The Great Tales

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.