​Last weekend I visited Glastonbury to witness the Wild Hunt Samhain parade.

While not strictly folk-horror, the event had enough vaguely folk-horror elements for me to include it as the third of my folk horror blogs. Glastonbury, and of course the famaous Tor, is well-known as a place that attracts people for a variety of spiritual reasons (and also for a certain music festival, though that may be horror of a different type). The Tor rises above the town. From its summit you can see the vale of Avalon stretch away, flat and wide. Artefacts from the iron age have been found on its slopes; it has links to Arthurian myth. The sense of location, of dislocation common across folk-horror themes is there in abundance.

The Wild Hunt is not strictly a Glastonbury myth. Legend has it that a group of terrible huntsmen - apparitions, ghosts, spirits, demons, fey or possibly even ancient gods and goddesses - ride across the land in wild pursuit - of what? Versions differ. They may be chasing down lost souls - the unbaptised or the damned. They may be harbingers of disaster, or they may be seeking souls to join the hunting party. Frequently the leader of the Hunt was said to be Wodan or Wotan, from the Scandinavian or Germanic folklore. But he might also be others, such as Herne the Hunter, or the Welsh God of the Underworld Gwyn Ap Nudd, as he was in Glastonbury this weekend.

The event began with Morris dancing at Glastonbury Market Cross, followed by a costume competition. Then it was time for the drama to begin as interlopers Hades and Persephone - from the ancient Greek pantheon, though I'm sure they need no introduction - appeared. Gwyn Ap Nudd soon arrived to put them in their places, and to lead the Wild Hunt Parade and the Glastonbury dragons through the town to the foot of Glastonbury Tor. Here be dragons... the Glastonbury dragons, who formed a large, scaly part of the parade. Sadly, I have no pictures of them, as they were attracting huge throngs that blocked my view.

Out of the town, the ceremony continued. People wrote the names of lost loved ones on notes that were thrust into the heart of the pile of wood that would later form the bonfire. As the sun set, Persephone lit the bonfire and we called on the spirits of our ancestors, of those who had gone before us, to enter the hollow hill of the Tor while the veil between the living and the dead was grown thin. I found the ceremony surprisingly moving - others said similar.

The evening ended with a variety of performances, including a fantastic Crow Morris dance, drummers, fire dancers, bards and musicians. This was the first event of it's type, and on this evidence I will definitely be going again. And next year I may well bring a drum.

You can get a good idea of what went on from this youtube video by Megalithomania.co.uk (and you may even spot me on it at some point). Many many thanks to all who organised, took part and made it all happen. Happy Samhain/ Halloween to all.

For part 2 of my folk-horror themed blogs, I ventured south to deepest darkest Dartmoor and west to the coast.

Tintagel in Cornwall is famed for its coastal castle and its mythical links with King Arthur. While the existing castle ruins are unlikely to have anything to do with Arthur, there is no denying the atmosphere and charm of the place. Artist Nicola Clare-Lydon has a shop in Tintagel, and told me that she works in the shop - with the doors open - as much as she can, in order to absorb the surrounding energy, both from Tintagel and from its visitors. It is easy to see why so many others are attracted here Rugged cliffs provide spectacular sunsets, caves beckon you in, and the sea breathes rhythmically around you, like a giant, sleeping beast.

Last week I visited the Museum for the first time. The setting is lovely - a beautiful little cottage welcomes you in. Inside the maze of rooms are jam-packed with posters, etchings, information and more. This isn't a big museum, and the website does warn you to try to visit outside peak times as the more people inside the harder it is to see the exhibits. I think I could have timed it better - we'd set out after breakfast to walk the coastal path from Tintagel to Boscastle, and in doing so arrived just before noon, which seemed to be a popular time.

What I did see, though, was very interesting, and I will definitely return, perhaps when it is quieter. Here are  few photographs to whet your appetites for your own visit.

After Tintagel and Boscastle, we headed into Dartmoor. Originally we were looking for Wistman's Woods, described as 'the most haunted place in Dartmoor', but tricky navigation over misty moorland caused us to end up at Postbridge. The moors are a fascinating place, teeming with evidence of ancient life. In places there are so many rocks that they appear to have rained down from the sky; small wonder that our ancestors used so many stones in their buildings. There is a sense of shrinking, a lessening of importance, of insignificance in the face of so much untamed space. It inspires a sense of awe, as did the sea at Tintagel.

The link to the landscape in folk horror has been mentioned before by those more knowledgeable about the genre than I. But it is easy to see in such places how a sense of awe, of mislocation and more can contribute to folklore or story. Alan Garner's literary works, for example, have shown a strong sense of location - Mow Cop, Alderley Edge and other such places steeped in presence are the intransigents around which people and their perceptions must bend. And after all, these places will still be there long after we are gone...

Next week marks the final part of my folk-horror blogs, and I will be reporting back on the Wild Hunt Samhain parade, held in Glastonbury on 29 Sat. And we'll also be hosting a special Wild Hunt themed GASP radio show after the parade on Midlands Metalheads web-radio station.

As promised last week, this week's blog is the first part of a Folk Horror triptych. Yesterday I attended the Folk Horror Revival (FHR) event at the British Museum.

So what is folk horror? It isn't an easy thing to define, and as artist, writer and creator of the Folk Horror Revival project, Andy Paciorek explained, nor should it be - for to define it too rigidly might stifle it in its infancy (other genres could take note of this!). In the programme for yesterday's event, Jim Peters (FHR administrator & Collection Manager at the British Museum) suggested that the folk horror revival movement in particular  is there "to assist us all in the reawakening and reinterpretation of those ideas and traditions that have informed the darker wyrd of our folkloric past". There are links to landscape, to mood, to a change, to a summoning. It is something that is a feeling as much as anything else; and it can be evoked by art, literature, film and music.

A short blog this week while we get back into the swing of things...

Another new song is nearly in the bag, this one augmented by the talents of Crimson Clocks' Jo. Jo has recorded both oboe and violin (though not at the same time) for ​Moon Song. Listen out for it soon(ish) - you can keep updated by following this blog, or 'liking' my facebook music page. And you can still download my first solo choon, Poor Jenny, for free from my LM Cooke bandcamp page.

You can hear plenty of other music on the Gothic Alternative Steampunk and Progressive Radio show on Midlands Metalheads every Saturday 8-11pmUK time. This Saturday #GASP will be playing random linked tracks... Why not join us on this week's facebook event and have a chat with your fellow listeners!

Next week my life will be packed with much folk-horror. Folk-horror, I hear you ask? Better have a look at next week's blog entry to find out more... 

It has been five months since my last blog-fession. Five. Long. Sunny(ish). Months. I probably deserve a jolly good talking to. Or something similar.
So I'm going to start with a quick update-ry blog, and hopefully stay on top of things a bit better from now on (so to speak).

• Writing-wise, I have finished a second full edit of the Volume 3 of The Automata Wars - but it ain't all over yet. This is a monstrous beast of a book, and could do with some more clipping down to size yet. I am confident that next year will finally see the beast delivered...
• In the meantime, my short story, 'Tommy's Game' - a tale of gambling and vice - was published in the new anthology Airships and Automata.  This is now available from Cogsmith Publishing, via Amazon or via the Publisher's Etsy site.
• In radio news, the #GASP radio show moved to Midlands Metalheads radio station, and now broadcasts every Saturday, 8-11pmUK. You can listen in via the radio station's own webpage, or via tune-in, and don't forget you can interact with us live via the facebook event each week. - This week's event is here.
• Musically, we had the return of Mediaeval Biaetches. Following our first performance at Exeter Phoenix last December, we re-took the stage at the Phoenix Alternative Festival in August. Any rumours that we can only appear if a phoenix is involved are untrue...
• And finally, I launched my first solo musical choon since the demise of Crimson Clocks on Saturday 1 October. Entitled Poor Jenny, the song tells of a legendary ship lost and frozen in the ice... available for free* download from my new bandcamp page now! And if you like the track, please do pop over to my new facebook music page and like the page to be kept up to date with new musical endeavours...

*when it asks you to name a price, say zero!

Phew! Lots more things coming in October which promises to be a folk horror filled month, so I shall try to do better at updating this blog thinger. Time will tell...