
JS: So the kelpie then drags the children into the water, drowns them--
AM: Oh, no!
JS: --devours them--
AM: Ahhh!
JS: --and then leaves the entrails at the water's edge.
AM: That's a horrifying.
JS: Yeah, it's really bad.
AM: So you see your child run off to go pet the nice little horse standing there or maybe you don't you can't supervise your child, you're a farmer in Scotland in the early first cen... first millennium.
JS: Yes.
AM: You can't supervise your children. So you're toiling away at your there's no potatoes yet, because hasn't been domesticated, toiling away--
JS: Wheat.
AM: --at your wheat farm--
JS: Barley? Sure.
AM: -- or Barley farm, and your children leave another just a pile of entrails on the beach!
JS: Yes.
AM: That's horrible.
JS: Yeah…
AM: It's...
JS: That’s real bad.
AM: That's quite smart though. Because the, the Kelpie doesn't have to like, doesn't have to have any, you know? Teeth or like terrible predatory, whatever, just sticky go back to where your home is and then--
JS: Om-nom-nom-nom-nom.
AM: --and oh, your prey is suddenly ready to eat.
JS: Pretty much.
AM: Wow.
JS: So there's a couple of stories where like children were able to like manage to survive like, a Kelpie--
AM: Sure.
JS: --thing. Because they'll just like you know? Cut off their hands or finger before they Kelpie can drag them into the water. So like, you know? There's real... it's like you're either maim yourself or like die a watery death.
AM: So what's the lesson here? Like, don't embrace pleasure? Like don't, don't go pet cute things?
JS: We'll talk about it a little bit.
AM: It's like the ultimate hand in the cookie jar thing.
JS: Yes.
AM: Right? Instead of your mom hitting your hands with a spatula, you get eaten by Kelpie.
JS: Well, so basically, the origin story is Kelpies most likely came out of like the idea of like human sacrifices with like the entrails on the shore and stuff like that.
AM: Oh, yeah, sure.
JS: And it was usually to like...
AM: Just turning into bogs and bodies of water.
JS: Right.
AM: Yeah.
JS: It was to appease water gods.
AM: Yeah.
JS: So, you sacrifice like a virgin or child or something like that in order to like, make sure that the river lock didn't flood that season.
AM: Sure.
JS: Like that sort of thing. So the horse form was usually associated with like horse sacrifices in the area as well.
AM: Sure.
JS: So it could have been a child.
AM: Sure.
JS: It could have been a horse.
AM: Okay.
JS: It really could have gone either way.
AM: Yeah, the prized--
JS: Yeah.
AM: --possessions, right.
JS: So ummm... in the...
AM: For the in the record, we, we don't condone child or horse sacrifice.
JS: No, not cool.
AM: In a historical lens, we understand how people once under, you know?
JS: I mean, you do you but not anymore. You did you, but not anymore.
AM: You did them.
JS: So, in the stories, children of the victims also as like a way to warn children about perilous areas of water and to warn, as we'll talk about a little bit, warn women about being wary of strangers. So like this is the early like, go to the bathroom in pairs. So someone doesn't--
AM: Yeah.
JS: --like mug you or rape you.
AM: Yeah.
JS: That kind of thing.
AM: Wow.
JS: So that's the Kelpie's horse form. We're gonna talk a little bit about the human form right now, too.
AM: Cool.
JS: In their human form, they can usually like betray their nature by like one, they're soaking wet and like two, there's seaweed in their hair. Like, that's like she's like, hmmm, that dude has seaweed in hair, his hair, that seems a little bit weird.
AM: Right, that woman's walking around wintery Scotland, wet.
JS: Completely soaked through
AM: So, male or female humans or either?
JS: Usually, male in these situations, a lot of like later art shows them as female but there's not a lot of like actual stories that have survived where the kelpie is female.
AM: Yeah.
JS: Which is interesting.
AM: Painters like to paint just like women's cascading hair looking sad--
JS: Over nipples.
AM: --in the distance, right.
JS: Yeah, basically. So Kelpies are usually described as male so they overpower people who are passing by like bodies of water. Usually, they'll like, jump up on bridges and then someone walking by, by themselves will just like grab them and drown them.
AM: Oh.
JS: Yeah.
AM: Kind of like...
JS: So, usually women too
AM: Bridge troll.
JS: Yeah.
AM: Right.
JS: Bridge troll but like, not like, “Answer these riddles, and I'll let you cross my bridge.”
AM: Answer me these questions, three.
JS: It's more like, it's more like, oh, you're walking by yourself at night? Here, I'm going to grab you and drown you.
AM: Like a humans/Kelpie venus flytrap.
JS: Yeah, pretty much and they don't really have the stickiness associated with them in the human form.
AM: More of just grab them
JS: Right, it's just like here bear hug you from behind and now we're going to jump off this bridge and--
AM: Oh, wow!
JS: -eat you in the water.
AM: That's very ominous. Sort of like, you know? Suicide, you know? Kind of connotations and whatnot.
JS: Oh, absolutely.
AM: Yeah.
JS: Someone could totally be like, oh a kelpy drowned them when they really just like jumped off a bridge.
AM: Yeah, wow.
JS: So one of the ways to kill the Kelpie is to shoot it with a silver bullet because everything in every mythology dies with a silver bullet. If...
AM: You is a bit of a kind of sacrificial element to that as well?
JS: Like sacrificing.
AM: Right, like. Especially powerful you have to kill it with a, a special object.
JS: According to capitalism, only rich people can kill monsters.
AM: Capitalism wasn't around back then.
JS: Oh, yeah, it was.
AM: Adam Smith was only a, a twinkle in the eye of the universe.
JS: And when the Kelpie is shot with the silver bullet I think this is really fun. It turns into...
AM: Pile of seaweed.
JS: It turns into I quote, “turf” and a soft mass like jellyfish.
AM: Interesting
JS: Yeah.
AM: So like a, like a soiled jello.
JS: Yes, like a soiled seaweedy jello.
AM: Like soil.
JS: Yeah.
AM: Like, soil, earth jello?
JS: Yes. Well, like no…
AM: Or like, seaweeds.
JS: I think it means like, like mossie kinda like, yeah,
AM: That sounds like modern art
JS: That sounds like a weird like sculpture that someone did to like reconnect with nature.
AM: Yeah. The true soul of man. We care about our, to be clear.
JS: Oh god!
AM: I don't care about art that deeply, err... or intelligently.
JS: I kind of do. So one of the most well-known Kelpies one would argue is Loch Ness. So there have been Kelpie stories related to Loch Ness since the sixth century.
AM: Wow.
JS: And if anyone ever read Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the Harry Potter spin-off book that JK Rowling.
AM: Menagerie.
JS: Like in 2000, I think something like that
AM: Down there.
JS: If you read the article that she writes about Kelpies they mentioned the fact that the Loch Ness Monster is actually a Kelpie. But because it's a shapeshifter, like it shapeshifts like either into that giant sea monster that we associate it with.
AM: Right, I was gonna say, it looks more like a snake.
JS: Yeah.
AM: In, in a lot of water snake, eel.
JS: -or whatever. Or something like that.
AM: Reptilian.
JS: Yes, and then JK Rowling makes the joke that every time that Muggles try and look for it, it just transforms into an otter. Which, I think it's a great, great joke like I just... I remember looking up Kel-Kelpies and being like, Oh my god, it's like the otter in Loch Ness.
AM: Amazing.
JS: So a lot of what Kelpies kind of are associated with is that rationalization of like drowning of children adults who accidentally fell--
AM: Oh sure, yeah.
JS: --into a deep or turbulent water or like you said, probably like suicide and trying to account for that.
AM: Yeah, I mean, that's a big part of it, right? From, from what we're getting out of the lessons you give me so far is that mythology, a big part of it is to explain the inexplicable.
JS: Yeah.
AM: And every... I can't speak about Scotland, but every Irish person has a cousin or uncle who died of drowning. I don't know. I mean, wells, just ponds...
JS: It's not like there's more water there.
AM: Right, we're not talking about like the land of 1000 Lakes here, but every single Irish is, I'm laughing because it's tragic. Because-
JS: Someone drowned.
AM: -has, has someone who died by drowning and you know? Especially back in the day, you know? Can't supervise your kids, not everyone will learn how to swim necessarily. So just you know, part of farm life has been trampled or, or falling or drowning.
JS: Oh, I don't have trampling stories, but I certainly do have drowning stories. So because water is such a mysterious force in any kind of culture.
AM: Sure.
JS: We do try to explain that force has the ability to kill or to bring life. And human beings kind of come up with stories and spirits that give reasons behind those things that we're too afraid to explain.
AM: Yeah.
JS: Water has always been sort of a mysterious force in any culture. It's used to explain it when we create mythology, in order to explain that force that it has on us the ability to kill the ability to bring life.
AM: Yeah.
JS: And then human beings come up with stories and spirits to give reason behind those things that we're too afraid to explain. So it could be something good like sexy seals, bringing children and awesome wives or it could be really bad, like drowning and devouring small children and women.
AM: Right.
JS: They explain local tragedies for people who believe in them and that's kind of the importance of mythology.
AM: Right, it's something you can tell yourself other than, you know? Life is hard, and then it ends. It's a way to talk to other people to explain things that you wish didn't have to.
JS: That was a very somber ending to this episode, but I'm just going to drink my drink.
AM: Spirits was created by Julia Schifini and me Amanda McLoughlin. It's edited by Eric Schneider with music by Kevin MacLeod. Allison Wakeman designed a beautiful logo and Twitter banner.
JS: Subscribe to Spirits for your preferred podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode. Our website is spiritspodcast.com and you can find us @SpiritsPodcast on Twitter, Facebook, SoundCloud, and Instagram.
AM: On our Patreon page, patreon.com/SpiritsPodcast you can sign up for exclusive content like behind the scenes photos, audio extras director's commentary on the episodes, blooper reels and beautiful recipe cards so you too can make salty dogs at home.
JS: We are so thankful for those of you who signed up to support us already every little bit helps as we get our first season off the ground.
AM: If you like the show, please share it with your friends and really does make a difference and leave us a review on iTunes would be great to make the up and coming chart.
JS: We’re listed in the history section rather than the comedy section. So what I'm saying is we could definitely take over those charts.
AM: I think we're a lot more fun than BBC In Our Time. Which is great, which is great. But…
JS: Suck it, In Our Time.
AM: Much less boozy. Anyway, I hope so. Thank you so much for listening! 'Til next time.