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.
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.
A prince and a princess are married — but their happiness is short-lived. Called away on a distant journey, the prince leaves his bride alone in her tower, with a single warning: do not leave, do not listen to wicked voices, and above all, stay safe. But grief softens resolve, and when a kindly stranger urges the lonely princess to walk in the garden, she agrees.
What begins as a quiet moment under the summer sun ends in a cruel betrayal. Transformed into a white duck and cast from her place, the princess vanishes — while a witch takes her shape and her place beside the unsuspecting prince. But deep in the reeds, by the edge of a silver lake, the duck lays three eggs... and from those eggs, three strange children are born.
In this haunting Russian fairy tale, loyalty is tested, innocence is threatened, and a mother’s love rises from beneath the waters. Listen as curses are broken, voices are restored, and justice, though long delayed, finally takes flight.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.