For this month, I wanted to read fairy tales and folklore from other countries (aside from one that is New Orleans based but is about voodoo). I found the stories below through the World Mythology and Folklore website. As with the previous four months, I have no idea what these stories are about – the goal is simply to experience new writing. Feel free to read along!
- “The Vanishing Wife” from Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett
- “Story of the Tortoise and the Elephant”
- “A story about a chief” from Hausa Folk-Lore” by Maalam Shaihua (Translated by R. Sutherland Rattray) (Full disclosure – I’m severely arachnophobic, so “the origin of the spider” is definitely a step out of my comfort zone!)
- “The Dance for Water or Rabbit’s Triumph” from South-African Folk-Tales by James A. Honey
- “Tin City” from Drums and Shadowsby Georgia Writer’s Project
- “The Children are Sent to Throw the Sleeping Sun Into the Sky” from Specimen of Bushman Folklore by W.H.I. Bleek and L.C. Lloyd
- “Why Some Men are White and Some are Black” from Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett
- “Tiger Softens his Voice” from Jamaica Anansi Stories by Martha Warren Beckwith
- “The Last of the Voudoos” from An American Miscellany by Lafcadio Hearn
- “Buruldai Bogdo, No. I” from A Journey in Southern Siberia by Jeremiah Curtin
- “The Woman Who Married the Moon and the Ke’le” from Chukchee Mythology by Waldemar Bogoras
- “Story of Rostevan, King of Arabians” from The Man in the Panther’s Skin by Shot’ha Rust’haveli (Translated by Marjory Scott Wardrop)
- “The Brother and Sister” from Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignácz Kúnos
- “How the World was Made” from Philippine Folklore Stories by John Maurice Miller
- “The Cony Who Got into Bad Company” from Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton
- “The Island of Women” from Aino Folk-Tales by Basil Hall Chamberlain
- “Te Kanawa’s Adventure with a Troop of Fairies” from Polynesian Mythology & Ancient Traditional History of New Zealanders by Sir George Grey
- “Legend of Kana and the Rescue of Hina” from Hawaiian Mythology by Martha Beckwith (navigate to page 383)
- “The Samoan Story of Creation – A ‘Tala’” from Journal of the Polynesian Society
- “The Piper and the Púca” from Fairy and Folk Takes of Irish Peasantry edited and selected by W. B. Yeats
- “A Cure for Storytelling” (pg 333) from Russian Folk-tales (in translation) by A. N. Afanas’ev
- “The Flaming Horse” (pg 43) from Czechoslovak Fairy Tales retold by Parker Fillmore
- “The Good Ferryman and the Water Nymphs” (pg 51) from Polish Fairy Tales translated from AJ Glinski by Maude Ashurst Biggs
- “The Daughter of the Rose” from Roumanian Fairy Tales and Legends by E. B. Mawer
- “The Wicked Stepmother” (pg 113) from Serbian Folk-lore selected and translated by Madam Csedomille Mijatovies
- “Battle of the Owls” from Hawaiian Folk Tales by Thomas G. Thrum
- “The Thirteenth Son of the King of Erin” from Myths and Folk-lore of Ireland by Jeremiah Curtin
- “The Fairy Harp” from The Welsh Fairy Book by W. Jenkyn Thomas
- “The White Witch, or Charmer of Zennor” (Part One) from Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall, Vol I by William Bottrell
- “The White Witch, or Charmer of Zennor” (Part Two) from Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall, Vol I by William Bottrell
- “A Fairy Detected in Changing an Infant” from The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man by A. W. Moore