The Fairy Tellers

#46 The Ten Chinese Brothers

Katrina and Geoff talk superheroes in antiquity! In this tale from the Ming Dynasty, we are introduced to the original super-humans, the Ten Chinese Brothers. Before Katrina tells their story, Geoff retells a surprisingly similar story from the Grimm's brother collection called "How Six Got on in the World." Forget the Snyder Cut, these are the superhero stories that you need to hear.

#45 I'm a Jinni in a Bottle, Baby | The Thousand and One Nights

Katrina and Geoff dive back into The Nights and find "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Jinni" and it's many tales within tales. But first Katrina fills us in on all the things we didn't learn about King Solomon in Sunday school, or watching Indiana Jones. Through these stories Scheherazade really hits us HARD with the theme of enacting justice on the appropriate people for the appropriate crimes. I wonder how that could be relevant? Also... How does King Solomon play in to all of this? Strap in folks. It's gonna be a wild ride.

#44 The Legend of Saint Patrick

Katrina and Geoff celebrate Saint Patrick's Day! In this episode, we discuss the man himself and the various legends that surround him. Including the time he got into a fight with a druid priest over an Easter bonfire, and why everyone thinks he drove all the snakes from Ireland.

#43 Scheherazade Enacts Her Plan | The Thousand and One Nights

Katrina and Geoff tell tales within tales within tales! In this episode we dive deep into a listener question about scholars who argue that The Thousand and One Nights was complied by a single author for a specific narrative purpose.  Then we get into the The Tale of the Three Sheiks, which encompasses the first three nights of tales, and what happens as Scheherazade carries out her plan to survive.

#42 Sea Shanties and Folk Songs

Katrina and Geoff talk tea and sugar and rum! Piling on to the current sea shanty craze, we discuss the surprisingly specific form of folk song called sea shanties, and other songs of the sea. A highlight is the retelling of the true story of Timothy Connor, an American privateer who became an accidental archivist when he wrote down a collection of songs collected by fellow sailors while spending time in an English prison. We also get to the bottom of WTF a Wellerman actually is.

#41 Honor Among Thieves

Katrina and Geoff get dishonorable! In this Fifth Friday Fable Fest, Katrina and Geoff retell a number of Aesop's famous fables around the theme of "honor among thieves" or the lack thereof. This topic was inspired by a conversation Katrina had with one of our listeners about our first Aesop's Fables episode. 

#40 The Thousand and One Nights

Content Warning: Sex, Coercive Sex, Rape, and Domestic Violence

Katrina and Geoff are back! This episode launches an ongoing project for this year to cover ALL one thousand and one nights worth of tales.... Just kidding. But we will be talking about them a lot! In this episode, Katrina instructs us on the complicated nature of this collection and how it is paradoxically both much older and much newer than you might think. She then retells the elaborate (and often overlooked) backstory of King Shahriyar and his brother that sets up the familiar frame story of  Scheherazade and her thousand tales.

#39 The Snow Queen | Hans Christian Andersen

Katrina and Geoff get frozen! In this Queen-sized Yuletide Special, Katrina and Geoff tag-team retell a much requested audience favorite, The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. Though this literary fairy tale served as the inspiration for the 2013 mega-hit film Frozen, the two could not be more different. But fans of Frozen and The Snow Queen alike are bound to learn something new. 

#38 A Folklore Guide to Parenting Chronically Naughty Children

Katrina and Geoff talk parenting! We decide to get into the holiday spirit by recounting the various ways cultures across the world scare their children into behaving. Forget Elf on the Shelf. We've got a whole slew of new ways to terrify your children into acting right this holiday season, from Europe to South America to the African Diaspora.

#37 Dhon Cholecha: Another Nepali Cinderella Tale?

Katrina and Geoff return to Nepal! In a follow up to our partnership with the Nepal Youth Foundation in the spring, we find out what projects they've been working on to assist during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the suggestion of a Nepali listener, Katrina retells the story of Don Cholecha (meaning Nanny Goat), another Cinderella adjacent tale from Nepal.

Visit https://www.nepalyouthfoundation.org/donate/ to make a donation to The Nepal Youth Foundation.

Bonus Episode: Abu Hassan and his EPIC Fart!

We are launching a Patreon! Learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/thefairytellers

Enjoy this free preview of our exclusive bonus content for Patreon supporters including a retelling of Abu Hassan and his Epic Fart (AKA "Abu Hassan Breaks Wind" from A Thousand and One Nights) and a blooper reel.

#36 The Skeleton Hand

Katrina and Geoff talk Tall Tales! In this week's episode, Katrina regales us with the story of The Skeleton Hand. In this tall tale, legendary (and probably fictional) frontiersman Jacob Schutz goes on a quest to hunt down four of the "New" World's most fearsome cryptids: The Great Fanged Death, the Loup-Éclair, the Gormagunt, and the big boss daddy of them all, The Great White Hart.

We discuss Thomas Jefferson's surprising connection to this story, geomythology, racism, Christianity, and a bunch of exciting new vocab words to discuss sexual anatomy.

CW: Racism

#35 Urban Legends

Katrina and Geoff discuss urban legends! In this episode we relied on feedback from our audience to discuss some of your favorite urban legends. Katrina's "I Dove You Mug" was overflowing with great suggestions leading to a discussion about The Ring, Korean fan death, Wrinkles the Clown, 'Orang Minyak, Tsunami Ghosts, UFOs and other amazing tales.

#34 La Llorona and other Wailing Women

CW: Infanticide  
Katrina and Geoff keep getting spookier! Katrina uses her confusion at a scene in the heartwarming 2017 Disney/Pixar hit film Coco as an entry into the hauntingly sad and creepy story of La Llorona. From there we take a detour through Ireland to learn about banshees and for whom they keen before jetting to Brazil for Geoff to retell the story of the Yara, a dangerous creature of the forest who tries to lure young men to their deaths on the eve of their wedding. But most importantly we learn why you never, I repeat NEVER, bring a gun to a supernatural ghost fight.

#33 The Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was

CW: Desecration of corpses, supernatural feline abuse, implied necrophilia. 

Katrina and Geoff get spooky! Katrina rings in October with this spooky tale from the Brother's Grimm about a youth who is seemingly incapable of feeling fear. In his quest to learn to shudder, our hero encounters numerous horrors from demonic cats from hell to dismembered and reanimated corpses, none of which are creepy enough to make him bat an eye. Is there anything scary enough to make him squirm? Tune in and find out.

#32 Chang'e: The Chinese Goddess of the Moon

Katrina and Geoff discuss the moon! In this episode Geoff retells the story Chang'e and her expert archer husband Ho Yi. Afterwards Katrina expands this tale into what we've lovingly dubbed the Mythological Chinese Universe (or MCU for short). Hear stories of a heroic monster slayer shooting extraneous suns out of the sky, elixirs of immortality, why there is a rabbit on the moon, and why earthworms are the world's biggest tattletales.

#31 Cinderella: Asia Edition

Katrina and Geoff celebrate a year of podcasting! On this one year anniversary special we go back and revisit even more Cinderella tales. Most importantly we discuss what it really takes to be considered part of this tale type. Spoiler alert: It's not the shoe!

Geoff retells the story of Ye Xian, a Chinese tale that dates back a couple thousand years, in which our heroine is granted wishes by the bones of her beloved pet fish.

Katrina retells a Cinderella tale from the Philippines that starts off with it's own unique perspective then takes a sudden European turn reflective of the history of colonization in the country.

#30 Hassan of Basra: The Complete Epic Tale

Katrina and Geoff right a wrong! Waaaaay back in Episode 19, Katrina told the first half of "Hassan of Basra" from One Thousand and One Nights. But in that episode she only told the first half, simplifying the EPIC conclusion to a few sentences. It's time to make things right! In this episode, Katrina retells "Hassan of Basra" in its entirety. Strap in and enjoy a tale of jinn, magi, fierce Amazon warriors, and magic wands.

#29 Death in a Nut: A Surprisingly Hilarious Tale of Death and Grief

Katrina and Geoff discuss grief! Hilarious. Katrina retells her favorite fairy tale of all time, Death in a Nut. Equal parts poignant and comical, this Scottish folktale really gets to the heart of the important fact of life that is death and how we need to come to terms with it. Along the way we'll learn the difference between flotsam and jetsam in maritime law, witness a young man literally conquer death, and see for ourselves the unintended consequences of a world where nothing dies.

Then Geoff retells the Buddhist Parable of the Mustard Seeds (not to be confused with a similarly titled Christian story) where we learn how to find peace by letting go of our grief.

#28 Third Fifth Friday Fable Fest: Marriage

Katrina and Geoff discuss fables! On this edition of our Fifth Friday Fable Fest we parse through a series of fables related to marriage. In the process, we talk about all the hit topics: male pattern baldness, insecurity, polygamy vs. polyamory, and why men look best with a little bit of gray in their hair. And that's only the first fable.

 

CW: Brief discussion of lynching, castration and racially motivated violence.