This month we’re taking a look at another Brothers Grimm fairy tale, this one collected in Germany, that tells the tale of a lucky boy born with a caul. A child born with a caul is a child born with a portion of the amniotic sack unbroken, usually covering their head or face, and said to resemble a veil or crown. The caul was said to prevent drownings, and a superstitious sailor might pay good money to purchase one from the midwife after such a birth. The fate of the caul in ‘The Devil and the Three Golden Hairs’ is unknown, but the child it came into the world with would go on to achieve riches.

 

Once in a small village ruled by a cruel and uncaring king, a poor woman gave birth to an infant boy, born with a caul. Being born with a caul was very rare, and a sure sign of great fortune to come in the child’s future. It was predicted that in his fourteenth year, the caul-child would win the hand of the princess...

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This week we follow our protagonists to the depths of the underworld and the heights of Olympus as we reach the end of season one! Despite learning that they have missed the deadline, Percy and his friends choose to continue their quest for the Master Bolt, heading down into the underworld to confront the villain Hades and request its return.

Our protagonists are far from the first heroes to travel to the underworld, with such a journey being known as a ‘katabasis’ (meaning descent). The most famous of this number is possibly Orpheus, who travelled to the underworld to retrieve his lost love Euridice, and ultimately failed in his quest. His travels were aided by the god Apollo, who was possibly his father, though other sources give this honour to the Thracian king, Oeagrus. Apollo went on ahead of Orpheus to let Hades know that Orpheus was on his way to petition for the return of his lost bride while Orpheus himself travelled to the underworld through the gate of Taenarus (located in Taenarum in Laconia). This same entrance was used by Heracles as he travelled into the underworld to battle Cerberus, and by the then-human Psyche as part of her efforts to prove herself worthy again of Cupid’s love.

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Cats have long played a significant role in superstition and folklore around the world. At times they have been said to be bad luck, in collusion with witches, and even (mistakenly) believed to have been worshipped as gods. While Ancient Egyptians did not actually worship cats as gods, they were considered sacred due to their connection to the gods, in particular the goddess Bastet. Compared to some of humanities other domesticated companions, such as dogs or horses, cats were only domesticated within the last 10,000 years (dogs, for comparison, being domesticated approximately 23,000 years ago), but despite their relatively recent addition to our households, cats have still gained a firm place in both our homes, and our myths…

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Rick Riordan’s ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ is perhaps the most well known modern book series inspired by Greek myth. Originally comprising of six books and starting with ‘Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief’, the series has sold over 180 million copies worldwide and been translated into thirty-seven languages. It has inspired a Broadway musical, two films, and now, finally, a Disney Plus TV series. Drawing heavily from the books, but also from aspects of Greek myth unexplored in the original series, the Disney show brings to life a wonderful world of myth and magic, of humans and gods.

In the first episode we are introduced to the titular character, Percy Jackson, played by Walker Scobell, who is, in own words, ‘a troubled kid’.

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The Tooth Fairy, like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, is a legendary figure solely (or at least primarily) believed in by children. Largely a phenomenon of the Western World, the Tooth Fairy is well known for visiting children who have lost their teeth and replacing the missing tooth with a coin – the value of that coin varying by location and averaging around £1 in the UK and $5 in America.

Though the Tooth Fairy is well known, she does not quite have the popularity of her two compatriots, and her origins are very murky – in fact, there is no true consensus on where precisely the legend of the Tooth Fairy came from. Instead, there are a number of tooth related traditions and tales thought to have contributed to the legend.

Around the world, there are a great number of small rituals and superstitions that revolve around a child’s lost tooth. One British superstition held that a child’s baby teeth should be buried in the garden to ensure the new tooth would grow in straight and strong – this was also thought to keep the tooth away from witches, who could use them to magically cause injury or illness to the child. Other ways to keep your baby tooth safe from witches involved swallowing or burning the tooth. On the other side of the world, according to an Indonesian superstition, the child should throw the tooth over their shoulder, attempting to get it over the roof of their house…

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Stretching back centuries with hundreds of variations around the globe, Cinderella is one of our most enduring and popular fairy tales. Though elements have changed throughout time and place, with fairy godmother’s replacing fish, spirits, and trees, the number of sisters varying from one to six, and even Cinderella’s name changing throughout the tales, some things remain in every iteration: a beautiful girl, and a missing shoe.

One of the earliest versions of the ‘Cinderella’ story was recorded by Strabo, a Greek man who lived between 64 BC and 21 AD. The story itself is speculated to have originated even earlier, and hail from Egypt, though this is impossible to verify. The tale tells of Rhodopis, a young woman – sometimes a courtesan – who was bathing in the river when an eagle swooped down and stole her sandal.

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Inspired by her own family’s history as Lithuanian and Polish immigrants to America, Naomi Novik’s ‘Spinning Silver’ reimagines the fairy tale of ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ (amongst others) to create a vibrant and mysterious Polish-inspired fantasy world. In this world, only a silver-spinning Jew named Miryem, a Tsarina named Irina, and a debtor named Wanda can save the fictitious kingdom of Lithvas from falling to either fire or ice.

Miryem is the daughter of a moneylender – and a poor one. Her father’s generosity and unwillingness to actually claim back the money he lends has left their family destitute. With a harsh winter and her mother growing ill, Miryem takes up her father’s duty and his books, collecting the money her family is owed.

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This month at Mythos we're thrilled to offer you something new as we got a chance to talk to singer-songwriter Joe Goodkin about his incredible album, The Blues of Achilles. The album retells the story of Homer's Iliad, from finish, to start! You can check out the interview above.

This month at Mythos we're thrilled to offer you something new as we got a chance to talk to singer-songwriter Joe Goodkin about his incredible album, The Blues of Achilles. The album retells the story of Homer's Iliad, from finish, to start! You can check out the interview above.

They made him for me,

Brother, that my mother never bore,

Grew him from their spit,

And clay, and from the river shore,

To teach me to be calm.

To teach me how to temper

The wildness of my storm,

And shame me into being twice a man.

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Something is stirring in the heart of Lancre. Circle time is upon us and the walls between the worlds grow thin. Waiting on the other-side, eager to break through an old enemy waits. The elves are coming back. In the words of the witch, Granny Weatherwax – I can’t be having with that!

Elves face off against witches in Terry Pratchett’s 14th Discworld Novel ‘Lords and Ladies’. On the side of the elves, we have the Queen of Fairies, with seemingly unbeatable levels of magical power, and a murderous unicorn. On the side of the Witches we have some of Pratchett’s most beloved characters; experienced witch Granny Weatherwax, Magrat Garlick (former witch and soon-to-be-queen), Nanny Ogg (well established rascal) and of course, the good people of Lancre, a people to whom the word ‘defeat’ does not come easy (if only because most of them can’t spell it.) The two sides battle each other for control of the country of Lancre. It belonged to the elves once, and they are eager to return. But the humans are there now, and they’re not giving up without a fight.

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A long, long time ago, beyond the seven mountains, beyond the seven rivers, there lived a king and queen. The two were bathed in riches, loved by all and, as these stories often go, they were not happy.

Despite their riches, despite their loving home, the two could not have the thing they wanted most of all.

They could not have a child.

Years passed, the glow of new marriage growing old and weary in their eyes with each year the bore no fruit. The queen fell to weeping, drifting aimlessly through the palace halls, her hands stitching tiny toys that little hands would never cling close and love.  The king fell to planning, someone, somewhere must have the secret that would bring life into their home. His men rode out in four directions, searching first the kingdom, then the land, and then the world for any who could bring forth the king’s great wish.

Wise men, great alchemists, healers, priests. Each came and stood before the crown and laid their remedy at the king’s feet. And each failed.

With each failure the king grew greyer, the queen grew thinner, sorrow sitting heavy on once hopeful brows and shoulders.

And then, and only then, did she come.

Silver hair gone dry with age swung down beneath the heavy cloak that hid her face, shimmering like shiny metal in the torches’ light. Her hands were twisted, red with pain at the knuckles, the joints swollen and the palms soft and thin as paper.

When she spoke, her voice was cracked, but strong enough the hall fell silent to hear her speak.

“A child, you wish?” the woman said and held out her hands. In each palm she held a single seed, the first green wisps beginning to curl free of their earthy shell and reach towards the sky.

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I knew it was a terrible idea from the start.

Well, maybe not the start. The job ad seemed normal. ‘Nanny wanted,’ one child, six hours a day while the dad was at work. Simple enough. It was on a proper job site and everything. Did I think it was kind of pretentious that they were calling for a Nanny rather than a babysitter? Sure. But it’s not like they were the only one doing it. Besides, it paid well, and I desperately needed the money. I wasn’t going to quibble over word choice with £20 an hour on the line. If rich people wanted to use old fashioned words that was their business, not mine.

The first signs that I should have gotten the hell out of dodge came during the interview. I’d known the house was out of the way, but stepping off the bus into an empty wood had been a shock. I’d been the only one on the bus, and the bus driver had barely glanced at me when I got on, hat pulled low over his eyes. It was a sunny day, or it had been before the bus had entered the woods, and when I stepped off the bus the wind blew straight through my blouse, curling frigid iron around my bones and whipping my hair out of its neat bun.

The email had said to take the path next to the bus stop down to the house and even though the path was more of mud track, and even though I was starting to get serious serial killer vibes from the silent woods, I won’t have it said that I’m a quitter.

…I should probably have quit.

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It seems that gods all over the world share a penchant for tossing things up into the sky. Beloved pets, lovers, siblings, even objects find themselves immortalized among the stars. Whether to honour a fallen lover or to create an eternal hunt, the gods, it seems, just can’t help themselves. The Norse gods are no exception and in this tale it is the eyes of a giant that find themselves immortalised in the heavens

Thiazi was a jötunn who had threatened Loki into kidnapping the goddess Idunn, delivering both her and her immortality-granting golden apples to Thiazi. Without Idunn, the gods soon lost their immortality, and began to grow old. When they learnt that it was Loki wo had stolen the goddess away, they were furious. Loki was told that he could either retrieve the goddess or pay with his life. Loki, naturally, chose life.

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Fairy tales have existed in their current written format for hundreds of years, with the original stories stretching back many years more in the form of oral tales. As a popular medium, there are certain elements that one might come to expect from a classic fairy tale; a plucky protagonist, a charming prince or beautiful princess, and a wicked witch or stepmother. But there is something that many early fairy tales had in common that you might not expect – cannibalism.

Most of us are familiar with Hansel and Gretel’s near miss with the child-eating witch from the gingerbread house, and with Jack’s narrow escape from the boy-hungry giant. But did you know that in earlier version of Snow White, the evil queen requested the Huntsman bring her Snow White’s lungs and liver (though he replaced these with the organs of an animal) which she then proceeded to eat? Or that in a much darker version of Little Red Riding Hood the wolf tricked the poor girl into eating a dinner made of her own grandmother’s flesh and blood? And these aren’t the only stories where cannibalism plays a disturbing trend…

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This week we follow our protagonists to the depths of the underworld and the heights of Olympus as we reach the end of season one! Despite learning that they have missed the deadline, Percy and his friends choose to continue their quest for the Master Bolt, heading down into the underworld to confront the villain Hades and request its return.

Our protagonists are far from the first heroes to travel to the underworld, with such a journey being known as a ‘katabasis’ (meaning descent). The most famous of this number is possibly Orpheus, who travelled to the underworld to retrieve his lost love Euridice, and ultimately failed in his quest. His travels were aided by the god Apollo, who was possibly his father, though other sources give this honour to the Thracian king, Oeagrus. Apollo went on ahead of Orpheus to let Hades know that Orpheus was on his way to petition for the return of his lost bride while Orpheus himself travelled to the underworld through the gate of Taenarus (located in Taenarum in Laconia). This same entrance was used by Heracles as he travelled into the underworld to battle Cerberus, and by the then-human Psyche as part of her efforts to prove herself worthy again of Cupid’s love.

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This week, we jump back into the word of ‘Percy Jackson and Olympians,’ taking a look at episodes Five and Six, where we finally get to meet a few more of the Greek gods. Our heroes encounter Ares, Hephaestus, and Hermes, send messages through Iris and are offered a terrible future by the Fates.

While they may have escaped Echidna and her Chimera daughter, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover are far from out of the woods. Alarmingly, Annabeth soon encounters the Fates – appearing innocuously before her as three elderly women knitting a pair of giant blue socks. The women on the left and right both knit, while the woman in the middle holds the yarn and, most worryingly of all, cuts it. As Annabeth and Grover later explain, the Fates cutting a thread is a sign that someone is about to die.

In Greek myth the Fates, or the Moirai, determined the destiny of many, with Clotho spinning the thread, Lakhesis measuring it, and Atropos cutting it, to determine the length of that life. Though the Moirai are most famously known to number three, it is thought that in earlier depictions there may have only been two, or even one...

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