The Enchanted Pig and The Norka

The Enchanted Pig and The Norka

From The Three Ravens Podcast by Three Ravens

April 30, 2026 · 58 min · Season 10 · Episode 44

About this episode

The episode explores two fairy tales, The Enchanted Pig and The Norka, discussing their origins and significance in folklore.

Our Lang Fairy Tale episode for today is a double bill, The Enchanted Pig and The Norka. The Enchanted Pig is a very well known Romanian folk tale, which appears in many different forms, and it's a whole lot of fun! The story compares to East of the Sun and West of the Moon - and possibly wins out against it? Collected by the father of Romanian folklore Petre Ispirescu, we think it's one of the good ones. We follow that on with The Norka, which the Langs took from one of Alexander Afanasyev's many collections of Ukrainian and Russian tales.  If you're wondering what a 'norka' is, you might not leave the story any the wiser, though it's an excellent adventure with palaces hidden in eggs, helpful birds, and quite possibly a polyamorous wedding at the end. As ever, we talk about the stories, their history and their tale types - and try out a few more silly voices for our collection! 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…

People in this episode

Host: Three Ravens

Topics covered

  • fairy tales
  • Romanian folklore
  • Ukrainian tales
  • storytelling
  • children's literature

Keywords

  • fairy tales
  • Romanian folklore
  • Ukrainian tales
  • Nora Lang
  • Andrew Lang

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Enchanted Pig, The Norka, East of the Sun and West of the Moon

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