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.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
Connla and the Fairy Maiden
An invisible fairy maiden calls Prince Connla away to the Plain of Pleasure, and even the king’s Druid cannot break the longing she leaves behind.
Celtic Folk Tales
Conal Yellowclaw
Caught stealing the King of Lochlann’s brown horse, Conal Yellowclaw wins his three sons’ lives one by one by telling of the narrowest escapes of his life.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
Beth Gellert
Prince Llewelyn comes home to find his faithful greyhound Gellert covered in blood and his baby’s cradle overturned, and he acts before he knows the truth.
Celtic Folk Tales
Brewery Of Eggshells
A Welsh mother suspects her twins have been swapped for fairy changelings, and a wise man’s trick with an eggshell makes them reveal who they are.
Celtic Folk Tales
Andrew Coffey
Lost on a stormy night, Andrew Coffey shelters in a strange cabin where a voice demands a story, and a drowned neighbour appears with a blackthorn stick.
Celtic Folk Tales
A Legend of Knockmany
The giant Fin M’Coul dreads a fight with the mighty Cucullin, so his clever wife Oonagh disguises him as a baby and bakes iron griddles into the bread.
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Ages 9-12
Tom Thumb
No bigger than a thumb, Tom drives a cart from a horse's ear, slips through window bars, and rides home inside a hungry wolf.
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Ages 9-12
The White Snake
A servant tastes a king’s secret white snake, understands animals, clears his name, and wins a princess with help from fishes, ants, and ravens.
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Ages 9-12
The Willow-Wren and the Bear
A bear mocks the willow-wren’s nest as a wretched palace; bird and beast armies clash—until a hornet under the fox’s tail ends the war.
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Ages 9-12
The Water of Life
Three princes seek the Water of Life for their dying father; only the youngest asks the dwarf kindly—and still faces his brothers' envy.
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Ages 9-12
The Twelve Huntsmen
A princess and eleven look-alike friends disguise themselves as huntsmen to win back the young king who promised to marry someone else.
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Ages 9-12
The Valiant Little Tailor
A tailor swats seven flies, straps on “Seven at one stroke,” and bluffs his way past giants, a unicorn, and a boar to a crown.