In this episode, Katrina and Geoff dive back into the tales of Jack in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. First Katrina does a quick review of how Jack tales crossed over the ocean and wound up in the Americas before Geoff tells us the tale of Jack and the North Wind. After a quick conversation about similar tales types and the differe…

In this episode, Geoff and Katrina bring us back to the topic of Pourquoi tales, by way of literary folk tales. In 1902, Rudyard Kipling published his own tales that he wrote for his daughter in the style of pourquoi tales. The title "Just So Stories" have stuck in the mind of the public and became synonymous with Pourquoi tales because they answer…

In this episode, Geoff and Katrina fly into the world of witches, thanks to an article by folklorist Kay Turner. In her article titled, "The Witch in Flight" published in the Winter 2023 addition of the Journal of American Folklore, Turner discusses some of the reasons why we encounter so many winged females in myths, folklore, and fairy tales. Kat…

TW: Incestuous desires In this episode, Geoff and Katrina are celebrating 5 years of podcasting myths, legends, folklore, and fables with another take on Cinderella. While we normally talk about ATU 510A, or Cinderella tales, for our 5th Anniversary, we're shaking things up with ATU 510B! In this tale type, we explore a tale of riches to rags and b…

In this episode, Geoff and Katrina fight burn out by talking about one of their favorite things...the dead. While attending the Western State Folklore Conference in 2022, Katrina was inspired by an essay written by Christopher James Blythe "The Legend of the Naked Dead: Apparitions and Proper Burial in Latter-day Saint Folklore", which led to a stu…

In this episode that Geoff and Katrina recorded back in March, they delve into one of the "why"s of Pourquoi tales, the passing on of Ancestorial Wisdom. Whether it is the knowledge of where their people came from or how best to behave in the environment, these tales are found throughout the world. Katrina and Geoff tell tales from Australia, south…

Olga Murray, who founded the Nepal Youth Foundation, passed away at the age of 98 in February of this year. Founder's Day, an annual celebration of the creation of this nonprofit, will be held on May 30th. While this event will include a celebration of life for Olga Murray and all she was able to do in her life, it will also be a time to look forwa…

In this episode, Katrina and Geoff retell a tale from Armenia that was recommended to them by one of our wonderful Patreon patrons! The tale of "Dyjhycon the Coward Hero" has many similarities to the tale of "The Brave Little Tailor" found in western Europe except for some vast personality differences between the two protagonists. The cultural diff…

Katrina and Geoff are back at it again with a new series to kick off the next 100 episodes of the podcast! Even though Geoffrey joked that the last episode we would ever do would be an episode on "Pourquoi Tales", we've decided to use it as a jumping off point for more fun. In this episode, Katrina starts off the series by telling us what Pourquoi …

Happy 100th Episode from Geoff and Katrina to you! This year had a ton of milestones and we're excited to send off 2023 with our 100th episode. We've had a blast the last 4 years podcasting about myths, legends, folklore, and fables. To celebrate we had another installment of Cinderella tales but this one comes with a Snow White twist. This tale fr…

It's winter time once again in the Northern Hemisphere and we're getting ready for winter celebrations. Plant life plays a lot into the season and while there are plenty of traditions associated with these plants, there are also stories. Geoff and Katrina talk about a few of holiday plants and stories surrounding the mysterious properties of plants…

In this episode, Geoff and Katrina get into more tales featuring the iconic Baba Yaga. During the December Divinations episode, the Fates decided that we needed more Baba on the podcast and who are we to deny fate? We discuss two tales which show how differently Baba Yaga can appear in stories. When men are bumbling through the woods looking for he…

In this episode, Geoff and Katrina complete their shining tiara of a series, with this crown jewel. After a year devoted to exploring the motifs, themes, and elements that have traveled through the ocean of stories for centuries, we cover the story of Snow White. Crafted and created by the Brothers Grimm, Little Snow White is a tale that most peopl…

CW: Violence and Death of Children Fate dictates that we provide our audience with a “B” inspired episode and Geoff does not disappoint with his Bestiary of Bakemono. In this Geoff-isode, we dive into tales of Japanese spirits that explain why things so often go bump in the night. While some might be downright silly sounding, with eyeballs for butt…

The 5th Friday in September was a special selection of tree tales from various locations around the world. With the prompt for "plant tales" picked out by our Patreon subscribers, we decided to do an episode on trees. We retold tales of Baobab trees, which were flipped upside down for their ungratefulness and Hera's marriage present of citrons. Gre…

Katrina and Geoff are back to finish up the frame story of The Tale of Tales by Giambattista Basile but first, one last story about a hunt for a woman started by the colors red, white, and black. But unlike the other tale, the color black is framed as a force for harm, giving us some cultural context on how to view the tricolors in the tale. With D…

In this episode, Geoff and Katrina dive into The Tale of Tales by Giambattista Basile for another installment of the Snow White series. The tri-colors of fairy tales (white, black, and red) appear over and over but in Snow White we think of these elements being embodied by one beautiful woman. Retelling these tales inside The Tale of Tales requires…

In this episode Katrina and Geoff fight their burnout by turning to ATU 650 Strong John, an episode that the fates decided we would do during our December Divinations episode. While researching this tale type, Katrina came across a wild tale with twists and turns that happens to take place in The Un-United Kingdoms of America. Throw away your textb…

Happy Mer-MAY...or rather...this episode was recorded in Mer-MAY in anticipation of the release of the new Little Mermaid movie coming out in theaters. In our most long awaited episode, after a very unplanned hiatus, we are back talking about mermaid lore and the Christian tone that this story was originally written with by Hans Christian Andersen.…

Katrina and Geoff have been traveling! And they came back with some fascinating folklore from their travels. Join us for the recording of our Instagram Live episode all about it.Oleh The Fairy Tellers

Content Warning: Child Abuse, Infanticide, Suicide, Domestic Violence and Assault In this episode, Geoff and Katrina talk magic mirrors in another installment of the Snow White project. We dissect the importance of the mirror in the Snow White tale by telling a tale of vanity and another of tools for divination. The first tale is the story of Narci…

Content Warning: Greek/Roman Gods, sexual assault, physical assault After making a joke months and months ago on one of our LIVE events on Instagram, we make good on the episode devoted to bug names and how they got them. Geoff takes the lead in this episode while Katrina literally lies back and relaxes (while her back is healing). But first she re…

Join us for this recording of our first Fifth Friday Fable Fest of 2023. In this Instagram Live event, we retell a variety of Friendship Tales and discuss what we can learn from them.Oleh The Fairy Tellers

Geoff and Katrina talk Turkish Tales! A collector of tales over a hundred years ago tried to determine if tales from Turkey are more European in flavor or Southwest Asian. This leads to conversation we had in our Zora Neale Hurston episode where she was quoted talking about universality of stories but the flavors that ever region adds. These tales …

Does the title sound like click bait? It is because in this episode, Geoff and Katrina are talking about a tale that, in 1892, shocked Joseph Jacobs as he was looking for Celtic Fairy Tales for his book of the same title. After our episode on the Lai of Eliduc, we're uniquely situated to talk about why he was off the mark when he said that this Sno…

Katrina and Geoff talk Zora Neale Hurston, ethnography, and why women rule over men! In this episode, we discuss some of the amazing work to preserve African American folklore in the South done by the incredible Zora Neale Hurston. We compare two tales that are almost identical when Zora Neale Hurston collected them but differ slightly between the …

Katrina and Geoff talk little known medieval women, specifically Marie de France, for our 2nd installment of our Snow White project. But first, has anyone ever told you that the tale of Snow White was based on a true story? Katrina explains how that theory came to be before diving into this episode's tale, The Lai of Eliduc. A story of a knight who…

Katrina and Geoff are letting fate lead with this episode as they explore ATU 47A (Fox Hangs Onto the Horse's Tail). That's right. Fate led us right back to fox, a character that's impossible to get away from. Interestingly, this also leads us into a Grimm's story that would probably have readers today scratching their heads if they didn't know abo…

Trigger Warning: Greek Mythology...so literally everything. Sexual Assault, Infanticide, Suicide, Desecration of a Corpse, War, and Zeus. Katrina and Geoff are starting out the year strong with our first episode on the road to Snow White. The first stop on the journey is a look into Greek Mythology, specifically the tales surrounding The Trojan War…

We tried to finish out 2022 with as much enthusiasm and silliness as possible. We announced our new project for 2023 AND we used some divination methods to help us pick out a few episodes for the year. But first, Katrina quickly retold the Norse myth of Idun and her apples of eternal youth. Apples were a major theme of this episode and Katrina had …

Happy Holidays to One and All from The Fairy Tellers! All during 2022 we were taking audience requests and suggestions. We are happy to present the last one (for this year) which is both a Ukrainian literary folktale by Nikolai Gogol and a story featuring the devil. What more could you want from a story about Christmas Eve, on Christmas Eve? Katrin…

In one of the last listener requests for 2022, Geoff and Katrina turn to a discussion on disability in fairy tales. A lot has been said through the years about disability representation in fairy tales but not all of it is helpful. In this episode, Geoff and Katrina turn to a story recorded by Charles Perrault where he makes some *almost* insightful…

Katrina and Geoff dive back into the collection of Hans Christian Andersen to have a look at one of his tales that comes almost directly from the folk, Great Claus and Little Claus. Hold on to your horses, hug your grandma, and punch a sexton because this story is wild. And wilder still is how far afield this story has traveled. Katrina retells thi…

Katrina and Geoff are back from a hectic October and ready to jump into cryptids! Katrina retells the story of The White Screamer which oddly tied in with Geoff's retelling of the Mothman legend. And even though this episode was NOT about aliens and UFOs, it's pretty hard to escape their presence. Finally, Katrina and Geoff talk about The Lizard Ma…

After a month of life throwing curveballs, Katrina and Geoff decided to have a surprise LIVE in Instagram, both to explain their absence and to share two tales fit for the campfire. Geoff shares a tale of "Grandfather's Eyes: The Story of Three Wicked Yezinkas" where we see plenty of familiar motifs and Katrina does a quick search for the magical p…

Between Katrina being back in the hospital (finally getting rid of her kidney stone), computer crashes, and traveling, we're once again behind in posting an episode. But have no fear, we'll make sure to load you up on October content when Katrina gets her life back together. Until then, please enjoy September's 5th Friday Fable Fest Live!…

CW: Cannibalism, sort of. In this episode, Katrina takes Geoff on a journey down a research rabbit hole into stories of the Dodo. The bird? No. The Swallower-of-Men. After researching African Cinderella tales, Katrina followed a trail of sources that led her back to a story she had read years before but found difficult to get more information about…

Katrina and Geoff celebrate 3 years of podcasting! As is our tradition, the topic of the day is ATU 510A or Cinderella and this time we are in Africa, specifically Nigeria and South Africa. The "Cinderella" tale in Nigeria gives Geoff the most happy of ever afters and the "Unkind and Kind Girls" tale in South Africa makes us contemplate how we are …

Katrina and Geoff tackle Oscar Wilde, Hans Christian Andersen, and literary fairy tales in this listener requested episode. How are literary fairy tales different from other fairy tales? How do you define art and love? And can a boy live on metaphysics alone? We answer one of these questions...maybe. We retell two tales in conversation with each ot…

On the 5th Friday of July, we had a LIVE Event on our Instagram page @thefairy_tellers where we discussed frogs and politics. Katrina was grateful to be doing the Fable Fest at all since she had a rough medical month and barely made it home from a doctor's appointment. "Physician, heal thyself!" Join us as we discuss a character that we haven't exp…

Katrina and Geoff return with a listener request, "The Old Woman in the Woods". While the title might sound like it's describing every other Grimm's Fairy Tales, this one has a flavor all its own and was made into an 1980's Japanese cartoon series, Grimm's Fairy Tales Classics. Join us while we talk about other stories that share motifs.…

Katrina and Geoff talk about Inuit mythology! Katrina retells the epic (and gruesome) origin story of Sedna, the life and death-giving goddess of the artic. We use this as a launching point for discussing Inuit mythology and how it related to the lived experience of the various Inuit peoples.Oleh The Fairy Tellers

Katrina and Geoff talk Japanese festivals and star stories! The Tanabata Festival is coming up on July 7th and that makes for an episode full of some of our classic tale elements. Celestial stories, holiday origins, and women being interrupted while they are trying to bathe. And as a bonus star story, the Ainu story of The Seven Lazy Sisters.…

Katrina and Geoff are BACK from their month-long break and ready to jump into audience questions. This episode focuses on a question about appropriation and appreciation in regards to storytelling. Katrina starts off the episode with a personal story about a Hawaiian boy in her son's class and then retells two tales of Hawaiian lore, the second of …

The Fairy Tellers is on a break until June 10th. But while you wait for more episodes, please enjoy the audio from our Instagram LIVE Event that took place on April 29th. The video and audio are also available Instagram with our account @thefairy_tellers. If you can't wait for more episodes, check out our Patreon and become a supporter for exclusiv…

Katrina and Geoff talk about the moon! This week we delve back into the world of astronomical folklore by telling stories about the moon. We finally get to the bottom of whether or not people actually believed that the moon was made of cheese, and what the moon is up to when we can't see it in the sky. If you are enjoying the podcast and want to co…

Katrina and Geoff talk Mr. G's Pizza and geomythology! While the term "geomythology" was coined fairly recently by a geologist, the ideas behind looking for the science within ancient stories is anything but recent. In this episode we discuss dragon teeth and Cadmus, primordial chaos monsters, and how the scientists have uncovered a mystery about t…

Katrina and Geoff talk Vampires of Eastern Europe! This episode combines two listener requests. One for tales created around pandemic and plagues and another request for a tale from Ukraine. Katrina tells a quick history lesson of the Carpathian mountains before retelling the story of "The Vampire and St. Michael", were a young man is helped by an …

Geoff and Katrina take a request, from a long time listener of the podcast who inspired the 2022 fan lead project, and retell the Thai story Phikul Thong. A familiar tale type (ATU 480) to our podcast but with a twist we haven't discussed before that is more famous in a Charles Perrault tale, The Fairies. Geoff and Katrina take it a step further an…

Katrina and Geoff wander into the Russian woods to talk about the most famous Slavic witch, Baba Yaga. After a fan request to discuss this cannibalistic character after her appearance in Netflix's The Witcher, Katrina knew exactly the tale that would lead our discussion. We also look at the Russian collector of tales, Aleksandr Afanasyev who's effo…