Myths and Legends

By Jason Weiser, Carissa Weiser / Bardic

Arts Education History

What's Myths and Legends about?

Jason Weiser tells stories from myths, legends, and folklore that have shaped cultures throughout history. Some, like the stories of Aladdin, King Arthur, and Hercules are stories you think you know, but with surprising origins. Others are stories you might not have heard, but really should. All the stories are sourced from world folklore, but retold for modern ears.

These are stories of wizards, knights, Vikings, dragons, princesses, and kings from the time when the world beyond the map was a dangerous and wonderful place.

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LAST EPISODE

222B-Norse Legends: It Take...

04.21.2021

A packed episode with Thor, Odin, mythological dwarves, sword arms, and Valhalla, all ending up with a beautiful double wedding...which ends somehow worse than the last time we visited a giant wedding on this podcast. We're finishing up the saga ...

Myths and Legends episodes:

04.21.2021 222B-Norse Legends: It Takes a Pillage A packed episode with Thor, Odin, mythological dwarves, sword arms, and Valhalla, all ending up with a beautiful double wedding...which ends somehow worse than the last time we visited a giant wedding on this podcast. We're finishing up the saga ...
04.14.2021 222A-Norse Legends: The Land of the Ice and Snow Thor! Jotunheim! Giants! Draugr! We're back in Norse Mythology with an epic Viking tale.
04.07.2021 221-Chinese/Scottish folklore: The Great Beyond Two stories about death and what comes next, from China and Scotland
03.31.2021 220B-Odyssey: Lonely Island Odysseus is finally going home.
03.24.2021 220A-Odyssey: The Castaways Getting back into the Odyssey with the stories of Telemachus, Menelaus, and Orestes.
03.17.2021 219-Italian folklore: Unhand Me A story from the Pentamerone with a title so spoiler-y that I can't even say it here, but it's a fun, mildly horrifying tale of a relationship that just doesn't work out. And is also really gross.
03.10.2021 218-Monkey King: Enter Sandman The journey to the west continues!
03.03.2021 217-Mabinogion: Bringing Home the Bacon The fourth and final branch of the Mabinogion
02.24.2021 216-Baba Yaga: Which Witch? Two stories from Russia. On the first, we catch up with the famous witch, Baba Yaga, as we follow yet another young person who has been sent on an errand/to be eaten at the evil witch's walking hut. The second ...
02.17.2021 215-Scandinavian Legends: Madness The story that inspired Shakespeare's Hamlet, the tale of Amleth, the prince of Denmark. A ton of death, some cryptic non-riddles, and copious amounts of poop smearing serve as the starting point for one of the greatest works in the ...
02.16.2021 THE OPPORTUNIST IS AVAILABLE NOW The Opportunist tells true stories of regular people who turn sinister simply by being opportunistic. How does an everyday person turn into a thief, a cult leader, or a scammer? Instead of portraying criminals as distinctly “other,” we explore our ...
02.10.2021 214-Japanese Folklore: Take Your Lumps Two short stories from Japan. On the first, an old man is in a tree surrounded by demons and faced with a desperate choice. On the second, a farmer finally catches a notorious trickster who has been stealing his lunch, ...
02.03.2021 213-Reynard: What Does the Fox Say? We continue the saga of Reynard where the the classic trickster tries to do good in a world turned against him...and, by his actions, reveals a sinister truth about the world in which the story was written. The creature is ...
01.27.2021 212-Armenian Folklore: Witchy Woman An awesome story about a young king who wants to do the impossible! And the ill-advised! And, frankly, makes a kind of stupid choice to go into the murder forest that took the lives of his father and six consecutive ...
01.20.2021 211-Aeneid: Troy Story The Aeneid, by Virgil, is one of the great world epics. Inspired by, and modeled after, the Odyssey, it's the story of Aeneas's journey from burning Troy to found the Roman empire, and all bleeding ground, sad Cyclopes, and bellybutton-wolves ...
01.13.2021 210-Russian Legends: Dragons, Dragons Everywhere The story of Dobrynya the dragon slayer from Russian folklore is the tale of a young man finding his heroic destiny, from magical hats to skinny dipping and dancing with baby dragons. Sorry, did I say dancing with baby dragons? ...
01.06.2021 209C-Viking Legends: Black Widow Kjartan and Gudrun were always meant to be together, but when the former gets waylaid in a foreign kingdom with a beautiful princess, the latter needs to make other plans. Of course, she accepts the proposal of their mutual best ...
12.30.2020 209B-Viking Legends: Time and Tide Our winter Norse saga continues, with our protagonists celebrating Christmas in Norway...and also learning what Christmas is when the king basically puts a sword to their necks and tells them to convert or die. We’ll also follow Gudrun on marriages ...
12.23.2020 209A-Viking Legends: Bloodlines A Norse saga in the truest sense of the word, this story follows one family through changing times of the Middle Ages. There are cursed swords, Viking love triangles, and why throwing stinky socks at a person whose only desire ...
12.16.2020 208-Maui: Big Tuna What do you do after you hook the sun, dredge up islands for humanity, and bring fire to the world? How about settle down with a nice goddess, have some kids, and enjoy the simple life. Nevermind that your new ...
12.09.2020 207-Monkey King: Girls Before Swine We're back in the tale of the Journey to the West, where we'll catch up with the pious monk, Xangzang, the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, and the incognito dragon horse, Yulong as they continue their trek to India. This week, ...
12.02.2020 206-Mabinogion: The Blip We're back in the Mabinogion, a collection of Welsh folklore, where we'll see what happens when the apocalypse comes and goes. The good news is that you survived! Yay! The bad news is that, since your servants have all disappeared, ...
11.25.2020 205B-Odyssey: The Widening Gyre We're back, finishing up this leg of our journey in a packed episode with a witch, pigmen, more giants, Scylla, Charybdis, Hades, Tiresias, and, of course Hercules. The creature is an evil, eyeless monster from South Africa and the reason ...
11.18.2020 205A-Odyssey: Man of Constant Sorrow With monsters, witches, sirens, and cyclopes, the Odyssey is one of the landmarks of world literature and a classic for the ages. This is the start of Odysseus's long journey home from a war that he didn't want to join ...
11.11.2020 204-Russian Folklore: Get in the Bag We're back in Russian folklore for a fun story about a soldier with some biscuits who fights demons, heaven, and yes, death itself. The creature is the valravn and I just can't get over how cool that name is. -- ...
11.04.2020 203-Grimm: Out of the Woods Two stories from the Grimm brothers! On the first, a wolf wants to eat some kids, and is annoyed that he needs to do the smallest amount of effort to do so. On the second, a woman travels to a ...
10.28.2020 202-Greek Myths: Dead Poets Society This week it is the very very spooky* Halloween episode about a terrifying** trek through the Greek underworld. It's definitely not a lighthearted romp where a Greek god makes a podcast, trick-or-treats as Hercules, and emcees a poetry competition. Nope. ...
10.21.2020 201-1001 Nights: In the Wind We're back in the stories of 1001 nights, where Scheherazade has to tell bedtime stories to save her life. On the first, a man ruins a wedding reception and can't show his face in town again. The second starts with ...
10.14.2020 200-Irish Legends: The Things We Do for Love Returning to Irish legends, we tackle the wooing of Etain, a love story that goes up against witches turning people into puddles and flies, multiple angry spouses, and death itself. The creature is a dangerous blanket! Don't sit on blankets ...
10.07.2020 199-Japanese folklore: Moonlight A story from Japanese folklore of Princess Moonlight, from Japanese folklore, where a bamboo cutter finds one of those magical heaven babies in a bamboo stalk (you know, those extremely common glowing children found in plants) and it changes his ...
09.30.2020 198-Robin Hood: On the Road Again Robin Hood is back on the road and ready to make some quick cash, so of course, he's going to go undercover as a beggar an infiltrate a secret society. Meanwhile Little John poured himself into a friar costume to ...
09.23.2020 197-Viking Legends: VFFs After a ball game goes wrong in the worst possible way, Viking best friends go on a quest to clear their names. A quest that involves poison vultures, evil priestess witches, kings that can transform into dragons, and stuffed animal ...
09.16.2020 196-Reynard the Fox: Chaotic Good A reboot, of sorts, of Reynard the Fox, everyone's favorite brutal, amoral trickster. I found a much older, much more nuanced version of the fox's stories. Today, we meet his father, get an origin story, and see him trying to ...
09.09.2020 195-Greek Myths: Stranger Danger Dionysus was the god of wine from Greek myths and the last Olympian to earn a place on Mount Olympus. His story starts with him being born from Zeus's thigh...and then somehow gets stranger. He does make a lot of ...
09.02.2020 194-Mulan: The Warrior A completely new version of the Mulan legend, sourced from a story from the late middle ages, so even if you think you know the Mulan story, this version has twists and turns that make her big secret, that she's ...
08.26.2020 193B-Monkey King: Pilgrim's Progress We're on the road with the monk, Xuanzang, and Monkey King, Sun Wukong, as they start their Journey to the West... that is, if Sun Wukong is coming back from taking off in a huff (he is). Once he gets ...
08.19.2020 193A-Monkey King: Golden Cicada We return to the stories of the Monkey King and pick up at the end of his long imprisonment under a mountain, for trying to overthrow everyone and everything. Meanwhile, a messenger from heaven is on the move, looking for ...
08.12.2020 192-Grimm: Brave Traveler An off-the-wall story from the Grimm Brothers about a young man who knew no fear...and why that was a massive problem for him. The creature is a man who you don't want to high five. Mainly because he has eyeballs ...
08.05.2020 191-Norse Legends: See How they Fly In this episode from Norse legends, we'll see that the worst breakups involve Thor breaking up the couple with his hammer and we'll see that even though Odin can shapeshift, that doesn't mean he skips the conditioner. It's the Saga ...
07.29.2020 190-Chinese Folklore: Fierce In one story, a dragon is rampaging around the countryside unless he gets his favorite meal: teenage girls. In the other, a young woman trapped in an impossible situation meets a new friend who might just be able to save ...
07.22.2020 189C-Nibelungenlied: I Know It Was You In the third and final part of our series on the Nibelungenlied, the hero of the story, Siegfried, is dead and his wife, the princess, has a score to settle. The creature this week is the strong toad, a super ...
07.15.2020 189B-Nibelungenlied: Heinous We pick up right where we left off last week: Gunther has tricked his way into marrying Brunhild, and Brunhild decided to give him a minor test of strength on their wedding night. He failed, and ended up naked and ...
07.08.2020 189A-Medieval Legends: Cheater Cheater The story starts out with one prince slaying a dragon and getting rich. It starts there. The wild ride of the Nibelungenlied has echoes of one of our most beloved stories, the Saga of the Volsungs, with it's over-the-top characters, ...
07.01.2020 188-The Flea: Forever Home Two stories from the bawdy, funny, and oftentimes deeply unsettling 17th century fairytale author Giambattista Basile, both of which have to do with pets. The first pet is a rooster, whose owner just can't bring himself to kill it. No ...
06.24.2020 187-Greek Myths: The End to All Our Pain Agamemnon is coming home from the Trojan War. He has no idea what's waiting for him. There are over fifty bonus episodes on the Myths and Legends bonus feed! Check out that and weekly ad-free shows at https://www.mythpodcast.com/membership Check out ...
06.17.2020 186-Grimm: Don't Be Weird A story from the Grimm brothers about three down-on-their-luck soldiers who get everything they could ever dream of and then do their absolutely best to lose it. The extended creature of the week is a fearsome critter from Colorado - ...
06.10.2020 185-Queen of Serpents: With This Hiss I Thee Wed The story of Eglė the Queen of Serpents, from Lithuanian folklore, about a young woman who is faced with an impossible choice: witness the destruction of her family...or marry a snake. The creature is an wet, inebriated chicken named skrat ...
06.03.2020 184-Robin Hood: Check, Please! We return to the Robin Hood stories with a (mostly) standalone episode. Robin Hood and his merry men are throwing a dinner party! With food and wine! And robbery! The creature is a shirtless Jaguar man who can end the ...
05.27.2020 183-Indian folklore: Revenant The story of an ancient Indian king who goes on a fetch quest through an evil-looking cemetery and listens to the worst podcasts of all time...hosted by a ghoul he has slung over his shoulder, and if he doesn't pay ...
05.20.2020 182-Slavic folklore: The Brave Companions Join Bulat the Brave Companion and Ivan Tsarevich (no, not that one) as they get a magical new horse, escape magical prison, and get in some magical fights. The creature is the shōkera, the slimy guy looking in your window ...

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