Hansel and Gretel & The Cottingley Fairies

Sinister Sisters

This week, we're putting the Sinister Sisters spin on “fairy tale cottagecore!”
First, Felicia peels back the page on the real life history behind the classic Grimm's Fairy Tales "Hansel and Gretel.” It may be a story we all know, not to mention one that provided plenty of nightmare fuel for the fire at bedtime as children, but the fact behind the fiction is far more horrifying than just witches eating children. The Great Famine of 1315-1317 that plagued Europe early in the 14th century led people to go to extreme lengths to stay alive…and if you know the fairy tale, well then you can imagine where it goes from here. Let’s just say things get dark on the episode…leave a trail of breadcrumbs to find your way back.
Next, Lauren explores the case of “The Cottingley Fairies” - a series of several photographs taken by young girls Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths in England in the early 1900s that supposedly showed real life fairies. Eventually the photos caught the attention of theosophist Edward Gardner and even Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The photos are still discussed and debated to this day - how did these girls with primitive photography equipment manage to fake such convincing? Or did they actually provide photographic proof of the existence of these mythical creatures from folklore?!
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