The Crimson Fairytales. Andrew Lang

       Andrew Lang

      The Crimson Fairytales

      36 Fairy Tales of Magic & Fantasy

      Published by

      Books

      - Advanced Digital Solutions & High-Quality eBook Formatting -

       [email protected]

      2020 OK Publishing

      EAN 4064066394950

Table of Contents

       Preface

       Lovely Ilonka

       Lucky Luck

       The Hairy Man

       To Your Good Health!

       The Story of the Seven Simons

       The Language of Beasts

       The Boy Who Could Keep A Secret

       The Prince And The Dragon

       Little Wildrose

       Tiidu The Piper

       Paperarelloo

       The Gifts Of The Magician

       The Strong Prince

       The Treasure Seeker

       The Cottager And His Cat

       The Prince Who Would Seek Immortality

       The Stone-Cutter

       The Gold-Bearded Man

       Tritill, Litill, And The Birds

       The Three Robes

       The Six Hungry Beasts

       How the Beggar Boy Turned into Count Piro

       The Rogue And The Herdsman

       Eisenkopf

       The Death Of Abu Nowas And Of His Wife

       Motiratika

       Niels And The Giants

       Shepherd Paul

       How The Wicked Tanuki Was Punished

       The Crab And The Monkey

       The Horse Gullfaxi And The Sword Gunnfoder

       The Story Of The Sham Prince, Or The Ambitious Tailor

       The Colony Of Cats

       How To Find Out A True Friend

       Clever Maria

       The Magic Kettle

      PREFACE

       Table of Contents

      Each Fairy Book demands a preface from the Editor, and these introductions are inevitably both monotonous and unavailing. A sense of literary honesty compels the Editor to keep repeating that he is the Editor, and not the author of the Fairy Tales, just as a distinguished man of science is only the Editor, not the Author of Nature. Like nature, popular tales are too vast to be the creation of a single modern mind. The Editor’s business is to hunt for collections of these stories told by peasant or savage grandmothers in many climes, from New Caledonia to Zululand; from the frozen snows of the Polar regions to Greece, or Spain, or Italy, or far Lochaber. When the tales are found they are adapted to the needs of British children by various hands, the Editor doing little beyond guarding the interests of propriety, and toning down to mild reproofs the tortures inflicted on wicked stepmothers, and other naughty characters.

      These explanations have frequently been offered already; but, as far as ladies and children are concerned, to no purpose. They still ask the Editor how he can invent so many stories—more than Shakespeare, Dumas, and Charles Dickens could have invented in a century. And the Editor still avers, in Prefaces, that he did not invent one of the stories; that nobody knows, as a rule, who invented them, or where, or when. It is only plain that, perhaps a hundred thousand years ago, some savage grandmother told a tale to a savage granddaughter; that the granddaughter told it in her turn; that various tellers made changes to suit their taste, adding or omitting features and incidents; that, as the world grew civilised, other alterations were made, and that, at last, Homer composed the ‘Odyssey,’ and somebody else composed the Story of Jason and the Fleece of Gold, and the enchantress Medea, out of a set of wandering popular tales, which are still told among Samoyeds and Samoans, Hindoos and Japanese.

      All this has been known to the wise and learned for centuries, and especially since the brothers Grimm wrote in the early years of the Nineteenth Century. But children remain unaware of the facts, and so do their dear mothers; whence the Editor infers that they do not read his prefaces, and are not members of