Whether you’re a baby boomer, a millennial, or gen Z, chances are you grew up hearing about, reading, and watching fairy tales: from how Goldilocks wasn’t too impressed with the bed that was too hard and the one that was too soft; to how Hansel and Gretel met the forest witch.
While these stories seem timeless, they do have a history, often one that includes numerous variations, darker endings that the most popular retellings of today, and even real-life inspirations that will make your skin crawl.
Tales, a Spotify-original podcast by Parcast, explores these histories, going back to when these tales were first published, exploring how they have changed throughout the years, and looking at what it tells us about the society that conjured it up and what today’s versions say about us.
Running between 2018 and 2022, the podcast covered dozens of famous tales, including Jack and the Beanstalk, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, the Three Little Pigs, and the Princess and the Pea. But there are also plenty of lesser-known fairy tales and fairy-tale creatures too, especially to those living in Malta.
These include the story of The Three Little Blue Stones, a Portuguese fairytale in which a princess escapes her suffocating life only to discover that being free isn’t always as wonderful as it sounds. Or the The Wives of Okuninushi from Japan, where a jealous princess tries to trap her husband’s first wife. Or the Icelandic tale of The Deacon of Myrká, which shows how undying love isn’t always as romantic as it seems.
