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In A Certain Land

by Nicholas Kotar
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Latest episodes

  • The Tale of Marya Morevna, the Wondrous Queen

    October 15, 2026 · 30 min

    Prince Ivan’s three sisters marry mysterious warriors who arrive as a falcon, an eagle, and a raven. After he marries them off, he begs restless living alone and sets out to visit them. But along the way, he falls in love with Marya…

  • The Tale of the Wooden Eagle

    September 24, 2026 · 15 min

    A prince's reckless flight on a marvelous wooden eagle carries him into a distant kingdom, where a lonely princess is imprisoned in a tower and guarded from the world. With the help of an extraordinary invention, daring escapes, and a…

  • Ilya Muromets Quarrels with Prince Vladimir

    September 10, 2026 · 16 min

    When Prince Vladimir's pride drives away the greatest defender of Rus, disaster follows. As King Kalin's vast army descends upon Kiev, only the aging Ilya Muromets can stand between his homeland and ruin. Yet before he can save the prince…

  • The Tale of Sukhmann the Warrior

    August 27, 2026 · 13 min

    At a feast in Prince Vladimir's court, the quiet warrior Sukhman makes a simple promise: he will return before dawn with a living swan caught by his own hands. But a chance encounter with the mighty River Dnieper leads him instead to a…

  • The Wedding of Dobrynia Nikitich

    August 16, 2026 · 8 min

    Fresh from his victory over the dragon Zmei Gorynich, Dobrynia Nikitich encounters a mysterious warrior whose strength far surpasses his own. Blow after blow fails to move the stranger—until the helmet comes off, revealing not a fearsome…

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  • The Tale of Nikita the Tanner

    August 5, 2026 · 15 min

    When a terrible dragon begins demanding a daughter of Kiev every month, even Prince Vladimir cannot protect his own child forever. Carried away to the monster’s distant mountain lair, the princess discovers a surprising secret: the only…

  • The Tale of Dobrynia and the Dragon

    July 10, 2026 · 15 min

    When the legendary Ilya Muromets becomes war-leader of Kiev, not every hero is pleased. The proud and quick-tempered Alyosha Popovich openly challenges the prince's decision—but an older, wiser warrior steps forward to defend the newcomer…

  • The Tale of Volga the Warrior Mage

    July 3, 2026 · 14 min

    Born with the power to shake the earth and master the secrets of shape-shifting, the young bogatyr Volga Vseslav'evich leads a band of fearless warriors on an impossible mission. As an enemy king prepares to invade Rus, Volga must rely on…

  • Podcast Update!

    June 25, 2026 · 4 min

    Update! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • The Tale of Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Outlaw

    April 30, 2026 · 22 min

    Ilya Muromets leaves his parents’ home at last, armed with a warrior’s strength and a solemn oath, but the road to Kiev quickly tests both his promise and his mettle. When a great city lies under siege and the deadly Nightingale the Outlaw…

  • The Tale of Ivan the Bull’s Son

    April 2, 2026 · 31 min

    A miraculous birth gives a kingdom not one Ivan, but three! Yet among prince, cook’s son, and bull’s son, only one rises first among equals: Ivan the Bull’s son, whose strength can topple boulders, outmatch dragons, and recover kingdoms…

  • How Ilya Muromets Won Sviatogor’s Sword

    April 2, 2026 · 14 min

    In a certain kingdom, in a certain land, young Ilya Muromets rides north into the holy mountains, where the old powers of Rus still linger among thunder, stone, and cloud. He seeks the sword of the legendary giant Sviatogor—a warrior too…

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About the show

You know The Brothers Grimm, but do you know the weird and whimsical fairy tales of Russia? Nicholas Kotar brings you Russia’s most beloved fairy tales as you would have heard them from a grandparent sitting near the hearth on a cozy winter evening, the wind howling outside and the courage of these heroic stories lighting a flame in your heart. Enter the world of Baba Yaga, the mysterious hag who can be both friend and foe, and follow Ivan the Idiot as he faces off against a cunning dragon with six heads. These are not stuffy, academic translations, but vividly enacted retellings from Nicholas Kotar’s 3-volume fairy tale collection, accompanied by the original music of composer Natalie Wilson. Don’t be fooled: these are not just tales for children. As Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin reminds us, the spiritual meaning of the fairy tale is “like refined and sweet-smelling honey. If you drip it on your tongue, you’ll taste all the ineffable essence of Russia’s nature–the smell of the earth, the heat of the sun, the fragrance of flowers, and something else that is subtle and rich, something eternally youthful and yet eternally ancient… Only he who worships at the altar of facts and has lost the ability to contemplate a state of being ignores fairy tales. Only the one who wants to see with his physical eyes alone, plucking out his spiritual eyes in the process, considers the fairy tale to be dead.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.