Podfic: Beltane by astolat (Merlin)

[winkingstar.livejournal.com]

Title: Beltane
Author: astolat
Reader: winkingstar
Fandom: Merlin (BBC)
Pairing: gen (Merlin, Arthur)
Rating: PG
Summary: There is a story that is not told in Ealdor anymore, not for many years now, a story about Beltane Eve.
File info: .mp3, 6.2 MB, 6:44 mins.
Temporary Link: @ mediafire
Permanent Link: @ audiofic (courtesy of general_jinjur

Comment to the author here. :)

Reader's Notes: This is my favourite kind of story to read, the ones that read like a folktale from oral tradition. ♥

(cross-posted to merlinpodfic)

Comments

[cybel]

Just read this; can't go wrong with Astolat!

No doubt I'll get a book out when I get a chance.

[winkingstar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Astolat is awesome. I just totally fell in love with the storytelling nature of this one. It was great fun to read!

A 'book would, of course, be awesome when you have the time. :)

[twasadark.livejournal.com]

*flails*

I so love astolat! Thanks for recording this!

[winkingstar.livejournal.com]

'Twas my pleasure! :)

[cybel]

Posted the 'book.

[winkingstar.livejournal.com]

Thanks, darlin'! *smooches*

[cybel]

You're welcome.

I made me an icon!

[winkingstar.livejournal.com]

Hee, I love it! They both have such ridiculous faces! :D

[cybel]

Yes! Makes them fun to manip.

I made me another one.

[winkingstar.livejournal.com]

Oh, the hat!! *giggles* That hat and the looks they exchange send me into fits of laughter every time. :D

[cybel]

I couldn't resist.

I'll be posting Whims in a minute.

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/beltane

:)

[winkingstar.livejournal.com]

Thanks! ♥

[sophinisba]

Gosh, that was lovely. Thank you for the recording!

[winkingstar.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thank you so much for commenting! :)

[yue_ix]

I had downloaded this when I saw it out but hadn't gotten around to listening to it. Tonight, caught in a random bout of insomnia, I've opened it.

I loved the original story, a lot, and knew most of it by heart - enough not to need the text. I loved your voice just as much. It is lovely, soft and clear. My spoken English accent is queer and horrible; your tone, rhythm and pronunciation were beautiful to me. This podfic will be a pleasure to listen to as many times as I foresee I will, and enlightening besides - many words of this fandom were never covered in my English classes and remained a spoken mystery.

You are right that it is a folktale, and you brought it alive without a fire. Thank you for lending this text some of yourself.

[winkingstar.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you so much for the lovely comment! It's so wonderful to me that my recordings can cross linguistic barriers and even help with pronunciation — though I won't guarantee it's all correct, as even we native speakers have difficulties with pronunciations sometimes (there are so many words that you just don't hear aloud very often). I try to look up pronunciations I'm not sure of, but sometimes I get lazy. ;)

Anyway, I'm a librarian and one of the things I'm most passionate about is sharing stories across languages and cultures. So it totally makes my day whenever someone says that I've done that through podfic. Seriously, big doofy grin. :D Thank you so much for taking the time to tell me.

You are right that it is a folktale, and you brought it alive without a fire. Thank you for lending this text some of yourself.

And that is possibly the greatest compliment I've ever received. ♥ I love being able to share stories, even with someone who is thousands of miles away.

[taiteilija.livejournal.com]

I listened to this last night when I had trouble falling asleep, afterwards I slept like a stone well into the morning. Thanks for this ♥

[winkingstar.livejournal.com]

I do love the thought that I'm reading bedtime stories to people hundreds and thousands of miles away. ♥ Thank you!

[fish-echo.livejournal.com]

I've recced this on my journal [on LJ (http://fish-echo.livejournal.com/28653.html)]//[on DW (http://fish-echo.dreamwidth.org/27371.html)]. :)

[crinklysolution.livejournal.com]

Whoa - this was a great story, pleasantly creepy, and I liked the way you read it. Thanks for making it, and I hope you record more Merlin podfic...

[winkingstar.livejournal.com]

Thank you kindly! :)

I'm hoping to have more Merlin podfic done soon (where soon = anywhere between 2 weeks and 2 months, because sadly I am also a grad student and schoolwork is eating my life).

[pandarus.livejournal.com]

I've had this on my iPod for YONKS, and I don't think I've ever come and given you feedback - I am a bad, bad feedback-giving-person. But I'm here now for two reasons: one, to say, very belatedly, that I love what you did with this story, and that I've gone back and listened to it happily many times (because, yes, man, I do love stories about storytelling, and you do it well)....er, and then the other thing is that I was wondering whether you'd mind if I post my own version to the archive too?

Um.

See, I've wanted to record it for ages, not because I'm unhappy with your recording, but just because I'm selfish, and because it's such a shiny little jewel of a story, and I knew it would be fun to read. But I didn't, because it's already been done, and done well.

However, at this point I've recorded podfics of all the rest of the 'Beltane' series, and so I thought, well, maybe you wouldn't mind if I indulged myself? Just for a sense of completion? Because - oral tradition, multiple voices, all that?

...I'm whittering. I'm whittering because although I don't think I'd mind other people recording things I've recorded already, it's very much a YMMV thing, and I know that this is really rather rude of me - especially what with me being the crappest of feedback-givers myself.

If you'd rather not have multiple versions out there, I quite understand! But I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask, just in case.

[winkingstar.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the lovely comment! I'm so happy you like this. It was really fun to read. And I am kind of bad at timely feedback, too (like, I've been enjoying your recordings of the rest of the Beltane cycle), so I am happy with comments whenever they come! :)

I have no problem with you doing your own version! I am very much a fan of our own oral tradition in podfic form, so multiple storytellers is awesome and I would love to hear your version of this. :) If you wouldn't mind just putting a small footnote or something to say that I've also done a recording, that would be lovely, but you don't have to. Thank you for asking! <3

[pandarus.livejournal.com]

Bless you! I'll tell Cybel - thank you kindly! :D

(Podfic for the win!)