A Thief and His Master [Grimm Fairy Tale]

2017-03-30

On tonight's podcast, we'll be looking at "A Thief and His Master," a fairy tale originally published in 1812 by the Brother's Grimm. This is a strange one, as despite the title, it's less about a thief and more about a magician -- which makes sense, as it belongs to the Aarne-Thompson 325 group of folk tales -- which are stories about magicians and their pupils which contain a transformation and a chase. The "Farmer Weathersky" from The Red Fairy Book, and "Master and Pupil" from The Pink Fairy Book are...

On tonight's podcast, we'll be looking at "A Thief and His Master," a fairy tale originally published in 1812 by the Brother's Grimm.

This is a strange one, as despite the title, it's less about a thief and more about a magician -- which makes sense, as it belongs to the Aarne-Thompson 325 group of folk tales -- which are stories about magicians and their pupils which contain a transformation and a chase.

The "Farmer Weathersky" from The Red Fairy Book, and "Master and Pupil" from The Pink Fairy Book are also of this type.

This is a story about father trying to decide on his son's profession. After visiting a church, he discovers that a thief is what his child was meant to be, so he looks for a teacher.

The rest involves a lot of animal transformations, even more fraud, and a touch violence by the end.

If I had to pick one, I'd say the lesson of "A Thief and His Master" is to always accept payment for services up front, lest you end up dead.

I hope you enjoy.

Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro

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