This week on myths and legends, there are two stories from Flemish folklore.

You'll meet Misery and see why she's still hanging around the world,

and on the second story, a career-oriented couple finds that they have something missing in their life and it's

not what you think. The creature this time is Batman with apparently very great legs.

This is myths and legends,

this is myths and legends, episode 371.

Stuck. episode 371, stuck.

This is a podcast where we tell stories from mythology and folklore.

Some are incredibly popular stories you might think you know, but with surprising origins.

Others are tales that might be new to you, but are definitely worth a listen.

Today's stories come from Flanders, a region in the north of Belgium, that's largely Dutch speaking,

and that's really where the cultural stuff ends for today's story.

These are mainly fairy tales, so historical context doesn't super matter and they're only loosely

situated in time and place. Today's stories though are about people who are

stuck. Some in a life where they haven't fulfilled their greatest desire,

some quite literally.

You'll see.

We'll jump in with misery,

a normal human woman who apparently

had very cruel parents. Misery, the elderly woman looked out on her apple tree. She never married, never had children. Her parents, the ones that

named her misery, well, they weren't the most attentive or caring or present. This apple tree was her joy. Nurtured since it was a sapling, the apple tree

loved her back too, yielding plump, juicy, sweet fruit every summer.

...