It is, in its earliest form, a spontaneous and instinctive endeavor to shape the facts of the world to meet the needs of the imagination, the cravings of the heart.Classics included in this volume include:One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes,The Magic Mirror,The Enchanted Stag,Hansel and Grethel,The Story of Aladdin,This Story of Ali Baba,The Second Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor,The White Cat,The Golden Goose,The Twelve Brothers,The Fair One With the Golden Locks,Tom Thumb,Blue Beard,Cinderella,Puss In Boots,The Sleeping Beauty In the Wood,Jack and The Bean-Stalk

    In them an assortment of animals, magical creatures, witches, giants, and children struggle for a life in which good overcomes evil. These fast-moving and adventuresome fantasies provide insight into the values and culture of native South American peoples. They stress the importance of close relationships, hard work, bravery, gentleness, and beauty, and contain colorful explanations of natural phenomena.A tale of three tails --The magic dog --The calabash man --Na-Ha the fighter --The humming-bird and the flower --The magic ball --El Enano --The hero twins --The four hundred --The killing of Cabrakan --The tale of the gentle folk --The tale that cost a dollar --The magic knot --The bad wishers --The hungry old witch --The wonderful mirror --The tale of the lazy people --Rairu and the star maiden --The cat and the dream man (less)

    Katharine Pyle's masterly retelling of well-loved folk tales from around the world.The Meester Stoorworm - A Story from ScotlandJean Malin and the Bull Man - A Louisiana TaleThe Widow’s Son - A Scandinavian TaleThe Wise Girl - A Serbian StoryThe History of Ali Cogia - From the Arabian NightsOh! - A Cossack StoryThe Talking Eggs - A Story from LouisianaThe Frog Princess - A Russian StoryThe Magic Turban, the Magic Sword and the Magic Carpet - A Persian StoryThe Three Silver Citrons - A Persian StoryThe Magic Pipe - A Norse TaleThe Triumph of Truth - A Hindu StoryLife’s Secret - A Story of BengalDame Pridgett and the Fairies

    Here are traditional tales about the trees and plants that shape our landscapes and our lives through the seasons. They explore the complex relationship between people and plants, in lowlands and uplands, fields, bogs, moors, woodlands and towns.Suitable for all ages, this is an essential collection of stories for anyone interested in botany, the environment and our living heritage.

    This magnificent book is a collection of stories, anecdotes, and legends from all six of the regions where celtic ways have persisted in the modern world.

    Folk tales and legends are an intrinsic part of English national culture—so which are the fairy tales from England? Rosalind Kerven presents an answer here, as she has revived the best of these tales for a new generation with more than a dozen classics rewritten to engage readers. The 15 stories include tales of giants, dragons, fairies, beauty-and-the-beast, and Arthurian romance. Each tale is linked with a specific place or county in England—for example, "The Dragon Castle" from Northumberland, "The Girl Snatched By Fairies" from County Durham, "The Princess and the Fool" from Kent, and "The Dark Moon" from Lincolnshire. The second half of the book has notes on each story relating where the history came from, its development, and short summaries of many related or similar stories.

    Mattotti's sweeping ink illustrations capture the terror and longing found in the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Gaiman crafts an original text filled with his signature wit and pathos that is sure to become a favorite of readers everywhere, young and old.

    They include stories of princes and princesses who have been transformed into animals, trolls, and maneating giants who possess magical powers, and good-hearted, clever young men and women, often poor and ridiculed, who eventually come away with wealth and love beyond measure.In addition to such well-known favorites as "Dapplegrim," "Katie Woodencloak," "Tatterhood," and "Legend of Tannhäuser," this collection also brings to light many gems difficult to find elsewhere. In "The Werewolf," a cruel stepmother thwarts a beautiful princess's marriage plans by transforming her fiancé into a hunted denizen of the forest. The hilarious "Such Women Are" proves the world is never without a sufficiency of fools, while "The Three Dogs" tells of a youth whose four-legged friends defeat a serpent with the nasty habit of devouring a town's young women. Among many other hard-to-find stories are "King Gram," "The Magician's Pupil," "The Outlaw," "Temptations," "The Widow's Son," "The Three Sisters Trapped in a Mountain," and "The Goatherd" (the inspiration for Washington Irving’s story of Rip van Winkle).These stories preserve the ancient myths of Western Europe that have been passed down from generation to generation, but aside from their importance as seminal folktales, they are simply good reading — full of passion and excitement, magic, mystery, and sheer storytelling power. Popular Tales from Norse Mythology will delight any student or admirer of myths and mythology.Excerpt:The Dasent family is believed to have been originally of French extraction, the name having been traced to an ancient Norman source. It has owned property in the West Indies since the Restoration, and is repre sented in the island of St. Vincent at the present day. Some of its members were amongst the earliest colonists in St. Christopher's at a time when that island and Martinique were held jointly by the French and the English; and the highest judicial and administrative offices in St. Christopher's, in Nevis, in Antigua, and, more recently, in St. Vincent itself were filled by Sir George Dasent's ancestors.

    That was before they burst upon my life as vibrant, luminous beings, permeating my art and my everyday existence, causing glorious havoc..." In the long-awaited sequel to the international bestseller "Faeries", artist Brian Froud rescues pixies, gnomes, and other faeries from the isolation of the nursery and the distance of history, bringing them into the present day with vitality and imagination. In this richly imagined new book, Brian reveals the secrets he has learned from the faeries-- what their noses and shoes look like, what mischief and what gentle assistance they can give, what their souls and their dreams are like.As it turns out, faeries aren't all sweetness and light. In addition to such good faeries as Dream Weavers and Faery Godmothers, Brian introduces us to a host of less well behaved creatures-- traditional bad faeries like Morgana le Fay, but also the Soul Shrinker and the Gloominous Doom. The faery kingdom, we find, is as subject to good and evil as the human realm. Brilliantly documenting both the dark and the light, "Good Faeries/Bad Faeries" presents a world of enchantment and magic that deeply compels the imagination.

    Out of alleys of Cairo and Bedouin tents, from the Moroccan laborers and Syrian peasants, this collection of 130 tales comes from Arab worlds from North Africa to the Holy Land.

    All the central characters are spirited females—decisive heroes of extraordinary courage, wit, and achievement who set out to determine their own fate. Some of their stories are comic, some adventurous, some eerie, and some magical. The Chicago Sun-Times writes: "A sparkling gathering of traditional, yet little-known, tales from all parts of the globe. The female characters. . . manage to outsmart, outdo, and over-power the villains with nerves of steel, cunning minds, and disarming senses of humor."

    Zvorykin left Russia after the Revolution and settled finally in Paris, where he found employment in the publishing house of H. Piazza. At some point in the 1920s, years after the Russia he knew had disappeared, he made the original of this book as a present for his employer, Louis Fricotelle. He translated four Russian fairy tales into French, writing them out in beautiful calligraphy and illustrating them on heavy vellum pages, which he then bound in red Moroccan leather embossed with Russian motifs. It was a gift of gratitude for a new life, celebrating all he valued and missed in the old.Fifty years later Andreas Brown of the Gotham Book MArt brought this luxurious manuscript to the attention of Jacqueline Onassis (who also edited In the Russian Style) and The Viking Press, where it was decided to issue the book in a format that would make it accessible to the public. All the splendid illustrations - vivid in color, detail, and not least of all, whimsy - are reproduced from the original art. The stories - The Firebird, Maria Morevna, The Snow Maiden, and Vassilissa the Fair - spiced with quintessentially Russian images and supernatural beings, are based on existing English translations that have been modified to preserve the flavor of Zvorykin's versions.

    This is the best known version of the original story that inspired Walt Disney’s classic and has been retold countless times and adapted for screen, stage, prose, and television.

    a form of children’s literature; they are, like fables, legends, and ballads, among the many forms of adult literature that children have adopted...The apparent artlessness of these simple stories is not easily achieved. It is, in fact, the product of an art perhaps older than the art of writing.”Thus write Alfred David and Mary Elizabeth Meek in their thoughtful introduction to a collection that ranges from the Grimm brothers' inimitable recreations of archetypal folktales to the modern prose charm of James Thurber's Many Moons. The appeal of the stories is wide and varied: the refined intelligence of Perrault, the wondrous imagination of Andersen, the descriptive power of Ruskin, the bittersweet melancholy of Wilde. These are but a few of the artists represented in this remarkably inclusive selection of works from Germany, Russia, France, Scandinavia, England, and America. Many are in new translations in the modern idiom and all testify eloquently to the unceasing vitality of this literary genre.

    Each grouping is introduced and annotated by Jack Zipes, the genre's reigning expert. Twenty illustrations accompany the texts. Criticism includes seven important assessments of different aspects of the fairy tale tradition, written by W. G. Waters, Benedetto Croce, Lewis Seifert, Patricia Hannon, Harry Velten, Siegfried Neumann, and Jack Zipes. Brief biographies of the storytellers and a Selected Bibliography are included.