It was a graveyard smash. From the fjords to the graves, it caught on in a flash! Our hosts tell some Viking-age ghost stories, from Grettir’s late-night tussles with draugr to Angantyr’s rude awakening. Prepare for a monster mash of restless dead, barrow brawls, and heroes who know how to crash the crypt. In this very special episode recorded live at The Lord of Spirits Conference, Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick and Dcn. Seraphim Richard Rohlin tell some Old Norse stories about waking the dead, putting the walking dead back in their graves, and the deadly repercussions of not keeping the Christmas Eve fast.

The hosts of The Great Tales podcast read and discuss two strange, dark, wondrous, and perplexing fairy tales: Little Briar Rose (aka Sleeping Beauty) and The Juniper Tree.

Join Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick & Dcn. Seraphim Richard Rohlin as they bring #HotThebanSummer to a close with Statius's Thebaid: an epic of impious hatred, monstrous serpents, and shocking horrors.

Fr. Andrew and Dcn. Seraphim continue their #HotThebanSummer with the story of the Seven Against Thebes -- the great war against the Bronze Age city of Thebes, which Hesiod said, along with the Trojan War, was one of the two great wars of the Fourth Age, the Age of Heroes.

Fr. Andrew and Dcn. Seraphim conclude their reading of “Antigone,” the tale of a sister who will stop at nothing to give her brother his burial.

Continuing the Oedipal story, Fr. Andrew and Dcn. Seraphim read the Sophocles play "Antigone," the tale of a sister who will stop at nothing to give her brother his burial.

Continuing their series on the sad tales of Oedipus, Fr. Andrew and Dcn. Seraphim discuss the Sophocles play “Oedipus at Colonus,” in which the burial place of the cursed Oedipus becomes the center of a family feud.

Fr. Andrew and Dcn. Seraphim examine the tale of Oedipus as told by Sophocles in "Oedipus the King," the horrifying story of the man who kills his father and marries his mother. Why is this awful story so enduring? Why should Christians even read it?

In this episode of The Great Tales, we journey from the tragedy of Oedipus to the Breton Lay of Sir Digory, exploring how fairy magic replaces fate—revealing grace beneath the surface. What if the old sorrows still echo, but now end in joy?

The podcast heads to Fr. Andrew's ancestral Baltic homeland of Lithuania, where we will explore three tales: The Tale of Sovijus, The Iron Wolf, and The Swan Queen.

We’re joined by mythologist, storyteller, and seanchaí Dr. Martin Shaw. With him, we explore traditional storytelling, hear timeless tales, and search for the “mossy face of Christ” hidden in the wild edges of myth and memory.

The Great Tales hosts prepare for the Church’s harrowing of Hades by examining another famous descensus ad infernos, the story of Orpheus and the underworld. They’ll also briefly talk about how the Church Fathers refer to him as the “first theologian” of the Greeks.

Richard and Fr. Andrew continue their discussion of he Kebra Negast, which tells the story of how the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Ethiopia and hidden there, waiting for the revelation of the Incarnation.

The Kebra Negast is set within the frame narrative about the debate of the true glory of kings held at the First Council of Nicaea, it tells the story of how the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Ethiopia and hidden there, waiting for the revelation of the Incarnation.

King Keret, son of the great god El, has been widowed and lost all his children, and he fears the extinction of his house. Fr. Stephen De Young joins the podcast to discuss this ancient Ugaritic epic, lost in the Syrian desert for over 3,000 years.

The great Old English poem ‘Beowulf’ is one of the most intriguing and gripping stories from the early English Christian world. What few people know, however, is that this story about giants has roots in a much older apocalyptic tale – the Book of Enoch.

The Great Tales continues the discussion of the Holy Grail in the story of Perceval. What does it actually mean to achieve the quest of the Holy Grail? And who may achieve it?

Arthur, King of the Britons, is the matter of the greatest of all Christian legends in the English language, and at the height of those legends is the Holy Grail. What exactly is this holy object? Did it ever come to England? And what does it mean to the Arthur legendarium?

Fantasy novelist and Russian language translator Dcn. Nicholas Kotar introduces two Russian fairy tales: “Marya Morevna, the Wondrous Queen” and “The Chestnut Roan.”

The Eddas are the two great sources for Norse mythology. In this episode, Fr. Andrew and Richard introduce the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, the 13th-century Icelandic historian, poet and politician.