GAIA’S SECRET WEAPON: Mythological Background for Odds Bodkin’s FALL OF THE TITANS Adult Storytelling July 19th on Zoom

You can feel your immense dragon wings folded flat against your mile-long body as you grind through the dark tunnels of Tartarus, Gaia’s subterranean womb. You, Typhon, are her secret killing machine, her ultimate monster. With your dragon heads and giant claws and your sheer immensity, she’s placed her last hopes for victory in you. Overhead, the war on Earth’s surface against the gods has been going on for ten years now, and Gaia is worried the Titans will soon be defeated. If that moment comes, she will free you through the Earth’s crust with one mission only: to swiftly grasp and kill the god Zeus. Only you, Typhon, are powerful enough to do it.

Zeus’s betrayal is especially bitter for Gaia, because it was she who saved him as a baby from Cronus, his father, who had devoured all Zeus’s siblings up until that point. It was she who had hidden newborn Zeus on Crete, far from Cronus’s seeking gaze. She’d secretly visited the young god and watched him grow up. He’d called her “grandmother dear,” and she’d loved that. In her wildest dreams she’d never imagined he was capable of such treachery.

He’d hidden his true powers from her all along.

Well, Typhon, now it is Gaia’s turn to be treacherous, because she has hidden you from Zeus. He has no idea you exist.

That will be a fatal mistake.


FALL OF THE TITANS: An Epic Tale from Greek Mythology

Adult Storytelling with Characters and Live Music by Odds Bodkin

Sunday, July 19th at 7 pm EST on Zoom

TICKETS: $15

 

SPONSORED BY GRENDEL’S DEN IN CAMBRIDGE, MA

Shiva, Parvati, Yudisthira, Ganesha, Bhima, Arjuna and a Faithful Dog in Mahabharata Tales for Adults

Although the princes of two families grew up as demigods together, they have always competed for rulership of the city of Hastinapur. Each armed with fantastical powers, the Kurus and the Pandava brothers fight with magical mantras as much as with weapons. They’re not above trickery and murder. And it is their sweeping tale, arcing across history, bejeweled with hundreds of stories-within-stories, that is The Mahabharata.

When I first read it, I was stunned by the particle weapons and cluster bombs the characters wielded–this in a book created 2,500 years ago. I was also amazed by the immense floating cities. And by the Himalayan forests where emeralds were the leaves. And by the epic journeys encountering beings of all kinds. And by the Hindu gods especially, visiting humans like aunts and uncles on vacation from heaven.

It reminded me of Homer’s Iliad, and how the Greek gods whisked warriors away from death on the Trojan plain.

It’s a mythic storyteller’s dream, this great epic. And with my 12-string guitars and harp tuned to the world of Indian ragas, I’ll scratch The Mahabharata’s surface on Sunday, March 29th at Grendel’s Den in Cambridge, MA.

If you’re of Indian descent, please do come. You’ll enjoy it. It is highly honorable and Indian folks in Chicago loved it.

This fourth Grendel’s Den winter season has been a series of sell-out shows, and India’s Ancients: Tales from the Mahabharata and Beyond is the performance that fans voted for, out of a field of four adult tellings, to be the final one.

So this is the one I’m preparing for.

Some of the finest, most wondrous stories I’ve ever come across.

 

INDIA’S ANCIENTS: TALES FROM THE MAHABHARATA AND BEYOND

ODDS BODKIN

MARCH 29, 2020 AT 5:30 PM

GRENDEL’S DEN, CAMBRIDGE MA

TICKETS $20

VIP TABLES AVAILABLE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Odds Bodkin’s Show of Viking Lore and Two Long Myths This Friday in NH

ODIN AND THOR BATTLE THE FROST GIANTS is Master Storyteller Odds Bodkin’s full evening of adult storytelling entertainment. Thunderous music on two different 12-string guitars plays like a movie score as Odds creates voices for Thor, Loki, Odin, along with numerous giants and mortals. Plus, as he plays Celtic harp, this storyteller delves into Viking lore–how the Medieval Warm Period opened up Europe to the Vikings, how Russia is named after them, the color of their tattoos, how they believed in Nine Worlds, even how our days of the week are named after Viking gods.

The two long myths are Thor and Loki Journey to Utgard and The Mead of Poetry.

Tickets are $15 in advance and $ 20 at the door.

 

ODIN AND THOR BATTLE THE FROST GIANTS

FRIDAY JAN. 17 AT 7 PM

ZINGER’S IN MILFORD, NH

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!

 

A FLIGHT OF MEAD, THEN A VIKING STORY

Vikings drank mead from dawn til dusk, and so Grendel’s Den is offering Flights of Mead on their menu for January 12th’s Odds Bodkin adult storytelling performance of Beowulf: The Only One.

After all, Beowulf was a Viking who killed monsters while dining on honey cakes, brined bird’s eggs, strips of venison and dried fruits for dinner. Typical Viking fare.

Who knows what Viking delicacies Grendel’s Den is planning for that Sunday evening’s menu, but it’s sure to be spectacular. $50 VIP Experience tickets include special seating, a flight of 4 local and imported meads, a tasting menu of 4 themed dishes, and a printed mead glass for you to take home.

Otherwise, tickets are $20.

Beowulf: The Only One

An Adult Storytelling Evening with Odds Bodkin

Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020 at 5 pm

Grendel’s Den Restaurant

Harvard Square, Cambridge MA

DANIKA THE ROSE: A TALE SPOKEN AND SUNG with Odds Bodkin, Jazimina MacNeil and Sarah Shafer

DEER AND THORNS

In young Danika’s river valley, her friends the deer have always kept the meadows clear of the dangerous brambles. If allowed to grow, these brambles produce long black thorns, like upright knives. But when, to impress Danika, the Duke launches a mass deer hunt and brings back more dead ones than the castle’s denizens can ever eat, all the animals who have survived the hunt escape across the Danube.

The Duke’s forest is now empty.

And the thorns begin to spread. The Duke comes to regret that.

 

A NEW PERFORMANCE WORK

Come listen to Odds Bodkin tell his original adult fairy tale with character voices and sound effects while sopranos Jazimina MacNeil and Sarah Shafer interweave Dvorak’s Moravian Duets throughout.

And hear an astonishing new Bodkin character voice—a bird who speaks in understandable chirps.

This new work of classical music and storytelling premieres October 6, 2019 at 4 p.m. in Bass Hall in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

Tickets are $30. Seating is limited. Grab your tickets today at ElectricEarthConcerts.

THE ODYSSEY this Saturday Night/Odds Bodkin

THE ODYSSEY: A Storytelling Evening with Odds Bodkin. Show starts at 8 pm at the Riverwalk Music Bar in Nashua, NH. Older kids and teens welcome. Enjoy an immersion into Greek mythology you’ll never forget!

TICKETS are $13 in advance, $15 at the door.

After the Holidays, A Time for Vikings!

On January 6th at 5 p.m. join Odds Bodkin at Grendel’s Den on Harvard Square for Odin and Thor Battle the Frost Giants, an adult storytelling.

Two wild Viking adventure myths scored on 12-string guitars, introduced with lore while Odds plays Celtic harp. A full evening of entertainment,humor and elemental imagination.

Tickets $15.



ADULT STORYTELLING for HALLOWEEN…TWO Odds Bodkin SHOWS

HEARTPOUNDERS: HALLOWEEN TALES OF HORROR is Odds Bodkin’s adult storytelling evening with live music for 2018. Two shows remain:

Plaistow, New Hampshire on Friday Oct. 26th at 7 p.m. FREE TO THE PUBLIC

Cambridge, Massachusetts on Sunday, Oct. 28th at 5 p.m. Tickets: $15


Friday Oct. 26th at the Plaistow Town Hall GET DETAILS

Sunday Oct. 28th at Grendel’s Den (RECORDING EVENT) GET DETAILS

GRENDEL’S DEN IN CAMBRIDGE: NEXT SUNDAY/Halloween Horror for Adults

‘Tis the season for horror, just about everywhere. But you can refresh yourself with some fictional creepiness, replete with live music, with Odds Bodkin and his evening of tales, Heartpounders: Halloween Tales of Horror. A New England man chased by storms. Boys who turn to panthers. A Rocky Mountain ghost train nightmare. A tale from the angry serfs of Russia. And others. All with driving music.

Tickets are $15. Buy dinner and drinks at settle in for a fun evening!

A live recording event.

BENEATH A WAXING MOON: Outdoors for Scary Stories

My guitars are ready. The stage is being prepared. Even the moon is waxing Friday, Oct. 19th at 8 p.m. at the Sweet Beet in Bradford, NH. It will be poking through the clouds in classic New England Halloween fashion. The weather looks good, too. Mid-forties. No rain.

Here’s a video preview created by Hanna Koby. Scary stories for adults. No kids, please.

Hope to see you there! If you know any NH or MASS folks, please spread the word!

TICKETS $13 in advance, $15 at the cemetery gate.

 

LIVE RECORDING EVENT: Halloween Tales of Horror in Cambridge, MA

Be in the crowd this coming October 28th at 5 p.m. at Grendel’s Den on Harvard Square for a live recording event with storyteller and musician Odds Bodkin. An evening of adult Halloween entertainment.

We’ll be recording the event, so please don’t gasp in horror or fall off off your chair too loudly.

If you have New England friends, please pass the word!

TICKETS: $15

DETAILS

 

 

FOREST DEMONS of JAPAN

The Demon Heads is a new story I’ll be debuting this coming October 19th at an outdoor Dark Tales of the Supernatural show for adults. It’s about a samurai turned Shinto priest who encounters a group of Rokuro-Kubi, particularly nasty forest demons from Japanese folklore. Creating this tale has been fun. A new tuning on 12-string guitar, historical research into the Battle of Odaihara in 1546, new character voices and vocal effects, and most especially informative, learning about how the fear of night demons kept many Japanese out of their own forests after nightfall.

The tale is truly shocking and horrible, perfect for an adult evening of tale telling. Along with three others to round out the nightmare.

Dark Tales of the Supernatural/Info and Tickets