🎙️ OH!CAST: Gaelic Fantasy, Folklore, and the Language of Imagination

Guest: Fanch (Breton linguist & fantasy translator)
Host: Calum (OH!CAST)
Duration: ~1h01m

00:00 – Welcome to OH!CAST: Gaelic, Comics, and Fantasy

Cal: Welcome back to OH!CAST, the official podcast of OH!CON — the Comic Con of the Outer Hebrides. Great to be back after a wee break. Tonight we’ve got a fascinating guest, one who’s been here before — but this time, he’s on the other side of the microphone. Fanch, welcome back!
Fanch: Thanks, Calum. Great to be here.
Cal: You’ve just released a new book, and we’ll dive into that. But first, a bit of background — you’re a Breton from France now living in Stornoway.

00:54 – Meet Fanch: From Brittany to the Outer Hebrides

Cal: So, you’re Breton — technically one of the original Britons?
Fanch: That’s right. The Bretons actually gave our name to the British Isles. My ancestors lived in what’s now Sussex and Wessex before migrating to Brittany about 1,500 years ago.
Cal: So not only do we have you to thank for the culture, but also the name itself — the original Britons!

01:50 – Language Passion: From French to Gaelic and Beyond

Cal: You’re a bit of a language nerd. Has that always been there, or something you picked up later?
Fanch: It came later in life. I grew up speaking French and Breton, but as an adult I wanted to understand other Celtic languages. I started with Irish, then Scottish Gaelic — and of course learned English. It became an obsession to understand what these languages were saying.

03:02 – Celtic Tongues: Breton, Irish, Gaelic, and Manx

Cal: So how many Celtic languages can you speak now?
Fanch: Breton, Irish, and Scottish Gaelic mainly. I’ve done a few lessons in Manx — it’s not widely spoken, but close to Gaelic. As a Breton, I ought to know more Welsh than I do, though!

03:39 – Scots, Doric, and Gaelic: Preserving Scotland’s Voices

Cal: I noticed when we first met at OH!CON meetings, you used some Doric words when speaking English.
Fanch: That’s right — I lived in Aberdeen for a couple of years. I’m fascinated by Scottish cultures and tried to pick up Doric. People there were really welcoming and proud of it.
Cal: Recently, Doric and Scots have been officially recognised as languages — which is brilliant. It’s so important to protect them.
Fanch: Absolutely. They’re part of Scotland’s identity. Many don’t realise some of Scotland’s old legal texts were written in Scots — it was once the country’s official language.

05:13 – Gaelic in Aberdeen and the Roots of Language

Cal: And interestingly, one of the oldest Gaelic dictionaries ever found comes from Aberdeen — the first Gaelic-to-English translation.
Fanch: That’s right. People often forget Gaelic was once spoken far beyond the Highlands. Even in Aberdeenshire — the last native speaker only passed away in the 1980s.

06:50 – Growing Up with Fantasy: Arthur, Asterix, and Star Wars

Cal: You’re also a big fantasy fan — has that always been part of your life?
Fanch: Oh, absolutely. Being Breton, I grew up with Arthurian legends — King Arthur, Merlin, the Knights of the Round Table — all originally from Breton and Welsh folklore. It felt like my own cultural heritage. My brother and I were obsessed with Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. I fell into the fantasy cauldron young — like Asterix — and never came out!

07:57 – Tolkien the Linguist: The Father of Modern Fantasy

Cal: Could you speak Elvish then?
Fanch: (laughs) Only a few words! Tolkien was a philologist — an expert in Old English and Welsh. He built his worlds around his invented languages. He didn’t create stories to hold a language — he created a language and then built a world for it to exist in. That’s how Middle-earth began.
Cal: So Tolkien really set the blueprint for modern fantasy.
Fanch: Yes — he took it beyond myth into fully-formed worlds with their own histories, cultures, and tongues.

09:58 – Creating Worlds: From Tolkien to Star Wars and Sci-Fi Universes

Fanch: Before Tolkien and Star Wars, fantasy stories were often set in our own world — just with magical or supernatural twists. Tolkien and Lucas changed that. They created entire universes detached from Earth. That was revolutionary — a whole new way of thinking.

11:20 – Translating ‘Cairn’: Bringing RPGs into Gaelic

Cal: So that brings us to your translation work — your passions for fantasy and language collide in Cairn, right?
Fanch: Exactly. I’ve been playing tabletop RPGs since I was about 11. During lockdown, I wanted to play online with friends — and many of us spoke Gaelic together. So, naturally, we played in Gaelic. But that meant I needed to translate the game’s rules. That’s how it started — translating RPGs into Gaelic.

13:19 – Publishing the First Gaelic RPG with OH!CON

Fanch: Later, when I moved here and attended OH!CON, I offered to help with Gaelic materials. They came back to me and said, “How about a Gaelic RPG?” I suggested Cairn — it was short enough to translate, but deep enough for real campaigns. And its creator, Yochai Gal, kindly gave full permission. We used his artwork and layout, so I could focus on making the Gaelic text sound natural.

15:19 – Making It Make Sense: Adapting RPG Jargon into Gaelic

Cal: And you did a great job. When I first saw Cairn in Gaelic, I thought it was originally written that way — not a translation.
Fanch: That’s the best compliment I could get! The key was translating meaning, not words. RPGs are full of jargon — you can’t just translate literally. You need to make it sound like it was always meant to exist in Gaelic.

17:27 – Thinking in Gaelic: Translating with Meaning, Not Mechanics

Fanch: When translating into minority languages like Gaelic, there’s a temptation to mimic English exactly. But the goal isn’t to create a mirror — it’s to create something that feels right in Gaelic. Sometimes I’d ask elders for words. They always had natural ways to express things — you just have to think in Gaelic.

20:55 – Gaelic as the Language of Lords, Bards, and Law

Cal: That’s fascinating. People forget Gaelic wasn’t always just a crofter’s tongue — it used to be a language of scholarship.
Fanch: Exactly. Before the Clearances, Gaelic was spoken by the elite — by poets, lords, and lawyers. We have centuries-old legal texts written in Gaelic. So it’s more than capable of handling complex ideas.

22:02 – Oral Traditions Reborn: Storytelling and Roleplay

Cal: It’s like role-playing games bring back that fireside storytelling tradition.
Fanch: Exactly. RPGs are the modern ceilidh. They revive our oral culture — imagination shared around the table.

23:54 – Language Revival Through Play: Parallels with Ukraine

Cal: You know, it reminds me of Ukraine. After the war began, role-playing games and stand-up comedy in Ukrainian suddenly exploded in popularity.
Fanch: That makes sense. When people’s identity is challenged, they rediscover their language. Creativity becomes a form of resistance.

25:33 – The Gaelic Fantasy Glossary: A New Lexicon for Magic and Myth

Cal: So let’s talk about your new book — the Glossary of Fantasy Terms.
Fanch: Yes! After Cairn, OH!CON suggested publishing something else in Gaelic. Kathleen from OH!CON saw my online glossary and asked if it could become a book. I kept adding to it until it reached 124 pages — arms, legs, and tentacles!

28:20 – Building a Gaelic Fantasy Toolkit

Fanch: Gaelic already has words for battles, swords, dragons, and magic — it always did. The Highlands were full of warriors and storytellers. My book gathers those old words, plus phrases for modern fantasy mechanics like “ability checks” and “saving throws.”

29:45 – A Resource for Gaelic Storytellers and Gamers

Fanch: The goal is to give anyone writing or gaming in Gaelic a starting point — so they don’t have to spend hours hunting vocabulary. It’s for writers, GMs, players — anyone imagining in Gaelic.

31:10 – Art from the Isles: Dragons Over Tarbert

Fanch: The artwork’s by Dòmhnall Smith, a local artist from Ness. The cover shows Tarbert, Harris — under attack by dragons. Adventurers look on. It says, “Gaelic can be the language of heroes and monsters again.”

32:45 – Translating Game Mechanics: The ‘Saving Throw’ Example

Cal: Could you give an example — say, translating “Constitution Saving Throw”?
Fanch: Sure! I broke it into meaning. A “throw” is really a test — so deuchainn. “Saving” is about avoiding harm — so sàbhailteachd. “Constitution” relates to strength or endurance — so crìbhachd. Combined, it becomes a natural Gaelic phrase rather than a literal copy.

35:12 – Translating Titles: From Rangers to Fèinne Warriors

Fanch: Sometimes direct translation doesn’t work. Take “Ranger” — in English, that could mean a forest warden, a soldier, or a fantasy wanderer. In Gaelic, I used mèir-còille (warden of the woods) for one sense, or Fèinne — referencing the roaming warrior bands of Gaelic legend. That captures the spirit better.

39:34 – Invented Creatures: Orcs, Balrogs, and Mythic Borrowings

Cal: What about made-up creatures — like Balrogs or Orcs?
Fanch: Balrog’s Tolkien’s invention — I’d probably adapt the sound, maybe Balarog. For real myth creatures like a “roc,” I go back to the original Arabic or Greek term rather than borrowing from English. Gaelic’s always borrowed — from Latin, French, Norse — so that feels authentic.
Cal: And Orc?
Fanch: Tolkien took it from Old English — meaning demon. In Gaelic I’d say orc or urc, something natural to Gaelic phonology.

45:08 – Folklore Roots: Bòcan and the Gaelic Boogeyman

Cal: In my house, misbehaving kids were told the “booballs” would take us.
Fanch: (laughs) Aye — that’s from bòcan, meaning a goblin or boogeyman. Every Gaelic area had its own version.

46:04 – Real Magic: Spells, Gods, and Highland Mythology

Fanch: At the end of the book, I added appendices — lists of old Highland gods and genuine Gaelic spells. For example, Shoni, the sea god of Lewis — people once poured beer into the waves to ensure a good harvest. I even recorded two spells myself from elders in Scalpay and Harris who remembered seeing them performed.

49:37 – Second Sight: Visions and Premonitions in Gaelic Culture

Cal: My grandparents believed deeply in the Second Sight — visions of the future. My uncle once dreamed of a bus outside his home, filled with mourners — months before his brother’s funeral.
Fanch: That’s a manadh — a premonition. Many still believe. These stories keep Gaelic spiritual culture alive.

53:11 – Mac an Trònaich: The Hebridean Boogeyman Legend

Cal: Speaking of monsters — what about Mac an Trònaich? Every family’s got a story.
Fanch: Indeed! There’s even a 19th-century court record from Inverness describing a “spectre” haunting Lewis. The archives burned later, but oral tradition remembers him vividly. Some say he was a vagabond who scared people, maybe even killed someone.

56:50 – From Folklore to Fantasy: Mac an Trònaich Returns

Cal: That could make an amazing Halloween Cairn session.
Fanch: Absolutely — imagine a Gaelic horror one-shot based on the Mac an Trònaich legend!

57:45 – Where to Find the Gaelic Glossary and RPGs

Cal: So if people want your book — where can they find it?
Fanch: It’s available at the Gaelic Books Council in Glasgow, An Taigh Cèilidh in Stornoway, and OH!CON might have a few copies left. You can also find my RPG translations free on my website — link in the description.

59:07 – Gaelic Gaming Around the World

Cal: We’ve got listeners all over — even in Colombia! Maybe they’ll run a Gaelic RPG there someday.
Fanch: That’d be brilliant. There’s already a group in Glasgow that plays in Gaelic — one of their GMs is Swedish! So yes — Colombia next!

59:45 – Closing Thoughts: The Future of Gaelic Fantasy

Cal: Any plans for a sci-fi glossary next?
Fanch: Possibly! I’ve already translated Lasers & Feelings, a space-themed RPG. Sci-fi would need more new words, but Gaelic can handle it. If English can invent warp drive, Gaelic can too.
Cal: Brilliant. Thanks again, Fanch — and thanks to everyone for listening to OH!CAST.

Fanch: My pleasure. Here’s to more role-playing — and more Gaelic worlds.