In this episode, Geoff and Katrina talk about the social historical interpretations for fairy tales. Using the essay Fairies and Hard Facts: The Reality of Folktales by Eugen Weber, we move from talking about fairy tales using the psychoanalytic approach to using historical perspectives to find out when forest might simply be a forest and when famine makes monsters of mothers. Katrina starts off by retelling The Children of Famine before Geoff retells the tale of The Three Journeymen. Finally Katrina retells Eve’s Unequal Children to discuss how while these tales might not sit well with modern audiences, they might have rang true to the tellers when they were circulating around the hearth.

Stories Told:

The Children of Famine by Brothers Grimm 

The Three Journeymen by Brothers Grimm 

Eve’s Unequal Children by Brothers Grimm

Books and Essays Cited:

The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm Translated by Jack Zipes

Teaching Fairy Tales Edited by Nancy L. Canepa

Fairies and Hard Facts: The Reality of Folktales essay by Eugen Weber 

Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston

The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History by Robert Darnton