The Three Ravens Podcast

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 art, and explore the stereotypes associated with fortune telling in general, and some nasty xenophobic history.

Then, we have a look at our own hands, and try and work out whether we've got 'fire hands' or 'air hands', and what the lines in our palms say about us.

In the third part of the episode, we look at the concept of phrenology, from its roots as possible brain science through to its manipulation and abuse by proponents of eugenics, and its alarming similarity to the work done by some algorithms today...

About Three Ravens 🔮

Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.

Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’

We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.

Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.

Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…

Join the Conspiracy of Ravens ✨

🌐 Official Website: Visit the Three Ravens Podcast Official Site to sign up for our mailing list, explore our episode catalogue, and enjoy our blog!

🎤 Three Ravens Live: Find tickets and news about our upcoming live shows!

🛒 Shop: Buy our books and exclusive Three Ravens Merch including mugs, tote bags, tees and hoodies from our Online Shop

👑 Patreon: Support the show and unlock ad free listening, monthly Patreon exclusive episodes, the Three Ravens Film Club, our community chat and newsletters at the Three Ravens Patreon

📚 Our First Book: Buy our stunning hardback collection of 39 historic stories Three Ravens Folk Tales

👻 Our Second Book: Order our brand new hair-raising host of 20 original ghost stories Three Ravens Ghost Tales

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Our Third Book: Preorder our upcoming collection of Welsh regional legends Three Ravens Folk Tales of Wales coming to all good bookshops on St David's Day (March 1st) 2027

📱 Socials: Follow our adventures and help us grow on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok

RETHINK THE WAY YOU DRINK WITH OUR PARTNER THREE SPIRIT - USE OFFER CODE THREE RAVENS FOR A 15% DISCOUNT AT CHECKOUT

Our Linktree to all things Three Ravens

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 manipulated samples.

Hailing from the North East of England, Frankie loves folk songs and folk tales, making her a perfect guest. We are both massive fans, and, best of all, we have permission to include some of Frankie’s brilliant songs in this episode, which are:

• Death and the Maiden
• The Dance of Death
• In Oxford City
• The Lover’s Ghost
• The Demon Lover
• In Brunton Town

We won’t labour the point – she’s ace – so gather in close around the Three Ravens campfire and listen in to a chat which explores topics as wide-ranging as the icon of Death, the Lambton worm, Cushie Butterfield and the business of being a folk musician in this strange year of 2026, with a true Local Legend, Frankie Archer!

Learn more about Frankie, buy her music, and find links to tickets for her upcoming tour at frankiearchermusic.com.

About Three Ravens 🔮

Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.

Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’

We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.

Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.

Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…

Join the Conspiracy of Ravens ✨

🌐 Official Website: Visit the Three Ravens Podcast Official Site to sign up for our mailing list, explore our episode catalogue, and enjoy our blog!

🎤 Three Ravens Live: Find tickets and news about our upcoming live shows!

🛒 Shop: Buy our books and exclusive Three Ravens Merch including mugs, tote bags, tees and hoodies from our Online Shop

👑 Patreon: Support the show and unlock ad free listening, monthly Patreon exclusive episodes, the Three Ravens Film Club, our community chat and newsletters at the Three Ravens Patreon

📚 Our First Book: Buy our stunning hardback collection of 39 historic stories Three Ravens Folk Tales

👻 Our Second Book: Order our brand new hair-raising host of 20 original ghost stories Three Ravens Ghost Tales

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Our Third Book: Preorder our upcoming collection of Welsh regional legends Three Ravens Folk Tales of Wales coming to all good bookshops on St David's Day (March 1st) 2027

📱 Socials: Follow our adventures and help us grow on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok

RETHINK THE WAY YOU DRINK WITH OUR PARTNER THREE SPIRIT - USE OFFER CODE THREE RAVENS FOR A 15% DISCOUNT AT CHECKOUT

Our Linktree to all things Three Ravens

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Holle, a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and included in their 1812 collection Kinder und Hausmarchen before the Langs got their hands on it. It includes legends about Mother Holda, or Frau Perchta, a winter spirit who lives in a well and has the power to make it snow - and teach powerful moral lessons too.

They're a surprisingly good pairing to compare and contrast! As ever, we discuss and analyse the stories and apply our Raven Ratings to them.

Launched in 2025 to help us bridge gaps between main series, we began by sharing readings from us of the iconic stories found in the Blue Fairy Book compiled by Andrew Lang. From the Red Fairy Book onwards, we have also spent time digging into the stories, their histories and relationships to tale types, and are engaged in an ongoing mission to celebrate the woman truly behind the 12 coloured fairy books – Andrew’s wife Leonora, whose impact on children’s literature and fantasy fiction cannot be understated.

About Three Ravens 🔮

Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.

Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’

We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.

Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.

Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…

Join the Conspiracy of Ravens ✨

🌐 Official Website: Visit the Three Ravens Podcast Official Site to sign up for our mailing list, explore our episode catalogue, and enjoy our blog!

🎤 Three Ravens Live: Find tickets and news about our upcoming live shows!

🛒 Shop: Buy our books and exclusive Three Ravens Merch including mugs, tote bags, tees and hoodies from our Online Shop

👑 Patreon: Support the show and unlock ad free listening, monthly Patreon exclusive episodes, the Three Ravens Film Club, our community chat and newsletters at the Three Ravens Patreon

📚 Our First Book: Buy our stunning hardback collection of 39 historic stories Three Ravens Folk Tales

👻 Our Second Book: Order our brand new hair-raising host of 20 original ghost stories Three Ravens Ghost Tales

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Our Third Book: Preorder our upcoming collection of Welsh regional legends Three Ravens Folk Tales of Wales coming to all good bookshops on St David's Day (March 1st) 2027

📱 Socials: Follow our adventures and help us grow on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok

RETHINK THE WAY YOU DRINK WITH OUR PARTNER THREE SPIRIT - USE OFFER CODE THREE RAVENS FOR A 15% DISCOUNT AT CHECKOUT

Our Linktree to all things Three Ravens

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 opening chunks of June's two Three Ravens Patreon Exclusive episodes.

First comes the opening 25 minutes of our special episode about The History and Folklore of Board Games, which is followed by the first part of our Film Club episode all about Powell & Pressburger's 1947 nun-stravaganza Black Narcissus.

About Three Ravens 🔮

Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.

Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’

We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.

Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.

Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…

Join the Conspiracy of Ravens ✨

🌐 Official Website: Visit the Three Ravens Podcast Official Site to sign up for our mailing list, explore our episode catalogue, and enjoy our blog!

🎤 Three Ravens Live: Find tickets and news about our upcoming live shows!

🛒 Shop: Buy our books and exclusive Three Ravens Merch including mugs, tote bags, tees and hoodies from our Online Shop

👑 Patreon: Support the show and unlock ad free listening, monthly Patreon exclusive episodes, the Three Ravens Film Club, our community chat and newsletters at the Three Ravens Patreon

📚 Our First Book: Buy our stunning hardback collection of 39 historic stories Three Ravens Folk Tales

👻 Our Second Book: Order our brand new hair-raising host of 20 original ghost stories Three Ravens Ghost Tales

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Our Third Book: Preorder our upcoming collection of Welsh regional legends Three Ravens Folk Tales of Wales coming to all good bookshops on St David's Day (March 1st) 2027

📱 Socials: Follow our adventures and help us grow on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok

RETHINK THE WAY YOU DRINK WITH OUR PARTNER THREE SPIRIT - USE OFFER CODE THREE RAVENS FOR A 15% DISCOUNT AT CHECKOUT

Our Linktree to all things Three Ravens

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 brotherhood of occult learning stretching from England to Catalonia to Italy and Switzerland.

Influenced by Erasmus and Martin Luther, and mentored by the court necromancer of Emperor Maximilian I, Agrippa then pioneers a new, coherent, rational model of the universe which bridges the gap between Medieval and Renaissance thinking, combining esoteric learning from the ancient world with cutting edge humanist philosophy.

Was he really accompanied everywhere he went by a demonic magical hound that aided him in his research?

Were his writings cursed such that if an unwitting person read from them alive they risked being strangled by demonic spirits?

Also, how did Agrippa not realise that embarassing the Inquisition, and then insulting your patrons in print, might be hazardous to the health?

We'll be answering these questions and many others - but fair warning going in: these are knotty concepts that Agrippa himself would argue should not really be known to common people like thee and we...

About Three Ravens 🔮

Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.

Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’

We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.

Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.

Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…

Join the Conspiracy of Ravens ✨

🌐 Official Website: Visit the Three Ravens Podcast Official Site to sign up for our mailing list, explore our episode catalogue, and enjoy our blog!

🎤 Three Ravens Live: Find tickets and news about our upcoming live shows!

🛒 Shop: Buy our books and exclusive Three Ravens Merch including mugs, tote bags, tees and hoodies from our Online Shop

👑 Patreon: Support the show and unlock ad free listening, monthly Patreon exclusive episodes, the Three Ravens Film Club, our community chat and newsletters at the Three Ravens Patreon

📚 Our First Book: Buy our stunning hardback collection of 39 historic stories Three Ravens Folk Tales

👻 Our Second Book: Order our brand new hair-raising host of 20 original ghost stories Three Ravens Ghost Tales

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Our Third Book: Preorder our upcoming collection of Welsh regional legends Three Ravens Folk Tales of Wales coming to all good bookshops on St David's Day (March 1st) 2027

📱 Socials: Follow our adventures and help us grow on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok

RETHINK THE WAY YOU DRINK WITH OUR PARTNER THREE SPIRIT - USE OFFER CODE THREE RAVENS FOR A 15% DISCOUNT AT CHECKOUT

Our Linktree to all things Three Ravens

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 free 45 minute show.

Our audience ranged from newborn children gurgling away up to retirees, along with hardened Three Ravens fans, and plenty of people who had never heard of us before!

With regular interruptions from the beeping sounds of the shop's door being opened upstairs, and customers popping by to purchase hiking boots, we carried on regardless, with Eleanor joined by our friend and regular collaborator Katie Sommers to sing a capella versions of Three Ravens, Sumer is icumen in, and We Gets Up In The Morn.

Between these musical highlights we dig into some of our favourite bits of Essex's folklore, including the ghostly goings-on at Borley Rectory and the legend of Old King Cole, the county's six distinct dragon tales, the Canvey Island Monster, Boudica's rampage, and the sad fate of Anglo Saxon queen Edith Swan-neck.

Also including Eleanor's telling of the tale of the weather witch Sarah Moore of Leigh on Sea in the form of Three Knots, it's a slightly mad show, and hopefully an interesting listen!

About Three Ravens 🔮

Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.

Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’

We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.

Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.

Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…

Join the Conspiracy of Ravens ✨

🌐 Official Website: Visit the Three Ravens Podcast Official Site to sign up for our mailing list, explore our episode catalogue, and enjoy our blog!

🎤 Three Ravens Live: Find tickets and news about our upcoming live shows!

🛒 Shop: Buy our books and exclusive Three Ravens Merch including mugs, tote bags, tees and hoodies from our Online Shop

👑 Patreon: Support the show and unlock ad free listening, monthly Patreon exclusive episodes, the Three Ravens Film Club, our community chat and newsletters at the Three Ravens Patreon

📚 Our First Book: Buy our stunning hardback collection of 39 historic stories Three Ravens Folk Tales

👻 Our Second Book: Order our brand new hair-raising host of 20 original ghost stories Three Ravens Ghost Tales

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Our Third Book: Preorder our upcoming collection of Welsh regional legends Three Ravens Folk Tales of Wales coming to all good bookshops on St David's Day (March 1st) 2027

📱 Socials: Follow our adventures and help us grow on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok

RETHINK THE WAY YOU DRINK WITH OUR PARTNER THREE SPIRIT - USE OFFER CODE THREE RAVENS FOR A 15% DISCOUNT AT CHECKOUT

Our Linktree to all things Three Ravens

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 in the face of villainy!

Last then comes Farmer Weatherbeard, a story drawn from Norse mythology that gets completely muddled in translation, missing the point of the original and focusing not on the apprentice who undoes his master, but on the apprentice's father, who has very little to recommend him as a protagonist...

Collectively, it makes for an episode of slightly broken stories - and, in turn, some really interesting chats about them which we hope you enjoy!

Launched in 2025 to help us bridge gaps between main series, we began by sharing readings from us of the iconic stories found in the Blue Fairy Book compiled by Andrew Lang. From the Red Fairy Book onwards, we have also spent time digging into the stories, their histories and relationships to tale types, and are engaged in an ongoing mission to celebrate the woman truly behind the 12 coloured fairy books – Andrew’s wife Leonora, whose impact on children’s literature and fantasy fiction cannot be understated.

About Three Ravens 🔮

Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.

Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’

We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.

Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.

Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…

Join the Conspiracy of Ravens ✨

🌐 Official Website: Visit the Three Ravens Podcast Official Site to sign up for our mailing list, explore our episode catalogue, and enjoy our blog!

🎤 Three Ravens Live: Find tickets and news about our upcoming live shows!

🛒 Shop: Buy our books and exclusive Three Ravens Merch including mugs, tote bags, tees and hoodies from our Online Shop

👑 Patreon: Support the show and unlock ad free listening, monthly Patreon exclusive episodes, the Three Ravens Film Club, our community chat and newsletters at the Three Ravens Patreon

📚 Our First Book: Buy our stunning hardback collection of 39 historic stories Three Ravens Folk Tales

👻 Our Second Book: Order our brand new hair-raising host of 20 original ghost stories Three Ravens Ghost Tales

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Our Third Book: Preorder our upcoming collection of Welsh regional legends Three Ravens Folk Tales of Wales coming to all good bookshops on St David's Day (March 1st) 2027

📱 Socials: Follow our adventures and help us grow on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok

RETHINK THE WAY YOU DRINK WITH OUR PARTNER THREE SPIRIT - USE OFFER CODE THREE RAVENS FOR A 15% DISCOUNT AT CHECKOUT

Our Linktree to all things Three Ravens

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 abound in our second selection, A Tree Song, written by Rudyard Kipling for the 1906 book Puck of Pook's Hill, and set to music by Peter Bellamy. 

The third song might just be the best known song we've covered in the series, a staple of pub folk sessions, ideal for the end of the night. We'll be gathering the Wild Mountain Thyme - or possibly just making an elaborate excuse to take our sweethearts up into the hills...

Martin and Eleanor explore the history and context behind each song, and the surrounding folklore for the plants and trees which inspired them!

About Three Ravens 🔮

Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.

Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’

We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.

Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.

Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…

Join the Conspiracy of Ravens ✨

🌐 Official Website: Visit the Three Ravens Podcast Official Site to sign up for our mailing list, explore our episode catalogue, and enjoy our blog!

🎤 Three Ravens Live: Find tickets and news about our upcoming live shows!

🛒 Shop: Buy our books and exclusive Three Ravens Merch including mugs, tote bags, tees and hoodies from our Online Shop

👑 Patreon: Support the show and unlock ad free listening, monthly Patreon exclusive episodes, the Three Ravens Film Club, our community chat and newsletters at the Three Ravens Patreon

📚 Our First Book: Buy our stunning hardback collection of 39 historic stories Three Ravens Folk Tales

👻 Our Second Book: Order our brand new hair-raising host of 20 original ghost stories Three Ravens Ghost Tales

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Our Third Book: Preorder our upcoming collection of Welsh regional legends Three Ravens Folk Tales of Wales coming to all good bookshops on St David's Day (March 1st) 2027

📱 Socials: Follow our adventures and help us grow on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok

RETHINK THE WAY YOU DRINK WITH OUR PARTNER THREE SPIRIT - USE OFFER CODE THREE RAVENS FOR A 15% DISCOUNT AT CHECKOUT

Our Linktree to all things Three Ravens

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 of Jenny Pipes, the last English woman sentenced to the ducking stool, demon dogs such as the Hound of Hergest, a diverse range of ghosts including a seven foot big boy, Herefordshire's history of helpful witches, and a very large Civil War siege engine called 'The Sow.'

From the county's legacy in apple growing and cider making to the haunted doll kept not too far away from a church bell stolen by a mermaid, there's so much to talk about - and that's not mentioning Eleanor's performance of local legend The Dragon of Mordiford!

A Q&A session with our live audience follows, in which we end up telling yet more stories, including one in which we ourselves were haunted, we hope you enjoy the episode, and heartily encourage everybody to visit Leominster!

About Three Ravens 🔮

Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.

Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’

We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.

Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.

Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…

Join the Conspiracy of Ravens ✨

🌐 Official Website: Visit the Three Ravens Podcast Official Site to sign up for our mailing list, explore our episode catalogue, and enjoy our blog!

🎤 Three Ravens Live: Find tickets and news about our upcoming live shows!

🛒 Shop: Buy our books and exclusive Three Ravens Merch including mugs, tote bags, tees and hoodies from our Online Shop

👑 Patreon: Support the show and unlock ad free listening, monthly Patreon exclusive episodes, the Three Ravens Film Club, our community chat and newsletters at the Three Ravens Patreon

📚 Our First Book: Buy our stunning hardback collection of 39 historic stories Three Ravens Folk Tales

👻 Our Second Book: Order our brand new hair-raising host of 20 original ghost stories Three Ravens Ghost Tales

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Our Third Book: Preorder our upcoming collection of Welsh regional legends Three Ravens Folk Tales of Wales coming to all good bookshops on St David's Day (March 1st) 2027

📱 Socials: Follow our adventures and help us grow on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok

RETHINK THE WAY YOU DRINK WITH OUR PARTNER THREE SPIRIT - USE OFFER CODE THREE RAVENS FOR A 15% DISCOUNT AT CHECKOUT

Our Linktree to all things Three Ravens

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 rounded story, packed with gags and some genuine pearls of wisdom - “The danger which is most to be feared is never the danger we are most afraid of...” - it's an excitingly rich fairy tale, as we discuss in the analysis section at the end.

Is it a retelling of the Solar Prince? Is it a tale about the integration of the Anima? Is it about how great immigration can be?

Is it all three at once?!

Let's get into it - and of course we really hope you enjoy the episode!

Launched in 2025 to help us bridge gaps between main series, we began by sharing readings from us of the iconic stories found in the Blue Fairy Book compiled by Andrew Lang. From the Red Fairy Book onwards, we have also spent time digging into the stories, their histories and relationships to tale types, and are engaged in an ongoing mission to celebrate the woman truly behind the 12 coloured fairy books – Andrew’s wife Leonora, whose impact on children’s literature and fantasy fiction cannot be understated.

About Three Ravens 🔮

Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.

Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’

We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.

Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.

Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…

Join the Conspiracy of Ravens ✨

🌐 Official Website: Visit the Three Ravens Podcast Official Site to sign up for our mailing list, explore our episode catalogue, and enjoy our blog!

🎤 Three Ravens Live: Find tickets and news about our upcoming live shows!

🛒 Shop: Buy our books and exclusive Three Ravens Merch including mugs, tote bags, tees and hoodies from our Online Shop

👑 Patreon: Support the show and unlock ad free listening, monthly Patreon exclusive episodes, the Three Ravens Film Club, our community chat and newsletters at the Three Ravens Patreon

📚 Our First Book: Buy our stunning hardback collection of 39 historic stories Three Ravens Folk Tales

👻 Our Second Book: Order our brand new hair-raising host of 20 original ghost stories Three Ravens Ghost Tales

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Our Third Book: Preorder our upcoming collection of Welsh regional legends Three Ravens Folk Tales of Wales coming to all good bookshops on St David's Day (March 1st) 2027

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