Myths and Legends

Myths and Legends

Jason Weiser and Carissa Weiser tell stories from myths, legends, and folklore that have shaped cultures throughout history. Some, like the stories of Aladdin, King Arthur, and Hercules are stories you think you know, but with surprising origins. Others are stories you might not have heard, but really should. All the stories are sourced from world folklore, but retold for modern ears. These are stories of wizards, knights, Vikings, dragons, princesses, and kings from the time when the world beyond the map was a dangerous and wonderful place.

Episodes

423: Japanese folkore: The Illusionists

December 3, 2025 • 53 mins

👹Something is lurking in the forest temple👹

While the country outside is rocked by the changes in the world, a village grapples with the idea that a monster of a land that's nearly gone still lurks in their midst.

😈 The Creature: Boraro

Watch out or he'll turn you into a human Capri-Sun

---

Links:

🏰 Membership: https://www.mythpodcast.com/membership
📚️ Fictional is...
Mark as Played

422: Scottish folklore: Witchful Thinking

November 19, 2025 • 62 mins

🧙‍♂️So you've decided to steal from a witch or wizard🧙‍♀️

Are you sure about that? If you are, you might want to think about what you're going to do more than the characters in today's stories from Scotland and Norway. Especially if, like them, you end up stealing way more than you bargained for. 

😈 The Creature: ewaipanoma

The headless friends of all the children in South America. No you can't se...
Mark as Played

421: Viking Legends: Famous

November 5, 2025 • 56 mins

🔥All the Viking warriors' hearts burn with love for Nítíða🔥

And also the rest of them is on fire as well because that's what happens when you try to kidnap a maiden-king.

😈 The Creatures: Henkie

The henkie is dancing with itself. When it's not watching you sleep, that is.

---

Links:

📚️ All of Fictional season 6 is available!: https://fictional.fm/subscribe
💬 Discor...
Mark as Played

420: Korean Grim Reaper: Saja Boys

October 22, 2025 • 55 mins

⚰️It's Halloween⚰️

What do you do when death comes for you? Well, the characters in today's stories have a lot of ideas, and they're surprisingly successful. The problem? Death works on a much, much longer timeline.

😈 The Creatures: Bulgasari

Why you don't feed your rice monster metal needles. Unlike most pets, it will be fine. You'll be in trouble, though.

---

Links:

📚️ ...
Mark as Played

419: Slavic folklore: Bad Heir Day

October 8, 2025 • 41 mins

🪉Ivan fights wizards and monsters and Baba Yaga with a music streaming subscription🪉

What do you get when your daughters have been kidnapped by a sleezy cloud and your son not only spends all of his days jamming with his self-playing harp, but DOESN'T want to tear the heads off his friends? You get Tsar Wisehead, who apparently just figured out that parenting is hard.

😈 **The Creature: Garm

Garm i...
Mark as Played

418: French stories: Our Son, Ourson, the Bear

September 24, 2025 • 47 mins

🐻Ourson is a Beary Good Guy🐻

Sorry, I couldn't resist, but he is actually a good guy. He isn't a bear though. He just looks like one to people who have probably never seen a bear, because he's kind of just a very hairy kid. He's like that because his mom kicked a toad that wasn't a toad and the toad cursed him. Don't worry, it'll make sense (mostly).

😈 The Creatures: Ga-Gorib

A monster who does ba...
Mark as Played

417: Guy of Warwick: Don't Be That Guy

September 10, 2025 • 63 mins

🛡️This Guy?🛡️

This guy is Guy of Warwick, and he's your guy. But only if you need someone to be the best guy in the world at fighting and killing. It's just too bad Guy hates being that guy.

😈 The Creature: Freybug and the Barguest
Two black dogs who might give you wounds that will never heal, or maybe just stand there awkwardly until you leave.

---

Links:

📚️ Fictional is ba...
Mark as Played

416: Hans Christian Andersen: Humbugs

August 27, 2025 • 38 mins

🪲They're not so different🪲

One is the king of the world, and the other is a beetle. One wants to fight God, the other wants to wear golden horse shoes. When it comes to being completely arrogant and insufferable, though, they have more in common than you might think. It's two fairy tales of pride and power from Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen.

😈 The Creature: The Elle-folk

They're NOT elves....
Mark as Played

415: Aesop's Fables: Bray it Ain't So

August 13, 2025 • 47 mins

🫏One little rent-a-donkey, one big journey🫏

Actually he's a full-grown rental donkey but the journey is a big one because, when you're a poorly treated rental donkey and you have a chance to escape, you take it. Then, spend the rest of the time trying to get back to captivity because the world is dangerous and scary.

😈 The Creature: Eikthymir

The giant stag from Norse myth that makes it rain...rai...
Mark as Played

414: Monkey King: Ham-bushed

July 30, 2025 • 42 mins

🐷Sun Wukong is a bad friend🐷

But, to be fair, he never said he and Pigsy were friends...because you don't send your friends to dinner parties where everyone is trying to murder you.

😈 The Creature: Each Tened
A horse committed to justice. If the punishment for every crime was searing thigh fire.

---

Links:
📚️ Fictional is back!: https://fictional.fm/subscribe
💬 Discord: htt...
Mark as Played

413: European folklore: Justice

July 16, 2025 • 49 mins

🔔Ring the bell for justice🔔

Want justice? Ring the bell. Doesn't matter if you're a horse or a snake or a merchant or a peasant but if you're one of the latter two probably don't get caught ringing the bell of justice. King Charlemagne puts of a bell of justice and consequences ensue.

😈 The Creature: The Dun Cow

A giant cow that just wants to give your free groceries. Just don't try to take more t...
Mark as Played

412: Indian folklore: Dicey

July 2, 2025 • 55 mins

🎲Losing your kingdom in a game of dice🎲

The story of Nala and Damayanti is a tale of love, loss, and losing everything but your underwear because of your terrible decisions and then also your underwear.

😈 The Creature: Drekavac

The creature is the Drekavac, and it's many things to many people. All of them are weird

---

Links:

💬 Discord: https://myths.link/discord
�...
Mark as Played

411: Celtic folklore: The Wake

June 18, 2025 • 57 mins

⛵️Get lost at sea with Maelduin⛵️

All Maelduin wants to do is avenge his father's murder...with more murder. He should have listened to that wizard. Because he didn't, his trip just got a whole lot longer. And stranger.

😈 The Creature: The Donestre
The lion headed stranger who will eat you, sure, but also feel really bad about it.
---

Links:
📚️ Fictional is back!: https://fictional.fm/s...
Mark as Played

410: Japanese folklore: Provincial

June 4, 2025 • 59 mins

⛩️Stories from the Japanese countryside⛩️

Five interconnected stories of purpose, meaning, justice, talking animals, the boss falling off a cliff, mushrooms, and travel hampers.

😈 **The Creature: The Dinny Mara

The Dinny Mara is a friendly merman who wants to rehabilitate the reputation of water creatures. They could probably start by not drowning so many people?

---

Links:
Mark as Played

409: Reynard: Nasty, Brutish, and Short

May 21, 2025 • 50 mins

🦊 Reynard the fox hates meetings, too 🦊

Especially because at most of the meetings he's invited to, people usually try to kill and eat him. Today, we're back in the stories of Reynard the fox, with sick kings, superpowered storks, and Isengrim the wolf trying to not constantly get skinned alive.

😈 The Creature: The Devs

I guess you have to worry about head trauma and TBI a lot less when you have s...
Mark as Played

408: Knights of the Round Table: Hither and Thither

May 7, 2025 • 52 mins

🏰When a knight says he'll be right back, he means it

Unless he dies. Or gets captured. Or just forgets about it, prompting his son to come looking for him in the land of wickedness...and also maybe saving Camelot in the process? It's the story of Sir Morien.

😈 The Creature: The Kaichigo

All those games you haven't played are lonely...and also maybe messing with your stuff in the basement. 

...
Mark as Played

407: West African folklore: Wiser

April 23, 2025 • 44 mins

🍼Have a budding tyrant? You need a snarky talking baby🍼

Yenga Naa is wiser than the chief. How do you know? Well, he named himself that...the moment he was born.

😈 The Creature: The Cornu
How do you torment sinners without getting your hands dirty? The cornu, that's how.

---

Links

🎧 Connect with us!

Mark as Played

406: Slavic folklore: Udder Nonsense

April 9, 2025 • 57 mins

🐄Baba Yaga, Dragons, Giant Talking Pigs🐄

We'll see what happens when a king who wants one son gets more than he bargained for: three sons, with the oddest one of all, the one capable of calming dragons (when he's not slaying them) and outsmarting giant evil pigs (when he's not slaying them), being born...from a cow.

😈 The Creature: Coliunn Gun Cheaun
The worst, best headless friend you hopefully never ...
Mark as Played

405: European legends: Ale to the King

March 26, 2025 • 57 mins

🍺Meet Cambrinus, things aren't going so well for him🍺

He's a peasant kid with a job that's going nowhere, a crush who doesn't love him back, and no one takes him seriously when he absolutely knocks it out of the park playing the viola. If only he knew he was destined to be legendary King of Beer.

😈 The Creature: The Cocoa
A two-foot-long sparkling cat sounds like a lot of fun. Until it's very much not....
Mark as Played

404: Monkey King: Not Found

March 12, 2025 • 40 mins

🤑 The Monkey King and friends are making money and staying in fancy hotels🤑

What is this that you heard about them being monks? What? No. That's ridiculous. They don't know why you thought that. So weird. They are horse traders who trade horses while they pass through this city that murders monks. Wait NO DON'T TOUCH THEIR HATS.

😈 The Creature: The Cinnamologus

We meet the cinnamon bird, because w...
Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    Stuff You Should Know

    Stuff You Should Know

    If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

    My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

    My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

    My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.

    Dateline NBC

    Dateline NBC

    Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

    The Breakfast Club

    The Breakfast Club

    The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!

    The Joe Rogan Experience

    The Joe Rogan Experience

    The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

Explore

iHeart

Live Radio

Podcasts

Artist Radio

Exclusives

News

Features

Events

Contests

Photos

Information

About

Advertise

Blog

Brand Guidelines

Contest Guidelines

Subscription Offers

Jobs

Get the App

Automotive

Home

Mobile

Wearables

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.