Season 2, Episode 4
Montague and Duck
Appalachian Folk Practices and Folklore
May 28th, 2024
What exactly is a witch? When is the word a slur, and when is it a title of empowerment? And when is the word a bit of both, a slippery glamor or tricky cunning -- as in the case of Montague and Duck Moore. Little is known about Mont and Duck, an elderly couple who moved into a rural community near Rocky Mountain, Virginia, sometime in the early 1900s. But Mont and Duck engaged in magical racketeering, and their story is recounted in several books of Appalachian folklore. Appalachia has a rich history, and in this episode, we chase down the fragmentary tale of Montague and Duck Moore, unpack the role of folklore in their tale, and uncover the origins – and contemporary forms – of Appalachian folk magic.
Featuring Sara Amis, Cory Hutcheson, and Trevor McKenzie.
FEATURING
Writer, Practitioner, and Folklorist
Sara Amis grew up in Ringgold, Georgia, and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Georgia. She has lived in Georgia all her life, except that one time she moved to Chicago for two weeks. She currently resides in Pine Lake, Georgia. Her work has appeared in NonBinary Review, The Moment of Change, and Stone River Sky: An Anthology of Georgia Poems. For more, visit saraamis.com, or follow her on Twitter @GollyMollyB.
Podcaster, Folklorist, and Lecturer at Middle Tennessee State University
Cory Thomas Hutcheson teaches courses in composition, rhetoric, and folklore. He has his doctorate in American Studies with specializations in Folklore & Ethnography and Religion & Ethnicity from Penn State. His books include New World Witchery: A Trove of North American Folk Magic (Llewellyn, 2022) and Llewellyn's Complete Book of North American Folk Magic (2023), and he co-authored Conjuring the Commonplace (1000Volt Press, 2023), a book examining the folk magical applications of everyday objects. He also has chapters for the Oxford Handbook of American Folklore and Folklife Studies and American Myths, Legends, & Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia of American Folklore. He is the co-host and author of New World Witchery, a podcast and website dedicated to uncovering and recovering traditional North American folk magic practices and beliefs.
Director, Center for Appalachian Studies, Appalachian State University
Trevor McKenzie is an Appalachian scholar and musician rooted in the traditions and communities of western North Carolina and southwestern Virginia. He is the Director of the Center for Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State University, coordinating and promoting events, research projects, and community partnerships that illuminate and sustain the region's rich history, cultures, communities, and ecology. He is the author of Otto Wood the Bandit: The Freighthopping Thief, Bootlegger, and Convicted Murderer Behind the Appalachian Ballads (UNC Press, 2021).
CREDITS
Host: Heather Freeman; Producer: Amber Walker; Editor: Lucy Perkins; Associate Producer: Noor Gill; Sound Design: Jennie Cataldo; Fact Checker: Dania Suleman; Executive Producer for PRX Productions: Jocelyn Gonzales; Music: APM Music and Epidemic Sound; Project Managers: Edwin Ochoa and Morgan Church; Advisors: Helen Berger, Abel Gomez, Daniel Harms and Cory Hutcheson; Guests: Sara Amis, Cory Hutcheson, and Trevor McKenzie; Funding and Support: The National Endowment for the Humanities and The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
TRANSCRIPT
LEARN MORE
Barden, T. (1991) Virginia folk legends. University Press of Virginia
Black in Appalachia: Histories of the Mountain South. https://www.blackinappalachia.org/
Davies, H. (1975) The silver bullet, and other American witch stories. Jonathan David Publishers.
Virginia Tech, University Libraries. Appalachian Resources in Special Collections and University Archives.