Dark And Twisty Tales

Belching up toads, paper dresses, beheadings and murder, this story has them all. I love this Grimm fairytale from the Philip Pullman collection, and I hope you do too? This is the last episode in Season Three, so please write me a review and remember, storytelling is thirsty work! https://ko-fi.com/voxchops

An old man in velvet pantaloons is befriended by a little boy with a toy soldier, however the soldier is NOT happy about this, has a tantrum and finds himself lost in the cracks and buried in an open grave, only to be found years later.

Reynard the Fox is a bit tricky and tricks his wife that he's dead to see if she'll marry again ... never a good plan.    

Childhood sweethearts Tamlane and Janet were all set until he 'disappeared' before their wedding day. He was off with the fairies (that's what you get for riding your horse 'widershins' around the hill), but it's OK, because she rescues him, by knocking him off his horse and holding on really tight while he changes into lots of things, then she chucks him in a pond. Perfect love story on so many levels.  The actual Scottish story is as deep and dark and twisty as you like with green kirtles being lifted and babies born of fairy fathers etc, but this version is the one from Joseph Jacobs 'English Fairy Tales', so apologies to all my Scottish friends.  As usual I improvised the melody over the verse, in this instance it was the Elfin Queen singing.  If you want to listen to a classic rendition of this story in song, have a listen to Fairport Convention's  Tam Lin. 

A very clever and vengeful sparrow gets his own back after his buddy the dog comes a cropper. Many things get chopped with an axe by accident and many other things get pecked out ... corks and eyes mostly. The moral? Please feed your dogs yummy things ... and don't underestimate a sparrow! 

A very short story about a boy called Jack, a bone bread eating giant and his favourite dog ... shame about the dog.

A 'lucky' boy escapes death is helped by two old ladies (because he was so polite and good looking) is very courageous ... and also a bit of a know it all.

So there's a narcissistic cannibalistic witch Queen, a Prince who thinks it would be cool to have a pretty dead girl in a glass coffin for a trophy and 7 little people who, while kind at heart, should get an education on domestic labor stereotypes. Nothing to see here.

Youngest son rides fox, gets girl and gold.

Independently wealthy senior citizen robbed by teen and locked in oven. Harsh.

When the moon gets curious and snagged on a branch and then dragged into the bog by witches and bogles ... yeah that.

Chanticleer a canny rooster and his wife Partlet, have adventures, that usually involve nuts, carts, deceit, slavery, violence, cannibalism and death. I also have no idea what Mr. Korbes did to deserve that. Do you?

Welcome to the first episode of Season Three! Mom, needs a nap, hero can't stop snacking and a bewitched Princess can't stop spinning around and around her glass mountain... hmmm sound familiar?

Less frog kissing and more frog splatting really and then at the end a weirdly obsessed servant has been to the blacksmiths...

Come on, who can resist a story about a half boy, half hedgehog, who rides a cockerel and plays the bagpipes?  Credit must be given to my husband, son and his friend for providing pig noises in this episode and to 'FreeSound' and 'digifishmusic', 'Inchadney' and 'luis-audp' for their various piping recordings. xox

A not very dark or twisty episode this week, but a favorite of mine since childhood. The darkness I suppose lies in the fact that all these animals were going to get starved, drowned or decapitated because they had been deemed to old to be useful. I love the fact that they decide to start a band in their golden years...they're not the first and they won't be the last!

Like the earlier story I read Binnorie from the British Isles, this story also has a magical singing bone involved which identifies it's killer. Who could it be I wonder? I improvised a little tune for the poem in the story, one of my favorite things to do. It feels appropriately dark and plaintive. Enjoy!

When a little girl is just not satisfied unless she has the stars in the sky to play with...what could possibly go wrong?

Playing with fairies and fires...hmm that sounds like a plan. From Joseph Jacobs 'English Fairy Tales' The song at the end is called 'Fairy Frolic' from my album 'Lullaby Island' which you can download on amazon or itunes or here https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/nortonjulia My Own Self In a tiny house in the North Countrie, far away from any town or village, there lived not long ago, a poor widow all alone with her little son, a six-year-old boy. The house-door opened straight on to the hill-side and all round about were moorlands and huge stones, and swampy hollows; never a house nor a sign of life wherever you might look, for their nearest neighbours were the “ferlies” in the glen below, and the “will-o’-the-wisps” in the long grass along the pathside. And many a tale she could tell of the “good folk” calling to each other in the oak-trees, and the twinkling lights hopping on to the very window sill, on dark nights; but in spite of the loneliness, she lived on from year to year in the little house, perhaps becau

Who are you going to believe? Me, or your own lyin' eyes?