Nature & Animals
Talking animals, enchanted landscapes and stories explaining natural features appear in this theme. Animal characters may act like people, while a legendary origin may carry symbolic meaning. Read them as stories and use the source notes to distinguish a tale’s explanation from a factual claim about wildlife or the natural world.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Voyage of Bran
A silver branch and a stranger’s song call Bran across the sea to the Land of Women, but the journey home holds a terrible surprise for his crew.
Aesop's Fables
Ages 6-8
The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
A wolf hides in a sheepskin to slip into the flock, but the disguise works too well when the shepherd reaches into the fold for meat.
Southeast Asian Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
Sang Nila Utama and the Lion of Singapura
A prince from Bintan sails toward the white sands of Temasek, throws his crown into a storm to save his ship, and meets a strange beast said to be a lion.
Chinese Folk Tales
All Ages
The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea
The Eight Immortals ride across the ocean on a crutch, a fan, a paper mule and more, until a greedy dragon prince steals a musical instrument and starts a war.
Norse Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
Ragnarok: The Twilight of the Gods
Wars and a winter without summers precede Ragnarok; the gods face their last battle, and afterward a green earth rises with survivors and memories of the old world.
Norse Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Creation of the World from Ymir’s Body
In the beginning there was only fire, ice and a great yawning gap, until a giant grew out of the melting frost and the gods shaped the world from his body.
Norse Folk Tales
The Mead of Poetry
Two jealous dwarfs brew a magic mead that turns anyone who drinks it into a poet, and Father Odin sets out in disguise to win it from the giants.
African Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Girl Who Could Not Be Eaten
Proud Untombinde bathes in the forbidden Ilulange pool, refuses to beg the bearded monster that lives there, and is swallowed with a whole country.
Aesop's Fables
Ages 3-5
The Ant and the Grasshopper
On a winter day a hungry grasshopper asks ants for grain. Their question about her summer singing leads to a sharp answer about winter dancing.
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Ages 9-12
Rapunzel
Given away through her father's bargain, Rapunzel grows up in a locked tower, plans an escape and later reunites with the prince through her familiar voice.
Celtic Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Selkie Wife
A Shetland man hides the sealskin of a sea-maiden so she must stay and marry him, until one of their children finds the skin hidden behind a corn stack.
African Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
Why the Sun and Moon Live in the Sky
The sun builds a huge compound so his friend the water can visit, but the water and all his creatures keep pouring in until there is no room left on earth.