So, did I just make all this up?

No, I did not! The story I tell in the book Pig Boy is in a long story from Celtic mythology . It’s part of a bigger collection of marvellous, magical and really quite weird Welsh stories called the Mabinogion. In its medieval form Pig Boy was called Culhwch and Olwen and, for many years, I toured a storytelling version of the tale called Hunting the Giant’s Daughter with my friends from Adverse Camber. The story is traditional and meant for live telling. Mind you, I have mixed feelings about squeezing it into the covers of a book. Anyway, I hope that it is such strange and magical stuff that it will splurge out into our dreams and conversations.

Telling the Story of Pig Boy from Celtic mythology

The photo above is me and my friends Lynne and Stacey. They also go under the name of the folk group Ffynnon. I’m not sure what is going on in this picture but I think it might be one of the really scary bits. Probably the one where the giant’s servants lever open his eyes with enormous forked sticks. Then he throws a stone-tipped, poisoned spear at Pig Boy and his friends. This should have skewered them all to the castle wall but luckily they escaped, thanks to their quick wits and daring

We had great fun touring this show throughout Wales and England and over to Holland and Ireland. We were on the road for over eight years and loved every minute.  Who knows, one day we might take it out again. It has love, adventure, magic and the biggest wild boar you have ever seen in your entire life. In the meantime, I am turning it into a book which I’ll be publishing next year.

If that has piqued your curiosity and you can’t wait for the book launch you can sign up to receive bite-sized bits of the story to keep you going. If readable, modern versions of myths and folktales you can check out my amazon kindle #1 bestselling collection Celtic Folktales from Wales