Polis Reading Edition
The Orange Fairy Book
edited by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford
Stories1906
- 1The Story of the Hero Makóma15 MinA child born on the banks of the Zambesi, who can already speak like a grown man and carries an iron hammer, is asked by his mother what he should be called.
- 2The Magic Mirror13 MinA hunter finds a python and an antelope locked together so tightly that neither can get free, and both beg him for help, though only the python promises a reward.
- 3Story of the King who Would See Paradise7 MinA king who finds it hard to believe in what he cannot see asks a holy man he meets in the mountains to show him a glimpse of Paradise.
- 4How Isuro the Rabbit Tricked Gudu13 MinA baboon who is setting off to court a bride wakes his best friend, a white rabbit, and tells him to pack some food and come too.
- 5Ian, the Soldier’s Son30 MinWhen a knight’s three daughters are carried off under the sea by a great beast, a soldier’s youngest son offers to bring them back within a year and a day.
- 6The Fox and the Wolf13 MinA wolf who has not had a proper meal in nearly a week finds a thin fox resting under a tree where two roads meet.
- 7How Ian Direach Got the Blue Falcon23 MinA king’s son whose father has remarried soon after his mother’s death comes home from a day’s hunting with nothing but a feather shot from a blue falcon.
- 8The Ugly Duckling23 MinA duck sitting on her first eggs by a Danish canal cannot think why the sixth egg is bigger than the other five and an ugly grey.
- 9The Two Caskets26 MinA woman in a pine forest sets her daughter and her stepdaughter to spin on the wall of a well, and says the one whose thread breaks first will be thrown to the bottom.
- 10The Goldsmith’s Fortune7 MinA goldsmith in a village of greedy people has one friend, a cowherd, whom he drags out walking every evening although the cowherd would rather rest after a day with the cattle.
- 11The Enchanted Wreath21 MinA man comes home from cutting wood in a forest without his axe, and his wife will not send her own daughter back into the dark to fetch it.
- 12The Foolish Weaver4 MinA farmer takes on a slow-witted weaver as his shepherd and shows him a big stone, telling him to throw stones like it at any wild animal that threatens the flock.
- 13The Clever Cat26 MinAn old man on his deathbed leaves his son nothing but a falcon, cat and greyhound, and tells him that if he uses them well he will never go hungry.
- 14The Story of Manus13 MinTwo princes share their dead father’s kingdom because the elder would rather hunt and fish than sit in judgement over his people.
- 15Pinkel the Thief22 MinA widow turns her two idle elder sons out of the house to find work, and her youngest son, whom they mock for doing the housework, goes with them.
- 16The Adventures of a Jackal13 MinA jackal and hedgehog who go everywhere together are stopped on the road by a panther, who admires the jackal’s shoes and politely asks who made them.
- 17The Adventures of the Jackal’s Eldest Son10 MinA jackal and hyena out walking together find a green cloak dropped on the plain and agree to share it, one wearing it by day and the other by night.
- 18The Adventures of the Younger Son of the Jackal7 MinA sheep lets a jackal she has never met flatter her into keeping house with him and drawing the water for his cornfields.
- 19The Three Treasures of the Giants21 MinA simple, kind-hearted boy sets out to seek his fortune with two elder brothers who have carried off all their mother’s food.
- 20The Rover of the Plain20 MinA young man turns down every wife his parents choose for him and sets out over the mountains to find one himself, though his parents warn him that whatever trouble comes of it will be his own fault and not theirs.
- 21The White Doe44 MinA childless queen weeping alone beside a waterfall is greeted by a talking crab, who offers to lead her to a fairy palace no mortal has ever seen.
- 22The Girl-Fish23 MinA spoilt girl doing her first job for her mother nets a talking fish, which warns her that if she kills it, she will become a fish herself.
- 23The Owl and the Eagle10 MinAn owl and eagle who share a house and want somebody else to do the sweeping come home one evening to find two strange girls asleep in their beds.
- 24The Frog and the Lion Fairy42 MinA king losing a war sends his young queen two hundred miles off to a dusty castle on the edge of a forest, and forbids her to step outside the walls without two soldiers at her side.
- 25The Adventures of Covan the Brown-haired27 MinA goat-herd’s daughter vanishes in a cold mist on a hillside by the sea, and no trace of her can be found.
- 26The Princess Bella-Flor18 MinA man comes home poor from years abroad to find his father dead and nothing left for him but an old wooden chest in the loft.
- 27The Bird of Truth24 MinA poor fisherman with eight children to feed pulls a crystal cradle out of the river with two babies inside, a boy and a girl.
- 28The Mink and the Wolf10 MinIn a forest where the animals are polite to one another and each is afraid of being eaten, a young wolf begs a mink to let him into its canoe.
- 29Adventures of an Indian Brave12 MinA hunter comes to a great river with his share of the hunt, and decides he will not carry his pack any further.
- 30How the Stalos Were Tricked16 MinA boy gathering sticks in a Lapland wood hides from a man twice as tall as his father, who wears a silver-handled knife at his belt.
- 31Andras Baive10 MinThe fastest man in a Lapland town has never lost a race, until word comes down from the mountains that a stranger nobody there has met is said to be faster still.
- 32The White Slipper26 MinA king who loves nothing in the world as much as his fifteen-year-old daughter has turned away every man who has asked to marry her.
- 33The Magic Book19 MinA sixteen-year-old boy setting out to find work meets an old man on a footpath, and neither will step aside for the other.