At a crossroads on Halloween night, you find a girl in green waiting, shivering but fierce. Soon, she’ll fight the queen of the fairies for what is hers.
Choose the road leading to the darkest part of the forest, and you discover a man trading quicksilver riddles with the devil, a woman sobbing over a grave, a tattered ghost drifting steadily towards the nearby town.
Where the path ends, you find a harper kneeling by a riverside. He’s crafted a harp from human bones and strung it with long, golden hair. Though his fingers never touch the strings and his mouth is closed, the harp is singing.
Will you listen?
In The Singing Bones, you’ll:
✨ Trace the folkloric roots of a curated collection of ghostly, murderous, and magical ballads
✨ Explore how Romantic poets like Keats and Coleridge revived and transformed the ballad form (and how contemporary creators keep their power alive)
✨ Learn to hear the history and secrets in these songs through balladic coding and metaphor
✨ Discover what makes the ballad such a powerful vessel for both terror and beauty
Why Ballads?
We’ve heard it said that, if fairy tales are dreams, traditional ballads are nightmares.
While we might quibble with this comparison (“Bluebeard,” anyone?), it certainly captures balladic mood, theme, and narrative.
After all, we like to think of ballads as the secret fairy tales – The Child Ballads as the logical next step after The Grimms’ Fairy Tales. They can be just as darkly enchanting, just as rich in theme.
Ballads are profoundly historical and culturally resonant, and they’re often breathtaking in their spare beauty, but they’re not for the faint of heart.
They take as their subjects the nature of power, the fragility of the human body, and the dark currents of magic underneath the surface of the world. Their narratives are animated by love, lust, loss, and justice.
Honestly? We’d argue that ballads are often simply fairy tales and their fragments set to music.
That’s where we come in. Let us introduce you to the broadsides, historical events, and supernatural folklore that inspired many of the most classic ballads still in circulation. We’ll show you how to understand the heavily coded language of the songs and how to crack balladic metaphor. Let’s discover why murdered sweetheart ballads are so irrepressible, why deals with the devil are endlessly alluring, why fairies and ghosts haunt these stories and their music.
In this course, we’ll teach you how to unlock the secrets of these songs and discover their dark enchantments anew.
What Do You Get?
Our format is going to be a little different this time
(mostly so that we can pack in a TON of different ballads!)
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21 daily recorded mini-lectures that land in your inbox Monday-Friday, each a mix of scholarship, story, and enchantment. Each video will contain folkloric history and analysis, AND we’ll share a ballad of the day. You will be awash in music, magic, and folklore all month long, in bite-sized doses that fit easily into your day.
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An epic ballad playlist that will grow throughout the course as we drop new songs.
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Weekly live meetings, each with a different focus and theme to help you understand the ballad more deeply. We will meet at 7PM ET on Tuesdays, 11/4-12/2 (with a mercy pause/ no meeting on 11/25 due to American Thanksgiving.) Records of each meeting will be up within 24 hours.
These live meetings are all about learning and creating within the magic web of community in real time. If you want to feel zingy, energized, and like your mind is constantly expanding in scholarly, profound, and whimsical directions – honestly, if you want to feel like you have stepped into a secret seminar at Witch University – you do not want to miss these! And let’s be real: who doesn’t want to talk with a bunch of geeks about murder and fairies??
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An invitation to a private community exclusively for Singing Bones students. We've created a BRAND NEW community space on Circle, and we think it's our best (and most intuitive) one yet. Use this space to discuss the lessons, share your favorite versions of the songs (and retellings!), AND, most importantly, connect with your fellow ballad enthusiasts. Our community is incredibly welcoming, so don't be afraid to jump in!
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Access to the course for at least 1 full year after enrollment (likely much longer, we haven't taken a course down yet!)
What We're Covering
WEEK ONE:
Fae Ballads
Our first week is devoted to laying scholarly foundations and conjuring the enchantment. We’ll hand you the folkloric keys to the songs: ballad structure and metaphor, the oral-formulaic method, and more. And we’ll delve into iconic fairy ballads like "Tam Lin" and "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight."
LIVE MEETING:
The Ballad Tea
Tuesday, November 4th at 7PM ET
(recording available within 24 hours)
Dig out your fanciest teacup and join us for a Ballad Tea, where we will introduce you to the history and folklore of the most famous ballad women, from real collectors and singers to the (sometimes also real) notorious women and murdered sweethearts of the ballads themselves.
WEEK TWO:
Haunted Ballads
Week two explores ballad history, including key figures like Sir Walter Scott, Francis James Child, and Cecil Sharp. You’ll also deepen your understanding of the major balladic themes entwined with the supernatural. Your playlist will expand to include ghosts and devils through ballads like "The Demon Lover" and "Riddles Wisely Expounded."
LIVE MEETING:
The Ballad Library
Tuesday, November 11th at 7PM ET
(recording available within 24 hours.)
Ballads have an immense role to play in contemporary literature - their influence didn’t end with the Romantics! In this live meeting, we’ll help you build your own ballad library, introducing you to some of the most influential novels that draw upon these songs, as well as some very new favorites. What makes a ballad novel work? What makes the songs shine with new light?
Recommended Reading: The Spirit Collection of Thorne Hall by J. Ann Thomas
WEEK THREE:
Murder Ballads
Sex and death. Romance and ruin. Betrayal and revenge. Week three is our deep dive into the massive subgenre of murder ballads, and accordingly we’ll be exploring how gender, social forces, and power shape these gristly tales. Ballads include "Matty Groves," "Edward," and “The Twa Sisters." Also, Taylor Swift.
LIVE MEETING:
The Ballad Performance
Tuesday, November 18th at 7PM ET
(recording available within 24 hours.)
INCREDIBLE SURPRISE, WE CANNOT WAIT TO TELL YOU, WE ARE BESIDE OURSELVES!
WEEK FOUR:
Romantic Ballads
Our final week examines the ballad boom of the Romantic period, when ballads and their literary adaptations exploded in popularity. How did poets like John Keats and Alfred, Lord Tennyson draw on fairy ballads? How can murder ever be capital-R Romantic? We'll study poems like "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" by John Keats, "Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe, and "The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes.
LIVE MEETING:
Ballad Eschatology
Tuesday, December 2nd at 7PM ET
(recording available within 24 hours.)
One part anatomy, one part magic, our final live meeting will explore the heart of the ballad. How are these ballads constructed – what parts make up the whole? What brings them to life and what keeps them haunting us generation after generation? As a community, we’ll pool what we’ve learned and lay the ballad to rest with a ritual.
Please note that there will not be a live meeting on Tuesday, November 25th due to American Thanksgiving.
Who's Behind This?
Hi! We're Dr. Sara Cleto and Dr. Brittany Warman. We’re 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, where we teach creative souls how to re-enchant their lives through folklore and fairy tales. We have two streaming series on The Great Courses+ and our first book, Fairylore, comes out from Hachette in 2026!
We’re also devoted cat minions, gif masters, obsessed with chai, and 100% B.F.F.s of more than a decade. We love red lipstick, decadent Gothic novels, and totally crush “Total Eclipse of the Heart” at karaoke.
We're total dorks about folklore, and the ballads we're talking about in this course are some of our all-time favs. We can't wait to share them with you!!
FAQ
"What's a ballad?" - You might be familiar with contemporary ballads, which are typically bombastic, sentimental, romantic songs, but traditional ballads are a lot more than that! Folkloric ballads are story-songs. They are told in short stanzas, passed down orally, and have been around for a very long time. They're also full of secret codes, supernatural motifs, and a whole lot o' murder.
"Um, what exactly is Carterhaugh?" - The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic is an award-winning online school created by two doctors of folklore and dedicated to classes on fairy tales, folklore, and all things fantastic. 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!
"When will I get the first lesson?" - You'll get 21 mini lectures M-F during the course, with the first one dropping on Halloween (October 31st!) You'll also get our spectacular live sessions on four Tuesdays (11/4, 11/11, 11/18, and 12/2) at 7PM ET - these are all totally different, from tea parties to live performances to book discussions to group rituals, and yes, they will be recorded if you can't make them live!
"What if I can't come to the live discussion?" - You do NOT have to watch the videos on any specific date, nor attend any live session, as they will all be recorded available for you to view later. We really aim to make this course accessible whenever is best for you!
Please note we are pausing from 11/24-28 during the week of American Thanksgiving. Use this week to catch up or unplug!
"Is this course only open to women?" Nope! People of all genders are welcome at Carterhaugh and in this course!
“I’m just a folklore fan. I don’t want to ruin my enjoyment with a bunch of academic stuff.” - Believe us, we’re just as passionate about the beauty and wonder of folklore, and we know that part of that wonder lies in their mystery. We will never tell you what a ballad “means." These tales are meant to be explored, meant to inspire personal meaning. We’ll give you folkloric history and context, 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. We're here to make things richer and more expansive, not to shut you down.
“Guys, I love this, but money is SO tight right now….” - Our school is an investment, it’s true, but it’s one you DESERVE. You are worth spending time and money on, and so is education. Plus, we're offering four different payment plans (along with Affirm, AfterPay, and Klarna through Teachable) to help you find an option that works. We know our community, scholarship, 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. We'll be there live with you each Tuesday, engaged in the Circle group, and always available via email!
As always, if you have additional questions at any time, don't hesitate to get in touch with us at [email protected]
Carterhaugh Has Been Featured In:
Enchanted Living Magazine, #FolkloreThursday, Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies, The Fairy Tale Magazine, The Washington Post, The Washingtonian, Haute Macabre, Once Upon a Blog, Speculating Canada, Folkwise, Smithsonian Magazine, DCist, History, and many more venues! We also have two streaming series on The Great Courses+, and our book, Fairylore, is forthcoming from Hachette in February 2026.
We were also the winner of the 2019 Dorothy Howard Award from the Folklore and Education Section of the American Folklore Society!
Okay, time for some real talk.
Our community - the students and friends and magic seekers that have found their way into our courses - have been the biggest surprise and the best part of Carterhaugh. It's not something we anticipated, but it's not an exaggeration to say that it's why we're still here, teaching courses online in a job that's better than anything we could have imagined. It's because of YOU.
If you want connection, if you want to hang out and learn in a low-key way with other wonderful people, this community is for you. If you love folklore, and you're looking for others who are enthusiastic, creative, imaginative, and kind, welcome home.
Carterhaugh grew from our love of fairy tales and our own friendship with each other. Carterhaugh is still here and thriving because of the what came after: our community.
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...
