HITW124 | Stephanie McKay Pt 2 | A Deep Dive Into Iron John

In part two of my conversation with wilderness educator and mythologist Stephanie McKay, we take a deep dive into the old Germanic folk tale Iron Hans, also known as Iron John, the subject of Robert Bly’s seminal 1990 book. Stephanie offers some unique insights into the historical layers of the story that are fascinating and surprising.Even though I’ve read Bly’s book many times over the past 30 years and recently conducted an 8-week online group where we read and reflected on the story, Stephanie’s insights opened up a whole new area of inquiry for me. In the audio version of part two, I’ve included an afterword where I share some of that research.If you have any interest in this story, or pre-Christian European culture and spiritual traditions, I highly recommend you check it out.Research links:Wikipedia article on Bog Iron: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog_ironIron Metallurgy in Africa (wiki): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_metallurgy_in_AfricaBret Devereau's blog on pre-modern iron production: https://acoup.blog/2020/09/25/collections-iron-how-did-they-make-it-part-ii-trees-for-blooms/The Age of Iron in West Africa: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/iron/hd_iron.htmSay It In Iron: Symbols of Transformation and Reproduction in the European Iron Age by Randi Haaland: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285870352_Say_it_in_Iron_Symbols_of_Transformation_and_Reproduction_in_the_European_Iron_Age