The Fairy Tellers

#20 A Nepali Cinderella Tale: Soonimaya

Support the Nepal Youth Foundation by visiting www.nepalyouthfoundation.org/donate/

Katrina and Geoff go to Nepal! In support of the Nepal Youth Foundation we spent some time getting familiar with Nepali fairy tales. Geoff retells the story of Soonimaya, a young girl who endures the unfair treatment of an evil stemother, enlists the help of talking animals, and ends up marrying into the royal family, with lots of fun twists and turns along the way. We discuss ant anatomy and physiology, the difficulty of retrieving tiger's milk in a monsoon, and how storytelling is a uniting pastime across cultures.

#19 Animal Brides

Katrina and Geoff discuss shape-shifting animal brides! Katrina starts us off with a retelling of Hasan of Basra from One Thousand and One Nights. In this story a young goldsmith gets tricked by an alchemist, saved by God, and falls in love with the swan-princess daughter of an all powerful jinn. Afterwards, Geoff retells The Frog Princess, a Russian fairy tale, with a cameo from the Baba Yaga herself. In this tale, pessimistic grump, Prince Ivan, is forced to marry a frog, falls in love with her, and faces off against Kushchey the Deathless by getting to the center of the most complex Russian nesting doll of all time.

#18 Fairy Tale Character Alignment Extravaganza!

Katrina and Geoff get silly! Inspired by the legendary meme status of the D&D alignment chart, we pull fairy tale character names from a hat and decide where they fall. Is Cinderella really Lawful Good? Or could she actually be Chaotic Evil? Is Sleeping Beauty the closest thing we can get to a True Neutral princess? Some of our answers might surprise you.

#17 The Ballad of Mulan

Katrina and Geoff discuss Mulan! In an episode that's been on the calendar for over 4 months, and specifically scheduled to coincide with the release of the, now delayed, live action remake of Disney's Mulan, we retell multiple versions of this well known Chinese folktale. We compare each version and talk about how and why they changed with each retelling. Let this episode fill the hole in your heart where the new movie was supposed to be.

#16 Sleeping Beauty

Katrina and Geoff retell three veeeeery different versions of Sleeping Beauty! Geoff starts off by retelling the Brothers Grimm version, which is probably the version of the story you are most familiar with today. Then Katrina takes us on a journey back through time by telling the earlier Charles Perrault version, complete with a baby eating ogress-in-law.  After that we go back even further with the Giambattista Basile version, the most graphic and disturbing of them all. We discuss the similarities and differences between the versions and make some educated guesses about why the story changed along the way.

CW: Rape. Cannibalism. Infanticide.

#15 Voodoo Tall Tales

Katrina and Geoff discuss voodoo! Katrina retells the totally true (but probably not) story of how the Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau ruined the last public hanging in New Orleans. We briefly discuss the origins of the voodoo religion in America, how it was used to help the people of New Orleans, and how it got an undeservedly bad rap due to, you guessed it, racism.

Happy Mardi Gras! Enjoy the king cake.

#14 Cupid and Psyche / East of the Sun West of the Moon

Katrina and Geoff discuss love! Geoff retells East of the Sun West of the Moon, a Norwegian fairy tale about a poor peasant girl who is sold off into marriage to a White Bear and the trials she endures to be with the man she loves. Katrina retells the story of Cupid and Psyche, a Roman mythology-adjacent story, which is the basis of soooooo many other fairy tales around the world including, you guessed it, East of the Sun West of the Moon. In this episode we get into the nitty gritty on love, marriage, troll anatomy and physiology, and what an absolute hunk Jack Black is. Settle in for the long haul while we retell you a thing (or two).

#13 First Fifth Friday Fable Fest

Katrina and Geoff dip back into the well of Aesop's Fables! This time we retell four fantastic fables about fairytaledom's most infamous villains, wolves. For real. Why are they always the bad guys? We do our best to figure it out. And though Aesop's fables weren't meant for kids, we can't help but draw parallels to our favorite pieces of children's entertainment.

#12 Deals with the Devil

In this episode Katrina is a little too excited to talk about the devil! Geoff retells The Devil and His Grandmother, a lesser known Grimm fairy tale about, well, the Devil and his sweet adorable grandmother. Then Katrina introduces us to the world of Tall Tales by recounting the totally true, in no way made up, 100% factual story of how real life Revolutionary War hero Major Robert Stobo cheated the Devil out of claiming his soul. CW: Suicide 

#11 Hansel and Gretel

Geoff retells Hansel and Gretel, specifically the 1857 version made famous by the Brothers Grimm. Katrina compares this version to the first publication from 1812 and the changes made along the way. We also learn that people (AKA buzzkills) have been complaining about the graphic content of these tales from the beginning.

#10 Russian Winter Fairy Tales

Bundle up! We're going to Russia! In this episode, Geoff retells the story of Morozko, Russia's Father Frost. And in return Katrina repeatedly traumatizes him with various tales of Snegurochka, the snowmaiden. We discuss the kind/unkind girl tale type and how the Russian people stuck it to the man by disguising critiques of the Soviet Union among innocent-seeming stories. And in a bit of a tangent, Geoff forces Katrina to recount a personal story of the time she was almost arrested in Russia for antiquities smuggling.

#9 Krampus and Mother Holle

Katrina retells the story of Mother Holle, German folk goddess of winter, industriousness, and lost and troubled children. Join us on a journey to find out how the mythology surrounding this kindly figure leads directly to the wild and rambunctious Krampus tradition that continues in Germany today.

#8 Namazu: The Giant Japanese Earthquake Fish (and other Natural Disaster Tales)

Katrina and Geoff continue their discussion of geomythology. Geoff recounts the tale of the giant catfish responsible for earthquakes in Japan and shares his own experience of the infamous 2011 earthquake. Katrina retells the story of Ngurunderi and how she stumbled upon this tsunami tale while researching how to catch a ferry to Kangaroo Island in Australia.

#7 Pele and the Formation of the Hawaiian Islands (and other Geomythology Tales)

Katrina and Geoff discuss geomythology! Join us as we retell the story of the formation of the Hawaiian islands by the volcano goddess Pele and why actual geologists are obsessed with her tears and hair, the dueling volcanoes that lead to the formation of Crater Lake in the northwestern United States, and the heartbreaking story of an impact crater created by a fallen baby star in the Australian Outback.

#6 Monsters from Around the World

Katrina and Geoff discuss monsters from around the world and discover that the true monster was us all along.

CW: 10 minute discussion of cannibalism. Brief mention of rape.

#5 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Katrina retells "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving, a single author story that has ascended to "folklore" status in the eyes of many Americans. We discuss the possible folklore origins for Irving's headless horseman, including the story of the Dullahan, quite possibly the most terrifying creature that Geoff has ever heard of, and why we think shared stories are so important.

#4 Momotaro or the Story of the Son of a Peach

Katrina and Geoff retell Momotaro or the Story of the Son of a Peach, a Japanese fairy tale about a young boy who comes into the world by way of, you guessed it, a giant peach. He grows big and strong, befriends wild animals, and takes on an island full of demons. We discuss the fascinating reasons so many Japanese fairy tales were translated into English in the early 1900's and why reading different versions by insiders and outsiders of a culture can give different perspectives on the same tale.

#3 Aesop's Fables

Katrina and Geoff retell eight of Aesop's famous fables. We discuss how these nearly 3000 year old stories function in a modern context. What exactly is so relatable about talking animals?

#2 Cinderella

Katrina and Geoff retell two versions of an obscure little tale called Cinderella. We discuss the similarities in this tale type and what the differences can tell us about what the storytellers valued.

*We had a complication with the sound quality and would plead for mercy since this is our second episode and we're still learning.*

#1 Introduction to The Fairy Tellers Podcast

Katrina and Geoff discuss terminology! What exactly is the difference between a fairy tale and a folktale? What are fables? Myths? Legends? Tune in and find out.

*Note: In this episode we briefly cover the history of Aesop's Fables and I want listeners to know that it is a very brief run down and doesn't entirely cover the mystery of the author "Aesop". Folklorists might be concerned by the simplified history presented.