The Fairy Tellers

In this episode, Geoff and Katrina delve into the world of King Louis XIV's French Salons. During this time period, many women of the nobility were meeting together in the salons and stretching their creative skills in storytelling and writing. While Charles Perrault was trying to prove that the French folktales carried as much weight as the myths of ancient Greece, his niece, Marie-Jeanne L'Heritier was hosting salons and crafting tales of her own. Geoff retells an ATU 480 tale by Charles Perrault and Katrina counters with a tale from Marie-Jeanne L'Heritier. And they both give a prayer of thanks for Jack Zipes saving the day with his excellent translations.

In this episode, Geoff shares that his son is currently having him read through ALL of the Grimm Brother's collection of tales. And while on this journey, his son has really gotten a kick out of some tales more than others. And Geoff shares one of those tales with us; the tale of Clever Gretel. Armed with a quick wit and a desire for good food and drink (and a pair of red shoes), Gretel is ready to take on the world...or at least, her employer. Then Katrina shares a story with the same tale type (ATU 1741), that came from Sir Richard Burton's "Thousand and One Nights". Listen through to see if everyone leaves with all of their body parts still attached.

In this episode, Geoff and Katrina fight to break their Mer-MAY curse by attempting to get an episode all about the most famous seductresses (or kidnappers) of the sea (or lakes). These little (or big) mermaids might come from different lands but they have one thing in common, they are man hungry. With three different tales, Katrina and Geoff take turns telling tales of female heroines, magic (or not magic) food, and daring escapes. And one rocking chair surfing great grandmother.

In this episode, Geoff and Katrina turn to a pair of tales from Ethiopia that illustrate how stories can talk about what we value without being overly didactic.

In this episode, Geoff and Katrina celebrate Shakespeare Day on April 23rd! Shakespeare employed folklore in his tales to connect his audience with the familiar while also reworking it enough to pull a new message into the forefront. Our patrons on Patreon picked out "All's Well That Ends Well" and Katrina enjoyed learning about a tale that was unfamiliar to her. And Geoff retold the tale of Catherine the Wise, another ATU 891 The Man Who Deserts His Wife tale type.  

Check out Shakespeare and the Folktale: An Anthology of Stories edited by Charlotte Artese

And listen to our recap of the Live Action Snow White on Not My Fantasy podcast.

In this episode, Geoff and Katrina dive back into The Tale of Tales by Giambattista Basile. Is it violent? And misogynistic? And unnecessarily sexual? Yes. But it's also racist. Katrina was sent a copy of Specters of the Marvelous: Race and the Development of the European Fairy Tale by Kimberly J. Lau, a professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz. This book was chocked full of fascinating research about how the tales that most famously make up the genre of fairy tales, have unique place and time specific types of racism. Katrina retells the tale of The Golden Trunk, which reveals what we can learn about how Italians in the late 1500's viewed Black people, particularly those that were enslaved. Not only that, but the audience also gets to hear a classic Basile variant of the Cupid and Psyche story, which is a precursor to Beauty and the Beast. 

Not My Fantasy- Live Action Snow White 

In this episode, Geoff and Katrina talk about some of the work of Lady Jane "Speranza" Wilde. An Irish nationalist who was gathering the lore of the folk, Lady Jane Wilde believed that the heart of the Irish culture could be found in its myths, legends, and superstitions. Katrina discusses some of what can be found in Lady Wilde's folklore collection, including how to become invisible, cure a toothache, and remove the Evil Eye. Unfortunately, in the discussion, Katrina becomes aware that she might have accidentally placed the Evil Eye on some people in her own life. Oops. Next, Katrina tells a tale of a woman who is lured into the fairy realm but saved by a mysterious red haired man. Then, Geoff retells a tale of a leprechaun. Katrina gives a final pitch for why everyone should grab a copy of  Lady Jane "Speranza" Wilde's book and give it a read for themselves.

Fairy Tale Fix- Specifically episode 83

In this episode, Geoff and Katrina take a trip to several different cities of fools (and feel right at home). First Katrina explains how the folkloric village of Gotham ended up turning into a city of Batman. Then the pair travel backwards in time to take a peek into one of the oldest joke books, from the 4th century AD. They discuss how common it is for people to come together to bad mouth the people one town over. Katrina takes a couple shots at LA and her own cousins, while Geoff wants to talk Florida Man and Idiotsville, USA. And then they dive into the Jewish folkloric town of Chelm for several fun stories that illustrate the power of these silly stories to showcase human nature.

Books Used:

Book Mentioned at the Beginning of this episode:

For National Tell a Fairy Tale day, Katrina and Geoff decided to hop on and do an Instagram Live and Katrina tells the story of The Dog and the Sparrow straight from the Brothers Grimm. This was one of the first fairy tales that Katrina encountered way back almost a decade ago that made her go, "What the freak did I just read?!" A classic tale with some classic Grimm Brothers violence. 95% of the characters die so don't get attached to any of them.

In this episode, Katrina and Geoff talk about stone soup and the travels this story has gone on. This ATU 1548 tale might have started off as a story where a clever man does what he can to trick unsuspecting people out of their food and resources, but over time it has come to be a symbol of communities learning to come together in love to make sure that everybody has enough. Katrina and Geoff retell a couple stories that feature so called "clever men" who lie, cheat, and steal to illustrate what kind of company the story of Stone Soup kept in the ATU Index before launching into a retelling of this ubiquitous tale.