The Great Tales

Эпизоды

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  All Cretans Are Liars (Odyssey Pt. 4) 22.09.2026

  Fr. Andrew and Dn. Seraphim continue their read-through of the Odyssey with Odysseus's arrival back in Ithaca, and the various disguises he'll have to wear, lies he'll have to tell, and the one faithful hound who sees through it all...
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  The One with the Giants (Odyssey Pt. 3) 03.09.2026

  Fr. Andrew and Dn. Seraphim continue their read-through of the Odyssey with books 9–12, the "Apologoi," in which Odysseus tells the stories of his voyage from Troy. These are by far the most famous episodes when we think about the Odyssey, but can we trust him?
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  The Odyssey Part Deux-ly: Departed Suitors 18.08.2026

  Father Andrew and Dn. Seraphim pick up the Homeric threads again, wrapping up their discussion on The Odyssey. All the beauty and nostalgia of the homecoming, plus the brutality of the ancient world, are on full display in this second half.
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  The Man of Many Twists and Turns 06.08.2026

  Father Andrew and Dn. Seraphim return to the Bronze Age to tell the story of a man who was variously identified as the Trojan War's greatest hero or its greatest villain.
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  Kullervo: Born for Ruin 02.07.2026

  PARENTAL ADVISORY: THIS EPISODE CONTAINS CONTENT THAT MAY BE UPSETTING FOR CHILDREN. Kullervo is one of the most memorable figures in the Kalevala, the great poetic compendium of Finland. His compelling haplessness and dark story drew the interest of Tolkien and still command our attention today.
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  The Queen of Serpents 18.06.2026

  One of the greatest tales of Lithuania is Eglė, Queen of Serpents. We welcome our friend Fr. Gintaras Sungaila live from Lithuania to talk about this story as well as to share Baltic tales from the late medieval period which mix saints with pagan gods.
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  Fate the Mighty 05.06.2026

  How do you live in a collapsed civilization? Three Old English poems stand out for their reflection amidst loss - "The Ruin", "Deor," and "The Wanderer." Their elegiac power still sings across a thousand years and teaches in our own time of collapse, loss, and uncertainty.
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  Mermaid's Tale and Raven's Wing 21.05.2026

  Fr. Andrew and Dcn. Seraphim tell you three tales from medieval romance and legend -- tales concerning mermaids, monsters, and the Raven of St. Oswald.
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  Hagiography or Legend? 08.05.2026

  Special guest co-host Dcn. Nicholas Kotar joins us to tell the story of Russia’s strange tradition of mashing up saints’ lives with fairy tales.
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  O Death, Where is Your Sting Now? 23.04.2026

  The week after Bright Week, Fr. Andrew and Dcn. Seraphim read some of the most intense and exciting poems from the Christian tradition, both East and West, about the harrowing of Hell.
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  Three Bardic Beatdowns 03.04.2026

  Our hosts recap three legendary poetic showdowns: Väinämöinen vs. Joukahainen in the Kalevala, Homer vs. Hesiod in ancient Greece, and Taliesin vs. an entire court full of Celtic bards. Find out who's bussin' and who's suss, who was spitting fire and who got fired.
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  Burgundians Behaving Badly 20.03.2026

  We continue #HoaryNorthernWinter with a turn toward the German tellings of the Volsung story, the Nibelungenlied, and Þiðreks saga. Rather than being translations of the Norse material, these versions transform the story and characters and also tell some tales of their own.
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  The Scourge of God 06.03.2026

  #HoaryNorthernWinter continues with the final showdown with the Huns and the fall of the House of the Gjukings. While we're on the subject, we'll look more deeply into the ancient conflict with the Huns that scarred the pysche of Germanic storytellers for a thousand years.
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  The Quarrel of the Queens 27.02.2026

  #HoaryNorthernWinter continues as we come to one of the most famous scenes in the Volsunga Saga: the Quarrel of the Queens, the moment when everything breaks for Sigurd and the Gjukings. Atilla the Hun makes an appearance.
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  The Cup of the Gjukings 13.02.2026

  We continue #HoaryNorthernWinter as we resume the Volsunga Saga and find out what happens to our great dragon-slaying hero when he comes to the Hall of the Gjukings and is offered certain magical draughts...
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  The Rhizomatic Evolution of the Nibelung Dragon-Slayer 16.01.2026

  The story of Sigurd the dragon-slayer is one of the most celebrated tales in all of European literature—but it doesn't come to us in a single, authoritative form. Instead, it spreads like a root system across languages, centuries, and cultures: Old Norse sagas and Eddic poetry, Middle High German epic, Scandinavian ballads, and medieval German song. In this episode, we begin mapping that rhizomatic network, introducing the major sources that preserve the Völsung-Nibelung tradition before diving deep into three extraordinary poems from the Icelandic Codex Regius.
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  Dragonsbane of the North 03.01.2026

  Greatest among the Norse and Germanic tales is the Völsunga saga – the story of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer, the cursed ring of Andvari, and how a powerful family of storied warriors went up (literally) in flames. Let the #HoaryNorthernWinter begin!
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  The Beowulfian Apostle 19.12.2025

  Fr. Andrew and Dcn. Seraphim conclude their discussion of "Andreas," the Old English poem about St. Andrew rescuing St. Matthew from an island of cannibals. One of the wildest stories involving the apostles is told in multiple early sources, from the 4th-century Greek "The Acts of Andrew and Matthias among the Anthropophagi" to Homily XIX in the 10th-century Old English Blickling Homilies to the 1700-line 10th-century Old English poem “Andreas,” found in the Vercelli manuscript. In this story, the Apostle Andrew rescues one of his fellow apostles from Marmidonia, a city of cannibals. In the earlier source, it’s St. Matthias, but in later sources it’s the Apostle Matthew the Evangelist. (Could they be the same saint?) The devil makes an appearance, as does Christ multiple times and some angels. St. Andrew appears here as a rescuing hero who nonetheless is entirely dependent on God. And of course there’s a flood and a ring of fire.
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  The Flood of St. Andrew 05.12.2025

  Delving into Old English sources, Fr. Andrew and Dcn. Seraphim read “Andreas,” the 10th-century poem that looks and sounds like Beowulf and tells the tale of how St. Andrew rescued St. Matthew from a city of cannibals.
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  Two Pilgrim Tales 22.11.2025

  Back from their pilgrimage to Scotland and Northumbria, Fr. Andrew and Dcn. Seraphim tell two tales from the road -- how St. Cædmon went from shepherd to hymnographer and how St. Oran insisted he be buried alive on Iona.