The Fairy Tellers

Does the title sound like click bait? It is because in this episode, Geoff and Katrina are talking about a tale that, in 1892, shocked Joseph Jacobs as he was looking for Celtic Fairy Tales for his book of the same title. After our episode on the Lai of Eliduc, we're uniquely situated to talk about why he was off the mark when he said that this Snow White variant couldn't have originated in Europe...

Katrina and Geoff talk Zora Neale Hurston, ethnography, and why women rule over men! In this episode, we discuss some of the amazing work to preserve African American folklore in the South done by the incredible Zora Neale Hurston. We compare two tales that are almost identical when Zora Neale Hurston collected them but differ slightly between the genders. Through these stories we also get to disc...

Katrina and Geoff talk little known medieval women, specifically Marie de France, for our 2nd installment of our Snow White project. But first, has anyone ever told you that the tale of Snow White was based on a true story? Katrina explains how that theory came to be before diving into this episode's tale, The Lai of Eliduc. A story of a knight who falls in love while serving a new king...the only...

Katrina and Geoff are letting fate lead with this episode as they explore ATU 47A (Fox Hangs Onto the Horse's Tail). That's right. Fate led us right back to fox, a character that's impossible to get away from. Interestingly, this also leads us into a Grimm's story that would probably have readers today scratching their heads if they didn't know about the history of Reynard the Fox. 

Trigger Warning: Greek Mythology...so literally everything. Sexual Assault, Infanticide, Suicide, Desecration of a Corpse, War, and Zeus. Katrina and Geoff are starting out the year strong with our first episode on the road to Snow White. The first stop on the journey is a look into Greek Mythology, specifically the tales surrounding The Trojan War to pick out motifs that echo through the centurie...

We tried to finish out 2022 with as much enthusiasm and silliness as possible. We announced our new project for 2023 AND we used some divination methods to help us pick out a few episodes for the year. But first, Katrina quickly retold the Norse myth of Idun and her apples of eternal youth. Apples were a major theme of this episode and Katrina had no idea how sticky apple seeds could be until they...

Happy Holidays to One and All from The Fairy Tellers! All during 2022 we were taking audience requests and suggestions. We are happy to present the last one (for this year) which is both a Ukrainian literary folktale by Nikolai Gogol and a story featuring the devil. What more could you want from a story about Christmas Eve, on Christmas Eve? Katrina and Geoff have fun laughing as Old Sly ruins the...

In one of the last listener requests for 2022, Geoff and Katrina turn to a discussion on disability in fairy tales. A lot has been said through the years about disability representation in fairy tales but not all of it is helpful. In this episode, Geoff and Katrina turn to a story recorded by Charles Perrault where he makes some *almost* insightful comments on the social model of looking at disabi...

Katrina and Geoff dive back into the collection of Hans Christian Andersen to have a look at one of his tales that comes almost directly from the folk, Great Claus and Little Claus. Hold on to your horses, hug your grandma, and punch a sexton because this story is wild. And wilder still is how far afield this story has traveled. Katrina retells this story from the African diaspora and you'll never...

Katrina and Geoff are back from a hectic October and ready to jump into cryptids! Katrina retells the story of The White Screamer which oddly tied in with Geoff's retelling of the Mothman legend. And even though this episode was NOT about aliens and UFOs, it's pretty hard to escape their presence. Finally, Katrina and Geoff talk about The Lizard Man of South Carolina, tourism and ostension. Also,...

After a month of life throwing curveballs, Katrina and Geoff decided to have a surprise LIVE in Instagram, both to explain their absence and to share two tales fit for the campfire. Geoff shares a tale of "Grandfather's Eyes: The Story of Three Wicked Yezinkas" where we see plenty of familiar motifs and Katrina does a quick search for the magical properties of brambles. Then Katrina retells the ta...

Between Katrina being back in the hospital (finally getting rid of her kidney stone), computer crashes, and traveling, we're once again behind in posting an episode. But have no fear, we'll make sure to load you up on October content when Katrina gets her life back together. Until then, please enjoy September's 5th Friday Fable Fest Live!

CW: Cannibalism, sort of. In this episode, Katrina takes Geoff on a journey down a research rabbit hole into stories of the Dodo. The bird? No. The Swallower-of-Men. After researching African Cinderella tales, Katrina followed a trail of sources that led her back to a story she had read years before but found difficult to get more information about.

Katrina and Geoff celebrate 3 years of podcasting! As is our tradition, the topic of the day is ATU 510A or Cinderella and this time we are in Africa, specifically Nigeria and South Africa. The "Cinderella" tale in Nigeria gives Geoff the most happy of ever afters and the "Unkind and Kind Girls" tale in South Africa makes us contemplate how we are treat people on our journeys through life.   Happy...

Katrina and Geoff tackle Oscar Wilde, Hans Christian Andersen, and literary fairy tales in this listener requested episode. How are literary fairy tales different from other fairy tales? How do you define art and love? And can a boy live on metaphysics alone? We answer one of these questions...maybe. We retell two tales in conversation with each other from two fabulously famous European writers.

On the 5th Friday of July, we had a LIVE Event on our Instagram page @thefairy_tellers where we discussed frogs and politics. Katrina was grateful to be doing the Fable Fest at all since she had a rough medical month and barely made it home from a doctor's appointment. "Physician, heal thyself!" Join us as we discuss a character that we haven't explored in fable form before, Frog.

Katrina and Geoff return with a listener request, " The Old Woman in the Woods" . While the title might sound like it's describing every other Grimm's Fairy Tales, this one has a flavor all its own and was made into an 1980's Japanese cartoon series, Grimm's Fairy Tales Classics. Join us while we talk about other stories that share motifs.

Katrina and Geoff talk about Inuit mythology! Katrina retells the epic (and gruesome) origin story of Sedna, the life and death-giving goddess of the artic. We use this as a launching point for discussing Inuit mythology and how it related to the lived experience of the various Inuit peoples.

Katrina and Geoff talk Japanese festivals and star stories! The Tanabata Festival is coming up on July 7th and that makes for an episode full of some of our classic tale elements. Celestial stories, holiday origins, and women being interrupted while they are trying to bathe. And as a bonus star story, the Ainu story of The Seven Lazy Sisters.

Katrina and Geoff are BACK from their month-long break and ready to jump into audience questions. This episode focuses on a question about appropriation and appreciation in regards to storytelling. Katrina starts off the episode with a personal story about a Hawaiian boy in her son's class and then retells two tales of Hawaiian lore, the second of which features some Geomythology *Lite*.

The Fairy Tellers is on a break until June 10th. But while you wait for more episodes, please enjoy the audio from our Instagram LIVE Event that took place on April 29th. The video and audio are also available Instagram with our account @thefairy_tellers . If you can't wait for more episodes, check out our Patreon and become a supporter for exclusive bonus content.

Katrina and Geoff talk about the moon! This week we delve back into the world of astronomical folklore by telling stories about the moon. We finally get to the bottom of whether or not people actually believed that the moon was made of cheese, and what the moon is up to when we can't see it in the sky. If you are enjoying the podcast and want to contribute while also getting more fairy tale conten...

Katrina and Geoff talk Mr. G's Pizza and geomythology! While the term "geomythology" was coined fairly recently by a geologist, the ideas behind looking for the science within ancient stories is anything but recent. In this episode we discuss dragon teeth and Cadmus, primordial chaos monsters, and how the scientists have uncovered a mystery about the Oracle of Delphi. If you are enjoying the podca...

Katrina and Geoff talk Vampires of Eastern Europe! This episode combines two listener requests. One for tales created around pandemic and plagues and another request for a tale from Ukraine. Katrina tells a quick history lesson of the Carpathian mountains before retelling the story of "The Vampire and St. Michael", were a young man is helped by an archangel to exorcise a vampire. If you are enjoyi...

Geoff and Katrina take a request, from a long time listener of the podcast who inspired the 2022 fan lead project, and retell the Thai story Phikul Thong. A familiar tale type (ATU 480) to our podcast but with a twist we haven't discussed before that is more famous in a Charles Perrault tale, The Fairies. Geoff and Katrina take it a step further and retell another ATU 480 tale that stretches the b...