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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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.     ..read more

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 ..read more

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!  ..read more

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

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 ..read more

A very dark story about jealously, murder and a magical instrument being made out of the corpse! For me the song came first, this version I'm singing is different to any other I've come across, although this is a great link for some backstory: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-2-sisters-and-1-murder-inspired-500-songs I learned the version I'm singing from an old cassette tape recording from a library archive when I was researching women and folk songs 30 years ago. It has always been a favorite, although the melody I know is pretty repetitive, the magical and macabre hopefully keep yo ..read more

A darker version of the well known Cinderella story was recorded by the German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the 19th century. The tale is called "Aschenputtel". This version is much more intense than most others in that Cinderella's father did not die and the stepsisters mutilate their feet to fit in the golden slipper. There is no fairy godmother, but help instead comes from a wishing tree that the heroine planted on her mother's grave. The stepsisters suffer a terrible punishment for their cruelty ..read more

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 ..read more