The Princess Mayblossom | The Lang Fairy Tales: The Red Fairy Book (1890)

The Lang Fairy Tale Project is BACK - although we're mixing things up with a new format for The Red Fairy Book.

Rather than just reading the stories then saving our thoughts about them all for a big chat at the end we're now reading the stories to one another and discussing them episode by episode.

We begin by setting some context - especially around Andrew Lang only contributing one tale to this entire collection, with the rest of the work undertaken by his wife, Nora, and a small army of female translators.

Eleanor then reads "The Princess Mayblossom" which is a story translated from a French original by Madame d'Aulnoy from 1697. In her classic style, it's an example of an Animal Bride tale.

Yet said bride never turns into an animal.

Which makes no sense.

To untangle things a bit, we then have a conversation about the story and the things which stood out to us about it, including the high points, the low points, and explore what we think this story might be trying to tell us about human nature...

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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