The Fairy Tellers

#27 Beauty and the Beast

The episode you've all been waiting for... BEAUTY AND THE BEAST! Strap in folks. Katrina and Geoff finally retell the tale that they've been building up to since Valentine's Day. First Katrina takes the tale back to the 1st-6th century with The Woman Who Married a Snake, a tale from the Indian Panchatantra, to complete the necessary background information. We discuss how a translation of this tale bumped into the story of Cupid and Psyche in the late 1400's to become the Beauty and the Beast story that we know today. Finally, Geoff retells Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's shortened version of the tale based on the novel by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in an episode that is almost as long as those two women's names put together!

Required listening

• Episode 14: https://thefairytellers.podbean.com/e/episode-14-cupid-and-psycheeast-of-the-sun-west-of-the-moon/
• Episode 19: https://thefairytellers.podbean.com/e/episode-16-animal-brides/
• Episode 24: https://thefairytellers.podbean.com/e/episode-24---bluebeard-and-the-fitchers-bird/

#26 Mermaids of the African Diaspora

Katrina and Geoff discuss mermaids! Geoff retells a Jamaican Anansi story where the mischievous trickster god ends up at the bottom of the ocean and encounters a mermaid-like being called Sea-Mahmmy. Then Katrina retells an Afro-Brazilian story of a poor farmer who marries a "mother-of-the-water" who brings him great prosperity. Katrina refutes the idea that this must have come from a European influence by tracing it back to a similar tale from the Yoruba people of West Africa.

#25 Splash Mountain, Anansi, and African American Folklore

Katrina and Geoff are surprised to find a folklore connection to current events! What does a petition to rebrand Splash Mountain have to do with folklore? Katrina takes us back through the history of this controversial theme park ride, Disney's Song of the South, Joel Chandler Harris's collection of Uncle Remus stories and the problems that arise when outsiders are the ones that record folklore and cultural traditions.

CW: Discussion of enslavement

#24 Bluebeard and The Fitcher's Bird

Katrina and Geoff discuss murderous grooms! In this episode we continue toward our eventual Beauty and the Beast episode with two more tales involving monstrous grooms (animal or otherwise). Geoff retells the story of serial wife killer, Bluebeard, and how Charles Perrault apparently thinks these murdered brides got what they deserved. Afterwards, Katrina tells us two versions of The Fitcher's Bird recorded by The Brothers Grimm. Both versions are very similar except one is completely nonsensical intended for children and the other deserves a content warning all its own.

CW: Graphic descriptions of violence and murder

#23 Second Fifth Friday Fable Fest: Greek Gods

Katrina and Geoff discuss fables! Again. On our second ever Fifth Friday Fable Fest we retell a number of Aesop's famous fables that feature gods of the Greek pantheon. In the process we discuss how the peacock got all those sick eyes on the end of its feathers, why Greek gods in a collection of stories by a Greek author go by their Roman names, and how Katrina's husband spending two months in the hospital can teach us to better cope with this world altering pandemic. Let the fest begin!

#22 The Textile Magic of Katla and Odd

Katrina and Geoff talk textiles! Following up on a listener suggestion, we delve a little deeper into seidr, a magic practice of shaping and influencing fate that is closely related to Norse mythology. First, Geoff retells the story of Nora-Gest whose amazing life and untimely death (in a good way, the dude lived over 300 years) was foretold from the time of his birth by three Norns (mythological beings who record the fates of all). Katrina then retells an action packed story from the Eyrbyggja saga that gives hints to scholars and Modern Pagans about how different aspects of seidr may have been used in Icelandic society to protect, to attack, only to be foiled by having your head stuffed in a sack. Grab your distaff and drop spindle while we retell you a thing. 

#21 The King Who Rides a Tiger

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

Katrina and Geoff discover the REAL Tiger King! Katrina retells the story of The King Who Rides a Tiger, an epic Nepali fairy tale about a humble farmer who saves a talking cobra from a mongoose, finds himself living in a golden palace, and has to face a series of challenges from the king to keep his wife. If you thought Netflix's Tiger King was wild, you are not gonna believe what happens in this story!

#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.