Modern Fairies Oxford University
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- Education
In Series One Carolyne Larrington and Fay Hield introduce the themes of traditional British tales about fairies with some readings and songs, the inspiration for their new creative project ‘Modern Fairies and Loathly Ladies’. Tales about the Other World, fairy lovers, fairies and children and helpful fairies, along with the monstrous females who must be disenchanted by the hero are the themes of the five episodes. In Series Two Carolyne and Fay discuss the creative works that the project generated, exploring the themes that particularly inspired the artists and the new themes that they evolved for themselves. The five new episodes introduce the project and its artists, and then explore ideas of fairyland as an alternative time and space, fairies and children, fairies and the environment and fairy and other magical transformations.
Modern Fairies is a unique collaboration between leading songwriters, musicians, artists, poets, filmmakers and researchers to develop exciting new work, presenting fresh perspectives on what folklore means to us in the modern world.
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Series Two Episode Five: Fairy and Other Transformations
Carolyne Larrington and Fay Hield discuss the theme of transformation through fairy or other kinds of magic.
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Series Two Episode Four: Fairies and the Environment
Carolyne Larrington and Fay Hield talk about a new theme that emerged in the ‘Modern Fairies’ project, fairies as guardians of the environment.
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Series Two Episode Three: Fairies and Children
Carolyne Larrington and Fay Hield uncover the works inspired by the strange tale of the Green Children and the changeling legend.
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Series Two Episode Two: Fairy Time and Space
Carolyne Larrington and Fay Hield explore the ways in which the project artists engaged with the fairy world as parallel and yet distinct from our world, and the ways in which time warps in the other world.
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Series Two Episode One: Introducing the Modern Fairies Project
Carolyne Larrington and Fay Hield introduce the artists and outcomes of the Modern Fairies Project.
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Loathly Ladies
Carolyne Larrington and Fay Hield talk about the loathly lady: the hideous hag who knows the secret that the hero seeks, and whom he must learn how to respect. In the last podcast of the current series, Carolyne Larrington and Fay Hield discuss the figure of the loathly lady. Sometimes transformed through her own agency, sometimes the victim of a spell, she knows the secret of what women really want; can the hero who marries her put his new-found knowledge into practice? We also talk about monstrously transformed women; those who await the hero with the courage to look beyond appearances to the inner beauty of the beast.