Once upon a time, a princess displeased her tyrannical father and was banished from their kingdom.
Once upon a time, a tiff between fairies spilled into the human world, catching up a bunch of unsuspecting mortals in their mischief and magic.
Once upon a time, three witches made a prophecy and threw Scotland into war.
Once upon a time, a man named William Shakespeare wrote dozens of plays that changed the world. He wasn’t a prince or an aristocrat of any kind - he was the son of a glover. And he read books and newspapers, listened to the stories of people he met, and distilled them into tales of shipwrecks, falling kingdoms, and romance.
48-Hour Flash Sale for Shakespeare's Birthday!!
Noon ET Tuesday 4/23 - Noon ET Thursday 4/25
ONLY $99!!
We’re just going to put our cards on the table. We love Shakespeare. We love it with the same intensity and starry eyes as we love fairy tales… because a lot of how Shakespeare works is very similar to fairy tales!
Sara grew up volunteering at the Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern to get free tickets to all the shows, and she was a member of the Atlanta Shakespeare Teen Ensemble which met at Oglethorpe University every Saturday morning at 9am. (If you know Sara and how much she loathes mornings with every fiber of her being, you will understand how insane this is.) She also formally studied Shakespeare at UPenn and Oxford, and the fact that she wrote her dissertation on folklore and fairy tales in 19th-century literature instead of in Shakespeare is literally just down to which professors she met and clicked with first.
Brittany fell in love with the language of Romeo and Juliet at a young age and never really got over it - especially not after she saw the dazzling neon spectacle that is Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet film! As a high-school girl who longed to be an actress, she studied countless performances, trying to figure out what it really was that brought Shakespeare’s words to life.
It makes us absolutely NUTS that Shakespeare is perceived as elitist and inaccessible, when, once upon a time, people knew it was beautiful, zany, sometimes slapdash, sometimes ethereal, and, most importantly, for them. Because it was informed by stories they knew, by their own folklore, performed or read in a way that could make it feel as familiar as Cinderella or Slenderman does to us now.
Watch our short promo video!
(in which we basically gush about how awesome Shakespeare is)
In this course, we want to bring Shakespeare down to earth, to show you it's for you, and then fling it up into the stars so you can see all the folklore and magic that weaves the plays together.
We want to show you why the plays mattered then and also why they matter to us, now, and how you can adapt them and make them your own.
Oh god, you might be thinking, are you seriously going to make us read 400 year old plays?
No, you don’t have to, if you don’t want to. We’ll point you to summaries you can read and give you short excerpts to give you a taste of Shakespeare’s language.
(And if that’s enough to get you curious to keep reading, that’s awesome.)
Our goal isn’t to drown you in difficult reading - it’s to build a bridge between you and Shakespeare so that you can appreciate something that should be yours.
The Gates of Carterhaugh Are Open For...
48-Hour Flash Sale for Shakespeare's Birthday!!
Noon ET Tuesday 4/23 - Noon ET Thursday 4/25
ONLY $99!!
What's Included?
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Five recorded video lectures with us, one per module, during which we'll talk about the week's readings! Our lectures and discussions are college-level… but definitely not snooze fests!
- All course readings as PDFs and/or Links will be available. We always try to include ways to access the stories that star in our lectures, and we choose our stories with care. Some will be familiar and some will likely be wholly new to you, but they are all worth examining. For this course, we're going to link to the actual plays AND summaries of the plays (so no iambic pentameter if you don't want it!) Prepare to be fascinated and delighted by this CUSTOM collection made specifically for this course!
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Discussion questions for learning and self-discovery will be provided via PDF. These questions will help guide your reflections and determine how the folklore we discuss applies to your own journey
- Five Gorgeous "Grimoire Pages," beautifully designed PDFs that you can print and make part of your own spell/course notebook! They also summarize each lesson.
PLUS
Bonus #1
We're so excited to announce that this course includes a BONUS lecture with Dr. Charlotte Artese - "'None of woman born': Unborn Dragon-Slayers in Folk Narrative and Shakespeare’s Macduff"!
A mysterious apparition, summoned by the Weird Sisters, tells Macbeth that “none of woman born” can harm him. Macbeth’s nemesis Macduff fulfills this prophecy because “Macduff was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped,” that is, he was delivered by caesarian section and so technically not “born.” Myth, legend, and folktales, as it turns out, are replete with unborn heroes, and many of them vanquish dragons. If Shakespeare and his audience knew of this animosity between the unborn and dragons, they might see Macbeth as dragonish. In this talk, Dr. Artese will tell the stories of these dragon-slayers and reflect on their connection to Macbeth.
Charlotte Artese is an amazing scholar and a Professor of English at Agnes Scott College. She is the author of the excellent monograph Shakespeare’s Folktale Sources and the editor of Shakespeare and the Folktale: An Anthology of Stories. She has also published articles on Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene and Thomas More’s Utopia.
Bonus #2
Sara's read EVERY Shakespeare play (and she's seen all but two!) and she's curated a Complete Works of William Shakespeare playlist for you - one song for each play. Her choices are... unconventional (and hilarious!)
Think Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" for MacBeth, the Scorpions' "Rock You Like a Hurricane" for The Tempest, and "Bad Day” by Daniel Powter for Henry VI, Part II !
Bonus #3
We're also thrilled that the course includes another BONUS lecture with actor, writer, scholar, and artist Emily Carding!
Emily Carding is a professional actor, writer and artist living by the sea in beautiful East Sussex. They are a solo parent to a teenage gothspring who was once an adorable faery child and possibly still is somewhere under all the hoodies and grunting. They are also the creator of The Transparent Tarot, The Tarot of the Sidhe and The Simple Wisdom of the Household Dog for Schiffer Books and author of Faery Craft, So Potent Art: The Magic of Shakespeare and Seeking Faery for Llewellyn publishing as well as multiple essays for anthologies on various esoteric, mythical and mystical subjects.
Emily holds a BA (hons) in Theatre Arts from Bretton Hall and an MFA in Staging Shakespeare from the University of Exeter. They have now appeared in versions of 24 of Shakespeare’s plays on stage and screen and won multiple awards for their innovative approach to Shakespearean performance including Brite Theater’s immersive solo adaptations of Richard III and Hamlet, and their own Quintessence, a sci-fi solo show which imagines a future in which an AI recreates humanity using the complete works of Shakespeare as a guide.
For the latest news and more info please visit www.emilycarding.com
Our Modules:
Each module of the course will feature a deep dive into one of these FIVE topics!
Shakespeare & the Folkloric Lens
You might already know that Shakespeare drew on history, literature, and the classics when he wrote his plays… but did you know that folklore underpins most of them too? We’ll start the course by showing you how a folkloric lens can make understanding Shakespeare so much easier!
Fairies
Fairies - Shakespeare used (and maybe even introduced?!) some excellent fairylore in his plays. From Titania and Oberon’s spat in A Midsummer Night’s Dream to the supernatural powers on The Tempest’s island, we’ll discover what fairy tricks and tubulations can tell us about human tensions.
Fairy Tales
Shakespeare’s Romances are made of fairy-tale building blocks: lost heirs, sleeping princesses, magic books, and even impossible happily-ever-afters. We’ll talk about what Shakespeare owes to the fairy tale, and what the fairy tale owes to Shakespeare… including two of the earliest literary versions of Snow White!
Witches & Ghosts
You might already know that Hamlet starts with a ghost sighting, but this week, we’re going to show you just how haunted…even profoundly GOTHIC…Shakespeare can get. Ruins, witches, and ghosties give rise to revenge, bloodshed, family secrets dragged into the light, and so much more!
Gender
This might seem a little out of left field compared to the previous weeks, but gender is constructed and communicated through folklore all the time, Shakespeare has at least FIVE significant cross-dressing heroines (including some of our very favorites in the whole canon), and it’s too cool and crucial to miss out on!
Your Teachers
We, Dr. Sara Cleto and Dr. Brittany Warman, are award-winning folklorists, teachers, and writers with a combined 26 years in higher education and over 150 publications. Together, we founded The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic, teaching creative souls how to re-enchant their lives through folklore and fairy tales. In 2019, Carterhaugh won the Dorothy Howard Award from the American Folklore Society.
When we aren’t teaching at Carterhaugh, we're scholars, writers and best friends who have published peer-reviewed articles, appeared on podcasts, sold stories and poems, written book introductions and encyclopedia entries, and written for magazines and blogs. (We’ve also been known to crush “Total Eclipse of the Heart” at karaoke.) We're regular writers for Enchanted Living Magazine, and we also deliver sold-out lectures at venues like the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, the Profs & Pints series, the Maryland Renaissance Festival, the Contemporary American Theater Festival, and FaerieCon.
We love teaching. Our classes reflect the joy we get out of the strange and delightful world of folklore, so expect lots of gifs and terrible puns in our lectures. We'll occasionally make horrible faces at each other and laugh like drunken pixies… and we want you to join us!
You'll love this if...
- You've ever put a Shakespearean quotation in your bio
- You love fairy tales
(we're totally going to be using our folkloric lens here!) - You love to learn!
This isn't for you if...
- You're looking for a straight up academic course with nothing but serious content
- You don't really like reading
- You're looking for us to tell you the "true meaning" of the plays - we're much more interested in opening both folklore and literature up to the many different things they can be, not shutting conversation down and telling people what they "should" believe about a story
FAQ
- "Um, what exactly IS Carterhaugh?" - The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic is an award-winning online school dedicated to classes on fairy tales, folklore, and all things fantastic. It was created by Sara and Brittany in 2016 as a place for those who dreamed of elven battles while studying economics, those who have always sworn they could see ghosts, and those who longed for a school of magic to send them an unexpected acceptance letter. We aim to use our knowledge and passion for these subjects to share their wonder, solidify their importance in society, and spread a bit of magic into the world. Want to know more? Check out our "About" page by clicking here!
- “I’m just a folklore fan. I don’t want to ruin my enjoyment with a bunch of academic stuff.” - We are the last people in the WORLD who would ruin your enjoyment of folklore and literature!! Believe us, we’re just as passionate about the beauty and wonder of these tales, and we know that part of that wonder lies in their mystery. We will never tell you what a tale “means." These tales are meant to be explored, meant to inspire personal meaning. We’ll give you folkloric history, and how the tales have been interpreted in the past, but we’ll never tell you what you “have to” believe about any folkloric story and we’re CERTAINLY not the kind of professors who are gleeful about “ruining” folklore for people!
- “Guys, I love this, but money is SO tight right now….” - We understand this feel so hard. Money is tight for so many. This is why we’re offering this 5 module course as part of a HUGE flash sale AND packed in all the enchantment and stories you crave right now. We're also offering a payment plan to help you find an option that works. Our school is an investment, and it’s one that you deserve - we know our community and the magic we make together is worth it, and we would love for you to join us.
- “How involved are you guys? Is this just a thing where I get access to a bunch of stuff and then good luck?” - NOPE! We are 100% involved in our courses from start to finish. Our students always rave about how accessible we are, how quickly we respond, and how we make everyone feel welcome in our school. We're available via e-mail anytime you need help with anything (or just want to share an insight privately with us!)
As always, if you have additional questions at any time, don't hesitate to get in touch with us at [email protected]
Featured In:
Also?
We are feminists and disability scholars who support the LGBTQ+ community and believe that Black lives matter.
Period.
The Gates of Carterhaugh are Open For...
48-Hour Flash Sale for Shakespeare's Birthday!!
Noon ET Tuesday 4/23 - Noon ET Thursday 4/25
ONLY $99!!
If You've Read This Far...
If you've read this far, clearly something about our school resonates for you. You feel it in your spirit.
You can be the magical soul you want to be. Art and stories can help you get there.
Join us at Carterhaugh - you won't regret it.
