Polis Reading Edition
The Blue Fairy Book
edited by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford and G. P. Jacomb-Hood
Stories1889
- 1The Bronze Ring23 MinA gardener’s son whom a princess loves is sent on a lame horse to a distant country, racing a prime minister’s son on a fine one, and whichever comes back first will marry her.
- 2Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess16 MinAn enchanter in the shape of a cat curses a king with a son who will never be happy until he finds out that his nose is too long.
- 3East of the Sun and West of the Moon28 MinA great white bear knocks at a poor man’s window on a stormy Thursday night and offers to make the family rich if the man will give him his youngest daughter.
- 4The Yellow Dwarf49 MinA queen who has spoiled her only daughter cannot persuade the girl to marry any of the twenty kings who court her.
- 5Little Red Riding Hood4 MinA wolf on a forest path asks a child where she is going, and she tells him.
- 6The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood23 MinA king and queen invite seven fairies to be godmothers to their baby daughter, and an old fairy nobody invited arrives at the christening feast.
- 7Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper15 MinA man’s new wife and her two daughters make his own daughter scrub the dishes and sleep on straw in the attic, and the girl is afraid to tell her father.
- 8Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp33 MinA stranger who says he is a dead tailor’s long-lost brother starts buying presents for the tailor’s idle son.
- 9The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was23 MinA boy who cannot work out what people mean when they say something makes them shudder asks to be taught it, the way you would be taught a trade.
- 10Rumpelstiltzkin7 MinA miller’s daughter is locked in a room full of straw by a king who will put her to death at dawn unless she spins it into gold, which her father has boasted she can do.
- 11Beauty and the Beast45 MinA merchant ruined by fire and shipwreck is setting out for the town, and while his elder daughters ask him for jewels and dresses, the youngest asks for a single rose.
- 12The Master-maid38 MinA king’s youngest son takes work as a giant’s servant, under orders to clean out the stable and never to look into the rooms beyond his own bedroom, on pain of death.
- 13Why the Sea Is Salt11 MinA poor man with nothing to eat on Christmas Eve is given a whole ham by his rich brother, on condition that he carry it straight to Dead Man’s Hall.
- 14The Master Cat; Or, Puss in Boots11 MinA miller’s youngest son inherits nothing but a cat, and the cat asks him for a bag and a pair of boots.
- 15Felicia and the Pot of Pinks19 MinA poor girl whose father left her nothing but a silver ring and a pot of pinks lives with a brother who will not even let her sit on one of his stools.
- 16The White Cat39 MinAn old king who has no intention of giving up his crown promises it to whichever of his three sons brings him the most beautiful little dog within a year.
- 17The Water-lily. the Gold-spinners18 MinThree sisters spin gold thread in a hidden hut under one rule: never speak to a man.
- 18The Terrible Head23 MinA king who has been told that his daughter’s son will kill him locks his daughter in a prison of brass sunk deep in the ground, where she sees nothing but the sky.
- 19The Story of Pretty Goldilocks29 MinA young king falls in love with a princess he has never seen, from nothing but what people say about her, and sends an ambassador to bring her back as his bride.
- 20The History of Whittington17 MinAn orphan boy walks to London because he has heard its streets are paved with gold, and finds them covered with dirt.
- 21The Wonderful Sheep37 MinA king who reads a meaning into everything comes home from a war and asks his three daughters why they chose their dresses and what they dreamed the night before.
- 22Little Thumb23 MinThe smallest of seven brothers is the only one awake when their starving parents decide to lose all seven in a forest.
- 23The Forty Thieves22 MinA woodcutter hiding in a tree hears the two words that open a rock.
- 24Hansel and Grettel18 MinA boy fills his pockets with white pebbles the night before his parents take him into the wood.
- 25Snow-white and Rose-red15 MinOn a snowy evening, as a poor widow sits reading to her two daughters, a bear knocks at the door and asks to warm himself by their fire.
- 26The Goose-girl13 MinA princess rides off to marry a faraway prince on a horse that can speak, with three drops of her mother’s blood tucked into her dress.
- 27Toads and Diamonds6 MinA widow who dotes on her proud elder daughter makes the younger one fetch water twice a day from a spring a mile and a half away.
- 28Prince Darling29 MinA fairy offers to make a king’s son the handsomest, the richest or the most powerful prince in the world, and the king asks for a different gift.
- 29Blue Beard12 MinA very rich man with a blue beard cannot find a wife, because women run from the beard and nobody knows what became of the wives he has already had.
- 30Trusty John19 MinA dying king makes his servant promise two things, and the second one is to keep a single door in the castle shut.
- 31The Brave Little Tailor21 MinA little tailor who has killed seven flies at one blow decides that the whole world must hear about it.
- 32A Voyage to Lilliput44 MinA shipwrecked surgeon wakes on an unknown shore to find himself tied to the ground by people not six inches tall.
- 33The Princess on the Glass Hill23 MinEvery St John’s Eve a farmer’s hay is eaten to the ground in the night, and he tells his three sons that one of them must sleep in the barn and watch it.
- 34The Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou72 MinA sultan whose three sons all want to marry the same cousin sends them to different countries for a year, and promises her to whichever brings back the rarest object.
- 35The History of Jack the Giant-killer11 MinFor years a giant has waded ashore from St Michael’s Mount to carry off the livestock of Cornwall, and a bold Cornish boy decides to kill him.
- 36The Black Bull of Norroway10 MinThree sisters go in turn to an old witch to seek their fortunes, and each is told to watch the road from the back door until her fortune comes along it.
- 37The Red Etin12 MinA widow bakes her son one cake for the whole of his fortune-seeking, and offers him half of it with her blessing or the whole of it with her curse.