EP59: Storytelling, Plants and the Feminine - with Clare Viner

In this rich and evocative episode of the Eat Weeds Podcast, host Robin Harford sits with storyteller Clare Viner beneath a hawthorn tree to explore the deep connections between storytelling, plants, and the feminine spirit. Clare challenges the rigid, patriarchal traditions of folkloric preservation, arguing that stories are living, breathing entities that must be allowed to evolve. She shares how her own storytelling practice is rooted in embodiment, listening to the land, and reclaiming forgotten feminine narratives—such as that of Lady Nimue, the fairy lover of Merlin—through a lens of reverence, magic, and emotional truth. Her journey with the River Colm reveals how colonial and Christian narratives have overwritten ancient, matriarchal myths, and how she reclaims them through intuition, dreamwork, and direct experience with nature. The episode culminates in a haunting, improvised retelling of the Nimue legend, where the hawthorn tree becomes a sacred vessel of love, memory, and eternal return. Throughout, Clare emphasizes that storytelling is not about perfection, but permission—permission to be imperfect, to listen, to feel, and to reclaim our innate creative power.