Roots of Lore

As equinox tips us once more into the dark half of the year (here in the northern hemisphere), the season of story, we journey to the underworld with the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, and we finish our exploration of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen.

Featuring Dr. Helene Foley, professor of Classics at Columbia University and Barnard College.

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We've been exploring "The Snow Queen" all season, but in this episode of Roots of Lore, let's explore Hans Christian Andersen in a bit more depth. We're getting a sense of who he was and the context of his fairy tales, and then taking a look at a potential source of inspiration: East of the Sun and West of the Moon as collected by Norwegian folktale scholars, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe.

Featuring Dr. Sara Cleto and Dr. Brittany Warman of the Carterhaugh School of the Folklore and the Fantastic, and Sarah N. Lawson.

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We are at a threshold time. Last week marked the midway point between Winter solstice and spring equinox. Now you might be feeling the stirrings of Spring. Depending on where you are, it might even already look like Spring. And it might be tempting to want to rush through this liminal tension and get Winter over with already, but here I’m inviting you to pause and be here at this threshold.

There are stories to be found here.

In this episode, we’re diving into some Irish Celtic folklore through two figures that represent both sides of this seasonal threshold: Brigid and the Cailleach.

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Happy New Year! We are standing at the portal between one year and the next, and you may be thinking of New Year's Resolutions or goals to hit the ground running here at the beginning of the year.

In this episode of Roots of Lore, we're exploring some different ways of leaning into the excitement of the new year that allow us to be more in flow with this story time of year: The Omen Days and the Web of Wyrd.

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It's the season of celebration and in this episode of Roots of Lore, we explore The Saturnalia.

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The nights grow long and dark. And from them spring holidays, rituals, celebrations, and stories. Now perhaps more than any other time of year, we find ourselves craving a slow-down to wrap ourselves in tradition, in familiarity, in comfort, and in meaning.

So let us begin with the Winter Solstice, a point in the cycle of the year around which so many cultures around the world held celebration, ritual, and wove their stories.

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It's the one year anniversary of the first episode of Roots of Lore.

This one is just a mini episode to keep the podcast alive on this auspicious day, explore some birthday folklore, and hint at season two which is coming very, very soon!

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Cinderella is the fairy tale that, perhaps more than any other, sets our standard for how we expect a fairy tale to behave. But this story tells us more than what happens if you have some fancy shoes and a fairy godmother on your side. In this episode, let's explore the Cinderella of Charles Perrault as well as the Cinderella version of the Grimms—how these stories might give us hints of ancestral practices, and then how we equate shoes and lust with Ye Xian from China.

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What would you choose if you had to pick one: beauty or intelligence? In this episode of Roots of Lore, we're exploring two stories that test what qualities are most important in love: Riquet with the Tuft (of Charles Perrault and Catherine Bernard) and Beauty and the Beast (of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont) plus taking it back to some lovers of mythology: Cupid and Psyche.

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Sometimes stories serve as lessons for children, but in Perrault's day, sometimes fairy tales were a manners guide for adults. This episode explores "The Fairies" (Les Fées)—sometimes known as "Diamonds and Toads"—by Charles Perrault, "The Enchantments of Eloquence" by Marie‐Jeanne Lhéritier, and the story of Frau Holle.

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