The Three Ravens Podcast

On this week's episode of Local Legends Martin is chatting with recovering Medievalist, occult bookshop owner, and esoteric researcher Christina Oakley Harrington! Growing up for a large part overseas, then crash-landing into the north American education system, Christina was perhaps always destined to be an outsider. Yet through her dedication to academic rigour, her life in Wicca, and her passio...

This Norwegian tale from the Red Fairy Book features a plucky, diminutive hero so unscrupulous, he might just be worse than Dapplegrim! With trolls with increasing numbers of heads (returning favourites), princesses with suspicious motives, mysteriously intelligent babies and flying ships, Minnikin really does have it all. Also known as Lillekort in Norwegian, and Shortshanks in translation, it's...

For the last episode in the second series of Magic and Medicines, we're talking about Palmistry and Phrenology! We start by looking at uses of palmistry across the world, from Vedic astrology with Hindu Jyotish over to the divination practices of the Chinese Ming dynasty. We discuss whether or not it's true that Aristotle discovered an ancient palmistry text and got Alexander the Great into the ar...

On this very special episode of Local Legends Martin is chatting with the brilliant British folk singer-songwriter Frankie Archer! To mark the release of her debut album, The Dance of Death , Frankie made time to come on the podcast to discuss how she has ended up making the music she has, which fuses centuries-old traditional melodies with modern electronic production, synthesizers, and manipulat...

For today's episode of the Lang Fairy Tales, we're proceeding on apace through the Red Fairy Book, and we've got another double bill of stories. First up is the excellently named Bushy Bride, a Norwegian story which exploits the fairy tale obsession with very, very long noses - and has some very curious features. There is a charming dog called Little Snow, though! We follow that on with Mother Hol...

In this month's update episode we're chatting all about the folkiness of summertime - including Well Dressing and Rush Bearing! Though that's not all, as, in addition to sharing some of our own news, we're working through the story of Swithin, the English weather saint who once had a very holy hole, Swan Upping, the origins of cricket, Canada Day and America's birthday, too. Then we share the open...

This month on Magus , for our penultimate episode of the series, we're exploring the life and work of the father of Western esotericism, Cornelius Agrippa! Born into a Europe wracked by wars, he attends university in Cologne at thirteen, earns his MA by sixteen, and then he abandons the Holy Roman Empire for France. There, under the noses of the House of Valois, he begins to establish a hidden bro...

For this episode, we go where no podcast has gone before - welcome to Three Ravens Live @ Great Dunmow BookFest ! During a one day festival where an entire Essex town famous for giving out sides of bacon to married couples turned itself into a bookshop, we were warmly welcomed to Jack's 1952, an outdoor goods shop who gave us a space in their basement and several dozen camping chairs to record a f...

On this week's Lang Fairy Tales episode we have another triple-bill - though these ones are all slightly wonky... We begin with Rapunzel , a tale with its roots in ancient Persian mythology, although what the Langs do with it leaves a little to be desired! Next up it's The Nettle Spinner , another Charles Deulin legend out of Flanders which seems to speak to the power of the Protestant work ethic...

Get ready to escape to the lake isle of Innisfree, because for the penultimate episode of Forgotten Melodies we're talking all about Nature Songs! We explore the English trees and plants which have inspired folk musicians, poets and all true Romantics, and the songs which use them as motifs. First, we look at stone cold classic A North Country Maid, and its oak, ash and bonny ivy. More oak and ash...

Recorded on steamy summer's evening in the John Abel Room of Grange Court, welcome to Three Ravens Live @ Leominster Festival ! While Hereford might try to steal all the glory - literally in some cases - "Lemster" was just as grand a place in the Medieval era, famed most of all as a market town rich in wool. This recording, made on Thursday 11th, explores that historic rivalry, along with the tale...

On this week's Lang Fairy Tales episode we're encountering a tale by folklorist Charles Deulin, The Enchanted Canary . Positioned as a legend out of Flanders, it sees a prince head out to find a wife whose skin is not white or pink... Perhaps wisely, he goes south, following his dream of an orange grove, waylaid by witches, bricklayers, and his own inability to follow advice. A surprisingly rounde...

Let's strip away the meat of mythology and render down the fat of folklore to cook up a delicious chat all about Ogres! The word itself was coined by Chrétien de Troyes during the 12th century, and was used to talk about the brutish Britons on the other side of the channel - but from the Ancient Egyptian "Cannibal Hymn" of Pharaoh Unas to the Greeks and Romans with Polyphemus and Orcus, the name o...

We present a double bill of tales from the Red Fairy Book today! First up, we've got the Norwegian tale of the cleverest (and possibly the most ruthless) horse out there, Dapplegrim, and the lucky human he teams up with. We follow it up with The Twelve Brothers, collected by the Brothers Grimm - and spoiler alert, this one contains ravens! They make a great contrasting pair, with plenty to discuss...

Today's Lang Fairy Tale is another Madame d'Aulnoy spectacular, The Golden Branch! So spectacular is this tale, in fact, that it was adapted for the stage as part of James Robinson Planche's 19th century 'fairy extravaganzas', lavishly costumed musical displays of whimsy which must truly have been a joy to behold.  But will this be the decider for Martin for or against Madame d'Aulnoy? We dis...

We're growling, purring and hissing our way into this month's Magic and Medicines episode to talk all about Familiars and Animal Magic! We start by talking about animistic beliefs in early societies, along with associations of animals with particular deities, before diving into Medieval and Renaissance ideas about witches' familiars documented in witch trial materials. With Vinegar Tom, Sacke-and-...

Welcome to a warm summer's evening in a Medieval barn, complete with twilight birdsong, for Three Ravens Live @ Chiltern Open Air Museum ! Set across 45 acres of the Chiltern Hills, "COAM" rescues endangered historic buildings and reconstructs them at its picturesque site - one where a working historic farm and traditional craftspeople continue Buckinghamshire's old folk occupations and ensure the...

Today, for our 50th Lang Fairy Tales episode, it's time for another triple - and this trio of stories are ones most people might already know. The Ratcatcher is a fairly straight take on the Pied Piper of Hamelin, albeit with a Transylvanian Twist. The True History of Little Golden Hood marks the Lang's second attempt at Red Riding Hood - and it's pretty great! The Three Dwarfs meanwhile starts pr...

This month on Magus we're discussing maybe the most influential wizard of all time, and a true original - it's only flippin' Merlin! We track his development through prehistory via the archetype of the "Lord of Ecstasy" - a deific entity who appears in mythologies from all over the world. In addition to exploring his British precedents in the form of the Northern and Scots Lowland wild man of the...

In this month's update episode we're chatting all about Midsummer - which is not the same thing as the Summer Solstice... After chewing through some key ideas to do with "Litha" from across different cultures, including the significance of St John's Eve and Day and the hunting of the mythical Fern Flower at the solar maximum, we share a bunch of our news and the opening chunks of May's two Patreon...

After our triple bonanza on Thursday, we've got just one fairy tale today: a Norwegian Cinderella fable called Kari Woodengown! With questionable fashion choices, an unappealing prince and the very best animal friend a girl could wish for, we very nearly gave Kari Woodengown three out of three ravens...but not quite. Still, it's an enjoyable adventure - though we should warn you that there's a bri...

It's our first triple bill of stories from the Langs' Red Fairy Book today, and boy do we have a smorgasbord of fun little tales for you! Our first selection is The Voice of Death, a Romanian tale collected by Petre Ispirescu. It's a strange little tale which defies classification, even with the entire ATU Index at our backs. A little more philosophical than the usual, but one we both liked. We fo...

Keep watch for that Captain trying to slip you the King's Shilling, as on this month's episode of Forgotten Melodies we're talking all about Soldiers and Sailors! We're discussing two different kinds of broadside at once today - both ballads and rows of cannon, with explorations of the contexts of three old folk songs we've recorded. The first, William Taylor , sees us folding together two folk cl...

A lovely, intimate Three Ravens Live event at Ditchling Bookshop. Opened by Amanda Smith on Valentine's Day in 2026, Ditchling Bookshop is an magical independent haven - and it has its own fairy museum! We discussed Sussex history and folklore, with particular reference to Ditchling, Westmeston and Plumpton. Our conversation ranges from the skyborne wisht hounds to cart-stopping witches and snake...

We're back at the mercy of Madam d'Aulnoy again today with a story of witch-foiled love between a naive princess and a fairy prince, Graciosa and Percinet . Rooted in 17th century French theatricality, this one has been made into pantomimes, plays, works of art from across the centuries, and it's also slightly tamer in the Lang version than the original. Ultimately though, does it all just boil do...