Wise Crone Cottage Podcast

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, it's all about Santa: the folklore, story, and the greater archetype.  I posit the question of whether Santa can be gender-neutral.  We'll explore an adapted version of the poem, "A Visit from Santa Claus" written by Clement Clarke Moore, Think on it, for just a moment.  Santa as the wise crone?  Why not?


Story: "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement Clarke Moore (1892).
Cover illustration: Pixabay.com
Music: Up on a Housetop Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
The Snow Queen Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 
Copyright 2020 Kathy Shimpock.    All rights reserved.

Support the show

For more crone tales, visit the "Wise Crone Cottage in the Woods" (http://www.wisecronecottage.com).

Send us Fan Mail

In the third episode of Season Two, the storyteller, Kathy Shimpock, shares the story of "The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces."  This Grimm Brothers' tale has variants found throughout Germany and central Europe. We’ll also explore how the wise crone handles youthful indulgence.

Story: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Die drei  Spinnerinnen, Kinder- und Hausmarchen (Children's and Household Tales -- Grimms' Fairy Tales), 7th ed. (Berlin, 1857), no. 133.
Cover illustration:  by R. Anning Bell in Grimm's Household Tales, Edwardes & Bell, 1912.
Music:  The Snow Queen Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 
Copyright 2020 Kathy Shimpock.    All rights reserved. 

Support the show

For more crone tales, visit the "Wise Crone Cottage in the Woods" (http://www.wisecronecottage.com).

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, the storyteller, Kathy Shimpock, shares the story of "The Witch."  It's a Russian variant of the Grimm's tale "Hansel & Gretel." In this story, we explore the character of the grandmother. These characters surprise us more in what they don't do than in what they actually do.  They stand in stark contrast to the figure of the wise crone.

Story: "The Witch" (a Russian folktale).  Andrew Lang, The Yellow Fairy Book, new impression (London: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1906 [first published 1894]), pp. 216-21.  "Hansel & Gretel" (a German folktale). Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Die drei  Spinnerinnen, Kinder- und Hausmarchen (Children's and Household Tales -- Grimms' Fairy Tales), 7th ed. (Berlin, 1857), no. 15, pp. 79-87.
Cover illustration: Lucy Fitch Perkins, illustrator, from Folktales from the Russian (1903).
Music:  The Snow Queen Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 
Copyright 2020 Kathy Shimpock.    All rights reserved. 

Support the show

For more crone tales, visit the "Wise Crone Cottage in the Woods" (http://www.wisecronecottage.com).

Send us Fan Mail

In the first episode of Season Two, the storyteller, Kathy Shimpock, shares the story of "The Golden Key."  This version of the Grimm Brothers' tale is created for the child in all of us. Once told, we'll see if we can uncover just what was inside that box! Finally, we'll discover what the wise crone found.

Story: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Die drei  Spinnerinnen, Kinder- und Hausmarchen (Children's and Household Tales -- Grimms' Fairy Tales), 7th ed. (Berlin, 1857), no. 200.
Cover illustration: Pixabay image.
Music:  The Snow Queen Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 
Copyright 2020 Kathy Shimpock.    All rights reserved. 

Support the show

For more crone tales, visit the "Wise Crone Cottage in the Woods" (http://www.wisecronecottage.com).

Send us Fan Mail

 In this episode, the Storyteller Kathy Shimpock explores stories of spinning, as the wise crone spins the world - to help and guide 7 generations forward and 7 generations back. We'll focus on Native American mythology and compare those stories to the Grimm versions of the "Three Spinning Women."

Story: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Die drei  Spinnerinnen, Kinder- und Hausmarchen (Children's and Household Tales -- Grimms' Fairy Tales), 7th ed. (Berlin, 1857), no. 14.
Cover illustration: Arthur Rackham  for "The Three Spinners," from Little Brother & Little Sister and Other Tales by the Brothers Grimm, 1917.
Music:  The Snow Queen Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 
Copyright 2020 Kathy Shimpock.    All rights reserved. 

Support the show

For more crone tales, visit the "Wise Crone Cottage in the Woods" (http://www.wisecronecottage.com).

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, the Storyteller Kathy Shimpock explores the character of Baba Yaga as she confronts "Vasilissa the Beautiful." She will also discuss the way folktales and their characters can impact our lives today.  These stories can serve the same function as Vasilissa's tiny wooden doll, providing needed guidance and insights for us all.

Story: A.N. Afanasev, "Vasilisa Prekrasnaia," in Narodnye Russkie Skazki (Russian Fairy Tales), (Moscow: A. Semena, 1855-63).
Cover illustration: "Vasilisa the Fair," by Ivan Bilibin, 1900. "Kitchen Witch Doll," by Kathy Shimpock, 2019.
Music:  The Snow Queen Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/  
Copyright 2020 Kathy Shimpock.    All rights reserved.

Support the show

For more crone tales, visit the "Wise Crone Cottage in the Woods" (http://www.wisecronecottage.com).

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, the Storyteller Kathy Shimpock shares an original creation myth written in 2014. We'll discuss creation mythology generally and look at what these stories and the wise crone might have to say about the troubled times we face.

Story: "The Story of One World" (an imagined creation myth) written by Kathy Shimpock. 
Cover illustration: Photograph from Pixabay.
Music:  The Snow Queen Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/  
Copyright 2020 Kathy Shimpock.    All rights reserved. 

Support the show

For more crone tales, visit the "Wise Crone Cottage in the Woods" (http://www.wisecronecottage.com).

Send us Fan Mail

 In this episode the Storyteller Kathy Shimpock tells you a little known version of "The Three Bears." In this version, the character of Goldilocks is traded for that of an old woman.  This 1837 literary tale was written by Robert Southey. The story reflects Victorian stereotypes and biases that viewed the old and the poor as criminals. We see similar beliefs expressed today. The crone in this story, however, gives us all a dire warning.

Story: Southey, Robert, "The Three Bears," in The Doctor (London, 1837).
Story: "The Story of Sarah Collins" written by Kathy Shimpock.
Cover illustration: Peter Newell in Favorite Fairy Tales: The Childhood Choice of Representative Man and Women. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1907.
Music:  The Snow Queen Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/  
Copyright 2020 Kathy Shimpock.   

Support the show

For more crone tales, visit the "Wise Crone Cottage in the Woods" (http://www.wisecronecottage.com).

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode the Storyteller Kathy Shimpock tells you the Grimm Brothers' tale "Godfather Death." She then reads her new version of this story, one that is placed in a much earlier time.  Her version is entitled, "Godmother Death and the Healer Urssenbeck," a story derived from several European variants. It is placed in the 1300s, at the time of the Black Death.  In this version, the characters are female. In so doing, we'll learn something about gender, history and the wise crone. 

Story: "Godfather Death," recorded by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in Der Gevatter Tod, Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales -- Grimms' Fairy Tales), 7th ed. (Berlin, 1857), no. 44. 
Story: "Godmother Death and the Healer Urssenbeck," written by Kathy Shimpock. 
Cover illustration:  Hans Holbein (1497–1543), "The Dance of Death."
Music:  The Snow Queen Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/  
Copyright 2020 Kathy Shimpock.  

Support the show

For more crone tales, visit the "Wise Crone Cottage in the Woods" (http://www.wisecronecottage.com).

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode, storyteller Kathy Shimpock, shares her story "Awaken to Wonder." In this literary tale of the wise crone, we see many of the same elements and plot structures found in traditional folklore.

Story: "Awaken to Wonder" by Kathy Shimpock, copyright 2015. 
Cover illustration:  Pixabay. 
Music:  The Snow Queen Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 

Copyright 2020, Kathy Shimpock.

Support the show

For more crone tales, visit the "Wise Crone Cottage in the Woods" (http://www.wisecronecottage.com).