Dapplegrim and The Twelve Brothers

About this episode

This episode features a double bill of tales from the Red Fairy Book, including Dapplegrim and The Twelve Brothers, with discussions on their themes and contrasts.

We present a double bill of tales from the Red Fairy Book today! First up, we've got the Norwegian tale of the cleverest (and possibly the most ruthless) horse out there, Dapplegrim, and the lucky human he teams up with. We follow it up with The Twelve Brothers, collected by the Brothers Grimm - and spoiler alert, this one contains ravens! They make a great contrasting pair, with plenty to discuss, analyse and compare. We really hope you enjoy the stories, and we will speak to you again on Monday for a brand new episode of the Three Ravens Bestiary, all about Ogres! If you are unfamiliar with the Lang Fairy Tales, these seminal collections were assembled between 1889 and 1913 by a married couple, folklorists and translators Nora and Andrew Lang, with most of the work done to compile them completed by Nora, also known as Leonora Blanche Alleyne. Assembled and published in 12 colour-coded "Fairy Books," the corpus the Langs put together included 798 fairy tales from across cultures, many of which had never before been translated into English. They were amongst the most influential books of their time, changing the course of children's literature - although they're hardly just for…

People in this episode

Host: Three Ravens

Topics covered

• fairy tales
• Dapplegrim
• The Twelve Brothers
• Grimm Brothers
• Lang Fairy Books
• story analysis

Keywords

• fairy tales
• Dapplegrim
• The Twelve Brothers
• Grimm
• Lang Fairy Books
• storytelling
• analysis

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Brothers Grimm

Books & works: Dapplegrim, The Twelve Brothers

More episodes of The Three Ravens Podcast

• The Golden Branch · June 11, 2026 · 56 min
• Magic and Medicines #25: Familiars and Animal Magic · June 8, 2026 · 1h 10m
• LIVE @ Chiltern Open Air Museum · June 6, 2026 · 1h 15m
• The Ratcatcher, The True History of Little Golden Hood, and The Three Dwarfs · June 4, 2026 · 1h 0m
• Magus #11: Merlin · June 1, 2026 · 1h 19m
• June Update: Midsummer Madness · June 1, 2026 · 1h 15m