W-B-U-R Podcasts, Boston.

The Circle Round episode you're about to hear is a very special one,

recorded in front of a live audience of enthusiastic kids and grown-ups at

W-B-U-R City Space in Boston, Massachusetts on December 9, 2023.

You can find upcoming Circle Round performances on our website,

W-B-U-R.org, slash Circle Round.

And to be the first to hear about live events, join the Circle Round Club.

Learn more about this fun opportunity to support public radio at W-B-U-R-D.org slash circle round. Think of all the people you love. There are probably quite a few right? But the great thing is

no matter how many people we give love to we can always find more love in our hearts because love is an endless thing to give and to receive and as we'll hear in today's story

When we give love and receive love, magical things can happen.

I'm Rebecca Sheer and welcome to Circle Round live at W-B-R City Space in Boston, Massachusetts.

Today our story is called The Forest Folk. Versions of this tale come from the Western European country of Germany.

Joining me on stage are some performers whose voices you may recognize from other Circle Round stories,

Emily De Petro, Sonia Joyner, Louise Negron, and Gamelea Farms.

And providing musical accompaniment is the one and only Eric Schimelonis.

So, circle around everyone for the Forest Folk. In the wind swept highlands of Northern Germany, where tree-covered peaks tower above lush

lush rolling meadows and deep winding valleys there lived a young woman

named Gretchen. Gretchen shared a snug mountainside cabin with her mother

Freya with the nearest town the their days of scouring the rugged slopes and ridges for food and combing the tangled forest for

fallen firewood.

Life was especially hard come winter, when the air grew sharp and biting and the earth and trees

grew thick with snow and crusty with ice. But one winter life became more difficult than Gretchen and Freya ever expected.

...