Fellow Christian artists: join Alicia Pollard in discussing how the eternal Word of God clarifies and beautifies the craft of retelling fairy tales. Whether you are retelling a fairy tale in the form of a novel, play, poem, short story, painting, or opera, the Bible provides the perfect illumination for ethics and aesthetics, morality and mystery. Artists who follow Christ have no better lantern than Scripture for studying and adding leaves to what J.R.R. Tolkien called the "Tree of Tales": the canon of folklore.
Alicia interviews C.S. Lewis (metaphorically) on how to retell a fairy tale in the light of Scripture. Lewis’s masterful novel Till We Have Faces (1956), a retelling of the fairy tale “Cupid and Psyche,” expresses the beauty of the gospel in the language of Greek/pagan mythology. Topics discussed include a little of Lewis’s journey in writing this story and his artistic process; his brilliant interpretation of the unseen husband, the sin of jealousy, and the veil images from the fairy tale; and the intersection of research and craft.
Resources
Huttar, Charles (2009) "What C.S. Lewis Really Did to "Cupid and Psyche"," Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis. Journal: Vol. 3 : Iss. 1, Article 4. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55221/1940-5537.1027 (https://doi.org/10.55221/1940-5537.1027)
Ancrene Riwle — medieval text, includes an allegory of the Seven Deadly Sins
Dorothy Sayers’s essay, “The Other Six Deadly Sins”
Strong’s Hebrew on jealousy: https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7067.htm (https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7067.htm)
Music: Intro from Adam Saban’s “Tales from the Past”; episode segments from Cody Martin’s “Gate of Alfheim”
8 Mar 2024
The Snow Queen (revisited) with K.B. Hoyle
Alicia returns to Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” with a second guest, K.B. (Karin) Hoyle, to talk about Karin’s recently released retelling of the tale, Son of Bitter Glass. They discuss Karin’s interpretation/adaptation of flower symbolism; ravens; eternity and snow; romance and friendship; the fae; the rich imagery of fairy tales and folklore in general; and more.
To order a copy of Son of Bitter Glass, visit the Owl’s Nest Publishers bookstore online.
Resources
K.B. Hoyle’s Son of Bitter Glass and the companion book that comes before it, Son of the Deep
Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen”
Edith Hamilton’s Mythology
Music: Intro from Adam Saban’s “Tales from the Past”; episode segments from Third Age’s “Tuatha Dé Danann”
23 Feb 2024
Aspittle and the Stoorworm
Alicia explores the Scottish folktale, “Aspittle and the Stoorworm,” and how an artist might interpret the title character, the sea dragon, and the battle in the beast in a retelling. Topics discussed include ashes, fire, and dreams; etiological tales; the Leviathan passage in Job; and the paradox of the weak overcoming the strong.
Resources
See “Aspittle and the Stoorworm” in Norah and William Montgomerie’s The Folktales of Scotland
“At the Burial of the Dead” service from the Book of Common Prayer: https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/burial-dead (https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/burial-dead)
Liver as the seat of the emotions - entry in the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon: https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3516.htm (https://biblehub.com/hebrew/3516.htm)
William MacDonald’s Believer’s Bible Commentary on Job and Isaiah 27
See John Piper’s sermons on Job on DesiringGod.org
Charles Simeon Trust Society's online course on Wisdom Literature, especially Douglas Sean O'Donnell's exposition of Job 42
Music: Intro from Adam Saban’s “Tales of the Past,” episode segments from Cody Martin’s “Taking the North”
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Spotify
5.0 / 5
7 ratings
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