The Ratcatcher, The True History of Little Golden Hood, and The Three Dwarfs

The Ratcatcher, The True History of Little Golden Hood, and The Three Dwarfs

From The Three Ravens Podcast by Three Ravens

June 4, 2026 · 1h 0m · Season 10 · Episode 50

About this episode

The episode discusses three fairy tales, analyzing their strengths, weaknesses, and subtexts.

Today, for our 50th Lang Fairy Tales episode, it's time for another triple - and this trio of stories are ones most people might already know. The Ratcatcher is a fairly straight take on the Pied Piper of Hamelin, albeit with a Transylvanian Twist. The True History of Little Golden Hood marks the Lang's second attempt at Red Riding Hood - and it's pretty great! The Three Dwarfs meanwhile starts promisingly, though then becomes Toads and Diamonds, and for no good reason... We dig into each after the fact and discuss their strengths, weaknesses, and seeming subtexts. And hooray for grandmas who are also witches and not evil! We really hope you enjoy the stories and our chat about them, and will speak to you again on Saturday for our Buckinghamshire-themed Three Ravens Live Show, recorded last weekend at Chiltern Open Air Museum! 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…

People in this episode

Host: Three Ravens

Topics covered

  • fairy tales
  • story analysis
  • children's literature
  • folklore
  • Lang Fairy Tales

Keywords

  • fairy tales
  • Pied Piper
  • Red Riding Hood
  • Toads and Diamonds
  • Nora Lang
  • Andrew Lang

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Ratcatcher, The True History of Little Golden Hood, The Three Dwarfs, Toads and Diamonds

Places: Transylvania, Buckinghamshire, Chiltern Open Air Museum

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