The Golden Branch

About this episode

The episode discusses Madame d'Aulnoy's fairy tale 'The Golden Branch' and its adaptations, comparing it to other French literary fairy tales.

Today's Lang Fairy Tale is another Madame d'Aulnoy spectacular, The Golden Branch! So spectacular is this tale, in fact, that it was adapted for the stage as part of James Robinson Planche's 19th century 'fairy extravaganzas', lavishly costumed musical displays of whimsy which must truly have been a joy to behold.  But will this be the decider for Martin for or against Madame d'Aulnoy? We discuss the tale, compare it to the other French literary fairy tales we've encountered as part of this project, and explore its subtext. We hope you enjoy the story and the episode, and we will be back on Saturday with another double bill of tales: Dapplegrim, and The Twelve Brothers! 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…

People in this episode

Host: Three Ravens

Topics covered

• fairy tales
• literature
• French literature
• Madame d'Aulnoy
• story analysis
• cultural history

Keywords

• Madame d'Aulnoy
• The Golden Branch
• fairy tales
• Nora Lang
• Andrew Lang
• French literature
• story analysis

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Lang Fairy Tales, James Robinson Planche

Books & works: The Golden Branch, Dapplegrim, The Twelve Brothers

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