Let us know what folktale you like the best!
Folktales are stories that are old and have been told over and over again for generations. They are a great way to learn about other countries. People often associate folktales with children's stories. However, they are not just for "children". Sometimes the folktales have happy ever after endings, but you also have people, animals, and things that die. They often teach a lesson. They are full of talking animals, knights, dragons, princes, princesses, hunters, dwarves, witches, and ghosts, just to mention a few. They are considered "traditional literature".
Below you will find a few folktales from Europe. All of these titles are electronic and all of them are available from the World of Tales website. Their folktales of Europe are divided into language families - Slavic, Celtic, Germanic, and Romanic. Just an FYI, Romanic refers to romance languages like Italian and French, this is not a misspelling of romance. (Lol) Feel free to use this site to explore folktales of other places and countries. Use the form in the column on the left to tell us what your favorite folktale is!
Photo by tamara_cox1 - License: CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
"The Celts were a group of tr
ibal societies in ancient Europe who spoke Celtic languages and had similar culture. Present day Celts live in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and small parts of France and England." (From World of Tales) One of their famous folk stories are the ones about King Arthur and his Knights. These stories were recounted over and over again and included Merlin, dragons, the sword in the stone, giants, the Round Table, and many more things you have probably heard about. Remember that many of our Appalachian ancestors, maybe your great, great, great, great, great grandparents came from Ireland and Scotland to settle the area. Click on the photo below to read the e-book The Legends of King Arthur and his Knights by Sir Thomas Mallory that was made more readable by James Knowles n Project Gutenberg. If you prefer the audiobook version, click here to listen to the stories. The audiobook can be downloaded on the Librivox app so you do not use too much data. Be sure to stop by the libraries for King Arthur stories written by many other authors. Your librarian will be able to help you find more to read on this topic. Enjoy!
The Germanic area of Europe as defined as people who speak the language that is Germanic in origin. This includes the countries of Germany, Denmark, Holland, Norway, and Sweden. You probably grew up listening and watching some of Grimm's Fairytales - think Cinderella, Snow White, and Hansel and Gretel. Other countries in this region also have some legends. One that you might be familiar with is Thor and his brother Loki! The following two stories come from the book Folk Lore and Legends: Scandinavian edited by Charles John Tibbet. You can click on the linked title to read the entire book on Project Gutenberg. Click on the images below to read the two stories on Thor and Loki that we selected. Click on the image on the left to access the audiobook version.
Romanic countries in Europe are countries whose language is based on ancient Latin. They are called romance languages. To identify countries that fall into this group think of countries that speak French, Italian, and Spanish. So the countries we are focusing on here are Spain, Portugal, Italy, Romania, and France. Many of us have heard folk tales from France, so we decided to focus on the collection of folk tales from Spain and Portugal called Tales From The Lands of Nuts and Grapes by Charles Sellers. To read the entire book, click on the cover or in the title above.
We selected two stories that you can also read from this collection - The Ingenious Student and King Robin. You can click on the linked titles to read them or you can click on the pictures below!
Our last language division is countries that speak Slavic languages. This includes countries such as Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia. In this collection of folk tales, The Russian Garland - Being Russian Folk Tales, there is everything from poverty to wealth, knights, dragons, and even Golden Eggs! We recommend starting with Story of the Duck with Golden Eggs and then, if you like a lot of fighting knights, read Story of the Knight Yaroslav Lasarevich and the Princess Anastasia.
