What's that coming over the hill with fists full of sheep and improbably large trousers on? It's a new episode of Three Ravens Bestiary of course, all about the mythology and folklore of Giants!

We begin with a brief chat about Gigantism, the rare medical condition which makes people grow larger than normal - and other examples of very large human ancestors, from extremely tall Egyptian pharaohs and Roman Centurions to the Gravettian Hunters - the 'Giants of the Ice Age.'

Soon though we're digging into appropriately enormous questions, such as, how tall are Giants actually meant to be? What do we know about the first Giant mentioned in writing, and how did we get from concepts of the snake-tailed Ancient Greek 'Gigantes' of classical mythology to the 19th century concept of Giants as blundering nitwits easily bested by things as simple as holes in the ground?

Surprise surprise, there's something about the whole idea related to how 'modern people' view the past, and the foreign, whether that be in the case of David slaying Goliath, Heracles helping Zeus and his siblings to quell rebellions, or Norse deities using the corpse of a giant to build the world around us...

Featuring one or two puns, and a whole host of other stuff - such as apotropaic giant magic, a gender-swapping relationship counsellor, and plenty of linguistic nerdery from all over the world, it's a big topic, but like many warriors before us we've brought it down to our level!

We also hope you are thoroughly pleased by our new episode art, as drawn by our good friend Tom Peteuil of Creature Castle - check out brand new 'G is for Giants' merch from us here and visit the Creature Castle shop for prints and other wonderful things here.

Speak to you again on Thursday for this week's Lang Fairy Tale, Princess Rosette, before Saturday's Local Legends interview with the man who was head of the largest Druid order in the world for 35 years, Philip Carr-Gomm!

Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.

Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, we take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...

Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.

With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?

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For our first Three Ravens Live Show release of 2026 we have a recording from Farnham Literary Festival in March, all about the history and folklore of Surrey!

Recorded at Farnham Town Hall, a stone's throw from the town's Norman castle, we begin by offering a whistle-stop tour of the ways in which the historic county of Surrey has been shaped by conflicts, including Bronze Age tribal clashes, Viking invasions, and the seemingly unstoppable growth of neighbouring Greater London.

Despite the county having traditionally been overlooked in terms of its folklore and folktales, this episode is packed to the gunnels, from the legacy of local witch Mother Ludlam to the dragon converted to Christianity by St Martha, the eerily haunted natural spring known as 'The Silent Hill' to persistent horse demons, eccentrics buried upside-down, the Devil's various doings in the county, and much more besides!

For our story, Eleanor transports us to Chertsey during the Wars of the Roses for a romance that stopped time - The Legend of Blanche Heriot - underscored by Martin doing his best with bells, cymbals and coconuts, after which we discuss the story's provenance and open the floor for a Q&A pleasingly enlivened by contributions from The Farnham Folklore Society.

Thank you so much to everyone who came along, Farnham Town Council for hosting the event, and if you would like to come and see us recording Three Ravens Live at one of our upcoming events then do please take a look at our Events Calendar and book yourself some tickets!

We really hope you enjoy the episode, and will speak to you again on Monday for a new episode of the Three Ravens Bestiary all about the history and mythology of Giants!

Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.

Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...

Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.

With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?

REGISTER FOR THE TALES OF SOUTHERN ENGLAND TOUR

Visit our website

Join our Patreon

Social media channels and sponsors

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For today's Lang Fairy Tales episode we have a tale with its very own ATU number - The Master Thief!

First recorded, to our knowledge, by Herodotus in the 5th century B.C. the story became popular in Europe due to a single writer in the Italian Renaissance who popularised the "Rise Tale" - the story of someone from a more modest background outwitting the rich to become rich themselves.

In this case, with the Langs taking their version from Asbjørnsen and Moe, we have a youngest son who is a trickster, cross-dresser, huntsman, passable fake corpse, and torturer of priests.

Is he a hero? Perhaps not - but is that perhaps the point, with European society being so unfairly organised that only the deceitful can succeed within it?

Naturally we have a chat about all that, and about the story's clear roots in commedia dell'arte, at the end.

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 influential books of their time, changing the course of children's literature - although they're hardly just for children, and often deal with quite challenging concepts.

Today, purchasing a complete set of the Lang Fairy Books in good condition costs over £4,000 ($5,000+).

Thankfully, the collections are all out of copyright, meaning that we can now tell these stories, in podcast form, many for the first time, and share them with a global audience, for free.

Our plan is to release the stories between main series of Three Ravens, performing them straight (though with plenty of silly voices) letting the tales speak for themselves in all their madcap, sharp-edged, often quite bizarre glory.

The only edits we have made are to amend some culturally-insensitive epithets, which typically pertain to ethnicity, with any such edits made by Eleanor Conlon.

Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.

Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...

Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.

With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?

REGISTER FOR THE TALES OF SOUTHERN ENGLAND TOUR

Visit our website

Join our Patreon

Social media channels and sponsors

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.