Episode 21: Celtic and Scottish Ancestry

***TRIGGER WARNING***

This episode contains discussions that may be sensitive for some listeners, including mentions of child abuse, infant death, and infertility. Listener discretion is advised.

Welcome back to another installment of our ancestor series, dear listener! In this one, Skye takes the lead exploring the rich history of the Celts and Scotland. From fierce warriors, to scandalous royal affairs, listen and learn as we delve into the mists of time and discuss the formation of a nation and ancient peoples that are steeped in folklore, legend, and...some more unsavory details (as history typically goes)

If you would like to skip today's hypothetical and get right into the meat of the episode skip to- 27:21

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Transcript

Poppy 0:42

is stinky Cheeseman about love.

River 0:45

Uh, no,

Skye 0:46

It seems like it's just him up to mischief. Just

River 0:49

It's just him being, he's just like going to other fairytale stories and being like, and what if there was a stinky cheese man here? And what would

Poppy 0:58

I like that.

River 0:59

It's a great book.

Poppy 1:01

Well, I guess we're here and, ready to party. Ready to record our 21st episode.

River 1:10

Damn.

Skye 1:11

Mm-hmm.

Poppy 1:13

Welcome everybody. Today is an extra special situation. Sky will be delivering her first sky sewed. She's gonna take the reins, she's gonna take us through, um, a mystical, magical journey. Do you wanna tell us what you're talking about today?

Skye 1:32

So I am going to be talking to you guys about Celtic history and Scottish history primarily. Um, so it's probably not what you would expect or maybe even want when you read Sky's Celtic ancestry background episode. Like it's not gonna be so much whimsy and fairy tale. It's gonna be more for me, this was kind of just a deep dive in exploring the people that I came from. So it's just what I found interesting and what is relevant to me and what I like. And so now you have to listen to it.

River 2:18

I think that is what I expected and wanted. I think you're giving me

Skye 2:21

I just mean from an audience perspective, like when you see Celtic ancestry

River 2:26

guys, whatever. Just kidding.

Poppy 2:31

gonna, uh, throw in some bagpipes over, over top of that

Skye 2:36

I do mention bagpipes a little bit.

River 2:39

I do love bagpipes.

Poppy 2:41

The pipes. The pipes are calling.

Skye 2:43

That's basically my only note is like, I like bagpipes

Poppy 2:47

Well, since today is a extra special sky sewed, I have concocted an extra special hypothetical.

River 2:56

delicious, how DLI and who are you? We've introduced Sky, who are you? not really introducing ourselves anymore in the episodes I've noticed and I'm like, uh,

Poppy 3:07

That's true. well, I'm, um, pity Pop Poppy. My name is Poppy

River 3:14

Oh,

Poppy 3:14

and I'm gonna pop off over here. Thankfully I have a pop filter on my mic, so hopefully that didn't sound horrible. Um, but yes, my name is Poppy and I'm the blonde one.

River 3:26

You are the blonde one that is important to know. And I'm river and I'm just happy to be here. And I'm not the blonde one

Poppy 3:39

Mm-hmm.

River 3:39

to be when I was

Poppy 3:40

River has the shortest hair

River 3:43

I do.

Poppy 3:43

and we know who Skye is because she's telling us about her ancestry

River 3:48

gonna hear so much about her and her life and her lineage.

Poppy 3:53

Mm-hmm. I'm excited. But before we do that, I'm going to, um, introduce this hypothetical and I don't think you guys are gonna like it very much, but I think it's going to be fun and it involves me sending some things to the group chat. Um,

River 4:09

this is a multimedia kind of question.

Poppy 4:13

to a location.

Skye 4:14

how sometimes you're like, you're transported to an alternate universe where you don't have a scalp or something. Horrifying.

Poppy 4:25

No.

Skye 4:26

Okay. I'm, I'm logged in, I'm in the group chat.

Poppy 4:29

Okay. So what we're gonna do today, I found three different haunted dolls for sale online.

River 4:38

Oh, I'm having the time of my fucking life already.

Poppy 4:41

what we're gonna do, I'm gonna send you guys pictures of them to the group chat. Um, and you're going to guess whether the spirit inside of the doll is, um, malicious, uh, neutral, or if it is benevolent.

Skye 4:57

have the answers.

River 4:57

So are we just matching personality types?

Poppy 5:01

J Yeah, just based on vibes. You're just gonna be like, that gives me sickening vibes. That is an evil doll.

River 5:09

Now, is this a trick? And they're all evil.

Poppy 5:13

No,

River 5:13

Okay.

Poppy 5:14

they're not all

Skye 5:15

But is there a definitive answer or are you. just asking for our opinion?

Poppy 5:19

There's a definitive answer because after you tell me, I'm gonna read you, I'm gonna read you their names, and then I'm just gonna give you like a general backstory about what the person selling the doll said about them.

Skye 5:31

there is one of each,

Poppy 5:33

uh, yes, there is one of each. So by the time we

Skye 5:36

Yeah, like I just wanna make sure it's not like your options are sinister, neutral or good. And it could be two of them are sinister. One's neutral, or, you know what I mean? Like I don't wanna

Poppy 5:48

Yeah, well, dang, I shouldn't have said one of each because now it's just gonna give it away after we get

River 5:54

One of them just is a doll of the devil. And you're like, which one is that one?

Poppy 6:00

Um, okay.

River 6:04

I'm excited.

Skye 6:06

I am

Poppy 6:06

Bleed blue.

Skye 6:08

either way,

River 6:08

Yeah, Three of'em.

Poppy 6:11

three of'em.

River 6:12

One for each of us. Oh my God. We should all get one.

Poppy 6:16

And at the end I am, so one of these is super expensive. One is like middle range, one is cheap. And I want you guys to guess which one, which one's the most expensive? Which one's the cheapest at the end.

River 6:28

I feel like the most active and evil one is usually the most expensive,

Poppy 6:33

We'll see. We'll see, we'll see about the

Skye 6:36

It also varies on the type of like the actual physical doll itself. If it's like a vintage doll or like a very, or if it was just like a cheap doll that happens to be super fucked up and haunted.

Poppy 6:48

is number one.

River 6:51

Oh, oh God. That's frightening.

Skye 6:54

Why does she look like she's the head of the PTA?

River 6:58

Why does she look like the doll from long legs in the eyes?

Skye 7:03

how pale her eyes are.

River 7:06

That's a really upsetting. I don't like the lighting in the pictures.

Skye 7:10

a pink huffy bike?

River 7:13

She's riding a pink princess bike

Poppy 7:16

Oh, well there's, that's part

River 7:18

hearts all over it. She loves riding her bike.

Poppy 7:21

She loves riding her

River 7:22

She rides up and down the hallways at night.

Poppy 7:25

Up and down the stairs.

River 7:28

She's so

Poppy 7:28

Uh, do you want someone, please, someone describe this doll for the listeners and we'll post pictures on Instagram as well.

Skye 7:34

river. I would love if you did.

River 7:36

I'll do my darnedest, but I'm, I'm feeling such a deep dread and fear.

Poppy 7:43

Mm-hmm.

River 7:44

So we have two images of doll number one. Uh, it is a approximately three feet tall human girl doll. We've got, um, you know, mid back length, curly brown hair. She's wearing a, a little big hair, big curly hair. She's got, uh, maybe felt maybe velvet red dress on with lace detailing. She's got little bloomers and Mary Jane's on just the most frightening eyes I've ever seen on a

Skye 8:28

She looks like a 40-year-old woman.

Poppy 8:31

I know. That's why I chose

River 8:33

simultaneously 40 and seven years

Skye 8:36

yeah,

Poppy 8:37

yeah.

Skye 8:38

like if you, if you look at her from afar, she looks old, but when you get closer up to where she looks young,

River 8:43

in the details, I can only describe the eyes as colorless.

Skye 8:49

are.

Poppy 8:49

Yeah, they're, they're very gray. not even gray. There's just like,

River 8:54

and I don't know if she came that way or if it just like over time and like sun exposure

Skye 9:00

In the second picture, it's kind of pinkish, like a very, very pale

River 9:05

little bit. But it's not a human eye color and that's

Poppy 9:09

No, it's very like

Skye 9:10

She's also not

Poppy 9:12

Cullen.

River 9:13

Not smiling, but it's not a neutral expression. It's an, it's an emotion I cannot identify and I don't think I've ever seen before.

Poppy 9:22

Mm-hmm.

River 9:23

It's like a resigned acceptance.

Skye 9:26

to get a read on you, I think is kind of the expression where she's staring at you. She doesn't care if you catch her staring at you, but she's really trying to soak in and figure out what your deal is.

River 9:36

looking into you. She's not looking at you like, I feel this in the core. I, I just looked at the picture again and I was like, oh,

Skye 9:44

I will say my first impression, I'm getting like a medium sort of ick from it. I'm not getting

River 9:52

I think I'm gonna have to see the other dolls. This one vexes and haunts

Skye 9:56

I don't think that Poppy would hit us with the the worst one upfront.

Poppy 10:01

upfront.

Skye 10:02

Maybe

River 10:04

uh, in the first picture, she's on a pink princess bike that is too big for her, which I find very funny. Uh, yeah. Hate it.

Poppy 10:13

so you're going, you're going neutral. Sky's going neutral. River's going bad,

River 10:20

I don't, I don't think it's bad, per se, but I, I don't quite have a read on it

Skye 10:28

There is a good one though.

Poppy 10:31

Mm-hmm. There is a

Skye 10:32

I will say that this doll looks kind of pricey. It looks like

River 10:37

It looks like it's in very good condition.

Poppy 10:39

it's over three feet tall. It's in good condition. Um, I mean, she's beautiful. You know, the dress looks well made. She's got pantaloons

River 10:49

visible stains or rips or anything that I can see.

Poppy 10:53

Patent leather shoes on. Um, okay, so the title of this listing is Large Haunted Vessel, all Caps, doll Poltergeist, paranormal Possessed, possession Spirited.

Skye 11:07

this is the bad one.

Poppy 11:10

No, this is actually, this is the neutral one. You were right.

River 11:12

Wow. Check that out.

Poppy 11:14

So this is Lillian.

River 11:17

She looks like a

Skye 11:18

I love that name. I

Poppy 11:20

yeah, I don't know if I should read the whole backstory or just give you guys a summary.

Skye 11:26

a summary. This is gonna be a long episode.

Poppy 11:30

Yeah. So, um, she weighs more than seven pounds. Lillian's tragic story. When she was only five, she and her brother were in the bathtub and her mother walked away and her brother drowned her on purpose. Um, but before that, her life wasn't good either. There's some like descriptions of child abuse in here. Um, and so she loved riding her bike down the quote, cracked sidewalks of her neighborhood and played hopscotch and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, what to expect from this doll? Uh, you'll hear. distant giggling when no one else is home. Um, changing positions overnight, you know, pretty standard stuff. Lights, flickering, faint smell of burning tobacco because she, uh, her parents used to burn her with cigarettes. Horrible. Um, unsettling sensations, small childlike hand prints appearing on mirrors and glass. And her energy is very heavy and sorrowful,

River 12:32

unsettling sensations.

Poppy 12:35

I, yeah, just like, I guess just like an uncomfortable, like feeling like you're being

Skye 12:39

A big squawk energy coming from Lillian.

Poppy 12:41

Oh, I guess she is more of a

River 12:43

they'd be good friends.

Skye 12:45

Hmm.

Poppy 12:45

Yeah.

River 12:46

That's sad.

Skye 12:48

that's the neutral one,

Poppy 12:49

Lillian.

Skye 12:50

nervous.

River 12:51

terrified for the evil one.

Poppy 12:54

Okay.

River 12:54

Neutral's already not. Great doll. Number two, let's see it.

Poppy 12:59

doll. Number two.

River 13:00

Oh no,

Skye 13:02

That's the good one.

River 13:06

it's little booty ass.

Skye 13:08

wish you would de describe this one as well.

River 13:12

Me.

Skye 13:13

Yeah, because it's very river energy coated of,

River 13:17

Is it because my sister had a little clown doll?

Skye 13:21

I

Poppy 13:21

No, it's because it's just a little guy and it's, it has a little

Skye 13:24

that's the little stink,

Poppy 13:26

is up.

River 13:27

to be fair, if I think if I were to be turned into a doll by a witch's curse, I think that is pretty much how I would look.

Skye 13:34

that's what we're saying.

River 13:38

So this one is a approximately two feet tall.'cause there's a ruler next to it.

Poppy 13:45

Mm-hmm.

River 13:47

It's kind of a big doll for a clown. I feel like they're usually like much smaller than that.

Poppy 13:52

I feel like it's like actual human baby size. I,

River 13:56

We've got a, a cloth bodied little, uh, clown baby, I suppose is the best way to describe it. In a, a red onesie with a funny little hat, little mittens and booties for hands, no fingers or anything. It's got a porcelain face, rosy little cheeks. Its eyes are closed. It's got little, little blonde curl wisps on its forehead. It has a distinct booty ass.

Poppy 14:32

mm-hmm.

Skye 14:33

Yeah, that that doll is caked

River 14:34

one that was

Poppy 14:36

Like they sewed the crack

River 14:38

They, there's a seam right where it should be.

Poppy 14:42

Mm-hmm.

River 14:43

That was intentional. I do love the fit though, if I'm being honest. I would wear the fuck outta that.

Poppy 14:50

Yeah. Did you already say like, eyes closed, slight smile. Let's get the golden curl and the rosy

River 14:57

Yeah. That is delightful.

Skye 15:00

bet this doll probably is not very expensive

Poppy 15:03

Yeah,

Skye 15:04

of

River 15:04

It does. It looks very worn. It looks well, loved.

Poppy 15:09

I can't tell if the head is like, fully like just stuffing and then there's just kind of like a plastic mask over It or if

River 15:18

seems that way to me based on like the picture of the back.

Poppy 15:24

Mm-hmm.

River 15:25

I think it's just like a, a face

Poppy 15:28

He's stuffed, he got stuffing.

River 15:30

know, you got no bones.

Poppy 15:32

Okay.

River 15:33

I don't, I kind of love this vibe. I think this is the little good one.

Poppy 15:36

Okay. Is that your final answer?

River 15:39

Yeah. For better or worse, I love this thing.

Poppy 15:43

The, the title of this listing is Authentic Demonic Possessed Doll Real, satanic Haunted, extremely Dangerous.

River 15:54

See, this is why I would get a cursed object.'cause I'd be like, I love this thing's energy. It's the fucking demon.

Poppy 16:02

Mm-hmm.

Skye 16:02

Okay. But is that click bait?

Poppy 16:03

Uh, may, maybe, I don't know, they say extremely dangerous like four times. Um, rare, vintage, and possessed in pretty great condition. They say, I don't know. It doesn't look like it's in great condition to me. Um, I've only seen one similar doll in a lot worse condition. Okay. Um, from around the time 1940, possibly, even 1906.

River 16:28

That's a pretty big gap.

Poppy 16:32

Yeah. So they don't describe what you can expect from this doll. They basically just say the last owner purchased it on Christmas and then was shocked when paranormal events began happening right away. But it doesn't say what paranormal events. However, it does say extremely demonic and extremely dangerous. So

Skye 16:56

I think that's

River 16:57

I don't buy it.

Skye 16:58

I think it was just like the last one. I think it was just like flickering lights and like minor kind of shit. I don't like, if you're gonna say very dangerous, give me a specific,

River 17:08

have to tell me how

Skye 17:09

are you waking up in the morning, right? Are you waking up in the morning and all of your knives are out of the butcher block

River 17:15

Yeah. Are you feeling like weight pressing on you when you're going to

Skye 17:20

yeah.

Poppy 17:22

There was one that I did not include that I'll send you guys pictures of later. It's really creepy, and the description is super long, and it talks about all of the horrible things that befall the seller after her sister, like pranked her with a doll. And it's, there's so much shit. It's like

Skye 17:40

That's a fucked up prank.

Poppy 17:41

I hear it scurrying around in the attic. My car broke down. I had to walk to work, um, for two years, four miles. I dislocated my shoulder. Um, I got a new car and then got in a car accident, you know, like just thing after thing after

River 17:59

Here's a funny prank demon doll.

Skye 18:02

Some of that I would say. You can't chalk up to the doll though. Like can a doll put bad luck upon you? Depending on what's inhabiting the doll, perhaps, but I don't know. I don't like the scurrying. The scurrying alone is enough.

River 18:19

No, I don't. I don't like that.

Skye 18:21

I'd rather you flicker my lights than move around.

River 18:24

Yeah.

Poppy 18:25

my car gets stolen. I had to walk four miles to work for two years. My apartment floods six times. The pipes burst. I dislocate my right arm. Um, constant noises from the empty apartment above me, things flying off my shelves. Oh, oh, this is bad. Often when I would take a shower, I would hear someone banging aggressively on my front door. Hate that they installed a ring camera and nobody was

Skye 18:50

See if this little clown guy was doing that, then I would be like, okay,

River 18:55

I'd be like, okay, that's a fucked up real doll. That's a real haunted doll.

Poppy 18:59

Yeah, let me just send you the pictures of her too, just so you can

River 19:02

Her

Poppy 19:03

what I'm her it.

River 19:07

watch it be like a cabbage patch doll.

Poppy 19:09

Oh my God.

Skye 19:10

Oh, I hate that.

River 19:14

it in jail?

Poppy 19:16

Yeah. They put her in like a lantern

River 19:19

Dude, that's some

Skye 19:20

her shoulder's dislocated.

Poppy 19:23

Yeah.

River 19:25

Oh my God.

Poppy 19:27

Oh my God.

River 19:28

Oh my God.

Skye 19:30

her arms don't look like none of her body parts look like it belonged to her. They all

River 19:34

No, it looks like her head and arms are from a completely different doll.

Poppy 19:39

They're selling the stall for$5,000, by the way.

Skye 19:42

I believe that

River 19:44

Okay. If this is like a real ass evil doll, wouldn't you want to be like, Hey, best offer, please take this thing.

Poppy 19:51

I know, right? Well, the thing is they've, they've tried to throw it away multiple times, but then every time it comes back, even when she threw it away before she moved to a new apartment, it showed up in her new

River 20:04

Yep.

Poppy 20:05

Allegedly.

Skye 20:06

Well then how do You think that this doll is gonna respect a purchase?

River 20:12

I think contractually, maybe I. I think if it's like, well now I have a new target, instead of just like constantly finding its last target over and over again. I think that's the thing. You gotta pass it along to somebody,

Skye 20:26

Mm-hmm. It's just like the ring.

River 20:29

Yeah.

Poppy 20:31

Yeah. Okay. Um, last one, so you know, since this is number three, this is the good one. There she is.

River 20:38

Oh,

Skye 20:39

Oh.

River 20:40

I like her little hat. Oh, she looks, she looks so darling.

Poppy 20:43

Yeah, she's pretty

Skye 20:44

She kind of looks

River 20:45

Also a little frightening. She's got big

Skye 20:47

she looks like Madeline kind of.

River 20:50

a little bit with a little yellow.

Poppy 20:53

and the smock, the little yellow scarf and the navy blue smock.

River 20:58

yeah,

Poppy 20:58

And they have her in front of a crucifix for some reason.

Skye 21:02

It kind of looks like a tiny doll casket.

Poppy 21:05

Yeah. Kind of like standing upright. I don't know if that's a stand or if they just used

River 21:10

That's just a prop. They're just posing.

Skye 21:13

I don't know.

Poppy 21:14

Yeah. It looks like she doesn't have a, like a left arm. I can see her right hand, but not

Skye 21:20

Oh yeah, I see that.

River 21:22

and it looks like the fabric is like, there's nothing in the sleeve either.

Poppy 21:27

Mm-hmm. Yeah, but so she's pretty cute. Okay, so this is a good one. I'll read to you her, um, her title, haunted Doll, succubus Vessel Prim and Proper or Naughty, paranormal

River 21:42

I am sorry. There's a choice. There's

Poppy 21:46

and Proper or Naughty.

Skye 21:48

I think it just depends on what she's feeling that day.

River 21:51

I guess. So

Poppy 21:52

And this description is really short, so I'm just gonna read it verbatim for you. Inside this sweet vintage collectible vessel is Yasmin, a hungry fervent succubus. Her mission is singular to mate with men while they sleep and fulfill her needs and to ignite your desire and passion. So she may appear to you in your dreams, in a way that fulfills your fantasies. She can present herself any way she wishes, let her know what you would want her to look and feel like. When she's around females, she tends to increase desires and urges as well.

River 22:24

bisexual, I like

Poppy 22:25

And then there's a little blurb about suc you by. Yeah, so that's

Skye 22:30

So she leaves

Poppy 22:31

the Succubus.

River 22:32

Men,

Skye 22:34

to do this

River 22:34

she

Poppy 22:35

yeah. So she appears in

River 22:36

into your your subconscious, your dreamscape. She's just using it as a vessel.

Poppy 22:42

Yeah. There's no description of like bumps or like bumps in the night or moving around or anything like that. Yeah. Mentally.

Skye 22:49

this also feels like click bait. Unfortunately.

Poppy 22:54

I mean, if you're, you're so lonely, you're gonna buy a haunted succubus doll,

River 22:59

Yeah,

Poppy 23:01

at least get a sex doll, you know?

River 23:03

get a real

Skye 23:04

Yeah. Imagine just tucking her into bed with you at night and you're just like, me and you

River 23:09

my God. I can't wait to see you in my dreams. Yasmine.

Poppy 23:13

with I, I love it even more that they put her in front of the crucifix

River 23:19

Yeah. What is, why was it prim and proper ore succubus? It seems like it's just succubus.

Skye 23:28

doll is prim

Poppy 23:28

I think because she looks, she looks like Mary Poppins

River 23:32

The duality. She looks like a good little

Poppy 23:34

the hat.

Skye 23:36

Maybe it's that sort of like that Catholic thing of like, I want you to be like all put together Un until I want you to be like the most filthy, disgusting animal.

River 23:46

to me.

Poppy 23:47

Yeah.

Skye 23:49

And then I want you to be a porn star behind closed doors.

River 23:52

Yeah.

Poppy 23:53

Yeah.

River 23:53

I get kind of grossed out by that thinking.

Poppy 23:56

Okay. So price guesses. Which one do you think is the most expensive? Which is the medium? Which is the

Skye 24:01

Well, I think that that really, really fucked up one is the most expensive. You said it was like$5,000 or something like that.

Poppy 24:07

Oh, yeah. I wasn't, that was just like a bonus one that I wanted to show you guys, but of the three, like original, the, um, the, uh, Lillian on the bike.

River 24:18

I feel

Poppy 24:18

Number one,

River 24:19

could go for a pretty penny though. Like if you're, if you're buying it for a service, essentially.

Poppy 24:26

Like a guaranteed service.

Skye 24:30

It's

River 24:30

I'm gonna guess Lillian is, is the cheapest, the demonic one is the middle, and then the succubus is the most expensive.

Poppy 24:42

Okay.

Skye 24:43

Um, I'm gonna say Lillian is the most expensive. The Succubus is the second most expensive, and then the demonic one is the cheapest.

Poppy 24:52

Okay. uh, Yasmin, the Succubus is the cheapest. She is$51 and 75

Skye 25:00

Put some respect on her.

River 25:02

I'm saying. She's trying to earn a some fucking business. She's out here working.

Skye 25:10

she works for tips now, like, God damn,

Poppy 25:13

I guess, I mean, you're giving her a room and board. So um, Lillian on the bike, she's number two, or she's mid-range. She costs$555 and 55 cents.

River 25:27

Damn.

Skye 25:27

there's a child spirit in there, so, yeah.

River 25:30

Yeah. A sad

Skye 25:31

Mm-hmm.

Poppy 25:34

Which means our demonic,

River 25:37

Extremely dangerous.

Poppy 25:41

satanic possessed guy, uh, is the most expensive. He is$3,000,$3,000, but he free shipping. You don't have to pay shipping.

Skye 25:52

fucking hope so. God.

Poppy 25:56

I also wanna say all three of these sellers have almost 100% positive reviews with like 100 to 300 reviews.

Skye 26:06

What website?

River 26:07

How do you just come across that many haunted dolls that you like? Have a business

Skye 26:12

I bet there's a community.

Poppy 26:14

they're not haunted.

River 26:15

Yeah. they're not haunted.

Poppy 26:17

Guys, there were so many good ones that I ended up not choosing just because I didn't wanna do a ton. There were so many, so I

River 26:24

Oh, the haunted doll market has been alive and well for years.

Skye 26:29

hard to find them because every single time I go to a thrift store, there are just so many weird dolls in there. And I bet you would just you once you're, you just know the one that's really fucked up.

Poppy 26:42

Which is why I chose this, uh, this topic for Sky, both because I knew,

River 26:49

It's been zero days since I've seen a fucking doll.

Skye 26:52

Yeah.

Poppy 26:53

go listen to episode five. Um, our first. A scary Ghosty story episode where Skye tells us about. She actually also mentions going to Scotland in that episode, but she tells us about her first haunted doll or her first experience with a haunted doll.

Skye 27:10

Yeah.

Poppy 27:11

Yeah, so that's that. Um, thank you for playing along. We'll post these on Instagram at death Coven

Skye 27:18

that for me.

Poppy 27:20

You're welcome.

Skye 27:21

All right, you guys ready?

River 27:24

I'm ready. Are you

Poppy 27:25

I'm ready. I, I'm excited.

Skye 27:27

So I'm gonna be starting from the past, like way early to modern is kind of how I'm gonna roll. I'm gonna start with Kel in general, and then I'm gonna kind of bottleneck into Scotland. and, and, I do just wanna say that Celtic heritage and ancestry is such a huge topic because Celtic history is European history and it's just so involved in so many different other. Cultures are influenced them and it depends on the time that you're talking about and the, like the region that you're talking about of what was going on with their culture. And there's just way too much to cover. So I am

Poppy 28:16

Mm-hmm.

Skye 28:17

skimming over the surface some of what I say might be wrong. This is just my understanding from the sources that I pulled. That being

Poppy 28:26

Are there any like main sources you wanna highlight before we get into it?

Skye 28:29

no, I just kind of was picking in Poland, I watched like a few documentaries and

Poppy 28:35

Mm-hmm.

Skye 28:36

went to some trustworthy websites and such.

Poppy 28:39

Nice.

Skye 28:40

But what is a Celt? Who is a Kel? Who are these people? So according to Britannica, a Celt is a member of an early Indo-European people who from the second millennium, B, c, e, to the first century, B, CE, spread over much of Europe. Their tribes and groups eventually ranged from the British Isles and Northern Spain to as far east as Transylvania, the Black Sea Coasts and Galatia and Anatolia. And were in part absorbed into the Roman Empire as Britain's Gauls boy Galatians and Cel Iberians. Linguistically they survive in the modern Celtic speakers of Ireland. Highland Scotland, the Isle of Man, Wales, and Brittany. So we got a lot.

River 29:28

Aisle of man. Take me there. Am I right? Hubble? Hubble?

Skye 29:32

Isle of Man. The Isle of Man is an independent Republic sort of thing. Uh, in the UK it's an island that's basically in between England, Scotland and Ireland. It's out there and it just is like a self-governing,

Poppy 29:48

Mm-hmm.

Skye 29:49

uh, body. So the Britains are in the uk. The Gauls are France and Germany. The boy are from Northern Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, general Bohemia area. The Galatians are Turkey and the K Iberians are from the Iberian Peninsula, Spain and Portugal area. So that's what I mean by Celtic. History is European History

Poppy 30:17

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Skye 30:19

Show. There are divided theories on where the Celts originally came from. There are two sort of main theories, whether they came west to east or east to west. Um, the most. Accepted theory is that they started in mainland Europe and then moved out and towards the British Isles. But there is some evidence maybe to show that they started in the British Isles and then moved onto on, uh, mainland Europe.

Poppy 30:52

I have a quick question, like how, I guess it's the English channel that's between.

Skye 31:01

England and France.

Poppy 31:02

Like England and the Yeah. So it's not a super, it's not a, a super far distance to cross over.

Skye 31:13

Um, and I'll

Poppy 31:14

Some people just swim that

Skye 31:16

yeah. I'll also get into the, the other theory about why they think maybe they could have started in the, how they would've started in the, in the aisles. so yeah, the reason why the most common theory is that they started in mainland Europe is because in Austria they found this huge salt mine. they found Celtic remains and things of that nature there. And guess what was really, really not really, really close by, but close by and really, really popular at this time was the Amber Road.

Poppy 31:53

mm.

Skye 31:53

And so the Kelts were big trades people. It's theorized at least, and the Amber Road connects the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. So we're connecting, we're taking salt. And at this time, I mean, I'm talking about early Iron Age is the period that I'm referring to. Do you know how important

Poppy 32:16

So that's like, like 2000 BC

Skye 32:21

the Iron Age was from 1200 BCE to 600 BCE, and the Bronze age was 3,300 BCE to 1200 BCE. So, you know, it's maybe late bronze age, early iron Age

Poppy 32:37

Mm-hmm. Okay.

Skye 32:39

Um, so they're, they're spreading all throughout Europe. They have all this salt. Everyone wants their salt, they want gold, they want amber, they want turquoise. They want these other goods and stuff too. So they're traveling essentially across Europe from sea to shining sea over there, gathering goods, trading wares. They're kind of getting pretty wealthy. And also just from traveling, they're also spreading their culture. so we got Kelts around Austria and then they're kind of spreading out. They're do and trade and they're spreading out throughout Europe. That's very, very basic idea of that first theory. So we're in the Iron Age, what's going on in the Iron Age? We got the rise of city states. We got Athens, we got Sparta, we got communities with government and laws now shit's about to pop off. Shit's getting crazy in Europe. And because of that, I mean it's called the Iron Age for a reason. We're no longer peaceful tradesmen anymore. We're perfecting our iron making. And if you've ever seen Celtic type old, old art, it's a lot of metal. They had, they had metal adornments. They became very, very skilled craftsmen with um, craftsmen and metal workers. So what does that mean? We're making swords, bitch.

River 34:03

Love a sword.

Poppy 34:05

Big old, heavy ass swords.

Skye 34:08

Yeah. We're not making that flimsy shit anymore. We're making swords. They're gonna look badass as fuck, and we're gonna be good at using them. But the Celts different than Roman soldiers. What do we know about Roman soldiers? What do we think about? They're neat. They're orderly. They're in line. They have their shields up and they're going ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, step. You know, like that's what the Roman

Poppy 34:34

Yeah.

Skye 34:34

doing.

River 34:35

precise.

Skye 34:36

Very precise. They're information, they're like the Canadian geese flying in a V formation. Like that's what the Roman soldiers are doing

Poppy 34:47

On their

Skye 34:48

on their roads. But the Celts bit different. Uh, they were reported to be more chaotic and wild. Uh, they were often referred to as savages by the Romans. They're doing gorilla warfare. They're in the woods and they're doing sneak surprise attacks and they're

River 35:13

Yeah. They're not fighting

Poppy 35:15

Mm-hmm.

River 35:16

here.

Skye 35:17

They didn't give us a heads up that they were gonna attack us. Yeah. So they're doing it erratically quickly without warning. They're doing sneak attacks. And also some warriors were reported to have entered the battlefield with their bodies adorned with only swirls of symbolic body paint. But otherwise nude

River 35:38

Hell yeah.

Skye 35:40

were naked.

Poppy 35:41

We got all that metal and we're not wearing armor,

River 35:45

eat it. I'm naked and I've got my sword.

Poppy 35:47

Braveheart.

Skye 35:48

So a lot of the history that we know about Kelts is written through a Roman lens because they didn't have written history. So it's really biased from how the Romans viewed the kelts. But I do have a quote. From this guy named Polyus, who is a Greek Hellenistic historian. And he writes this about the Celts, the en supers and boy were clothed in their breaches and light cloaks. but the ate from vanity and bravado threw these garments away and fell in front of the army naked with nothing but their arms, believing that as the ground was in parts encumbered with brambles, which might possibly catch in their clothes and impede the use of their weapons. They would be more effective in this state. So they thought that they were gonna get

Poppy 36:39

Aerodynamic.

Skye 36:41

and they were like, we're

Poppy 36:41

Mm-hmm.

Skye 36:42

we're gonna free ball it out there. And then they went sicko mode. But they actually beat the Romans quite a few times in battle. cause they can't, you can't pin me down. You can't, you can't

River 36:53

know where I'm coming from.

Poppy 36:54

can't see me. You can't see me.

River 36:55

I'm in the dirt.

Skye 36:56

Mm-hmm. I'm in your skin. I'm your wife. We've been married for 10 years.

River 37:01

This is the long

Skye 37:02

I know. and they actually sacked Rome at one point. I. They like came for Rome and they didn't take it because they settled some treaty, something, something, whatever

River 37:15

It would've been really funny if they did.

Skye 37:17

the world as we know, it would be incredibly different if the kilts took over

River 37:20

It would've been really funny if they had,

Skye 37:23

in general, they were really skilled warriors and a lot of the times they were hired mercenaries for different lands. They kind of put their morals aside. They didn't really get involved, at least from what I could tell with politics. Like they didn't really give a shit about who, why everyone was fighting with each other. They just wanted the coin and then they wanted to go fight in the war and then go back to their homeland. It's kind of, that was kind of their whole deal. Some say that their inner tribe fighting and their inability to unify was their biggest downfall. So, because it was sort of like, like we're all Celts, but there's different, like I was saying, like there's the boy and then there's the GS and there's

River 38:02

yeah,

Skye 38:02

there's all these different

River 38:03

separate factions within one. Nation per se.

Skye 38:09

you know how mineral just gonna have that big jerk off competition, like no matter what culture you're in.

Poppy 38:14

Meanwhile, Rome is just like, we have people, we are huge.

Skye 38:19

Mm-hmm. That's'cause Rome did things by force and they like

Poppy 38:24

Yeah. And it was effective.

Skye 38:26

Yeah, and they were really good at Romanizing people. Like when they got there, they were like, you're a Roman now.

River 38:33

Yeah. Congratulations. You're mine

Skye 38:35

Mm-hmm.

Poppy 38:36

Yeah, whatever religion you're practicing. Illegal.

Skye 38:38

Yeah. But on that note, eventually the Roman Empire swooped in taking over everything. Most cults either assimilated to the Roman Empire or they migrated. Now I'm gonna get into that other theory a little bit from west to east. And then this is also gonna kind of be where I'm like funneling into the Scotland topic as well. So people have lived in Scotland since the end of the last ice age. The last Ice age ended like 13,000 years ago. The history is deep and long. It is crazy. they found a village from the Neolithic age in this place called Scarra Bray, which is in the Orny Islands in Scotland. And it is the best preserved neolithic settlement in Western Europe that is, and it's older than the Egyptian pyramids and it's older than Stone Hinch, both of which are about 5,000 years old. This village is probably twice that age long,

Poppy 39:38

Damn.

Skye 39:39

rooted history.

Poppy 39:39

That's crazy. That's like right after the agricultural revolution.

Skye 39:44

But whether or not those people were kelt specifically kind of up for debate, you know what I mean?

Poppy 39:50

Mm-hmm.

Skye 39:51

But over, but we know that there were people in what we consider modern day Scotland since the Neolithic age, and maybe even like late,'cause Neolithic age is, what do they call it? Like the new, They call it the New Stone Age, I think is what I'm thinking of.

Poppy 40:05

Are you gonna talk about like climate and stuff of the

Skye 40:09

not so much, but that Ory Islands thing, because it was towards the end of the last ice age. They think that people got there because the ice was like, the waters were so high, and then they traveled from like the mainland and like went over there and then the

Poppy 40:27

Yeah.

Skye 40:28

pretty,

Poppy 40:29

was probably cold as fuck and hard to live there.

Skye 40:33

Yeah. I saw pictures of the village. The village was like inset into the ground, like they dug into the ground to have like the village have like kind of short walls and then everyone kind of lived inside of that. So I imagine that helped provide for the wind. And then a, you lit a fire. I'm sure it like helped warm, warm, the, the little

Poppy 40:53

Mm-hmm.

Skye 40:54

But in general, the Celts were the most dominant peoples of the British Isles before the Roman invasion. And their languages still survive to this day. The surviving languages are Bretton, Cornish, Welsh Manx, Irish Gaelic, and Scottish Gaelic. In case you were wondering, Manx is the language on Isle of Man.

Poppy 41:17

sense.

Skye 41:17

I've never heard a Mank dialect before, though. I will say

Poppy 41:21

No, I know Welsh is crazy.

Skye 41:23

is I've, I've spoken to Welsh people before. This Walsh man was like, you understand what I'm saying to you right now? And I was like, I am incredibly intoxicated. So yes, but the Celts are responsible for their distinct culture versus the English. So that border of Scotland to England. And even like,'cause a lot of people clump Ireland and Scotland together. And then sort of south of that, you get this very different culture with England. And that's because the Romans were able to take over England. The Anglo-Saxons came in, uh, but the Romans were unable to subdue Scotland based on the fierceness of the Scottish tribes, the mountainous terrain and the harsh weather conditions.'cause they were used to their balmy Mediterranean

River 42:14

Mm. They weren't ready for all that.

Skye 42:17

weren't ready for all that. They were like, oh my god, it's chilly. Oh my god, it's so high altitude. Oh my

River 42:21

It's like gray and it's kind of windy. Oh my god. That man's naked.

Poppy 42:26

and these Celts are running around bare ass naked in this cold, windy, wet,

Skye 42:32

And they're

River 42:32

They're like, yo, this is crazy, We gotta get out of here.

Poppy 42:35

the shrinkage. That's why they weren't worried about it getting cut off.'cause it was all the way up in their bodies, you know?

Skye 42:41

Yeah.

Poppy 42:43

Yeah.

Skye 42:43

Or they painted a scary face around it or something to, to ward off the enemy. Yeah. so in Scotland we have two primary Celtic groups that were there. We have the Gales that came from the West in Ireland, and we have the picks. The picks are really interesting because we don't have hardly any information on them. All we have of them is artwork. But we do believe that they were some sort of Celtic group that inhabiting like the northern Highlands in Scotland. Um, they're the ones that you can see, I mean, multiple tribes probably did this, but famously I think that when you look up pics, they're the ones that have the blue body paint,

Poppy 43:28

How did they make blue?

Skye 43:29

Fuck. I know.

Poppy 43:31

That's so hard, right?

River 43:32

Crushing up their fucking lapis. L we

Skye 43:35

Yeah. I don't know. Turquoise. Like, I don't know what they, what they got. Okay. Now moving into just Scotland in general, um, Scotland means land of the Scots that comes across as very obvious. Yes. Yes. We get that. But where do we get Scot? What do you mean land of the sco? Who is Scott?

River 43:55

Some guy named Scott was just like, this is mine now.

Skye 43:58

Yeah. No. Okay, so the Scotty or the Scott Eye was the name given to the Gales that occupied Ireland. So technically Ireland was actually called Scotland first, but then the group of the Scott Eye came over to Scotland and then now there was a lot of back and forth crisscross applesauce of cultures and peoples going back and forth between Ireland and Scotland. So, and I know that both Ireland and Scotland, we all have this sort of, uh, patriotism of, you know, don't lump me in with the other, like, I'm Scottish, I'm Irish, I'm, you know, but it makes sense as to

Poppy 44:38

Just don't call me English.

Skye 44:40

Yeah, truly. But they, it makes sense why people lump it together because there is a long history there. Um, thanks to the Celts. And there was other names, it was also called Alba, which is what the Gales referred to their own homeland as, um, which is where the name's Albany Albion I don't know if it's Albania or Albania because Albania is another country as well, and I don't know if those two names are related or not. Um, and that Alba is what they referred to it as during the Middle Ages. And lastly, Caledonia. So the Romans called the Northern Tribes as the Caldon. Even in current day, Caledonia is still a name people use to refer to Scotland. It's typically in a romanticized way. So there is a song called Caledonia by Doogie, as my mom would say, Dougie McLean, often described as the unofficial national anthem of Scotland. The actual national anthem of Scotland is the Flower of Scotland or Scotland, the Brave. Um, and I did do a deep dive on Dougie, uh, because he wrote the song The Gale, which became the theme song for the last of the Mohicans. And then looking up the original version of the Gale that he wrote, I found out that he had an album called The Search, which was subtitled instrumental Music for the official Lochness Monster Exhibition in 1990.

River 46:20

Whoa.

Skye 46:22

Yeah,

Poppy 46:23

1990. Let's go. Doogie

Skye 46:25

let's go Doogie.

Poppy 46:26

Doogie.

Skye 46:27

I know. That's what, that's how my mom says his name. Doogie. side note. I love bagpipes. They make me very emotional, especially Highland Cathedral. Highland Cathedral is like. The wedding song when you're doing bagpipes at a wedding. I feel like every time I hear a bagpipe, it just like strikes a chord in the center of my chest and I have to start weeping

River 46:48

It's, it's a very like deep penetrating sound for me at

Skye 46:53

Yeah.

Poppy 46:54

It, It, sounds, it, I mean, it doesn't, but it sounds human, if that makes sense. Like it's very complex.

Skye 47:03

It's

River 47:03

I've mostly only ever heard it at funerals, so to me it's like that deep sorrow, like wailing that like comes from the

Poppy 47:14

Mm-hmm.

Skye 47:15

Yeah, it does sound like a, it's, it's almost like a keening instrument in and of itself. Like it is sort of like doing a keen, um, there are happy bagpipe songs. Like you can you can be more upbeat with it, but I don't know, it just strikes that, I think that's just that ancestral stroll. I don't know.'cause I don't get how a lot of Americans think that bagpipes sound bad.

River 47:40

yeah,

Skye 47:40

I think I get it in theory'cause it just kind of sounds like screeching, like if you detach yourself from it, like it is just kind of like a squeaky screeching, but not to me, I like a lot.

Poppy 47:51

Yeah. If more people played them here, I feel like it would be more accepted.

Skye 47:55

Yeah. If when you hired a bagpipe player over here and they were actually good, it'd be different. Anyway, let's talk about clans. Um, so you guys are probably familiar with hearing your clans. What clan are you, what clan do you hail from you?

River 48:10

What's your colors?

Skye 48:12

so yeah, show me your, show me your cloth. Show me your tartan. What colors are you? Uh, I think my tartan is just like a green and blue, pretty standard.

River 48:22

Mm.

Skye 48:23

I don't know. I'd have to double check again.

River 48:26

Yeah. I can't remember what mine is off the top of my head.

Skye 48:29

But in general, they're commonly known for their last names. A lot of specifically, well, I guess Irish too. I was gonna say specifically Scottish, we think of the, or Mac beginning. So Mc or MAC. Uh, which typically

Poppy 48:45

was a slur,

Skye 48:46

what was.

Poppy 48:47

Mick, it was like a derogatory term, at least in America. Used to like disparage

Skye 48:53

Like a lineage,

Poppy 48:54

them.

River 48:54

Yeah,

Skye 48:55

or would

Poppy 48:56

Yeah. Like, ah, the dirty mix here, stealing our jobs, you know, like in the late 18 hundreds, I guess. Or like,

Skye 49:05

I didn't, I didn't know about that slur.

Poppy 49:07

yeah.

Skye 49:07

But in general, like the prefix Mick or Mac just means of so and so. So I'll just use the name like McDaniel for example, that means like of Daniel.

Poppy 49:18

Up Daniel.

Skye 49:19

So in, same with Oh yes. are clans still a thing? Yes. However, they don't have as much political power as they used to hold. It's just kind of like a symbolic thing now, although there are still clan chiefs, like clan leaders, but it's just sort of a title of respect. Uh, they don't actually have like a militia or have any sort of weight,

River 49:48

Yeah, it's like a heritage pride thing.

Skye 49:51

that's pretty much what it is. and in fact, the active prescription or the disarming of the highlands. Was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain, which came into effect in Scotland on the 1st of August, 1746. It was part of a series of efforts to assimilate the Scottish Highlands ending their ability to revolt, and the first of the king's laws that sought to crush the Klan system in the aftermath of the Jack Aite Rising of 1745. What is the gigabyte rising of 1745 and who are the gigabytes?

Poppy 50:26

Protestants, something, something.

Skye 50:30

I'll get into it. Fret knot. We have now entered the Royal Saga drama section of, of

Poppy 50:39

it to me.

River 50:40

Love it. You know when the king's involved, it's fucking messy.

Skye 50:45

dog. I went down a rabbit hole of this whole thing and do I need all of this information to get the point that I'm trying to make across? Absolutely not, but there were just so many details that I was like, well, I can't not mention that. And to mention that you need the full context. let me take you on a journey and let me tell you the warming pan scandal.

Poppy 51:15

All right. You say warming pan or warming pants.

Skye 51:18

Warming pan.

Poppy 51:20

Okay. Pan. Pan.

Skye 51:20

Like the thing that you would put in a bed.

Poppy 51:23

Oh, okay.

River 51:24

Who's been warming your pan? Hey, who up? Warming. They pan right now.

Poppy 51:30

Probably your maid.

River 51:31

I thought you were about to say probably your mom.

Skye 51:35

your mom.

River 51:37

Hey God,

Skye 51:39

Yeah. Whatever you think the warming pan has to do. It's not

River 51:43

I have genuinely no idea. That's so crazy

Skye 51:46

'cause I was like, why is it called that? And then I was like, that's kind of crazy. But anyway, I'm gonna tell you a bunch of royal people's names. Don't worry too terribly much about trying to keep it all in track. In your mind, I'll let you know who's important.'cause you'll hear their name recurring. I'm just trying to get you an idea of how we got here. Okay.

River 52:05

setting the scene.

Skye 52:06

Setting the scene. So we're gonna start with James the VI of Scotland, who was Mary Queen of Scott's son. Then he became James the first because then he became the king of both England and Scotland. And he was the first king to unify the two countries. And he became king after Elizabeth the first died, who was his cousin and she had no heirs. So Elizabeth the first dies James, I'll just call him James, the first.'cause that was like his ending title. So James, the first becomes king. He's unifying England and Scotland. Hooray. Hooray. Okay.

Poppy 52:42

Is Mary, queen of Scott's the one that was famously beheaded, or one of the ones by Henry viii. Okay. cause that's, that's a whole thing

Skye 52:54

I didn't go as far back to Mary because she's not really relevant in this story. Uh, I only brought

Poppy 53:01

like a three episode.

Skye 53:03

I only brought her up to show why Scotland and England were unified.

Poppy 53:10

Okay. Gotcha.

Skye 53:12

Um, so James the first has a son. Charles the first, Charles the first had two sons, Charles I second, and James I second named after his grandfather.

River 53:26

I hate it when they do shit like this.

Poppy 53:28

They all do.

River 53:29

I know it's so confusing.

Poppy 53:32

And that's why the names are still popular today

Skye 53:35

Yep. So,

Poppy 53:36

that in the Bible, I guess

Skye 53:38

So Charles, the second is the heir to Charles. The first, obviously you're gonna name your firstborn son after you.

Poppy 53:46

the first one,

Skye 53:47

Yeah. And he had many children, but none of which to were to his wife. Oh,

River 53:54

Slut

Skye 53:55

so the crown goes to James'cause he's got little bastard children running around and I guess his wife was barren or he wasn't fucking her. I don't know what the deal was there.

Poppy 54:05

Yeah.

Skye 54:06

Um, and James' first marriage? This is James the second now that I'll be talking about from here on out, it's just the one James, but I'm

Poppy 54:12

Okay.

Skye 54:13

say James.

River 54:14

new James

Poppy 54:15

And he's still over both England and Scotland as one

Skye 54:19

Yeah. This is the same like royal crown that's being passed down. So James's first marriage was to Anne Hyde, who was a lady in waiting of non royal blood. And she was already pregnant when they got married.

River 54:34

Scandalous.

Poppy 54:36

He's like, gotta get that air now. So

Skye 54:39

it didn't say if it was his child, it just said that she was pregnant already. But I assume that it meant that he like knocked her up

Poppy 54:47

Mm-hmm.

Skye 54:48

and that child, a son did not make it. But they did end up having two daughters, Mary and Ann. Mary and Ann are important players in this story.

Poppy 54:59

Noted.

Skye 55:00

So his second wife,'cause his first wife died as they all do.

River 55:06

RIP

Skye 55:08

His second wife was Mary of Madina, who was a princess of Italy, who was 15 when she married James. Originally she was going to join a convent and become a nun before she was swayed into supporting Catholicism in Britain. Now this is the big deal with this marriage and all the shit that's about to ensue. Up until this point, the nation was Protestant, James super, super Catholic, his new wife who this 15-year-old, this Italian, 15-year-old. She was like, I kind of wanna be a nun.

Poppy 55:43

Oh.

Skye 55:44

And the priests or the Pope or whoever was like, Hey, you actually have this really great opportunity. You can serve God better by like spreading Catholicism upon another country. And she was like, yeah. So she was like, you know what? As much as I don't want to get married, I think that you make a good point. So she agrees and she marries James and she becomes the new queen. But Mary had a difficult time bearing children either having stillborns, miscarriages or infant death. She had like a lot of fucking kids, dude. Like she got pregnant, like, I wanna say like 17 times, like a lot.

Poppy 56:25

Mm-hmm. Oh my gosh.

Skye 56:27

that number. Yeah, That number I just pulled outta the air. That probably isn't the accurate number, but it was enough.

Poppy 56:33

For someone that never wanted kids.

Skye 56:35

Yeah. So, but it was enough to be like, this bitch can't have kids. So, at this time, because Mary was having a hard time having kids, she's not producing an air, know. So it's looking like the Throne's gonna be going to James's oldest daughter who had no children either. And then after her it would pass to his younger daughter who did have children and they were Protestant. That's also important. Like they did not get raised Catholic with his dad, so they switch back. So the country is not super worried about James and his really Catholic wife'cause they're like, nothing's really gonna come about this'cause they don't have kids. It's gonna go to his daughter who's a Protestant, like whatever. We're not worried about this becoming a Catholic region, but Mary eventually falls pregnant again and rumors spread about how her pregnancy is fake. The Protestants are spreading nasty gossip about how she's not really pregnant

River 57:38

Oh

Poppy 57:39

Ah,

River 57:39

my God.

Skye 57:41

and the Protestants are going around saying, well, they're just gonna buy a kid, or they're gonna somehow procure a boy child to be the new successor. Yeah. They're like, they're becoming desperate. They're, of course it's gonna be a boy, but she can't have kids. They're just gonna find some boy and claim that it's their son

Poppy 58:00

Mm-hmm. Illegitimate.

Skye 58:02

illegitimate. So the stepdaughters, Mary and Anne could not believe this to be true even upon the birth of their little baby brother. So soon rumors started about a Changeling child being born,

River 58:16

Thank goodness.

Skye 58:19

um, suggesting he, uh, that Mary had not given birth at all, had a stillborn or a female child. So they're like, there's no way the baby made it. And if it did, it was probably a girl. The reasons for this, that why people believed it was that they thought that maybe a midwife who was birthing the child draped a light sheet over or a blanket over the queen to protect her modesty. And that would, you know, maybe she could sneak something in like under the sheet.

River 58:49

Yeah, she had a baby under her skirt and she was like, aha,

Poppy 58:54

Ooh, this is

Skye 58:55

yeah. So, because even though there were like a bunch of people in the room, because back then there was just like 20 people in the room while the queen was giving birth for some reason.

Poppy 59:04

Can you imagine? Horrible.

Skye 59:07

looking directly at the POS wall. They're not like eye to eye with the baby's head. They're off to the

Poppy 59:14

And at this point, they're on their back because they didn't use to

Skye 59:17

Mm-hmm. Yeah. There's actually illustrations of her birth if you so chose to look at that.

Poppy 59:24

Oh, no. That were like published at the time, or

Skye 59:27

so. I don't know.

River 59:28

They put it in the, the local gossip column.

Skye 59:30

Yeah. But it, yeah, it was, it was an issue.'cause even the other people who were in the room couldn't be 100% to say that they had seen the baby be

River 59:41

Yeah. The only person who could say that was the midwife.

Skye 59:46

Yeah. And the midwife, the, all of the people who were there assisting, like backed it up and were like, I felt the baby kicking. Like I assisted, I cut the cord, you know, all that stuff. But the theory had been going around about a warming pan could have been brought in to smuggle a changeling child in

River 1:00:06

How big is a warming

Skye 1:00:07

not big. Not big enough to put a baby in, not

River 1:00:11

Yeah. It also, it seems like pretty, like thin

Skye 1:00:16

And people

River 1:00:17

from what I can recall. Yeah. They probably hear a baby rattling around and crying in

Skye 1:00:22

Yeah. And apparently there was a warming pan brought in, but it was like sizzling hot with coals in it.

River 1:00:29

Yeah.

Skye 1:00:30

in with sizzling hot coals. Yeah. And there was also drama about like how far along her pregnancy was and. And when she gave birth and her stepdaughters were giving her grief about that, but her stepdaughter who did have kids also like miscalculated her own pregnancy at some point. So it's like, girl,

Poppy 1:00:51

Mm-hmm.

River 1:00:52

easy to do back then.

Poppy 1:00:54

Yeah.

Skye 1:00:55

absolutely.

Poppy 1:00:56

Question. So when they're talking about a change link, do they literally just mean a change out, or is there like a metaphysical component? Like, like the lore,

Skye 1:01:06

I thought that they were talking about a metaphysical, but it seems like they were just talking about a change out. Although I do think that they used the word change link on purpose to fear monger.

Poppy 1:01:20

Mm-hmm.

River 1:01:20

Yeah.

Skye 1:01:20

to be like, not only is it,

Poppy 1:01:22

Like there's a Faye

River 1:01:24

Not only are they Catholic, but that baby is fucking

Skye 1:01:27

it's the devil. Ah,

Poppy 1:01:30

Ah,

Skye 1:01:30

bitch. Born with horns and wings.

River 1:01:33

Mm-hmm.

Skye 1:01:33

I fucking wish. But thus, prince James, Francis, Edward Stewart, the Prince of Wales, or the baby who would start a revolution was born.

River 1:01:46

All right. What

Skye 1:01:47

So it's another James. He's another James, by The way,

Poppy 1:01:51

third.

Skye 1:01:52

so James ii, the dad. His son-in-law. So one of his daughter's husbands, William Rose up against him because obviously he sees that he's about to be in line for the throne and he's intermingled in the drama about this baby not being real or whatever. And so he's rising up against James and he's like, this is bullshit. I call bullshit. Fuck you. And he's basically saying like, this baby doesn't have a claim to the crown. Um, this baby got born, this baby got born and shit went crazy,

Poppy 1:02:30

He is like, I don't know anything except for boob right now.

Skye 1:02:33

I am saying, but William went sick on mode and he like starts like actually attacking, to the point where James and his wife and this newborn baby son have to flee to France. They, they have to escape the country from William

Poppy 1:02:46

Oh my God.

Skye 1:02:47

and left. William and Mary with the throne, with James, with the title of the quote, unquote the old pretender King James II's title is the Old Pretender.

River 1:03:01

man.

Skye 1:03:01

Um, and this whole section is known as the glorious revolution When William and Mary came to Throne. And as we know William and Mary, a famous pairing, a famous duo in the Royal Dynasty, But anyway, lots of deaths and arguments over who should rule blah, blah, blah. Ultimately Ann became Queen, um, and she offered to bring in James II actually with the caveat that he would be Protestant. But he claimed that he would be a Catholic monarch where he to be given the crown. So she's like, you can still be part of the fam, like you can still be put back in your, in line to gain the crown, but you, you have to claim that you're a Protestant. And he was like, no, I claim I clinging, I cling to my faith. Even as a young

Poppy 1:03:52

And what's the difference between them again? Is it just the iconography really? Like at the, at the end of the day, it's just, I iconography

River 1:04:00

Couldn't tell you.

Skye 1:04:01

I don't know.

River 1:04:02

I think it's just a different sect of Christianity.

Skye 1:04:05

I, I used to know, you know, I used to know what the difference between the two was.

River 1:04:11

I, I used to know a lot of things.

Poppy 1:04:14

and I guess like the, the whole like, oh, the Pope talks to God. Um, okay. There, yeah, there's a lot of stuff. the Bible is different. There's the Pope, the Eucharist, Protestants are like, no,

Skye 1:04:26

I

River 1:04:26

oh,

Poppy 1:04:27

do that.

River 1:04:27

don't want the body and blood.

Skye 1:04:30

Mm.

River 1:04:30

Fake.

Poppy 1:04:31

Protestants like, take the Bible more literally as like the central authority. Catholics believe in tradition and reason. That's, I feel like that's a bias source. Uh, Protestants tend to focus on studying the Bible while Catholics tend to focus on performing rituals and good works.

Skye 1:04:53

Yeah,

River 1:04:54

their rituals.

Poppy 1:04:55

Yeah.

Skye 1:04:56

the, uh, skipping over some stuff, more deaths. And then German born third successor to the throne, king George. The first rules, I did not know that he was born in Germany. Apparently he and his wife like spoke English, but with like a really heavy German accents. And I'm like, that sounds so bizarre.

Poppy 1:05:13

that's

Skye 1:05:15

Yeah. So you have like a king and queen of the British Isles, but they just have really heavy German accents. So all of this saga to say that we now have two family lines who are saying that they're like the real true heirs. So you've got sort of the Stewart Bloodline, which was the James Lines. Um, and that's where the term jakoby comes from because I think it's, jacobus is like the Latin term for James. So the jaa bytes.

Poppy 1:05:50

okay, so like, and Jacob and all

Skye 1:05:53

Yeah, all the names. So the Jacka Bites are the people who were in support of, or in favor of James being the true heir. and then the other line was the Hanover line, which was like the William and George line. And then we get Prince Charles. Prince Charles of James. That's what I wrote down. Is that correct? Anyway, his name is Bonnie Prince Charlie or the new pretender.

Poppy 1:06:22

Ooh,

River 1:06:23

Oh my gosh.

Poppy 1:06:25

so he's another usurper then.

Skye 1:06:26

yeah, we got Next Gen Jacka Bites baby. We got a new,

River 1:06:30

It just keeps going.

Skye 1:06:33

it just keeps going. And so beautiful. Charlie gathered some support with France and set sail to Scotland who got support from Highland Clan chiefs. He wore tartan uniforms. He ate the same rations as the other soldiers and he became sort of an every man to support his cause. He was like, I'm gonna fight on the front lines with you guys. I'm gonna be in the same conditions as you. And so the Scottish people really backed him up and they were like, yeah, the Stewart Bloodline is the true bloodline. It's really fucked up what William did to you guys. You are a good man. Like you should be put on the throne. So a lot of Scottish people were backing up the Jakoby cause.

Poppy 1:07:18

Mm-hmm.

Skye 1:07:20

Um, and the Jakoby start making some progress, but not for long. And now I'm gonna talk about the Battle of Odin, which is when the GI of Cumberland attacked the Jacka bite forces, outnumbering them like crazy, like he way outnumbered them. And he took out the Jacka bite cause and the Stewart Dynasty in only about an hour at this battle. It was a really, really bloody cause. so Bonnie Prince Charlie, upon seeing his army fleeing and dying, recognized his failure and he fled as well. And the Duke of Cumberland would go on to gain the nickname, the Butcher for continuing to kill the Jack of Bites, even after admitting defeat.

River 1:08:06

Yeah. That's fucked up.

Skye 1:08:08

Mm-hmm.

Poppy 1:08:08

Nasty.

Skye 1:08:09

And so when I was in Scotland last year, that was the battlefield that I went to. I went to the scene of the Battle of Aladin, and that's where I took my rock from, both in honor of my ancestors and the Morgan because it was a war zone. Um, and the stones that I gave you to. Uh, we're from Helms Dale, where there's an immigrant statue during the Highland clearances. So the Highland clearances was basically when they were like, Hey, all you northerners gotta get the fuck out because we need to make room for sheep and sheep are more profitable than you guys. And they went around burning people's houses and sending them out. And a lot of them went to Nova Scotia, north America and Australia, which is why we have, I suspect, I mean, there are many reasons why Scottish people would travel to North America, but that sort of mass exodus, I think could be responsible for a lot of people's lineages way, way, way back. So I figured you guys probably somewhere down the line, maybe had an ancestor that had to be exiled. So

River 1:09:26

Forcibly

Skye 1:09:29

yeah, I just felt called to bring you guys a little rock from that area. So I did.

Poppy 1:09:33

it's on my altar.

Skye 1:09:35

Yeah.

River 1:09:35

It's on my ancestral altar.

Skye 1:09:37

mine's on my ancestral altar too. So anyway, magic.

River 1:09:41

Yeah. All that being said.

Skye 1:09:45

Anyway, that was just all really interesting to me. And I just was like, oh my God, the tea. And also I had a personal tie to the Ja Bite thing,'cause I had visited that battle site, so I had, I wanted more in depth details. I did go through their museum where they went through and kind of talked about all that kind of stuff. But it being a museum, it wasn't as captivating to me. It didn't make as much sense to me at the time.

River 1:10:13

It's just like fact

Poppy 1:10:14

lot to take in.

River 1:10:16

fact.

Skye 1:10:17

yeah. But doing my own research, I like watched a documentary about it and read some stuff about it. So I was like, oh, this is actually tea. But magic in Scotland in general, much like when River did their ancestry thing, it's largely folk practices. And what is the definition of a folk practice? It's pretty broad, but the definition that I pulled up was traditional beliefs, rituals, and customs passed down through generations within a specific cultural or ethnic group, often reflecting their values and identity and distinct from formal religious or political institutions. I wanna highlight that last part because that's the most important part I think about folk practices, is that they're not directly tied to any sort of religion, they're just practices done. Separately from religion, typically,

River 1:11:14

Yeah,

Skye 1:11:14

however you can be, yes, you can be religious and do folk practices at the same time. They're not inherently tied together, although they can be if you wish it to be. Um, and I think that you know this, how do I wanna say how do I have this written religion in general, especially in modern day, heavily affects our view on cultures and folklore practices. I think that we look at it through a religious lens and we can't help that because of history, because of just the way that society has forced us to kind of look at these things. So an example of that is viewing healing types of magic as good or white magic and any sort of retaliation or sometimes protective magics as bad or black magic. when in reality, from my understanding, generally Scottish folk magic, much like many other cultures of folk magic. It's largely about being connected to your immediate community, the land, the beliefs in animism and nature spirits and having close relationships with spirit or the dead. It's really just about your, your tribe, your community, the physical land, the plants that you're used to and the spirits that they inhabit. It's not about capital G God, or you know, what

River 1:12:42

is not about right or wrong. It's about what do I need in this moment?

Skye 1:12:47

It, it was very uta. Yeah, it was very utilitarian. It was very, what do I need right now and who can I ask for help for it? Yeah. So they had different from common current ideas around magic and witchcraft, which evolve around this sort of idea of morality or intention. Um, animism was much more common,

Poppy 1:13:13

Mm-hmm.

Skye 1:13:14

said a second ago, it was really about utilizing spirits around them versus using internal power or internal will to affect your surroundings. So you weren't really pulling from my intention to affect outside. You were pulling from help outside to do the thing that you wanted to do.

Poppy 1:13:36

Yeah, because the other way around would be blasphemy,

Skye 1:13:39

Yeah,

Poppy 1:13:40

which would, yeah.

Skye 1:13:42

they didn't really care about blasphemy though, from what I can gather. Like that wasn't really like a,'cause blasphemy would involve religion. Right.

Poppy 1:13:50

yeah, but I'm, I mean, if, if religion and folk practices are existing at the same time, you probably wouldn't want to commit blasphemy,

Skye 1:14:00

Which one are you saying is blasphemy? I feel like they're both kind of blasphemous.

Poppy 1:14:05

coming from within, saying like, I have more power than, um, you know, whatever, creator.

Skye 1:14:14

yeah, because the, the other way asking spirits around you, from what I can gather is saying like it is, you are calling upon a spirit to help you

Poppy 1:14:25

Mm-hmm.

Skye 1:14:25

some variety, whether it's the spirit of an ash tree or the spirit of your ancestor or the water or what have you, like you are, it's really important to have that deep connection and respect and work with these things over a long period of time. And then when needed, you ask it a favor. And I think that this is maybe not where offering comes from, but a big offering as a big deal because you're saying. I appreciate you, you help me. You are an important part of my life. I'm asking this favor of you and as payment, or even just out of the kindness of my own heart, I wanna give this thing to you.

Poppy 1:15:08

Maintaining a relationship.

Skye 1:15:10

Yes. Maintaining a relationship and obviously as we know we work with deity. There were, you know, perhaps pagan deities like the Morgan that I work with. But I also didn't really want to touch on that aspect too much today'cause that's its own whole thing. I really

Poppy 1:15:30

Yeah. Can I just ask like what time period she appeared? Like, was it like, was she way, way back with like

Skye 1:15:38

I think it's hard to really pin it down. I would like to say it feels to me like she does have really, really deep ties to Ireland specifically, but I bet you during that Iron Age when they were like becoming warriors, that they had some sort of warrior goddess that may have eventually developed into the

Poppy 1:16:05

Evolved. Yeah.

Skye 1:16:06

Um, and because of the clash of all these different cultures over time, like she probably evolved with the people and followed the people as they migrated and all, all of that stuff. Yeah. So would you guys, now I know that I didn't really touch on too many like fairy type things, but would you like to hear a Celtic myth?

River 1:16:32

You know, I would, you don't even have to ask, well, poppy, leave the call then.

Poppy 1:16:38

No, I'm just kidding.

Skye 1:16:40

because I only really have like one more thing after my myth, and again, I'm probably gonna mispronounce some things. So I'm sorry. I just liked this myth, this myth. Not I, I mean it's old, it's a classic myth, but, this one you can get the, the flavors of Christianity become involved

Poppy 1:17:01

Okay.

Skye 1:17:02

the myth. So this is an Irish myth and it's called The Children of Lear. Have you guys heard of this story before?

River 1:17:09

Nope.

Skye 1:17:10

You're gonna love it. Alright. In the ancient lands of Ireland, there lived a noble king named Lear. He was a man of great stature,

Poppy 1:17:19

king Lear, sorry. Okay. Yeah, I know King Lear.

River 1:17:23

of him.

Skye 1:17:24

and deep affection. Blessed with four beautiful children. Sadly, their mother passed away, leaving Lear and his children in deep mourning, seeking companionship and a mother for his children. Lear took Iffa as his new wife. Initially, Iffa seemed to cherish the children, but a dark jealousy began to fester within her heart. Consumed by envy of Lear's love for his offspring, she plotted their ruin. One fateful day, she lured the children to the shores of a lake. Under the guise of a pleasant outing, she cast a powerful and cruel spell upon them, transforming them into magnificent white swans.

Poppy 1:18:02

Oh, the Swans

Skye 1:18:04

baby.

Poppy 1:18:06

evil stepmother like just are stepmothers ever Not evil in myths and and

River 1:18:13

my experience, no. I briefly had a stepmother, no.

Poppy 1:18:18

Evil.

Skye 1:18:19

The children now swans were condemned to 900 years of suffering. Efa, in a moment of slight remorse or perhaps to prolong their suffering, granted them the gift of human speech. Allowing them to sing their sorrowful tale. Their first 300 years were spent on the cold winds swept waters of the lake where they endured harsh winters and lonely days. Their haunting melodies echoed across the lake, a constant reminder of their plight. The next 300 years took them to the treacherous sea. They faced storms and icy waves. Their fragile swan forms battling the relentless sea. Yet their songs continued carrying their tail to distant shores. Finally, the last 300 years were spent on a lonely island where they lived in isolation, their voices carrying the weight of centuries. As the ages passed, Christianity arrived in Ireland. The sound of church bells reached the swans signaling, the end of their long ordeal. A holy man recognized the swans from the ancient tales and brought them ashore at the touch of his hands. The spell was broken and the swans transformed, backed into their human forms. However, 900 years had taken their toll. The children had aged dramatically. Their youthful beauty replaced by the wariness of centuries. The saint baptized them, and in that moment of grace, they found peace. They died their long suffering. Finally, at an end, their tail forever etched into the heart of Ireland's Legends, and that's the children of Lear.

Poppy 1:19:50

Those poor kid was, was the king? Just like, where'd my kids go?

River 1:19:54

kids?

Skye 1:19:55

Yeah, I think there was a whole bit about like they found out that his wife did it and then her dad found out and was mad and I think that she got cursed to be like a, a spirit of the wind or something like that. No, she like got stuck as like an heir or spirit or something crazy like that.

Poppy 1:20:14

Is swans don't make nice sounds, right?

Skye 1:20:18

No, they kind of do like a it is like an evil honk,

Poppy 1:20:23

like a Canadian goose.

Skye 1:20:25

but worse, it's more

Poppy 1:20:27

it's

Skye 1:20:27

I think.

Poppy 1:20:28

sinister. yeah, I'm listening right now,

River 1:20:30

It does sound pretty like mournful whenever I hear a goose or

Poppy 1:20:35

eh? It's kinda like a little cough.

River 1:20:37

Yeah.

Skye 1:20:38

I did want to just touch on a couple of my favorite Scottish things. Number one, curly whirlys. Do you know what a curly whirly is?

River 1:20:47

on that please.

Poppy 1:20:49

It's when a bully puts your head in the toilet and flushes.

Skye 1:20:51

That's a swirly, no curly whirly is a. Cadbury based product and it is caramel covered in a thin layer of milk chocolate.

Poppy 1:21:06

Uh, and the chocolate over. There's so much better.

Skye 1:21:10

It is very good. Uh, I'm a big fan of Iron Brew. Iron Brew is the soda of Scotland. Ever heard of it?

Poppy 1:21:18

No. So like a cola,

Skye 1:21:21

a bright orange carbonated beverage, and it kind of tastes like bubblegum.

River 1:21:26

Oh,

Poppy 1:21:27

huh? What makes it orange?

Skye 1:21:29

Dye. I don't know.

Poppy 1:21:31

Yeah.

Skye 1:21:32

You want it to be orange flavored when you look at it and it's not, it's a very particular flavor that I think that it's like an acquired taste, but the people of Scotland, the Scottish tongue is accustomed to it and loves it. I don't know.

River 1:21:48

a Marmite.

Skye 1:21:50

That's like an Australian thing.

River 1:21:52

Yeah.

Skye 1:21:52

Yeah.

River 1:21:54

Like if you grow up eating it, you're like, I love Marmite. But

Poppy 1:21:57

Marmite

River 1:21:57

as an adult, you're like, Ugh.

Skye 1:21:59

it's like salty and bitter, I think. Uh, number three, pickled onion flavored crisps. Hell

Poppy 1:22:07

Ooh, that sounds good as hell.

Skye 1:22:09

It's kind of like salt and vinegar. It's got that like vinegar

Poppy 1:22:12

Mm-hmm.

Skye 1:22:13

to it.

River 1:22:14

It's got that onion bite.

Poppy 1:22:16

Are we talking like red onion or Probably white

Skye 1:22:18

White onion, You ever had like a cocktail onion that's like,

Poppy 1:22:22

yeah,

Skye 1:22:22

like, it tastes like a cocktail onion.

Poppy 1:22:24

onion.

Skye 1:22:25

Mm-hmm. And last on this list, I have fields of Heather. I just love when I go over there and I see the rolling hills and the fields of Heather really just make me, make me happy. Those are the things that I look forward to when I go to Scotland.

Poppy 1:22:42

I know Ireland has a lot of cliffs. Does Scotland have cliffs too? Yeah,

Skye 1:22:46

cliffs on the, on like

Poppy 1:22:49

like

Skye 1:22:49

um, coasts.

Poppy 1:22:51

mores. Yeah.

Skye 1:22:53

Okay. I have one last bit for you. I know we've been going for a little while now, but I have Good,'cause I have a game.

River 1:23:01

A game

Skye 1:23:03

Oh, I did wanna say before, I meant to, I forgot to mention when I was talking about the Battle of Aladin earlier, that when I was there, I did see. Like headstones of graves of my family line. So I, I did want to touch on that, on how I, my lineage has a personal connection to the Jack of Bite rebellion

River 1:23:24

meant to ask, but I forgot.

Skye 1:23:26

yeah, there was a lot going on with the royal dynasties and yeah. But I did want to say that I went through all that trouble because that is like a personal connection of mine.

Poppy 1:23:38

Yeah.

Skye 1:23:39

But anyway, you guys wanna play a little game.

River 1:23:41

two games in one episode. How spoiled.

Poppy 1:23:45

game action.

Skye 1:23:47

So when you guys think of Scottish people in general, Scottish people today, what are some of the things that come to mind? What makes you, what makes a Scottish person Scottish? What are you guys, what are your

Poppy 1:23:59

Um, tartan,

River 1:24:02

Yeah.

Poppy 1:24:03

alcoholism.

Skye 1:24:04

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Poppy 1:24:06

Heavy, heavy drinking, um,

River 1:24:10

I think of those like Highland game tournaments, people are really into where they're like throwing boulders and shit.

Poppy 1:24:16

Like they do it on ajas, little plug, um, bland food, I guess. Lots of boiled things. Cheap.

Skye 1:24:28

Mm-hmm.

River 1:24:29

Deep bone, deep heritage, pride.

Poppy 1:24:33

Yeah.

Skye 1:24:35

Very

Poppy 1:24:35

Sweaters, fishermen,

River 1:24:38

Sweaters.

Skye 1:24:39

Anything else?

River 1:24:41

Is there something specific you're looking for?

Skye 1:24:43

Yeah.

River 1:24:44

Um, Braveheart,

Skye 1:24:48

Okay.

River 1:24:49

um

Poppy 1:24:50

the Faye, the Moors, um. Those, like the only two Scottish serial killers that I, that exist,

River 1:25:00

Bodies. Is that, is that Scottish?

Poppy 1:25:04

think I, I think that's that

River 1:25:05

Yeah, that whole region. I.

Skye 1:25:07

So no one's gonna say funny accents. No one's gonna

River 1:25:10

I mean, I didn't wanna be disrespectful.

Poppy 1:25:12

felt like that didn't need to be said, a Scottish accent.

River 1:25:17

The, the one time I've overheard a conversation of you and your mom on the phone and me going, I don't know what the fuck this bitch is saying. Respectfully.

Poppy 1:25:27

they're, I mean, they're charming though, right?

Skye 1:25:29

Yes. And they're

Poppy 1:25:30

And all the booze,

River 1:25:32

Yeah.

Poppy 1:25:33

scotch, whiskey.

Skye 1:25:35

Yes, scotch whiskey also, yes, but Scottish people, incredibly, incredibly funny people. And they do speak English, but they have their own language, you know, of their little isms and their little sayings. So I'm gonna do a little quiz with you guys, and I'm gonna give you some funny little Scottish sayings and I'm

Poppy 1:25:57

Love this.

River 1:25:59

Okay.

Skye 1:25:59

they mean. How familiar are you guys with the Scottish language and

Poppy 1:26:05

Not at all. I, I will say I'm great. I'm a very good standardized test taker, so I'm good at context clues. That being said, I don't know if I'm going to have the context.

River 1:26:19

that's gonna help you.

Skye 1:26:20

You

Poppy 1:26:20

We'll see. We'll

Skye 1:26:21

of them. I'm, I'm just gonna read a word or a phrase to you. Um, and I will say my Scottish accent is not very great. So even though I am half Scottish, it's just, I'm so Americanized I can't help it. But I'll try my best.

Poppy 1:26:37

Okay.

Skye 1:26:37

you. Okay,

Poppy 1:26:38

You gonna put some like inflection and emotion into the phrases so we can at least get,

Skye 1:26:43

sure.

River 1:26:44

Positive or negative? Yeah.

Poppy 1:26:45

Okay.

Skye 1:26:46

I'll, I'll roll my Rs. I'll do like a from the back of my throat for you. Yeah, yeah.

Poppy 1:26:51

Like, yell at me a little bit. Stomp on me.

Skye 1:26:54

Oh my. I'm not wearing underwear under my kilt while I do

Poppy 1:26:59

Oh gosh.

River 1:26:59

easy. You both are married,

Skye 1:27:03

Yeah.

River 1:27:04

not to each other.

Skye 1:27:05

All right. Not to each other? No. All right. First word is Dre.

Poppy 1:27:12

One more time.

Skye 1:27:14

Dre.

River 1:27:15

Drake,

Skye 1:27:15

I

Poppy 1:27:15

Can you spell it?

Skye 1:27:16

at the end.

Poppy 1:27:18

D-R-E-I-C-H. Okay.

Skye 1:27:22

Dre. If you want it in a sentence, I

River 1:27:24

love it in a sentence.

Poppy 1:27:26

All of our Scottish listeners yelling

River 1:27:28

You stupid fucking idiots.

Poppy 1:27:32

obviously means

Skye 1:27:33

Uh, you, you might say that the day is Dre. It's awful. Dre out.

River 1:27:40

Ow, gloomy,

Poppy 1:27:41

dreary. It's like cloudy and rainy.

River 1:27:45

Okay.

Skye 1:27:45

it's like dreary.

River 1:27:49

Sure. Yeah, totally.

Skye 1:27:51

that? good?

Poppy 1:27:52

Yeah. That I mean to my, to my stupid American ears. That was great.

Skye 1:27:57

Cool. All right. Next phrase. My mom says this to me a lot. Hoots, fitt,

Poppy 1:28:04

Who wants tea?

Skye 1:28:05

hoots for the tea.

Poppy 1:28:07

How,

River 1:28:09

Is that like, who's hungry?

Skye 1:28:11

You are on the right track with that.

River 1:28:13

It's, it's giving like tea, the meal, you know?

Skye 1:28:16

It means what's for dinner. I,

River 1:28:18

I see. I see.

Skye 1:28:21

so hoot is actually what, so like I, lemme make sure I don't have it written down here. No. So like. Hoot ya Dan is like, what are you doing?

Poppy 1:28:30

Mm-hmm.

Skye 1:28:31

All right. Very good. Very good. Here's a relatively easy one, I think you're off your,

River 1:28:39

Oh, you're off your fucking head.

Poppy 1:28:41

you're

Skye 1:28:42

off your head.

River 1:28:42

You're out a fucking line.

Poppy 1:28:44

you stupid ass.

Skye 1:28:47

All right. What does the word mingan

River 1:28:49

Oh, Mingan is bad. I know Mingan is bad. I.

Skye 1:28:53

And in what context? In

River 1:28:54

Uh, I've heard, I've heard people describing like women as mingan

Skye 1:29:00

Oh, that's horrible. That's

River 1:29:02

I've, I've heard it used in like multiple contexts,

Skye 1:29:05

Okay.

River 1:29:07

but mostly women and food.

Skye 1:29:09

it means like disgusting or dirty. Um, and my mom would usually describe like. If you didn't clean your room or if there's like a dirty piece of clothing or something like that as being a mingan, it's usually when my mom talks about something being mingan, she's talking about like the state of someone's home.

Poppy 1:29:29

Mm-hmm.

Skye 1:29:31

Yeah. It's like a pigite.

Poppy 1:29:32

guess talking about a woman, I can kind of

Skye 1:29:34

Yeah. That's

River 1:29:35

rude. Yeah.

Skye 1:29:37

incredibly rude. Worse than worse than the C word, which they also love over there.

Poppy 1:29:42

yeah. But it's not as hard over there. It's not like a hard C.

Skye 1:29:47

I don't know. I feel like everything

River 1:29:48

feel like it's kind of like the Aus how, like Australians love the C word,

Poppy 1:29:52

Mm-hmm.

River 1:29:52

know? Yeah,

Poppy 1:29:53

Yeah. It's like how we use bitch, right.

River 1:29:55

yeah.

Skye 1:29:56

Yeah. What does the phrase PLI Wally mean?

River 1:30:00

Daily, Wally.

Poppy 1:30:02

Just like a, like a little weird, a little off, a little peay, Wally,

Skye 1:30:06

Kind of you would say, um, you could say someone's looking peely Wally,

River 1:30:12

Like out of sorts or like disheveled,

Poppy 1:30:17

disheveled.

Skye 1:30:18

kind of, it means pale. You would, you would when someone's sick. Yeah. You would say you're looking off at peely wally, like, you're not looking

Poppy 1:30:24

Okay.

Skye 1:30:25

Uh, what does the word sced mean?

River 1:30:27

Sced,

Skye 1:30:29

Sced,

River 1:30:31

you use it

Poppy 1:30:31

feel like that's like an amount of something.

Skye 1:30:35

it's not,

Poppy 1:30:36

Like a pint. No. Okay.

Skye 1:30:38

um, I will say that this is a reaction.

River 1:30:41

Mm-hmm.

Poppy 1:30:41

Startled,

Skye 1:30:43

you would say like, I'm scunnered.

River 1:30:45

Is that like I'm gagged.

Poppy 1:30:47

like disbelief.

Skye 1:30:49

No, it means disappointed.

River 1:30:51

see.

Poppy 1:30:53

no. Don't

Skye 1:30:54

So like if you were expecting a promotion and then you didn't get

Poppy 1:30:58

Mm-hmm.

River 1:30:58

you're

Skye 1:30:59

could say, I'm scunnered. Yeah.

Poppy 1:31:00

I could, yeah, I could see gutted for like the same kind of like, ugh,

Skye 1:31:04

What does HA mean?

River 1:31:07

Had your wish.

Poppy 1:31:09

like head your bets. Like don't get your hopes up.

Skye 1:31:12

Let's break it down. What do you think hard means?

Poppy 1:31:14

I would think hide or have

Skye 1:31:21

it means hold, hide, hold. And what do you think wished means? What does it kind of sound like?

Poppy 1:31:29

I thought wish, like hold your wish. Like stop, hold on.

Skye 1:31:34

Mm-hmm.

Poppy 1:31:35

No.

River 1:31:36

Uh, see, my, my, my gut instinct is piss.

Poppy 1:31:41

Oh. Hold your, Hold your wiz.

River 1:31:42

bladder. Yeah.

Skye 1:31:44

mm

Poppy 1:31:44

Hold

River 1:31:45

Is it like, hold your

Poppy 1:31:46

time.

Skye 1:31:47

Hide your wished.

Poppy 1:31:48

Weed,

Skye 1:31:50

Do we give up? So we hod your, we means to tell someone to shut up.

River 1:31:55

Oh,

Skye 1:31:56

So we is kind of like shushing someone. So it's like hold, like bite your tongue, like hide your, we means like

Poppy 1:32:02

mm. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Skye 1:32:05

Hold it,

Poppy 1:32:07

Hmm.

Skye 1:32:07

keep it in what is a numpty.

River 1:32:11

A numpty. That sounds like an insult.

Poppy 1:32:14

It's either an insult or it's like a cute little,

River 1:32:17

that sounds like you're calling somebody like

Poppy 1:32:20

an

River 1:32:20

the R slur.

Skye 1:32:22

And you'd be

River 1:32:23

Yeah.

Skye 1:32:23

It is a derogatory insult to call someone an idiot or a buffoon.

Poppy 1:32:30

phone.

Skye 1:32:30

What does maha's mince mean?

River 1:32:33

Oh, I feel like that means like headache or like hangover,

Poppy 1:32:36

Yeah, like my head's mit, my head's

River 1:32:39

like mince meat.

Skye 1:32:40

Yeah. It's not pain, but it means like you're scrambled,

Poppy 1:32:44

Mm-hmm.

Skye 1:32:44

confused. Like ma, he's mince. Like I can't think. Okay. And then the last one is, you didn't teach your granny to suck eggs.

River 1:32:54

Leave my granny out of this.

Poppy 1:32:57

You didn't teach your granny to Suck eggs,

River 1:33:00

I don't know what the, I know sucking eggs is.

Poppy 1:33:03

You didn't

River 1:33:04

like, Hey, go suck an egg. You know? I don't know what the fuck it means in this

Poppy 1:33:08

I. Maybe that's like a, like a, I'm the parent in this situation. Like, you didn't teach your grande to suck eggs.

Skye 1:33:15

Kind of you're

Poppy 1:33:16

get off your

River 1:33:18

Don't backtalk me.

Skye 1:33:20

Yeah.

Poppy 1:33:20

I know better than you.

Skye 1:33:22

kind of, it means like, like when you're trying to explain something to someone who already knows. It's sort of like a,

Poppy 1:33:32

Like a mansplaining kind of

Skye 1:33:33

yeah, like a mansplaining. It's sort of like a, who the fuck do you think you're telling? Like obviously I know that already sort of reaction. It's like you didn't teach your granite to suck eggs. Hello? I knew

River 1:33:42

Why the sucking eggs?

Skye 1:33:45

I don't know. Granny obviously already knows how to suck eggs. Don't teach her how to do it

River 1:33:50

granny's been sucking for a long time.

Skye 1:33:53

How do you

Poppy 1:33:53

long time

Skye 1:33:55

So yeah, that was, that was. That's all I got for you today.

Poppy 1:33:58

Love it.

River 1:33:59

Wow.

Skye 1:33:59

questions, comments, concerns,

River 1:34:01

have a question.

Skye 1:34:03

please.

River 1:34:04

Do you have any examples or any things you do in your practice that are like folk practices of like Celtic origin?

Skye 1:34:14

Not like intentionally, but probably, um, I think the basic. Connection aspect of whenever I'm working with, say, like an object, like if I have like a rock or a crystal or water or whatever I'm using to like take that moment to connect to and almost speak with that object or item and try to feel the spirit of, and in general, I guess I'm saying animism, like I do believe in animism and I do. Uh, utilize that to some degree in my, in my workings. I mean, even I believe that my tarot decks have their own personalities, and I think that the cards individually from each deck have their own sort of personality from deck to deck. and that's just, and that's just kind of generally, but I don't do that to be like an ode to respect.

Poppy 1:35:09

Mm-hmm.

Skye 1:35:10

My cat Catholic. I'm not Catholic. My Celtic background.

Poppy 1:35:14

Hmm.

Skye 1:35:15

Um, although it may just come to me inherently, potentially through instinct from that ancestral, you know, mindset of having that animistic way of

River 1:35:27

Mm-hmm.

Skye 1:35:28

I am sorry if that was a boring answer.

River 1:35:29

That was the answer you gave.

Skye 1:35:31

Okay. Sorry, I didn't say, every morning I play the bagpipes for my cup of coffee

River 1:35:39

Oh, Michael

Skye 1:35:39

and I eat a shortbread biscuit.

Poppy 1:35:41

Yeah. And I chug my iron brew.

Skye 1:35:46

Yeah. And I fill up my flask with

River 1:35:49

have a horn, a drinking

Skye 1:35:51

I do have a horn,

River 1:35:52

lest we forget.

Poppy 1:35:53

Mm-hmm.

Skye 1:35:53

horn.

Poppy 1:35:54

And I use my scotch tape to tape my sword

River 1:35:57

Yeah,

Skye 1:35:58

Yep.

Poppy 1:35:58

as I run naked into the streets.

River 1:36:01

blue.

Poppy 1:36:01

Yeah, I don't have any questions. Um, ma hedis mint. MITs, so

Skye 1:36:07

Maha's Mince.

Poppy 1:36:08

ma, he's MITs.

Skye 1:36:10

Mahi is also mince. After

River 1:36:11

It's been a long recording.

Poppy 1:36:13

Yeah.

Skye 1:36:14

it has been,

Poppy 1:36:15

I,

Skye 1:36:15

been, it's been

River 1:36:17

It's been

Skye 1:36:17

a time.

River 1:36:18

almost three hours.

Poppy 1:36:20

wow. Wow. Okay. Thank you so much, Skye, for giving us this. Knowledge imparting your wisdom onto us. if you would like to write us, let us know about your ancestry, Scottish or not, um, you can send that over to death coven pod@gmail.com. That is death as in death, coven as in coven. Pod as in podcast@gmail.com, and we have an Instagram where we will be posting some pictures of the haunted dolls we talked about in the beginning of this episode. You can check those out over at Death Coven Pod on Instagram. I think that's it.

River 1:37:03

I think that'll do

Poppy 1:37:04

That's a wrap.

Skye 1:37:04

quickly wanna say that if, because I wasn't able to cover a lot of things, if there were specific aspects of Celtic or Scottish history or culture that you would like me to maybe come back for a part two on. I'm happy to do that because I kind of was just trying to get the meat and potatoes of who the Celtic people were, how the Scottish people came to be, and my personal tie to them. But if there was like other aspects, like certain myths or legends or stories or funny little isms that you wanna send in for me to read out to the crew again, let me know. I'm happy to do it again later.

Poppy 1:37:45

Yeah, yeah,

River 1:37:46

I would love that personally.

Poppy 1:37:48

yeah. Me too. Okay. Well by the power of three,

Skye 1:37:51

And so it

River 1:37:52

And so it is.

Poppy 1:37:54

and so it is.

Skye 1:37:56

We did

River 1:37:56

We did it.

Poppy and River 1:38:03

I almost did one specifically for you river called Chad, the Restless Sailor. He's really cute. Oh. Can you send that to me? I might buy him for real. He is like a sad little old man, and I would take such good care of him and I'd take him out every day for walks and I'd clean up after him. I'd make oh, so frightening. He's got big fee. He's only$90 plus 15 should be only$90. Um, but yeah, his backstory is that he's like a, he's an old man that died on the sea or something, I guess. And so basically you just feel sad when you're around him. Kind of like skunk, but you smell salt water and like ocean air. Oh. Oh. So you don't even need to get a Febreze. Yeah. That sounds nice. I'd have to like move to the coast or something. I'd have to like move to New England and be like, this is where I'm supposed to be. With Chad. Chad. Chad. The restless sailor. Not even like Joseph. No. Or like Abraham or something. Chad. They went, they went with Chad.