Europe
Explore European fairy tales and folk narratives, from household tales and fairy realms to enchanted castles and difficult quests. The collection filters help distinguish Grimm, Celtic, Norse and other sources; their individual tellings can have very different audiences and endings.
150 stories are in this region right now.
See also: Turkey, Russia, Ancient Greece.
Norse Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body
Boots sets out to find his missing brothers; animal helpers and a captive princess lead him to the hidden egg containing a giant’s heart.
Norse Folk Tales
The Blue Belt
A beggar woman’s little boy secretly picks up a blue belt lying where two paths meet, and as soon as he ties it on, he feels strong enough to lift a hill.
Norse Folk Tales
Prince Lindworm
A childless queen is told to eat only one of two magic roses, but she eats both, and years later a great serpent blocks her son’s road demanding a bride.
Norse Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
Soria Moria Castle
Halvor leaves home by ship and frees three princesses from trolls, but a boast costs him the ring that could bring him back to Soria Moria Castle.
Norse Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
On a stormy autumn night, a great white bear taps on a poor farmer’s window and offers to make the family rich if the youngest daughter will go with him.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Wooing of Olwen
To win the giant’s daughter Olwen, young Kilhuch and King Arthur’s strangest champions must find a lost prisoner and hunt a terrible magic boar.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Tale of Ivan
Ivan takes three pieces of advice instead of three years’ wages, and each one saves his life, his friends or his good name on the long road home.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Vision of MacConglinney
A wandering scholar cures a king’s endless hunger by tying him up, eating in front of him and describing a dream of houses and boats made of food.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Story-Teller at Fault
A king’s story-teller who cannot think of a tale loses everything at dice to a lame beggar, and is whisked off to watch the stranger’s wildest tricks.
Celtic Folk Tales
The Story of Deirdre
Hidden from birth because of a dark prophecy, Deirdre falls in love with Naois, son of Uisnech, and flees with him from the king who means to marry her.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Story of the McAndrew Family
Seven foolish McAndrew brothers lose their cows, their gold and their land, field by field, to neighbours ready to cheat them, until only begging is left.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
The Sprightly Tailor
Dared to sew a pair of trews by night in a haunted church, a cheerful tailor keeps stitching while a huge, roaring thing rises bit by bit from the floor.