Gather Round the Fire with the Women and the Rabble | S6 Ep 33

KnotWork Myth & Storytelling

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S6 Ep 33

We continue to celebrate Samhain season on the podcast with a story of an Irish goddess and queen who was eventually known as a banshee and a witch.

Though we tend to celebrate the festival on the same day as Halloween, October 31, the ancestors would have celebrated this final harvest on the day that falls between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice. In 2025, that’s November 7.

In a year full of No Kings protests and with the election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City mayor, it’s the perfect time to embrace the women and the rabble who operate outside the halls of established power.

“Then, on the eve of Samhain precisely, Mongfind dies. So this is The Death of Mongfind the Banshee. Hence Samhain is called by the rabble, “Mongfind's Feast,” for she was a witch and had magical power while she was in flesh; wherefore women and the rabble make petitions to her on Samhain.” From "The Death of Crimthan Etc." in the Silva Gadelica, a collection of medieval Irish tales, translated by Standish O’Grady, 1892.

Mongfind, a sovereignty goddess and high queen of Tara, inspired Marisa to start KnotWork Storytelling, and her stories appeared in several past episodes:

Ireland’s Forgotten Goddess-Queen-Witch (S4 Ep7)
The Last Sovereignty Goddess (S4 Ep 8)
Niall of the Nine Hostages, A Story by Mari Kennedy (S3 Ep14)

This story is really an invitation to imagine and do your own myth working. Who were “the women and the rabble” who would have remembered Mongfind after her death? Where would they have gathered? Who would have led the ceremony? What would their petitions have been?

Share your myth work reflections in the comments section of the latest post at Myth Is Medicine.

Music at the start of the show is by Beth Sweeney and Billy Hardy: billyandbeth.com

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