Online Talk: Macbeth: The Fairy Tale?

This talk replaces the notion that Macbeth is in the genre of “tragedy” (which means something very different to early moderns than it does to us) with the idea that it is a “fairy tale”, which its earliest review suggests it was understood by its original audience.

I look at how Shakespeare is using fairy narratives to construct his play, examining how the English of around 1600 would have seen fairies, and showing how the Weird Sisters would have been closer to ideas of fairies than of witches.

While I explore Macbeth in detail, this talk is not aimed at a Shakespeare specialist, but someone who is interested in how early modern Londoners understood the fairy world.

Tom Barnes has been a secondary school English teacher for 34 years, and has recently gained a Masters in Shakespeare Studies from King’s College London.

This talk is based on a chapter of a book he is working on, provisionally entitled What Your English Teacher Didn’t Tell You About Macbeth.

Every ticket sold helps to support the work of The Folklore Society.

Tickets £6.00 (£4.00 for Folklore Society members with the Promo Code–log in to https://folklore-society.com/members-only to get the Promo Code) from Macbeth: The Fairy Tale? Tickets, Tue, Apr 7, 2026 at 7:00 PM | Eventbrite

Image: File:Macbeth and Banquo encountering the witches - Holinshed Chronicles.gif - Wikimedia Commons