Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll: Cú Chullain, the Outsider by Peter Wucherpfennig | S7 Ep5

About this episode

Peter Wucherpfennig shares an outsider perspective on the mythological hero Cú Chullain, intertwining his story with modern elements and music.

OUR STORY Cú Chullain is Ireland’s most renowned mythological hero, and his story comes what’s seen as the greatest of Irish epics, the Táin Bo Cualigne. And yet, we’ve never told his story on KnotWork. Clearly we were waiting for the right storyteller. In this episode, Peter Wucherpfennig offers an outsider perspective on Cú Chullain’s early life told through a modern frame: a young Phil Lynnot, front man of the iconic 70s band Thin Lizzy conjures the elements of myth. You’ll also hear WB Yeats’s "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death." OUR GUEST Peter Wucherpfennig is a German harpist and storyteller based in Darmstadt. After graduating in 1986, he completed fifteen months of compulsory service in the Bundeswehr before training as a nurse — a path that would prove unexpectedly resonant with the warrior myths he would later carry as a storyteller. He has worked in intensive care units since 1991. In the mid-nineties he picked up the harp and found himself in the company of Scottish storytellers. He gave his first public performance as a harpist and storyteller in 1996 (his word: disastrous) and has spent the years since traveling between the worlds of the hospital, the workers'…

People in this episode

Host: Marisa Goudy

Guest: Peter Wucherpfennig

Topics covered

• Cú Chullain
• Irish mythology
• storytelling
• outsider perspective
• music and myth
• heroism

Keywords

• Cú Chullain
• Irish epic
• mythology
• storytelling
• Phil Lynnot
• WB Yeats
• heroism
• Táin Bo Cualigne

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Táin Bo Cualigne, An Irish Airman Foresees His Death

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