AI Summary
5 min readA folklore student in Newfoundland set out to collect local fairy stories from elderly residents for a university assignment. One of those stories came from his own grandfather, who tearfully described a childhood encounter on a forbidden trail—a path his mother warned him never to take without wearing his coat inside out and carrying breadcrumbs. The grandfather had ignored the warning, felt the forest close in around him, and fled in terror, his coat torn by three long claw marks. The student, moved but also curious, decided to find that trail himself the next morning. He walked into the woods, and what he found there changed everything he thought he knew about folklore.
The Assignment That Led Into the Woods
The narrator was a folklore major at Memorial University in Newfoundland, a province rich in supernatural tradition. For a class project, he chose to interview older residents about the "fairies"—not the benign creatures of children's stories, but the malevolent, mischievous beings that locals believed lurked in forests and fields. He borrowed recording equipment from the university's folklore archive and listened to earlier recordings of people describing "wee people," strange lights in the woods, and eerie music carried on the wind.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (03:06) **Folklore Assignment & Grandfather’s Warning** - The narrator, a folklore student in Newfoundland, sets out to collect local fairy stories, culminating in a reluctant tale from his grandfather about a dangerous trail.
- 2 (08:45) **Curiosity Overcomes Promise** - Despite promising his grandfather not to seek out fairies, the narrator’s academic curiosity drives him to find and walk the forbidden trail the next morning.
- 3 (10:17) **Into the Fairy Domain** - The narrator walks deeper into the woods, where the path becomes unnaturally well-maintained, and a sense of being watched replaces his initial disappointment.
- 4 (12:32) **The Three Kings of the Fairies** - The narrator encounters three terrifying, malevolent fairy beings: the King of Trees, the King of Bone, and the King of Rot.
- 5 (14:24) **The Hunt Through the Woods** - The narrator flees in terror as the three fairy kings chase him, deliberately toying with him and inflicting wounds.
- 6 (16:06) **Caught at the Boundary** - Just as the narrator sees the overgrown path ahead, signaling the end of the fairy domain, the King of Bone stabs his side, and the King of Trees grabs his arm.
- 7 (17:05) **Hospital and the Grandfather’s Grief** - The narrator wakes in a hospital with a broken arm and infected wounds, where his grandfather sorrowfully reveals he knew the truth of what happened.
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Show Notes
Fairies are real, I've seen them. I hope you never do
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