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thepringlesofblood · 1 year

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Dimension 20′s Neverafter FPE (Fairytales Per Episode)

im going out of my fuckin gourd on this neverafter shit, and i have decided to make a list of what and how many fairytales/nursery rhymes are introduced in each episode. will update as time goes on but i make no promises as to how frequently. theories are not included in totals. allusions/references are.

disclaimer: i am coming at this from a primarily american, english-speaking, culturally christian background, though I have studied a lot of ancient mediterranean myth and religion, a little bit of norse myth and religion, and a little bit of arthurian legend.

please let me know if there’s a reference to something I missed or if you know shit I don’t. i’ve decided that for our purposes, whether a reference/allusion is intentional or not doesn’t factor into our final count - unintentional/ambiguously intentional allusions/references count too, not just obvious ones.

(especially about mythical middle eastern spiders. I only know anansi & arachne, and have a passing familiarity with jorogumo & ye xian, and none of those are middle eastern or fit the situation.)

update: the show is finished! I won’t be taking my various theories off, i think it adds flavor. just remember as you’re going down that I was updating this weekly-ish. I’m going to do another post in the future that is Just The Numbers, but for now, enjoy my rambling! [updatier update: here’s the Just The Numbers post]

Ep. 1

The PCs (and their backstories)

Mother Goose (+1)

Hubbard (old mother Hubbard who lived in a cupboard) (+1)

Jack

jumped over the Candlestick (+1)

(implied) and the Beanstalk (bc of the giants everywhere) (+1)

theory: Sprat? (the rhyme goes “Jack sprat could eat no fat his wife could eat no lean/and so between them both, you see they licked the platter clean.” not directly mentioned but that was my first thought upon the whole turning to bones thing that like all the fat was removed from his body or smthin)

Ylfa (Little Red Riding Hood) (+1)

there are 2 wolves inside you. you are 12.

the big bad wolf is mentioned in the context of 2 stories, the 3 little pigs and little red riding hood, so (+1) for the pigs

Pib (Puss in Boots) (+1)

Pinocchio (+1)

Cinderella (stepmother’s official art says “Cinderella...” at the bottom) (+1)

theory: “The second fairy you have met in your life” so also a character in smthin else probably since cindy’s stepmom isnt usually magical

update: maybe the whole cannibalism thing made her magical? who’s to say

updatier update (post ep 7): so it turns out that the evil fairy =/= the stepmother, but is the evil fairy from sleeping beauty. i was right about the stepmother being in multiple different stories but boy howdy do i wish I wasn’t.

Rosamund (sleeping beauty/briar rose) (+1)

Gerard (the princess and the frog) (+1)

Snow queen (mentioned by Elody) (+1)

the rest of the episode

the little red hen (+1)

i fuckin love this one.

the story’s basic but good - she’s makin some bread and at every step asks for help from the other barnyard creatures and they’re all like hmm nahhhhh and then when it comes time to eat the bread they’re all like yes please lemme help w that and she’s like uh no, where was this energy when i was making the damn thing? and eats it ‘without any help at all’

so brennan doing her as like ‘u gotta help or you don’t eat’ is fantastic. 10/10

Ol king Cole (+1)

The little old lady who lived in a shoe (+1)

(alluded to) Alice n Wonderland (rabbit and teapot) (+1)

theory: “the chandling caravan” sounds like it should be something, but I don’t know what it is, and google has not been helpful. same w boffit, lord bandlebridge, and cressida lumley.

total tale count: 16

Ep. 2

The nutcracker (+1) (herr drosselmeyer is the weird uncle who gives clara the nutcracker. also in every ballet his drip is consistently immaculate)

Snow White (+1) (mirror mirror…..leaned up against the wall)

(alluded to) Beauty n the beast (furniture coming alive) (+1)

theory: Eidelgrin means something, but I don’t know what it is.

total tale count: 3

Ep. 3

.........nothing new to report

Ep 4

the fairy with the turquoise hair (aka the blue fairy) is actually not exclusive to Pinocchio - she has her own book n everything. (+1)

(alluded to) the little mermaid (+1)

“a dancing princess who either cannot or will not speak near a beach.”

the little mermaid trades her voice for legs and in the OG grimm story it feels like stepping on swords whenever she walks so she kind of “dances” (rip)

there’s. So many rabbit and fox tricksters. And other clever cats. I don’t think any were directly mentioned (except that Pinocchio has some in his many adventures, which isn’t a new tale) so I’m gonna say (+1) for rabbit and (+1) for fox.

Update: a reply to this post mentioned a character named Reynard the Fox from medieval French literature that might be the reason that the Fox speaks with a French accent. I found more support for this theory below!

“Isengrim”

this is the name of the daggers Pib gets. Rabbit mentions that it’s a name that Fox called the Wolf.

In fact, there’s a tale called Ysengrimus from 1152 CE where Reynard the Fox tricks the titular character, a wolf! So, there’s one Fox story confirmed. No additional points since Fox already had 1 point, this is more confirming the specific story he was inspired by.

theory: also, if we know the accents Mean Something, then Rabbit having a British accent might point to Peter Rabbit.

update: i have noticed several posts calling Rabbit’s accent Australian. it can be hard for me to tell the difference and idk if the general European bent of these tales means that brennan’s British just sounds kind of Australian or if it Means Something. I’m sure there’s Australian trickster rabbits too i just don’t know them

no fuckin clue where the ring came from tho :/

the golden goose (another Jack/Mother Goose tale not specifically mentioned before) (+1)

plus the beanstalk thing is talked about more (not new info though)

total tale count: 5

Ep. 5

hey diddle diddle (+1) (the dish ran away with the spoon + the cow jumping over the moon are from this same rhyme)

also anyone catch brennan mentioning fiddle music as tim was healing pib? ik it was king cole related music, but also...hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle.

itsy bitsy spider (+1)

(alluded to) little miss muffet (+1) (tuffeton)

(alluded to) goldilocks (+1) (”just enough” oats)

1001 nights (+1) (scheherazade is the author of these tales, as well as a myth in her own right. I have not read 1001 nights. please tell me things if you know them)

“spider queen” (+1) idk what it is but its fuckin something

identifying information: guardian of a cave/maze. supposedly has a throne. 1001 nights-adjacent.

theories:

“the spider and the wind” tale 909 of 1001, spider isn’t in this one that much actually

not all folktales in the neverafter are in mother goose’ book, so it stands to reason that not all folktales in the Endless Nights are in 1001 nights.

however, all the folktales in the neverafter are European in origin (mostly medieval), so it would make sense that the folktales in the endless nights would be middle eastern or adjacent

ye xian - chinese folktale where there’s a spider queen

“that’s east asia not arabia” fair but consider: in the older translations, aladdin is a chinese peasant. the world of 1001 nights is already bigger than arabia, and stories travel much more easily than the goods being traded across asia and the mediterranean on the silk road at the time the stories were written.

jorogumo - japanese yokai. a spider that turns into a woman. again, extremely far away from arabia, but girl i am looking.

cave of thawr - islamic oral tradition of muhammed hiding in a cave and a spider protects him. there’s a similar jewish tale w david hiding in a cave.

unlikely, but if there’s beautiful tapestries and the mother of all spiders i have to mention my girl Arachne (greek myth)

all time famous mythical spider anansi (west africa) still doesn’t really fit the bill, and is farther away from arabia than arachne (greece, which had colonies in the middle east (along the mediterranean shore but still. water = trade = exchange of goods = exchange of ideas/stories)) but still possible

yes i got a degree in ancient mediterranean studies and am using it to ruthlessly analyze a comedy show instead of sleeping, what about it?

sinbad (+1) “Sinbad the Sailor” (the roc is part of this as far as i can tell)

magical palace w the tapestries of starlight (+1) there’s a fuckload of magic palaces in 1001 nights. idk which one this refers to but it’s Something. am currently combing the stories more closely to specify at least one.

theories

the bartender with the icy wound is definitely someone. my gut says someone from the snow queen - people get icy mirrors in their eyes n shit in there and oftentimes straight up don’t get better

the peddler of wares in the corner has to be someone

the name of the tavern being “the cock and toad” has to mean something. i did some googling. there’s lots of fairytales w toads and lots of fairytales w cocks (lol) but none I could find where it’s just the two of them together. it’s weird, w a lot of fairytales/fables/nursery rhymes its like rolling 2d8 on a table of 8 animals and then just making the title out of the two animals you get. statistically its likely that there’s a story out there called that but I can’t find it.

the fucking spidersilk ring. i will solve this riddle one day.

they say the name “Aesop” as in “Aesop’s fables” (like the tortoise and the hare) but no tales mentioned yet. worth looking into if you’re the curious sort tho. Pib is going to fuck this guy up, his stories are very animal-centric and definitely have some trickster cats.

total tale count: 8

Ep. 6

No new tales - expands on ones already mentioned.

It’s just Muffet and whoever Scheherazade’s spider is

at least we find out that the “spider queen” referred to the monstrous form of muffet and Scheherazade’s spider combined, and not some new wholly separate myth.

Scheherazade’s spider seemed a little...riddly? for lack of a better term? like the whole “something that does not breathe” thing was weird, and if it’s supposed to be a guardian or guide of some sort, riddles make sense.

honorable mention: In the adventuring party episode, brennan tells the fable of the scorpion and the frog.

total tale count: 0

Ep 7

many theories with little knowledge.

In the adventuring party, brennan straight up says that the sword of truth is a general archetype, not from any specific tale. didn’t know that was an option! so no points for the sword of truth, dope as it is.

p.s. anyone else get flashbacks to fhsy with the whole truth mirror thing? it’s a good concept I’m glad brennan’s bringing it back

I am assuming each artifact found in the spider’s lair either comes from a separate tale, or is an archetype. I’m only counting it if I can pin down a specific tale that it is from.

the gillesuit/haystack cloak (+1)

update: As of Ep. 9, we now know that this is called “the cloak of rushes” and grants advantage on stealth checks. it is almost certainly from the English fairy tale “Cap-o’-Rushes” which, confusingly, features not just a cap but a whole outfit made of rushes!

my first thought was little boy blue, which does come from the tales of mother goose. this makes more sense tho lol

the golden bridle (+1)

some cursory googling indicates that this is from the celtic tale of Guleesh. one night, upon hearing the Fair Folk partying in some ruins (had to look up what a “rath” was lol) and saying “My horse, my bridle, my saddle!”, he repeats what they’re saying and is suddenly on a horse with a golden bridle. the story isn’t about the bridle itself, but the horses feature prominently, and can fly and stuff. When Guleesh kind of breaks the magic, the horse turns into a wooden beam, so maybe putting the bridle on a wooden beam summons a horse?

update: in ep 13 & 14 (& the adventuring parties) they mention that a. it does not summon a steed - you need to already have a steed there, and b. it would only work on a beast, not a monstrosity.

so.......maybe it’s not the one from the tale of Guleesh. I remain optimistic.

the golden chair (+1)

an obscure one, to be sure. from a grimm fairytale with a weirdly christian bent, where a tailor convinces st peter to let him into heaven but then sits in a big golden chair which as it turns out is the chair god sits in, and fucks up by throwing the footstool at some lady on earth washing veils (?) and gets kicked out again.

it is very possible that this was not an intentional allusion, but rather meant to evoke a fairytale-like atmosphere. either way, mission accomplished!

honorable mention: mayor harold hopps, while not a fairytale character himself, looks exactly like and was apparently inspired by the guy on the Pringles can, who is 100% a modern-day folkloric character.

theories:

the black velvet cloak with stars on it

idk where this is from. the only story I could find w a cursory google that had star clothing was Allerleirauh aka Thousandfurs, about a princess whose dad who wants to marry her (gross) so she asks for a bunch of impossible stuff to be made before the wedding can happen to try and stop it, including a dress made of stars (and one made of every kind of fur in the world hence the title). but it’s not a cloak so no points.

i s2g i have heard of something called ‘the cloak of stars’ before but I can’t fucking find it. pls lmk if you can think of something

update: ep 9 - they ALMOST told us what it was fuck, they mentioned wearing it to escape from the stepmother but we have no name. also the ‘cap-o’-rushes’ tale is extremely similar to thousandfurs minus the incest, so I don’t think it’s from that.

the stick skeletons w/ flesh on them were minions of the evil fairy from sleeping beauty - not a new tale

total tale count: 3

Ep 8

correction: brennan mentioned in the adventuring party for this one that aesop himself may also be fictional, and that many fables contain him telling the fable as part of it, so we’ll officially count him as his own fable like we did with Scheherazade (+1)

the lion and the mouse (+1)

the boy who cried wolf (+1)

they did finally mention the scorpion and the frog (+1)

alphonse is there but “the mule” isn’t actually referenced as being part of any of aesop’s fables in the show (like, there’s plenty of mules in aesop’s fables but no specific one was referenced in the show)

total tale count: 4

Ep 9

BABA YAGA BABA YAGA BABA YAGA BABAYAGABABAYAGA!!!!!! (+1)

i love her so much. i truly understood emily’s excitement this episode.

(alluded to) the princess and the pea (+1)

first time around I didn’t hear siobhan ask if anyone sees any stacks of mattresses without peas under them to sleep on lol

(alluded to) this little piggy went to market (+1)

idk if that’s the name of the rhyme or not, or if it has a name

it’s not in the captions but emily axford saying ‘well there has to be a market, right? cause this little piggy went to market’ is iconic

some sources say this rhyme is from Mother Goose lol

total tale count: 3

Ep 10

(alluded to) peter and the wolf (+1)

the baron’s named peter and there’s a wolf. that cant be a coincidence, the 3 little pigs don’t have set names

mostly retreading 3 little pigs territory. awesome battle set!

theories:

the soup could be an allusion to something but i think its just playing into this season’s theme of consumption and the end of the 3 little pigs

the council of kings might be from something

total tale count: 1

Ep 11

we get 5 kings from 5 tales on the Council of Kings (which seems diegetic and not a reference to anything), 3 of which we already knew, 2 which are new.

the little mermaid (the mer-king)

the snow queen (the tsar of snowhold)

the nutcracker (the mouse king)

the emperor’s new clothes (the naked emperor) (+1)

rumpelstiltskin (FINALLY) (the king of apogee) (+1)

Koschei the deathless (+1)

i had no fucking clue who this guy was until emily axford recognized him, thank you emily

at first I was scared the sealskin would be a selkie thing. it may still be, but that doesn’t appear to be the case in this specific situation

(alluded to) the binding of Fenrir, the wolf at the end of the world (+1)

there’s a norse myth where tyr (a god) puts his hand in fenrir’s mouth to show good faith. the gods want to put this magical leash/collar on fenrir, and since he’s not an idiot he says that he’ll consent to it only if tyr puts a hand in his mouth while they do it, to show that what they’re doing will not hurt or bind him in any way. the gods agree, but oops they lied, the chains are very much to bind him, and tyr loses his hand but the wolf is still bound.

but ylfa and mother goose are telling the truth! happy ending (for once lol) ^v^

I didn’t catch this one at first - thank you to the many posts about it in the #neverafter tag!

honorable mention

sheldon from ‘garfield and friends’

theories

the tavern-keeper (Natalia) doesn’t stand out to me as anyone specific so far, though her daughter is the second “snow-touched” person we’ve met (the bartender at the cock and toad had an icy wound over one eye) so im thinkin snow queen

there’s dwarves in other stories than snow white I’m sure, but these ones specifically say “snow white” on their intro card.

also, their names, Mürrisch, Schläfrig, & Arzt, mean grumpy, sleepy, and doctor in German. Grumpy, Sleepy, and Doc are all disney snow white dwarf names. nice.

another infuriating mention of the cloak of stars without any indication of what it does. I’m going to spontaneously combust.

one thing i do appreciate is the amount of taverns they run into. this is the third and i am very pro

total tale count: 4

Ep. 12

so many princesses!!!!! most of them already counted but still!!!

Rapunzel!!!!! (+1)

The North Wind (+1)

my classics major ass immediately assumed they were talking about Boreas, the Greek god of the northern wind lol

from what I can tell, this is from "East of the Sun and West of the Moon"

i’m sure The North Wind is from other things too, everybody loves personifying the wind

honorable mentions

Beast!!!!! i already counted the tale early on as a reference but it’s here fr now!!!!

Finally meeting the little mermaid!!! Also counted early on but this is her first appearance!

“the beast beyond no name” that Mira mentions in combination w the taut string that Pinocchio feels that means part of his story is happening soon whether he likes it or not makes me think it’s Terrible Dogfish time. But. I also think that it could be the literal Kraken.

there’s so many monsters in folklore that are just “really big scary fish thing that lives at the bottom of the ocean yet somehow also wrecks ships on the surface” i just don’t know which one brennan’s going for. my money’s on either Pinocchio’s Dogfish or The Kraken

Candlewick! jesus fucking christ! every time a bit of Pinocchio lore shows up, it’s already horrifying just from the whole story of Pinocchio being horrifying, but then Brennan leans into it in just the right way for it to be so much worse!

in the adventuring party, they mention several other tales, including the tortoise and the hare and the little matchgirl. they also (rightfully) dunk on Hans Christian Andersen for writing ludicrously depressing children’s stories.

total tale count: 2

Ep. 13

no new tales, dogfish, mer-king, & sea witch are from existing tales, but

CLOAK OF STARS LORE CONFIRMED

WE NOW KNOW THE CLOAK OF STARS IS CAPABLE OF CASTING 5TH LEVEL MAGIC MISSILE

THIS DOES NOTHING TO NARROW THINGS DOWN! BUT IT’S SOMETHING!!!!

also MANY tantalizing mentions of the golden bridle with 0 hints as to its capabilities.

total tale count: 0

Ep. 14

the sea witch is named Alba Mac Lír

several allusions here!

thank you @twoeelsforsupper for this observation!

“there is a legend called "the children of Lír" where a witch/stepmother turns King Lír's children into swans but does not take their voices, which ends up getting her found out. like the threads about voices and witches and stepmothers and transformations???”

“Alba” can mean several things

it’s the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland (this is probably what was being referenced)

in Latin, it’s the feminine nominative singular of the adjective albus, meaning “white”

in Spanish and Italian, it means “sunrise”

In Scottish Gaelic, “Mac” means “son of” so we have “Scotland, son of Lír”

good for her

also, if she’s one of the children of Lír, does that mean she’s one of the ones that got turned into swans?? much to consider.

so, plus one for the legend of the children of Lír! (+1)

FINALLY (finally) we get full cloak of stars lore.

its a fucking dnd 5e item. all this time and it’s legit just a reskin of Robe of Stars

it can take them to the lines between and shoot magic missile

i don’t know why i’m mad

total: 1

Ep. 15

yikes

no new tales, unless you count Clara The Horse Princess (she is not from anything as far as I can tell but I love her. also like Clara is the name of the nutcracker main character but we already counted the nutcracker so it wouldn’t be anything either)

total: 0

Ep. 16

thumbelina! (+1)

tom thumb! (+1)

I thought they were from the same thing but it turns out they have different origins, though there was a 2002 movie that had them be in the same movie.

tom thumb - English folklore, there was a 1621 book called The History of Tom Thumb

thumbelina - hans christian anderson tale from 1835, in the second volume of his Fairy Tales Told For Children series.

turns out he was actually inspired by Tom Thumb a bit, so it’s not convergent evolution or anything.

ngl - I mostly know the story of thumbelina from hearing julia from drawfee rant about how shitty of a movie it is in various streams/videos lol

all the jack stuff is stuff we’ve seen before - golden goose, giantslayer, nimble

UPDATE: in ep 17 adventuring party, brennan talks a bit about the multiplicity of jacks, and clarifies that there are TWO separate giantslayer myths.

Jack the Giant Killer - a Welsh fairytale about a warrior named Jack who fights a bunch of giants with a huge club and wins

Jack and the Beanstalk - an English fairytale about a young boy who accidentally grows a beanstalk to the Giant World and only “kills” the giant at the end by cutting the beanstalk down, leaving the giant to fall to his (their?) death.

So, while we’ve already counted Jack and the Beanstalk, this episode does introduce a new variation on Jack - Jack the Giant Killer. (+1)

henry hubbard is BACK!!!!! yes!!!!!

and tomás!!! and A L P H O N S E

I am v psyched for what comes next.

honorable mentions:

these aren’t explicitly Liliputians, but they do talk about gulliver in the adventuring party. I don’t think they talk about him in the actual show though.

total: 3

Ep. 17

holy shit. so many right off the bat, with brennan and siobhan going through a list of c-list folktales!

Fear Not (+1)

another grimm fairytale - not their finest work i see why this guy would be c-list lol

the brave little tailor (+1)

aka “the guy who kills a bunch of flies with his belt”

this is a for-real grimm fairytale about a guy who kills 7 flies at once, is very proud of it, makes a belt that says “Seven at One Blow” on it, and then goes out into the world and has his shit wrecked from various people misinterpreting what “Seven at One Blow” means

it’s hilarious

another jack tale!! Jack and Jill! (+1)

three blind mice (+1)

honorable mentions:

Henry talks about reuniting a clockwork man with a man in an eyepatch

this is all consistent with the Herr Drosselmeyer lore from all the way back in the first episodes of the show! We already counted him, so no new points, but still very cool!

also cool how brennan combined shoeberg w giant-slaying bc i mean how did they get all those ludicrously big shoes?

the golden goose shows Timothy all the versions of his story where they are one and the same. I’m not counting this as her showing him a new, separate fairytale, since it just overlaps two tales that we already have counted. also, I cried, that was a really intense part of the episode.

in the adventuring party they talk a lot about Narnia and “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.”

ik those aren’t exactly ye olde english fairytales, since they came out in 1950, but if Aslan wandered into the neverafter I’d count him for sure

we learn what the harp does!

the harp’s power is consistent with the jack and the beanstalk myth, but it also reminded me of several other myths about lulling beasts to sleep

e.g. Hermes of Greek mythology fame (and supposedly the inventor of the lyre) also killed the giant Argus after lulling half of his eyes to sleep with the lyre and boring the other half to sleep with various tales of his exploits. (Argus’ big thing was having a bunch of eyes all over his body)

lulling a beast to sleep is a common theme across cultures, makes sense that it’s the kind of archetype useful for the gang.

it’s very possible that some aspect of how baba yaga’s cottage was described alludes to some other Slavic folklore that I didn’t pick up on

total: 4

Ep 18

“The Wishing Star” (+1)

fuck disney for making it impossible to find real fairytales about wishing stars on google

there are many tales/nursery rhymes about wishing on stars. “star light, star bright” is the first that comes to mind, but I’m sure there’s others. we’ll count this as a multi-tale figure and give it +1

honorable mentions

so. The Trials of Baba Yaga could refer to several things.

The Tale about Baba-Yaga is a 18th c. folk story where Baba Yaga has one normal human son (???) who marries a normal human woman, who then has to prove herself by doing seemingly normal chores (milk the cows, shear the sheep) that she then finds out from her husband are secretly meant to kill her (the cows are bears, the sheep are wolves).

(aka a fucked up slavic version of the tale of eros and psyche.)

(not that eros and psyche isn’t fucked up, just in a different way)

There is a 2017 book called “Winston and Baum and the Trials of the Baba Yaga” I do not think this is what was being referenced, and as it is modern and not a folk story, I’m not counting it.

other stuff I can find about Baba Yaga also includes stepdaughters having to do chores with secret meanings - it’s a part of her Thing

I’m including this under the general Baba Yaga mythos, not as its own thing, but still cool stuff to know about.

Prince Johnathan of Apogee (that’s how the subtitles spell it)

so. wayyyy back in episode 11 we find out that the kingdom of apogee is where Rumplestiltskin happened.

I think that’s all the Apogee info we have, and with a name as vague as Johnathan I don’t think we can call it a reference to anything.

We got Mother Goose’s OG rhyme!!!

not a new story but very cool!!!

there’s more but I think they stopped at a good place

fun fact: I found an extra verse that isn’t in the one linked above

“Then old Mother Goose/that instant came in/and turned her son Jack/into famed Harlequin/She then with her wand/touched the lady so fine/and turned her at once/into sweet Columbine”

and then they go on with the rest of the book like that bit never happened

other fun mother goose shit

i thought that littlefinger and “chaos is a ladder” were fairytale quotes but they’re from game of thrones it turns out. ._.

total: 1

Ep 19

no new tales (it’s the finale pt 1) but several honorable mentions

“As you wish”

cinderella girl you are KILLING ME

for those not in the know, this is an allusion to The Princess Bride

in the context of the book & movie, it means “I love you”

could be unintentional but i highly doubt it.

the book is too recent to count as fairytale for our purposes (1973) but it is very much in that genre. god damn.

la bête saying “be our guest” alludes to the disney beauty and the beast movie obvs

“Something wicked this way comes”

quote from Macbeth, by Shakespeare

I don’t think Shakespeare counts as fairytales. idk the vibes are just off. ik it’s an Old Story but it isn’t a fairytale.

total: 0

Ep 20

this is it gang!

The Fairies

so in the 1880s, Andrew Lang wrote a series of fairytale books named after fairies of various colors. I’m counting each fairy who has a book named after them as a new tale.

EXCEPT: the Blue Fairy

ok look i fucked up yall. The Fairy With Turquoise Hair is re-named “The Blue Fairy” in a lot of adaptations, so when I previously counted her separately from Pinocchio bc she had her own book, I was referring to “The Blue Fairy Book”

so we’re not counting it here bc that would be counting it twice. apologies to the actual Blue Fairy.

The Red Fairy Book (+1)

The Green Fairy Book (+1)

The Orange Fairy Book (+1)

The Yellow Fairy Book (+1)

this is by no means all of Lang’s color fairy books. he’s got crimson, violet, grey, pink, you name it.

honorable mentions

Calvin & Hobbes is modern day folklore

I looked up to see if there’s any actual Aesop fables with a shark in em, closest I could find was a dolphin. Rip.

Beaky’s stint in the TAA lines up with Pinocchio’s story, so not a new tale. thank you for your service beaky o7

total: 4

total series tale count: 62

alas, the only mystery remaining is Scheherazade’s spider. someday I may come back to this post with new information about her, but today is not that day. If you know any middle eastern myths/fairytales/folklore/nursery rhymes that prominently feature a spider that guards a maze or guides people through caves, please feel free to reply/reblog with your knowledge.

this show has been a fun and wild ride. Here’s a shortened version of this post with just the numbers

thank you for coming on this journey with me - see you in the stories!

#d20 spoilers #d20 #dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #neverafter spoilers #neverafter #original post #ongoing #dnd #folktales #folklore #myth #stories #fairytale

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thepringlesofblood · 1 year

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Dimension 20 Neverafter FPE (Fairytales Per Episode): The Numbers

I’ve been updating the original version of this post since Ep. 3, and as such it has a lot of theories/additions/explanations/ramblings. This is just the numbers. Every fairytale, nursery rhyme, or piece of folklore included, referenced, or alluded to across the series (that I found).

For some of these, I was unable to determine one specific tale, and for some of these, I am unsure as to whether the reference was intentional. I’ll put that if that’s the case. It is what it is, baby. Enjoy!

Full list beneath the cut, by episode.

Ep. 1

The PCs (and their backstories)

Mother Goose (+1)

Mother Hubbard (+1)

Jack

jumped over the Candlestick (+1)

and the Beanstalk (+1)

Ylfa (Little Red Riding Hood) (+1)

“Huff and puff, little one” = 3 little pigs allusion (+1)

Pib (Puss in Boots) (+1)

Pinocchio (+1)

Cinderella (+1)

stepmother’s official art says “Cinderella...” at the bottom

Rosamund (sleeping beauty/briar rose) (+1)

Gerard (the princess and the frog) (+1)

Snow queen (mentioned by Elody) (+1)

the rest of the episode

the little red hen (+1)

Ol king Cole (+1)

The little old lady who lived in a shoe (+1)

(alluded to) Alice n Wonderland (+1)

rabbit pulling a teapot

total tale count: 16

Ep. 2

Herr Drosselmeyer (+1)

The Nutcracker

Snow White (+1)

(alluded to) Beauty and the beast (+1)

furniture coming alive

total tale count: 3

Ep. 3

.........nothing new to report

tale count: 0

Ep 4

the fairy with the turquoise hair is actually not exclusive to Pinocchio - she has her own book*.

*I found out later that this is not true, hence no +1

(alluded to) the little mermaid (+1)

“a dancing princess who either cannot or will not speak near a beach.”

there’s. So many rabbit and fox tricksters in the world.

One specific tale for Fox is alluded to, so he gets (+1)

a reply to the original post mentioned a character named Reynard the Fox from medieval French literature that might be the reason that the Fox speaks with a French accent.

“Isengrim” is the name of the daggers Pib gets. There’s a tale called Ysengrimus from 1152 CE where Reynard the Fox (along with a certain Wolf) appears.

No specific tales for Rabbit are specifically referenced except for Pinocchio’s story, but if Fox’s French accent is an allusion to Reynard the Fox, I’m taking Rabbit’s Cockney British accent to be an allusion to Peter Rabbit (the most famous British trickster rabbit I can think of.) He gets a (+1)

There are surely other rabbits that inspired Brennan, but I’m not qualified to sift through all trickster rabbits ever.

I’m sorry if it’s not a Cockney accent. That’s just what it sounded like to me. +1 for each of them seems fair regardless.

the golden goose (another Jack/Mother Goose tale not specifically mentioned before) (+1)

total tale count: 4

Ep. 5

hey diddle diddle (+1)

the dish ran away with the spoon + the cow jumping over the moon

itsy bitsy spider (+1)

first allusion to little miss muffet (+1)

(alluded to) goldilocks (+1)

”just enough” oats

first mention of Aesop (+1)

1001 nights (+1) (scherazade/The Endless Nights)

“spider queen”/scherazade’s spider (+1)

I cannot describe the lengths I have gone to to try and figure out who the mythical spider that fuses with Muffet is. there are many possibilities but none seem more likely than the rest. please, god, if you know which spider is being referenced here, let me know.

sinbad (+1)

“Sinbad the Sailor”

magical palace w the tapestries of starlight (+1)

there’s a fuckload of magic palaces in 1001 nights. idk which one this refers to but it does refer.

total tale count: 9

Ep. 6

No new tales - expands on ones already mentioned (muffet, scherazade’s spider)

first actual appearance of little miss muffet

total tale count: 0 

Ep 7

the cloak of rushes (the gillesuit/haystack cloak) (+1)  

As of Ep. 9, we know that this is probably from the English fairy tale “Cap-o’-Rushes”

the golden bridle (+1) 

some cursory googling indicates that this is most likely from the celtic tale of Guleesh.

In ep 13 & 14 (& the adventuring parties) they talk about what it does, and while nothing they say rules out Guleesh, it doesn’t really match up either.  

so…….maybe it’s not intended to be the one from the tale of Guleesh. I remain optimistic.

the golden chair (+1) 

a grimm fairytale with a weirdly christian bent

it is very possible that this was not an intentional allusion.

I have to mention here that the cloak of stars recovered from the spider’s den is a reskin of the DND 5e “Robe of Stars”

I spent multiple months trying to figure out what this cloak could be an allusion to. there’s nothing clear-cut. like the sword of truth, I believe this to be an archetype from no one tale in particular.

total tale count: 3

Ep 8

first actual appearance of Aesop!

the lion and the mouse (+1)

the boy who cried wolf (+1)

the scorpion and the frog (+1)

total tale count: 3

Ep 9

BABA YAGA (+1)

(alluded to) the princess and the pea (+1)

siobhan asks if anyone sees any stacks of mattresses without peas under them to sleep on

(alluded to) this little piggy went to market (+1)

it’s not in the captions but emily axford says ‘well there has to be a market, right? cause this little piggy went to market’

first actual appearance of 3 little pigs

total tale count: 3

Ep 10

(alluded to) peter and the wolf (+1)

the baron’s named peter and there’s a wolf. that can’t be a coincidence,

total tale count: 1

Ep 11

the emperor’s new clothes (+1)

“the naked emperor”

rumpelstiltskin (+1)

“the king of apogee“ and the rumor about him

Koschei the deathless (+1)

(alluded to) the binding of Fenrir (Norse mythology) (+1)

Ylfa puts her hand in the Wolf’s mouth to prove her and Mother Goose’ good intentions.

I didn’t catch this one at first - thank you to the many posts about it in the #neverafter tag!

total tale count: 4

Ep. 12

Rapunzel (+1)

The North Wind (+1)

from what I can tell, this is from "East of the Sun and West of the Moon"

I’m sure The North Wind is from other things too, though

first actual appearance of the little mermaid!

total tale count: 2

Ep. 13

no new tales - expands on the little mermaid & pinocchio

total tale count: 0

Ep. 14

the legend of the children of Lír (+1)

it is revealed in this episode that the sea witch is named Alba Mac Lír

“Mac Lír“ in Scottish Gaelic = son of Lír

thank you @twoeelsforsupper for this observation!

total: 1

Ep. 15

no new tales, unless you count Clara The Horse Princess

total: 0

Ep. 16

thumbelina (+1)

hans christian anderson tale from 1835, in the second volume of his Fairy Tales Told For Children series.

tom thumb (+1)

English folklore, there was a 1621 book called The History of Tom Thumb

Jack the Giant Killer (+1)

in ep 17 adventuring party, brennan talks a bit about the multiplicity of jacks, and clarifies that there are TWO separate Jack + Giants myths.

Jack the Giant Killer - a Welsh fairytale about a warrior named Jack who fights a bunch of giants with a huge club and wins

So, while we’ve already counted Jack and the Beanstalk, this episode does introduce a new variation on Jack - Jack the Giant Killer.

total: 3

Ep. 17

Fear Not (+1)

another grimm fairytale

the brave little tailor (+1)

aka “the guy who kills a bunch of flies with his belt”

Jack and Jill (+1)

three blind mice (+1)

total: 4

Ep 18

The Wishing Star (+1)

look there’s many stars you can wish on. “star light, star bright” has one but there are many others

Ep 19

no new tales - it’s finale time!

total: 0

Ep 20

fairies!

so in the 1880s, Andrew Lang wrote a series of fairytale books named after fairies of various colors. I’m counting each fairy who has a book named after them as a new tale.

NOTE: the Blue Fairy (+1)

so we’re counting it here instead bc it’s the first appearance of the actual Blue Fairy

The Red Fairy Book (+1)

The Green Fairy Book (+1)

The Orange Fairy Book (+1)

The Yellow Fairy Book (+1)

total: 5

total series tale count: 62

allusions (aka ones where nothing is referenced by name e.g. Fenris): 17

could be unintentional: 8

direct, clear references: 37

have a good one yall!

#neverafter #neverafter spoilers #d20 #d20 spoilers #dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #original post #myth #folklore #stories #dropout #brennan lee mulligan #dnd #fairytale #now to go work on my list of greek/latin root words used in names in trw #it aint much but its honest work

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