Old Pipes and the Dryad

Snoozecast

Tonight, for our monthly Snoozecast+ Deluxe episode, we’ll read the tale “Old Pipes and the Dryad” by Frank R. Stockton and published in 1894.

Stockton was a popular American writer best known for his whimsical and gently satirical fairy tales. His most famous story, “The Lady, or the Tiger?”, posed a famously unsolvable riddle and brought him wide acclaim. But many of his lesser-known tales, like tonight’s, are just as imaginative and charming. Stockton often gave mythological or magical elements a lighthearted twist, grounding them in everyday human kindness or folly.

In classical mythology, a dryad is a tree spirit or nymph—typically female—who is bound to a particular tree, often an oak. The Greeks believed dryads were shy and long-lived, emerging only when their tree was especially old or under threat. Over time, the dryad became a symbol of the forest itself—an embodiment of nature’s quiet, watchful presence.

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