Bardskull

Bardskull is the record of three journeys made by Martin Shaw, the celebrated storyteller and interpreter of myth, in the year before he turned fifty. It is unlike anything he has written before. This is not a book about myth or narrative: rather, it is a sequence of incantations, a series of battles.

Each of the three journeys sees Shaw walk alone into a Dartmoor forest and wait. What arrive are stories – fragments of myth that he has carried within him for decades: the deep history of Dartmoor itself; the lives of distant family members; Arthurian legend; and tales from India, Persia, Lapland, the Caucasus and Siberia. But these stories and their tellers don’t arrive as the bearers of solace or easy wisdom. As with all quests, Shaw is entering a domain of traps and tests. Bardskull can be read as a fable, as memoir, as auto-fiction or as an attempt to undomesticate myth. It is a magnificent, unclassifiable work of the imagination.

'Martin Shaw's work is so very beautiful. A new animal. His love of images is deep and contagious. In the passion of his search he makes up new words that seem as though we've always known them. His language is tasty and surprising. This elegant combination of very fresh, free verse storytelling, and a deep untangling of myth feels so alive. What will it do next?' — Coleman Barks, author of The Essential Rumi

'Martin Shaw is a teacher of profound cultural knowledge, and is a master artist at transmitting it. Those transmissions are subtle and profound. We desperately need his work.' — Tony Hoagland, author of Application For Release From The Dream

'Shaw encourages and illuminates the mythic in our own lives. He is a modern-day bard.' — Madeline Miller