The Ruin of Beltany Ring

This collection of poems and tales, spanning eight years of publication in Pagan and speculative fiction magazines and journals, includes award-nominated poetry and fiction that illuminates Pagan life and relationships with the sacred.

"C. S. MacCath is simply one of the finest Pagan fiction writers working today. Her stories express the complexity, beauty, and chaos of contemporary life with both precision and passion -- a rare combination, indeed. "The Ruin of Beltany Ring" is but one of the enthralling tales to appear in this wonderful collection, but it is my favorite of the set; to tell more would be unfair to the reader, so I will simply urge you to set aside whatever you are doing right now and dip into this collection at once."

- Anne Newkirk Niven: Editor, Witches & Pagans Magazine

What is a fable?

 

What is a fable?

 

Hello, and welcome to the Folklore & Fiction newsletter. In this edition, I'm writing about the fable genre with help from scholars Patrick Olivelle, Christos A. Zafiropoulos, Harriet Spiegel, and others, helping you analyze a fable, and discussing ways to bring fables to your story craft.

Fables are a ubiquitous story form, found throughout the history of story transmission and in the folkloric traditions of people all over the world. Perhaps the oldest and most widespread of these are the Panchatantra and the collection of tales attributed to Aesop, who might or might not have been a real person. These two pillars of the fable genre will be the focus of my attention here, along with a brief foray into Harriet Spiegel's translation of Marie de France's Fables for contrast.

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