155-Fairy Tales: The Pearl
Two examples of terrible parenting from the fairy tales of Scandinavia and Naples
143-Japanese Folktales: Crabby
Life lessons from a monkey and a crab
137-Italian folklore: Tailor-made
Dionigi wants to be a wizard.
134-Grimm: Thirsty
For once, the king is dead and the queen is alive, and she's going to make sure her daughter avoids the dangers that many princesses have to face. Or, she tries. The creature is a balding, adorable werewolf with a love of fuzzy slippers. http://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/mythpodcast/MaL134.mp3 Music: “Lesser Scaup” by Chad [...]
128-Irish Folklore: Give Him the Finger
A fairy tale from Ireland with a genre savvy queen who has one request for her husband: don't let his surely evil next wife get anywhere near her three sons. Of course, things don't really go as planned. The creature this week is hook girl! Don't bug hook girl, or hook girl will [...]
119-Sleeping Beauty: Rude Awakening
The horrifying original story of Sleeping Beauty
70-Ugly Duckling: Fowl Play
The surprisingly brutal original story of the ugly duckling
64-Frog Prince: Warts and All
The story of the frog prince is well known - a beautiful princess meets a frog, kisses him, and he turns out to be a prince. Except, in the earliest version, it doesn't go like that at all. I won't spoil it, but the original frog prince is extremely bizarre, and I had [...]
55-Grimm: My (Bird) Heart Will Go On
This story from the Grimm brothers has giants, witches, magical animal organs, enchanted produce, and a helpful (and maybe a little homicidal) cloud buddy who just wants to aid you in finding the next steps on the journey that is life. This story is bizarre and wonderful and a testament to the endurance of [...]
5B-Slavic Folklore: The First Horcrux
As it turns out, Koschei the Deathless is very, very hard to kill, a fact one could probably guess from his name. This episode explores his tragic origins, as well as the ludicrously complex way he's hidden his soul (a Russian nesting doll situation that's unpleasant for everyone involved). He'll prove his name incorrect as he finally [...]