Courting the Wild Twin

‘Terrifically strange and thrilling. One for all you storytellers.’ —Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the BarleyThe business of stories is not enchantment.The business of stories is not escape.The business of stories is waking up.  Courting the Wild Twin is a book of literary activism – an antidote to the shallow thinking that typifies our age. It challenges us to wake up, to revive our ‘condition of wondering’ and examine our broken relationship with the world. We need to think boldly, wildly and in new ways about ourselves, as individuals and as a collective, to confront modern challenges with purpose, courage and creativity.After all, stories are our secret weapons – and they might just save us.  In Courting the Wild Twin, acclaimed scholar, mythologist and author of Bardskull, Martin Shaw unravels two ancient European fairy tales concerning the mysterious ‘wild twin’ located deep inside all of us. By reading these tales and becoming storytellers ourselves, he challenges us to confront modern life with purpose, courage, and creativity.Shaw summons the reader to the ‘ragged edge of the dark wood’ to seek out this estranged, exiled self—the part we generally shun or ignore to conform to societal norms—and invite it back into our consciousness. If there was something we were meant to do with our few, brief years on Earth, we can be sure that our wild twin is holding the key.

‘Terrifically strange and thrilling. One for all you storytellers.’—Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the Barley, ‘This magical book underlines the ability of storytelling to rewrite reality while functioning as a practical—and highly personal—guide to the rewilding of the self.’—David Keenan, author of For the Good Times, ‘Courting the Wild Twin revels in the fabulous—the alchemy of story, primaeval nouse and narrative. Shaw is proof of William Blake’s adage that “Truth can never be told so as to be understood and not believed.” A thrilling exploration of ancient ambiguity, this book digs deep into the miraculous mulch of myth.’—Dan Richards, author of Outpost, ‘A book that comprehends the forests of the soul, written with fierce courage and audacious wildness.’—Jay Griffiths, author of Wild, ‘This remarkable, powerful, provocative and timely book is about the same size as your smartphone. Carry it in your other pocket, and every time you reach for your phone, take this out instead. Give your imagination, your activism, your poetic/mythic self some soul food. That’s what I did, and it delighted me every time.’—Rob Hopkins, author of From What Is to What If

Dr Martin Shaw is an acclaimed teacher of myth. Author of the award-winning Mythteller trilogy (A Branch from the Lightning Tree, Snowy Tower, Scatterlings), he founded the Oral Tradition and Mythic Life courses at Stanford University, and is director of the Westcountry School of Myth in the UK.He has introduced thousands of people to mythology and how it penetrates modern life. For twenty years Shaw has been a wilderness rites of passage guide, working with at-risk youth, those who are unwell, returning veterans as well as many women and men seeking a deeper life.His translations of Gaelic poetry and folklore (with Tony Hoagland) have been published in Orion magazine, Poetry International, Kenyon Review, Poetry magazine and Mississippi Review. Shaw’s most recent books include The Night Wages, Cinderbiter, Wolf Milk, Courting the Wild Twin, All Those Barbarians, Wolferland and his Lorca translations, Courting the Dawn (with Stephan Harding).His essay and conversation with Ai Weiwei on myth and migration was released by the Marciano Art Foundation.