The Black Thief And Knight of the Glen and Brother And Sister | The Lang Fairy Tales: The Red Fairy Book (1890)

And we finish our week of releases with another double bill - including one story that's pretty great, and another that loses its way a bit...

The more successful of the two is the first Irish legend to feature in the Lang collections, The Black Thief and Knight of the Glen, performed by Martin, which is a shaggy dog story featuring thrilling flights of fancy and a surprisingly clever plot.

Then comes Brother and Sister, read by Eleanor, which is a tale of two dipstick siblings who opt not to become tigers.

It has a ghost, as well - albeit the payoff to that whole section feels pretty lame, so thank goodness the story is at least mercifully short!

We of course get into this, along with the whole issue the Langs seemed to have with stepmothers.

Why?!

Answers on a postcard, please!

Launched in 2025 to help us bridge gaps between main series, we began by sharing readings from us of the iconic stories found in the Blue Fairy Book compiled by Andrew Lang. From the Red Fairy Book onwards, we have also spent time digging into the stories, their histories and relationships to tale types, and are engaged in an ongoing mission to celebrate the woman truly behind the 12 coloured fairy books – Andrew’s wife Leonora, whose impact on children’s literature and fantasy fiction cannot be understated.

About Three Ravens 🔮

Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.

Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’

We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.

Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.

Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…

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