The Return of Bird Husband
Spirits: Mythology, Legends, & Folklore
Multitude
4.8 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 10 May 2023
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We’re feeling nostalgic, so we’re bringing back an old favorite: THE BIRD HUSBAND. We explore the trope, its origins, and various types of birds who wind up as various types of husbands. As we discover, it’s hard to be a bird.
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of death, animal death, animal injury, abusive relationships, imprisonment, forced marriage, sexual references, and violence.
Housekeeping
- Recommendation: This week, Julia recommends the video game, Dredge.
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
- Call to Action: Check out Exolore: Helping you imagine other worlds, but with facts and science! Every other week, astrophysicist/folklorist Dr. Moiya McTier explores fictional worlds by building them with a panel of expert guests, interviewing professional worldbuilders, or reviewing the merits of worlds that have already been built.
Sponsors
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm |
| 0:02.0 | M. |
| 0:05.0 | The Welcome to Spirits podcast, a boozy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore. |
| 0:32.7 | Every week we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. |
| 0:36.0 | I'm Amanda. |
| 0:36.6 | And I'm Julia. |
| 0:37.9 | And this, Julia, it's bird husband, bird husband. It's the return of bird husband, bird husband. |
| 0:45.6 | Yeah, it is. So I really like, I was thinking about, hey, what are things from early spirits that we haven't returned to lately? |
| 0:56.5 | Like, I was thinking, man, spaghetti warehouse, what a great time. You know, there's so many good stuff there. |
| 1:02.6 | We had heck puppers. And of course, Amanda, bird husband. Episode 23, Julia Cache the Deathless with |
| 1:10.2 | Friend of the Show, still a listener of the show, |
| 1:12.3 | past and future guest, Yvonne Pliss. Yeah, it has been a very, very long time since we've had |
| 1:17.5 | an example of this kind of story. And I mean, like more recently, we've talked about the |
| 1:21.8 | animal bridegroom trope that Beauty and the Beast falls under. And we've talked about |
| 1:26.6 | animal wives when we talked about crane wife and the Beast falls under. And we've talked about animal wives when we talked |
| 1:28.1 | about crane wife and the variation of animal wives in those tales. But it has been so long |
| 1:34.4 | since we talked about bird husband. That's right. Oh, gosh. And we were, of course, immediately |
| 1:41.7 | enamored when we heard about bird husband during Cotchet the Death List. |
| 1:46.3 | But now, Amanda, we were |
| 1:48.1 | but children back then, you know? |
| 1:50.1 | We were but innocent, |
| 1:51.9 | unmarried youths. |
... |
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