You know The Brothers Grimm, but do you know the weird and whimsical fairy tales of Russia? Nicholas Kotar brings you Russia’s most beloved fairy tales as you would have heard them from a grandparent sitting near the hearth on a cozy winter evening, the wind howling outside and the courage of these heroic stories lighting a flame in your heart. Enter the world of Baba Yaga, the mysterious hag who can be both friend and foe, and follow Ivan the Idiot as he faces off against a cunning dragon with six heads. These are not stuffy, academic translations, but vividly enacted retellings from Nicholas Kotar’s 3-volume fairy tale collection, accompanied by the original music of composer Natalie Wilson.
Don’t be fooled: these are not just tales for children. As Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin reminds us, the spiritual meaning of the fairy tale is “like refined and sweet-smelling honey. If you drip it on your tongue, you’ll taste all the ineffable essence of Russia’s nature–the smell of the earth, the heat of the sun, the fragrance of flowers, and something else that is subtle and rich, something eternally youthful and yet eternally ancient… Only he who worships at the altar of facts and has lost the ability to contemplate a state of being ignores fairy tales. Only the one who wants to see with his physical eyes alone, plucking out his spiritual eyes in the process, considers the fairy tale to be dead.”
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You know The Brothers Grimm, but do you know the weird and whimsical fairy tales of Russia? Nicholas Kotar brings you Russia’s most beloved fairy tales as you would have heard them from a grandparent sitting near the hearth on a cozy winter evening, the wind howling outside and the courage of these heroic stories lighting a flame in your heart. Enter the world of Baba Yaga, the mysterious hag who can be both friend and foe, and follow Ivan the Idiot as he faces off against a cunning dragon with six heads. These are not stuffy, academic translations, but vividly enacted retellings from Nicholas Kotar’s 3-volume fairy tale collection, accompanied by the original music of composer Natalie Wilson.
Don’t be fooled: these are not just tales for children. As Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin reminds us, the spiritual meaning of the fairy tale is “like refined and sweet-smelling honey. If you drip it on your tongue, you’ll taste all the ineffable essence of Russia’s nature–the smell of the earth, the heat of the sun, the fragrance of flowers, and something else that is subtle and rich, something eternally youthful and yet eternally ancient… Only he who worships at the altar of facts and has lost the ability to contemplate a state of being ignores fairy tales. Only the one who wants to see with his physical eyes alone, plucking out his spiritual eyes in the process, considers the fairy tale to be dead.”
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Once upon a time, in a land of sunlit meadows, birch forests, and whispering winds, there lived a girl so forgotten that even her own family called her nothing but “idiot-girl.” She wasn’t beautiful or clever or graceful. At least, not in the ways that matter to people who see only with their eyes.
But sometimes the quiet ones hold the oldest magic.
In this episode, you’ll hear the tale of a silver platter, a honey-ripe apple, and a girl who sees the whole world unfold at the edge of wonder. There are envious sisters, a talking reed pipe, a king’s well of living water, and a queen whose mercy is more powerful than any spell. It’s a story of betrayal and resurrection, cruelty and kindness, and the strange, wonderful justice that only fairy tales can deliver.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.