Original
The Pink Fairy Book
edited by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford
Stories1897
- 1The Cat’s Elopement7 MinTwo cats fall in love under a cherry tree, but they belong to different owners and neither owner will sell.
- 2How the Dragon was Tricked9 MinA young man has been tied to a tree and left to starve by his jealous elder brother, when a humpbacked shepherd passes with his flock.
- 3The Goblin and the Grocer9 MinA goblin lives in a grocer’s shop for the dish of jam he is given every Christmas Eve, while upstairs in the attic lives a student who owns nothing at all.
- 4The House in the Wood10 MinA woodcutter’s daughter lost in the forest at night asks for a bed at a house where an old man puts the question to his cock, his hen and his brindled cow.
- 5Uraschimataro and the Turtle10 MinA small turtle caught in a young fisherman’s nets begs for its life and promises to repay him if he lets it go.
- 6The Slaying of the Tanuki11 MinA peasant has made friends with a hare, and a quarrelsome Tanuki keeps eating or trampling the food he puts by for his friend.
- 7The Flying Trunk10 MinA young man who has spent his whole inheritance is sent an old trunk with a note reading 'Pack up!', and he has nothing left to put in it.
- 8The Snow Man11 MinA snow-man one day old, with two pieces of slate for eyes and an old rake for a mouth, learns what the world contains from a chained dog who has been in the yard longer.
- 9The Shirt-Collar5 MinA shirt-collar grown old enough to think about marrying finds himself in the wash-tub beside a garter, and asks her name.
- 10The Princess in the Chest28 MinA king gives his childless queen one year to bear an heir, and the cure a wise woman brings carries a condition: neither parent may set eyes on the child until she is fourteen.
- 11The Three Brothers4 MinA father with one house and three sons he loves equally sends them out to learn trades, promising it to whichever of them comes home with the best masterpiece.
- 12The Snow-queen41 MinSplinters of a hobgoblin’s mirror that shrinks everything good and magnifies everything ugly are blowing about the world, and in a crowded town two poor children who love each other like brother and sister grow roses outside their attic windows.
- 13The Fir-Tree19 MinA small fir-tree with plenty of sun and air in a wood can think of nothing but growing taller, and is annoyed when children sit down beside it and call it pretty.
- 14Hans, the Mermaid's Son28 MinA poor village smith with many children and little trade goes missing at sea for three days, and comes home with a full boat and nothing to explain it but a fog.
- 15Peter Bull12 MinA rich farmer and his wife with no child to inherit their farm grow so fond of a bull-calf that the farmer wonders whether their parish clerk could teach it to talk.
- 16The Bird 'Grip'21 MinA king goes blind, and the only cure anybody can name is the song of a bird that belongs to another king and is guarded as his greatest treasure.
- 17Snowflake8 MinA childless old couple watching their neighbours’ children build a snow woman in the street decide to make a little snow child of their own.
- 18I know what I have learned8 MinA man whose three daughters are all married to trolls living underground sets out with some dry bread to pay them a visit.
- 19The Cunning Shoemaker16 MinA shoemaker so poor that he and his wife are nearly starving tries his luck in the next town, calling through the streets for shoes to mend.
- 20The King who would have a Beautiful Wife6 MinA king who will marry nobody less beautiful than the sun sends a trusted servant to search the whole country for a girl fair enough to be queen.
- 21Catherine and her Destiny11 MinA rich merchant's daughter is asked by a stranger with a little wheel whether she would rather have a happy youth or a happy old age.
- 22How the Hermit helped to win the King's Daughter17 MinA king promises his daughter to whoever can build a ship that sails on land as well as sea, and the eldest of three brothers sets out to build it and turns away every old man and boy who asks for work.
- 23The Water of Life13 MinThree brothers and their sister work until they can build themselves a palace, and an old woman tells them it still needs a church.
- 24The Wounded Lion13 MinA girl with nothing takes work as a cowherd, and out in the meadow she hears a groan that sounds almost human.
- 25The Man without a Heart13 MinSeven orphan brothers, tired of keeping their own house, agree that six will go out into the world and bring back a bride each, and one for the brother who stays behind.
- 26The Two Brothers20 MinTwo brothers so poor they live on the fish they catch haul in a tiny fish, and it begs them not to eat it.
- 27Master and Pupil5 MinA boy who likes nothing better than reading goes out to look for work, and a man he meets on the road asks him whether he can read.
- 28The Golden Lion10 MinA rich merchant's eldest son sails off to see the world and lands in a town where a notice offers the king's daughter to any man who can find her, and the head of any man who cannot.
- 29The Sprig of Rosemary13 MinA girl sent out for firewood stops to pull a sprig of rosemary for herself, and the plant will not come out of the ground.
- 30The White Dove14 MinTwo brothers caught in a storm are offered their lives by an old woman sitting in a dough-trough, and the price she names is a brother who has not been born yet.
- 31The Troll's Daughter21 MinA boy looking for work agrees to serve a stranger for three years for good wages, on the one condition that he obeys every order, however strange.
- 32Esben and the Witch26 MinEleven sons are given fine white horses and money to go and seek their fortunes, and the twelfth is given nothing.
- 33Princess Minon-Minette26 MinA princess so light that her equerries walk her on strings is proposed as a wife to a young king who has never been taught anything at all.
- 34Maiden Bright-eye13 MinA girl sent out to pull heather on the moor, with pancakes mixed with ashes for her dinner, finds she has been pulling the roof off somebody’s house.
- 35The Merry Wives8 MinThree wives who have never agreed which of their husbands is the stupidest settle it with a wager the week the tavern puts up the price of their Sunday half-pint.
- 36King Lindorm26 MinA queen who has longed for a child for years is promised two sons if she carefully peels and eats two red onions.
- 37The Jackal, the Dove, and the Panther9 MinA dove nesting high on a rock with her three young is told by a jackal below that he will eat them all unless she throws him one.
- 38The Little Hare25 MinA woman tells her husband that if he loves her as much as he says he does, he will bring her the liver of a nyamatsané for her dinner.
- 39The Sparrow with the Slit Tongue10 MinA kind old man keeps a sparrow he saved from a raven, in a mountain cottage he shares with a wife who is jealous of the bird.
- 40The Story of Ciccu33 MinThree sons too poor to feed their father carry him into the forest on their backs, so that he can cut sticks while they sell the bundles in town.
- 41Don Giovanni de la Fortuna9 MinA man who has spent all his father’s money is begging on the road when a handsome stranger stops him and asks whether he would like to be rich.