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Andersen’s Princess and the Pea
An immortal fairytale that is often criticized for not having a moral gets a fresh life on the Tales from the Enchanted Forest podcast! Join us as we dive deep into Andersen’s simple wonder tale in order to find out what really makes the Princess and the Pea such a classic!
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Princess Aubergine: Baingan Bádsháhzádi
Princess Aubergine is a Punjabi story of a beautiful fairy, wicked Queen, cursed necklace and an unlikely romance. Read the story, listen to the podcast and dive deep into the tropes/sources with us!
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The Glass Mountain: A Polish Tale
The Polish Tale of the Glass Mountain is a variant of the Princess on the Glass Hill archetype! Come join us as we meet Cinderlad/Ashlad, catch some golden apples and watch the Golden Knight fail!
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Aicha: The Demon Slayer
This incredible, globe-trotting heroine’s story is full of Ghouls, Sea-Lions, and Cowardly Princes! Presenting, Aicha the Demon Slayer from Algerian and Moroccan Folklore!
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Billy Duffy and the Devil
Using Emerson and Carleton’s “Billy Duffy” stories, we retell the hilarious tale and examine different elements like the Faustian Pact, Blacksmith and the Devil archetype, Will-o’-the-Wisp and so much more!
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Why the Sea is Salt
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe have an odd Christmas story featuring ham, an outhouse and a magic quern that churns out whatever your heart desires. Come join us for a pointlessly fun winter tale to find a Norse explanation for why the Sea is Salt! Show notes, sources and Five Fantastic Finds included!
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Saint George: House of the Dragon Slayer
The famous legend of “Saint George and the Dragon” is as iconic to the English as Jack and the Beanstalk and a Christmas Carol. The original story was a lot more intense than the abridged version we all know. For our ‘Five Fantastic Finds’ you can hear about religious myths and canon, damsels in distress, the origins of slaying dragons, the etymology of George and the cost of hiring a hero. If you haven’t listened to the story yet, be sure to listen here or download it wherever you listen to your podcasts! Let us know what you think in…
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Tragedy of Rostam and Sohrab
The tragedy of Rostam and Sohrab is one of the greatest in the epic literature world. Listen to the story here or below! Kay Kavus’ reign was eventful, but sadly, not all that happened was productive or good. Kavus was captured again, started many more conflicts, and got deceived into building a chariot to fly to the sun. Eventually, after all his failures, he became humiliated and humbled. Well, at least for a while. To see the previous stories, be sure to check out the two previous posts/episodes from Shahnameh. Rakhsh’s Lost Days We return to our hero, Rostam, who…
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Shahnameh: Sam, Zal and Rudabeh
The Shahnameh (The Book of Kings) by Hakim Abu al-Qasim Mansur is one of the world’s greatest Epic poems, detailing the history of Iran’s Kings and Heroes. He is known as “Ferdowsi Tusi,” which is actually a title meaning “The Tusi Poet from Paradise”. The work has morphed with every retelling, and the stories have existed prior to Ferdowsi penning them down. In the poem, Ferdowsi says that his book is a collection of stories that he painstakingly collected. To see a list of the author’s sources and a brief history, click here. The Epic itself starts from the beginning of…
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The Mitten: Ukrainian Folktale
We have used many different versions of “The Mitten” from Barbara Suwyn, Irina Zheleznova, Svitlana Yakovenko, Pavlo Chubynsky (1878) and Ivan Rudchenko (1870). Today, we have a famous folktale from Ukraine that some of our travellers might have heard already! The story of the mitten has been translated from Ukrainian into many different languages and retold in children’s books! One popular one from our childhood was Jan Brett’s version! If you haven’t listened to the story yet, be sure to listen here or download it wherever you listen to your podcasts! Let us know what you think in the comments or reviews. Mitten Mischief There…
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Beauty and Pockface: Skin Deep
Cinderella is unconquerable when accounting for the number of retellings, adaptations, variants and popularity. Most of these adaptations focus on the Charles Perrault version of Cinderella (The Little Glass Slipper) when there are many other variants to choose from! One of these variants called “Yeh-Hsien” is the earliest recorded Cinderella tale, written in c.850 C.E by the poet Duan Chengshi. You can read that story here. Instead of Ye-Hsien, we are exploring the tale of Beauty and Pockface. “San-ko yuan-wang” or Three Wishes, was recorded in 1933 by Lin Lan. This Cinderella story has similar tropes and plot points to Yeh-Hsien,…
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The Doomed Prince and the Three Fates
What began with Egyptian funerary texts, hymns, poems and records soon evolved into one of the earliest records of narrative literature. There were few surviving narrative stories from the Middle Kingdom, including the “Story of Sinuhe,” and “Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor.” Narrative tales like our Doomed Prince didn’t flourish as a genre till down the line in the New Kingdom! “The Tale of the Doomed Prince” comes from an Egyptian Papyrus, which contains a series of love poems and two tales. The Papyrus, known as the Harris 500, is currently on exhibit at the British Museum after being donated…
Tales from the Enchanted Forest 