Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

A tale from history of a man who tried to get out of his famous brother's shadow by towing a raft to shallow international waters and founding the island nation of New Atlantis.  Nowadays, you'd just get out your Nintendo Switch and play Animal Crossing: New Horizons. 

A fairy tale from Byelorussia this week, "The Cottage in the Sky" collected by Neil Philip in the book, "Fairy Tales of Eastern Europe." It's a beanstalk type of tale with a very tasty house, kind mutant goats, and me attempting multiple accents. 

A very special Mother's Day week edition of Tale Wagging Podcast. I'll be telling two tales from African folklore.

The first comes from South Africa and the second from the Republic of the Ivory Coast. Both involve mothers arming themselves and going to battle with large animals to rescue naive children. 

This week's story is "The Feather of Bright Finist the Falcon". It's Russian folklore about a bird-man. A man who can turn into a bird. He's said to be a great hero but he never saves anyone. When he has to leave the woman he loves, she goes on a very long and painful journey to win him back. 

Two stories this week! One from history and one fairy tale...   

A story from history when hiring a hermit to live in your garden was fashionable.

And Maid Maleen, a princess bricked up in a tower for 7 years with food and drink and no light from outside. Gives some perspective to current life.

Two stories this week! One from history and one fairy tale...

In 1726 fifty miles outside of London, 24 year old Mary Toft did something extraordinary -- she gave birth to rabbits. Many, many rabbits.

In "The Useless Wagoner" and "The King's Rabbits", our main character attempts to herd the King's hundred rabbits (WHY does the King have 100 rabbits??) while the King tries to set traps for our hero to fail at this task.

Here's a fairy tale with 15 years worth of loose ends, a frog with a magic cap, a fairy who turns into a lion, and video game monsters..."The Frog and the Lion Fairy".

WE'RE BACK with Season 2! In these interesting times we are living in, we could all use a distraction. How about letting us make you laugh with some funny fairy tales? You'll notice some updates to our intro/outro, audio, and format of the show. 

"The Story of Three Strong Women"

"How the Camel Lost Its Antlers and Tail"

"Hans-My-Hedgehog" (Warning: above average violence)

This is Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

What I’m about to tell you is so scary that in 1746, parents were officially banned from terrifying their children with these stories by public decree!
This episode, we are going to Iceland where they do it big with not just one, but 13 Father Christmases in the form of the Yule Lads along with their ogress mother, Grýla and the terrifying Christmas Cat. Find out why you better wear those new socks your aunt got you or you will be EATEN...

This week, we are continuing our exploration of other characters that are not Santa. We learn how Belsnickel is different from Krampus and the importance of authority and fear at Christmas time. Then we get into Scandinavian folklore with the little gnomes who hang out on your property and braid your horse's hair as long as you leave out special porridge. And finally, we'll explain how arsonists attempt to set the biggest straw goat in the world on fire each year. 

This is Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

If you’d like to send us a story idea or be social with us:

Double stories this week for Christmas! The first story is historical about Captain Santa and the Christmas Tree Ship on the waters of Lake Michigan making a late season run in a big storm. Check out the photo of the shipwreck on our FB page, Twitter or Instagram.

The second story is from Catalan culture about the Caganer, the mysterious figure in the back of nativity scenes...who appears to be taking a poop. Then my favorite, Caga Tió, the Christmas log or pooping log. You must take good care of your log and feed it good things so that it will poop out treats and gifts for you on Christmas. I'll be sharing several photos of the log and a video from our trip to Spain where I got to meet (and beat) the big one!

Song: Pooping Log (Caga Tió) ft. Norah Jones from Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations Holiday Special 2011

This is Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

If you’d like to send us a story idea or be social with us:

This week's story is a great classic from Charles Dickens..."The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton." You'll find some...familiar elements, but with a lot more violence, alcoholism, and dark comedy. And a lion horse bear. Maybe.

This is Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

If you’d like to send us a story idea or be social with us: 

This week's story is from Romania where fairy tales really happened, you guys. For realz. "The Boys with the Golden Stars", we learn how the Romanian dating app works, wonder if facial deformities make you immortal, and put forth that puppies ARE great sons.

This is Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast: 

We are continuing our celebration of Thanksgiving! This tale has family and eating....and takes place IN Turkey. That's close enough, right? Beware if your sister is Mrs. PacMan working some kind of weird Jedi mind trick. We learn the way to success involves threatening parents and taking their offspring hostage as well as littering.

This title of the story is a bit of a spoiler.....

I warned you! 

It's called "The Cauldron-Headed Ax-Toothed Sister." 

This is Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast:

This week I go into the history behind one of America's weirdest national traditions at Thanksgiving.....where the President pardons a turkey......Yes, this actually happens.

Welcome to Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast:

This week's Native American Legend is called "The Lion and the Cat" (collected by Andrew Lang in the Brown Fairy Book). We learn what happens if a cat has the power of a Death Note, continue our debate over what determines princess status, and are visited by Batman.

Welcome to Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast:

This week's story is from the folklore of the Pacific Northwest Native Americans called "The Witch and Her Four Sons" collected by Emerson N. Matson in a book called "Longhouse Legends". We learn the importance of song selection when competing for a husband and toe nail hygiene!

Welcome to Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast:

We're going to Africa this week with a Native Rhodesian Tale called "The Story of the Hero Makoma" collected by Andrew Lang in the Orange Fairy Book. We'll learn how The Rock was born, how to make and collect new friends, and the dangers of really strong mustache hairs.

Welcome to Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast:

A story from history for Spooktober! 🎃🍂💀🍁👻

This is a story of blood letting, zombies, and one of our founding fathers.

Welcome to Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast:

Next is the story of a witch for Spooktober! 🎃🍂💀🍁👻

This story is called "Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Fair." Baba Yaga is a supernatural being who appears in several Russian fairy tales. She's a witch who likes to eat people. Sometimes she's the villain and sometimes she helps people out along their way. And we learn being fair is nice, but being crafty is even better.

Welcome to Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast:

E-mail us at talewaggingpodcast@gmail.com

Spook-tober continues.....🎃🍂💀🍁👻

We are continuing in our story of H.H. Holmes and the Murder Castle where the body count increases. You'll be surprised what eventually gets him caught by the authorities and the mysteries that remain. (This is the second part, listen to part 1 first.)

Welcome to Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast:

Spook-tober continues with a scary true story from our history. 🎃🍂💀🍁👻

Our story this week is about one of the first serial killers from American history who set up shop during one of the biggest events to ever come to Chicago. My source material was "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larsen. This is a two part story, the rest will be coming very soon.

Welcome to Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast:

It's Spook-tober! That means I'll be pulling out scaaary stories. 🎃🍂💀🍁👻

This story is called "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Fear" or " The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was" or "Good Bowling and Card Playing". It's a German folktale collected by the Brothers Grimm as well as Andrew Lang in the Blue Fairy Book. This story shows us the inability to feel fear leads to boredom, animal cruelty, and bullying the elderly.

Welcome to Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast:

Welcome to Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

This story is called "King Lindorm" (a Swedish tale collected by Andrew Lang in The Pink Fairy Book.) In this story, we learn that even the nastiest mate is a really nice guy deep down if you have the patience to change him.

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast:

Welcome to Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

This story is called "The Knights of the Fish" (collected by Fernan Caballaro in Cuentos. Oraciones y Adivinas. Andrew Lang included it in The Brown Fairy Book).  If you listen to a talking fish...you will no longer be the main character in this story.

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast:

Welcome to Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

This is our first REAL story. Like this really happened. Really. This is the story of the princess who swallowed a glass piano and other people throughout history who believed themselves to be super fragile.

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast:

Welcome to Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

Our next story is The Six Swans (collected by Andrew Lang for the Yellow Fairy Book). Something I've found often with fairy tales is very similar stories. A few days later, I found The Twelve Wild Ducks (a Norwegian tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in Norske Folkeeventyr) and added it into this episode.

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast:

Welcome to Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!  

Here is part 2 of The Yellow Dwarf. It just gets weirder from here.

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast:

Welcome to Tale Wagging: A Gleeful Retelling of little known fairy tales, folklore, history, and more!

The story I've chosen for our pilot episode is so crazy and all over the place that I decided to split it into two parts to make it more easily digestible. I present to you...."The Yellow Dwarf" by Madame d'Aulnoy (collected by Andrew Lang in the Blue Fairy Book).....Part 1.

If you’d like to get in touch or send us a story you’d like to hear on the podcast: