Episode 148: Dark Fae: Lamia
The folklore of lamia in a nutshell and how I reimagined it for my writing.
Written and narrated by Ronel Janse van Vuuren.
Copyright 2025 Ronel Janse van Vuuren — All rights reserved.
Learn more about lamia in folklore here.
Get the transcript here.
Learn more about the author and her writing here.
Music: Secrets by David Fesliyan (FesliyanStudios.com) and Dramatic Heartbeat by FesliyanStudios.com
Transcript
You’re listening to the Faeries and Folklore podcast by Ronel.
I’m dark fantasy author Ronel Janse van Vuuren. With over a decade of digging around in dusty folklore books, researching creatures of imagination that ignited my curiosity, I’m here to share the folklore in a nutshell and how I reimagined it for my writing in an origin of the fae.
This is the Faeries and Folklore podcast.
Hi, I’m your host Ronel Janse van Vuuren. You can just call me Ronel. In today’s episode, we’re continuing our exploration of the fae realm.
This episode is brought to you by my Dark Court Sisters book series. Available in ebook, paperback and audiobook. Three sisters. Three destinies. Three ways to destroy the world. Go to ronelthemythmaker.com/darkcourtsistersseries for more.
You can now support my time in producing the podcast (researching, writing and everything else involved) by buying me a coffee. This can be a once-off thing, or you can buy me coffee again in the future at your discretion. Go to buymeacoffee.com/ronel to support me.
We’re continuing our exploration of Dark Fae.
Today’s Faery: Lamia
Folklore in a Nutshell by Ronel
From Greek myth, Lamia was a Libyan queen who was seduced by Zeus. Hera, being the jealous wife she is, took Lamia’s children away. It’s not clear if she killed them in front of Lamia or not. But Lamia, in her grief, started killing the children of others. As her brutality grew, she lost her beauty and became phantom to be feared. The lamiae came later, as gorgeous women who seduced young men in order to eat them. Some legends say that the original Lamia gave birth to them.
According to a treatise on witches written by inquisitors in the 1400s, lamiae are evil fae with a bestial body and a human face. They apparently snuck into homes and ate infants.
Whether the lamia has the upper body of a woman and the bottom half of a snake, can turn into a human at will, or is a four-footed creature with odd body parts, it remains clear that she steals and eats children out of vengeance for what happened to the first Lamia, and thanks to Keats, is a seductive vampire type creature.
And now for my interpretation of the fae in an Origin of the Fae: Lamia
Singular: lamia. Plural: lamiae.
Lamiae are beautiful women when they are on the prowl. Men cannot help but feel protective towards them. Even when evidence stacks up that children have gone missing since this mysterious woman had arrived, the men won’t hear a wrong word against the lamia. Though they enjoy eating the pure flesh of children, they drain the life-force from men with a single kiss. They can turn into serpentine monsters while hunting. There is no way to save the victims of a lamia.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed this episode of the faeries and folklore podcast and that you’ve learned something new about faeries.
Remember that you can get a transcript of this episode in the description. If you’re new to the podcast, why not go and grab your free copy of Unseen, the second book in the Faery Tales series, on my website ronelthemythmaker.com? Loads of folklore, magic and danger await! Take care!
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No-one writes about the fae like Ronel Janse van Vuuren.