The Fairy Tellers

Katrina and Geoff celebrate a year of podcasting! On this one year anniversary special we go back and revisit even more Cinderella tales. Most importantly we discuss what it really takes to be considered part of this tale type. Spoiler alert: It's not the shoe!

Geoff retells the story of Ye Xian, a Chinese tale that dates back a couple thousand years, in which our heroine is granted wishes by the bones of her beloved pet fish.

Katrina retells a Cinderella tale from the Philippines that starts off with it's own unique perspective then takes a sudden European turn reflective of the history of colonization in the country.

Katrina and Geoff right a wrong! Waaaaay back in Episode 19, Katrina told the first half of "Hassan of Basra" from One Thousand and One Nights. But in that episode she only told the first half, simplifying the EPIC conclusion to a few sentences. It's time to make things right! In this episode, Katrina retells "Hassan of Basra" in its entirety. Strap in and enjoy a tale of jinn, magi, fierce Amazon warriors, and magic wands.

Katrina and Geoff discuss grief! Hilarious. Katrina retells her favorite fairy tale of all time, Death in a Nut. Equal parts poignant and comical, this Scottish folktale really gets to the heart of the important fact of life that is death and how we need to come to terms with it. Along the way we'll learn the difference between flotsam and jetsam in maritime law, witness a young man literally conquer death, and see for ourselves the unintended consequences of a world where nothing dies.

Then Geoff retells the Buddhist Parable of the Mustard Seeds (not to be confused with a similarly titled Christian story) where we learn how to find peace by letting go of our grief.

Katrina and Geoff discuss fables! On this edition of our Fifth Friday Fable Fest we parse through a series of fables related to marriage. In the process, we talk about all the hit topics: male pattern baldness, insecurity, polygamy vs. polyamory, and why men look best with a little bit of gray in their hair. And that's only the first fable.

CW: Brief discussion of lynching, castration and racially motivated violence.

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/

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.

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.

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

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!

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.