Lost in the Rabbit Hole

In this episode we are lost in the dark woods, the enchanted forests, and we come upon the sleeping beauty.

How many times have we walked through a small grove or copse of trees and been startled from a rattle just off to our right? Was it a little bird, or maybe a squirrel? But when you looked, nothing else moved. Except the shadows; shadows don’t make any noise. Do they?

Angela Carter tells us how “The woods enclosed. Like a net, like a cage.” She says, “There is no way through the wood any more...Once you are inside it, you must stay there until it lets you out again...”

And we see in our folktales that these woods hide secrets, we lose our sense of self, and our identities are hidden. There’s a different kind of beating heart deep in the woods, with a blood stream literal streams pumping life to the dark center. The lungs are high overhead, rattling a leafy canopy, and we know all around, the woods are alive.

Folktales, fairytales, myths, legends, medieval romances, plays, and even today in contemporary works of literature and movies, forests and woods and even just clumps of trees in the distance manifest as representations of...something...something big, something small, something dark, something needed.

Episode Notes
For more information on all of the stories and authors and themes
VARIATIONS of Sleeping Beauty tales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 410
translated and/or edited by D. L. Ashliman
Disney's, Sleeping Beauty
Andrew Lang's, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood (1891, The Blue Fairy Book)
The Grimms, Little Briar Rose
Charles Perrault's, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood
Giambattista Basile's, The Sun, The Moon, and Talia
References Used

1. Angela Carter, "The Erl King", from The Bloody Chamber
2. Sara Maitland Gossip from the Forest: The Tangled Roots of Our Forests and Fairy Tales
3. Amelia Starling, “Sleeping Beauty: The Meaning of Fate, Sleep, and Death” WILLOW WEB
4. “The Enchanted Forest of the Brothers Grimm”, Jack Zipes

Welcome to another two-part episode of LOST IN THE RABBIT HOLE -- this is PART ONE. In this episode, we cover just some of the variants of The Wild Hunt tales, which come from Europe, but can also be found in some form all over the world.
The Wild Hunt is a tale of a pack of spectral beings riding horses, sometimes flying, late at night. Sometimes there are demon dogs, or other packs of animals. These tales are moral tales, with the riders or hunters presaging something really bad -- war, plague, discord, or even the death of the person who sees the riders.
We see in this episode (both parts) that the frame of the pack of ghost hunters carries across cultures, but with some interesting shifts and detail changes.
PART ONE: focuses on the background of the tale frame; from WODEN/ODIN leading the pack to the HERLE KING, this is an old lore that is still somehow very elastic. Part one includes the history of FRAU BERCHTA , one of the female figures to lead the pack of night riders.
PART TWO: shares other cultures' tales, including THE NIGHT OF A HUNDRED DEMONS from Japan, HAWAIIAN NIGHT MARCHERS, the Canadian New Years tale of THE BEWITCHED CANOE, and the Old American West tale of the GHOST RIDERS.
References for Part One of this episode:
Jacob Grimm, German Mythology, volume 1
D. L. Ashliman, THE WILD HUNT LEGENDS
Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures
Brian Branston, The Lost Gods of England
Ari Berk and William Spytma, Penance, Power, and Pursuit: On the Trail of the Wild Hunt
Jennifer Westwood. Albion: A Guide to Legendary Britain
The Old Magic of Christmas, Linda Raedisch
The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas: Roots and Rebirth of the Folkloric Devil, by Al Ridenour
Ridenour also has a terrific podcast, here is the episode on Frau Berchta
Also, from 2011, the VoVatia blog, Baby, Baby, It's a Wild Hunt

In this episode, we explore "Little Red Riding Hood," the origins, but also some of the lesser known grotesqueries, naughty bits, and other things.
QUOTABLES:
In The Grandmother’s Tale, when our girl says, “"I'll take the Path of Pins.” The bzou replies, "Why then, I'll take the Path of Needles, and we'll see who gets there first."
The bzou follows her to the banks of the river and demand that the washerwomen help him cross. They agree, but once he is halfway across the river, they drown him.
Or maybe I’m the little black cat – the one that knows bad things are happening, but no one will listen. Instead, I get a shoe tossed at me for even trying.
To read The Grandmother's Tale and other variations of this tale
To read more from Jack Zipes
To read more from Marina Warner
To read more from Maria Tatar
For more on The Path of Pins and the Path of Needles
Music Darkest Child by Kevin MacLeod
Original Podcast Artwork created by Heather Scheeler

This is HUGE! For the month of DECEMBER the LOST IN THE RABBIT HOLE podcast will be a TWO PARTER!
Join me as I delve into the variant tales of abandoned children. Hansel and Gretel are only a part of this story.
We begin: "Long, long ago, beside one such Winter forest there lived a poor woodcutter with his wife and their two children – a little boy and a little girl. They lived humbly in a house made of wattle and daub, all snug together under their thatch roof. There was a little coop around back for the chickens, and the woodcutter’s wife kept a vegetable garden full of lush, ripe tomatoes in the summer and squash in the fall. The house was perfectly placed between two aspen sentries, each guarding a side."
Come along down the sugared path and I promise, no one will bite.
PART TWO is available immediately.
Versions Referenced in this episode:

• "Little Brother and Little Sister" aka "Hansel and Gretel" (Germany, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, 1812-1840)
• "Ninnillo and Nennella" (Italy, Giambattista Basile, 1635) also here
• "Little Thumb" aka "Hop on my Thumb" (France, Charles Perrault, 1697)
• "Jan and Hanna" (Poland, author unknown, 1863)
• "Finette Cedron" aka Cunning Cinders, (France, Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy, 1967)
• "Little Earth Cow" (Alsace, Martin Montanus, 1557)
  

Reference Materials

The Golden Age of Folk and Fairy Tales: From the Brothers Grimm to Andrew Lang by Jack Zipes
The Classic Fairytales, Iona and Peter Opie
The Third Horseman A STORY OF WEATHER, WAR, AND THE FAMINE HISTORY FORGOT By William Rosen