Original
The Brown Fairy Book
edited by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford
Stories1904
- 1What the Rose did to the Cypress85 MinA princess will marry any man who can tell her what the rose did to the cypress, and every suitor who cannot ends up on the battlements of her father’s citadel.
- 2Ball-Carrier and the Bad One18 MinIn two hunters’ huts deep in a forest, the children may not stray from the door, because a witch who lives by a great river steals children with a glass ball that stays just out of reach of whoever chases it.
- 3How Ball-Carrier finished his Task15 MinA man who cannot find his way home has married a girl who took him in, and her sister, a witch, wants to kill him.
- 4The Bunyip8 MinYoung men out getting food for their camp have stopped to fish at a set of summer pools, and one of them has secretly baited his hook with raw meat.
- 5The Mermaid and the Boy26 MinA king whose ship is stuck fast on a rock in a rising wind is offered a way off by a mermaid, if he will give her the first child born to him.
- 6The Prince and the Three Fates24 MinFairies at a new-born prince’s cradle tell his father that the boy must die by a crocodile, a serpent or a dog, and that they cannot prevent it.
- 7Rübezahl31 MinA gnome who rules a kingdom of treasure chambers under the earth wants to make friends with the people who have cleared his forests and built cottages on his hills.
- 8The Knights of the Fish16 MinAn old cobbler who cannot feed his wife however hard he works has gone fishing with a borrowed rod, and has given himself one more day to catch a fish before he hangs himself.
- 9Father Grumbler18 MinA man with nearly as many children as there are sparrows in the garden, who abuses everything and everybody and is called Father Grumbler for it, sets off to ask a holy man why the luck all goes to other people.
- 10The Story of the Yara18 MinA young man, newly engaged, bathes every night in a forest pool by a great river, and one night he hears a voice singing there with nobody in sight.
- 11The Cunning Hare7 MinA hare too young to work and a grandmother too old for it often go hungry and have no fire to cook with, and the hare asks if he may go down to the river for a fish.
- 12The Turtle and his Bride10 MinA turtle who has built himself the most comfortable hut for miles around goes looking for a wife among the young women of a large riverside camp.
- 13How Geirald the Coward was Punished18 MinA poor knight's son is offered a journey abroad at a rich friend's expense, on one condition: that whatever adventures they meet, the honour of them is the friend's.
- 14Hábogi11 MinAsked what her husband’s name must be, the youngest of three daughters hears herself promise to marry a man called Hábogi, a name nobody in her family has ever heard.
- 15How the Little Brother set Free his Big Brothers16 MinThree brothers bring home the day’s hunting to a father who answers every kill with a bigger number out of his own young days.
- 16The Sacred Milk of Koumongoé17 MinA boy refuses to drive the cattle out to grass until his sister gives him a drink from the one tree they are both forbidden to touch.
- 17The Wicked Wolverine12 MinA wolverine out walking on a hillside meets a large rock and insists that he has seen it walking about.
- 18The Husband of the Rat's Daughter6 MinA pair of well-born rats in Japan have a daughter everyone admires, and her mother has decided that no rat alive is good enough to marry her.
- 19Pivi and Kabo10 MinOn an island where birds were men, a game of slinging stones leaves one player with a broken leg, floating downriver inside a hollow bamboo.
- 20The Elf Maiden14 MinIn a far-northern village where the winter is almost all night, two young men are in love with the same girl, and one of them is beginning to see that she prefers the other.
- 21How Some Wild Animals became Tame Ones9 MinA rich miller invites the wild animals of the hills and woods to his wedding, and every one of them, flattered, promises to come.
- 22Fortune and the Wood-Cutter6 MinA wood-cutter who has got up at five every morning for twenty years and is no richer than when he started decides to stay in bed and see whether Fortune will come to him instead.
- 23The Enchanted Head15 MinAn old woman on her way to sell her veils knocks against a human head lying on the bridge, and it speaks to her.
- 24The Sister of the Sun33 MinTwo boys shooting arrows together bring down a golden hen's tail feather, and neither can prove whose arrow it was in.
- 25The Fox and the Lapp23 MinA fox lying bored at the mouth of his hole watches an empty road and wonders what would happen if he pretended to be dead.
- 26Kisa the Cat12 MinA queen with no child tells her cat that a cat with a kitten is better off than she is, and the cat says she will see what can be done.
- 27The Lion and the Cat15 MinA lion who fears only bears and snakes shares a hut with his younger brother, a wild cat who carries a golden ball that can kill either at a word.
- 28Which was the Foolishest?10 MinTwo wives who live side by side cannot agree whose husband is the more foolish, and decide to settle it by experiment.
- 29Asmund and Signy10 MinA brother and sister have two great oak trees hollowed out and furnished, and move into them.
- 30Story of the King who would be Stronger than Fate32 MinAn old hermit sits by a mountain stream dropping leaves into it two at a time and watching which ones the current takes, and a king who has lost his way at dusk and stumbled on him wants to know what the leaves say about his baby daughter.
- 31Story of Wali Dâd the Simple-hearted22 MinAn old grass-cutter who has saved a halfpenny a day for years sits over his heap of coins and cannot think of a single thing he wants.
- 32Tale of a Tortoise and of a Mischievous Monkey34 MinIn a forest so deep that hardly any people come there, a young tortoise who has just left home is looking for somebody to test his strength against.