Ogres | Three Ravens Bestiary #25

Let's strip away the meat of mythology and render down the fat of folklore to cook up a delicious chat all about Ogres!

The word itself was coined by Chrétien de Troyes during the 12th century, and was used to talk about the brutish Britons on the other side of the channel - but from the Ancient Egyptian "Cannibal Hymn" of Pharaoh Unas to the Greeks and Romans with Polyphemus and Orcus, the name of these things is less important than what they do.

Personifications of wild, untameable nature and warnings about totalitarian power, what's at the root of this symbol of eating people?

Did it mean the same things to the Etruscans as it did to the first Italian chroniclers of folk romances?

What about when Charles Perrault re-adapted both 'The Ogre' and 'The Ogress' at the end of the 17th century, and started dressing them in fancy clothes?

From cthonic Gods of Oaths to Japanese Oni, Baba Yaga to the Ogre's position in contemporary psychotherapy, we're chopping it up, blending it down, then simmering the Ogre gently until it's ready.

Unless you're listening during the Reformation - in which case Ogres are just Catholics, and ought to be hunted down!

We also hope you increasingly pleased by our new Bestiary episode art, as drawn by our good friend Tom Peteuil of Creature Castle - check out brand new Ogre merch here and visit the Creature Castle shop for prints and other wonderful things here.

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Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.

Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’

We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.

Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.

Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…

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