Part 2

TALES FROM THE NORSELAND Ashiepattle P. C. Asbjörnsen The Squire’s Bride P. C. Asbjörnsen The Doll in the Grass P. C. Asbjörnsen The Bear and the Fox P. C. Asbjörnsen The Lad Who Went to the North Wind Sir George W. Dasent The Husband Who Was to Mind the House Sir George W. Dasent How One Went Out to Woo Sir George W. Dasent Why the Bear is Stumpy-Tailed Sir George W. Dasent Boots and the Princess Sir George W. Dasent The Witch in the Stone Boat Andrew Lang

TALES FROM FRANCE, SPAIN, AND POLAND The Snuffbox Paul Sébillot The Golden Blackbird Paul Sébillot The Half-Chick Andrew Lang The Three Brothers Hermann R. Kletke The Glass Mountain Hermann R. Kletke

TALES FROM RUSSIA Huntsman the Unlucky John T. Naaké Story of Little Simpleton John T. Naaké The Golden Fish Lillian M. Gask

TALES FROM SERBIA The Wonderful Hair W.S. Karajich The Language of Animals W.S. Karajich The Emperor Trojan’s Ears W.S. Karajich The Maiden Who Was Wiser Than the King W.S. Karajich

AN IRISH TALE The Three Sons Lady Gregory

TALES FROM CHINA AND JAPAN Hok Lee and the Dwarfs Andrew Lang A Dreadful Boar Adele M. Fielde The Five Queer Brothers Adele M. Fielde The Accomplished Teakettle A.B. Mitford Adventures of Little Peachling A.B. Mitford

A TALE FROM NEW GUINEA The Two Lizards Annie Ker

A TALE FROM JAMAICA De King and De Peafowl Mary P. Milne-Horne

SOME OLD FAVORITES Hansel and Grethel W. and J. Grimm Thumbling W. and J. Grimm The Six Swans W. and J. Grimm Snow-White and Rose-Red W. and J. Grimm The Ugly Duckling Hans C. Andersen The Tinder-Box Hans C. Andersen The Constant Tin Soldier Hans C. Andersen The Fir Tree Hans C. Andersen The Flying Trunk Hans C. Andersen The Darning Needle Hans C. Andersen Pen and Inkstand Hans C. Andersen Cinderella Miss Mulock Little Red Riding-Hood Charles Perrault The Story of the Three Bears Robert Southey Puss in Boots Charles Perrault Jack the Giant-Killer Joseph Jacobs Tom Thumb Joseph Jacobs Blue Beard Charles Perrault The Brave Little Tailor Anonymous The Sleeping Beauty Charles Perrault The Fair One With Golden Locks Miss Mulock Beauty and the Beast Mme. d’Aulnoy Jack and the Beanstalk Anonymous Hop-o’-My-Thumb Joseph Jacobs The Goose-Girl Anonymous He Who Knew Not Fear Anonymous

THE FABLES OF ÆSOP The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse Æsop The Man, Boy, and Donkey Æsop The Shepherd’s Boy Æsop Androcles Æsop The Fox and the Stork Æsop The Crow and the Pitcher Æsop The Frogs Desiring a King Æsop The Frog and the Ox Æsop The Cock and the Pearl Æsop The Fox Without a Tail Æsop The Fox and the Cat Æsop The Dog in the Manger Æsop The Fox and the Goat Æsop Belling the Cat Æsop The Jay and the Peacock Æsop The Ass and the Lap-Dog Æsop The Ant and the Grasshopper Æsop The Woodman and the Serpent Æsop The Milkmaid and Her Pail Æsop The Lion and the Mouse Æsop Hercules and the Waggoner Æsop The Lion’s Share Æsop The Fox and the Crow Æsop The Dog and the Shadow Æsop The Wolf and the Lamb Æsop The Bat, Birds, and Beasts Æsop The Belly and the Members Æsop The Fox and the Grapes Æsop The Swallow and the Birds Æsop

ILLUSTRATIONS

HE OFTEN TREMBLED AT WHAT HE HEARD AND SAW, Manabozho the Mischief-Maker, Frontispiece illustration in color from the painting by Dan Sayre Groesbeck

WHILE THEY WERE STUPIDLY STARING, THE KETTLE BEGAN FLYING ABOUT THE ROOM, The Accomplished and Lucky Teakettle, From the painting by Warwick Goble

A VERY OLD WOMAN, WALKING UPON CRUTCHES, CAME OUT, Hansel and Grethel, From the painting by Arthur Rackham

THEN BLUE BEARD BAWLED OUT SO LOUD THAT HE MADE THE WHOLE HOUSE TREMBLE, Blue Beard, From the painting by Edmund Dulac

BEING INFORMED OF EVERYTHING BY A LITTLE DWARF WHO WORE SEVEN-LEAGUE BOOTS, Sleeping Beauty, From the painting by Edmund Dulac

PREFACE

There are some things in this world we can get along without, but, the experience of many thousand years has shown us that the fairy tale is not one of them. There must have been fairy tales (or fables, or folk tales, or myths, or whatever name we choose to give them) ever since the world began. They are not exclusively French, German, Greek, Russian, Indian or Chinese, but are the common property of the whole human family and are as universal as human speech.

All the world over, fairy tales are found to be pretty much the same. The story of Cinderella is found in all countries. Japan has a Rip Van Winkle, China has a Beauty and the Beast, Egypt has a Puss in Boots, and Persia has a Jack and the Beanstalk.

Those wise people who have made a careful study of literature, and especially of what we call folk tales or fairy tales or fables or myths, tell us that they all typify in some way the constant struggle that is going on in every department of life. It may be the struggle of Summer against Winter, the bright Day against dark Night, Innocence against Cruelty, of Knowledge against Ignorance. We are not obliged to think of these delightful stories as each having a meaning. Our enjoyment of them will not be less if we overlook that side, but it may help us to understand and appreciate good books if we remember that the literature of the world is the story of man’s struggle against nature; that the beginnings of literature came out of the mouths of story-tellers, and that the stories they told were fairy tales—imaginative stories based on truth.

There is one important fact to remember in connection with the old fairy tales, and that is that they were repeated aloud from memory, not read from a book or manuscript.

The printing of books from type may be said to date from the year 1470, when Caxton introduced printing into England. It is said that the first book printed in English which had the pages numbered was a book of tales, “Æsop’s Fables.”

As late as 1600 printed books were still so rare that only rich men could own them. There was one other way of printing a story—on sheepskin (split and made into parchment) with a pen—but that was a long and laborious art that could only be practiced by educated men who had been taught to write. The monks were about the only men who had the necessary education and time, and they cared more for making copies of the Bible and Lives of the Saints than they did of fairy tales. The common people, and even kings and queens, were therefore obliged to depend upon the professional story-teller.

Fairy tales were very popular in the Middle Ages. In the long winter months fields could not be cultivated, traveling had to be abandoned, and all were kept within doors by the cold and snow. We know what the knight’s house looked like in those days. The large beamed hall or living room was the principal room. At one end of it, on a low platform, was a table for the knight, his family, and any visiting knights and ladies. At the other tables on the main floor were the armed men, like squires and retainers, who helped defend the castle from attack, and the maids of the household.

The story-teller, who was sometimes called a bard or skald or minstrel, had his place of honor in the center of the room, and when the meal was over he was called upon for a story. These story-tellers became very expert in the practice of their art, and some of them could arouse their audiences to a great pitch of excitement. In the note that precedes the story “The Treason of Ganelon,” in the volume “Heroes and Heroines of Chivalry,” you can see how one of these story-tellers, or minstrels, sang aloud a story to the soldiers of William the Conqueror to encourage them as he led them into battle.

The fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm were first published in 1812. They spent thirteen years collecting them, writing them down as they were told by the peasants in Hesse, a mountainous province of Germany lying far removed from the great main roads.

Their friends helped them, but their best friend was the wife of a cowherd, a strong, intelligent woman of fifty, who had a perfect genius for storytelling. She knew she told the stories well, and that not many had her gift. The Grimms said that though she repeated a story for them three times, the variations were so slight as to be hardly apparent.

The American Indian stories of Manabozho the Mischief-Maker and his adventures with the Wolf and the Woodpeckers and the Ducks were collected in very much the same way by Henry R. Schoolcraft (1793–1864), the explorer and traveler, who lived among the Indian tribes for thirty years.