European folktales

Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland by Sorche Nic Leodhas

Thu, 08/16/2012 - 00:00 | Virginia Johnson
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Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland by Sorche Nic Leodhas

In the far-off days when the Picts and the Scots were dividing the ancient land of Scotland and fighting amongst themselves to decide who could get hold of the most of it, there came good men from over the seas to settle the land.

--“The Drowned Bells of the Abbey”

Firelight and drumbeat were the original backdrop for these tales, true and added to and some imagined altogether, that are retold in Sorche Nic Leodhas’ award-winning book, Thistle and Thyme.

Finn McCool and the Great Fish

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By Eve Bunting

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Irish giant Finn McCool is told that in order to become wise he must catch and eat the salmon that possesses knowledge, but Finn finds that he cannot bring himself to kill the miraculous fish.
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Stories of Hope and Spirit: Folktales from Eastern Europe

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By Dan Keding

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Twelve folktales from Eastern Europe are introduced:

The best wish (Croatia) -- The most precious gift (Turkey/Croatia) -- The first story (Georgia) -- The tsar's ears (Serbia) -- Strawberries in winter (Slovakia) -- The prince who married a frog (Croatia) -- The three brothers and the pot of gold (Moldavia) -- One man's trouble (Latvia) -- The enchanted princess (Russia) -- The old traveler (Estonia) -- How a rich man learned a lesson (Chechnia) -- Nail soup (Croatia) -- Telling the tales.

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Wonder Tales

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By Marina Warner

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Marina Warner introduces this collection of six seventeenth-century French fairy tales with an explanation of how the literary form was invented by French aristocrats during the reign of Louis XIV. Gilbert Adair, John Ashbery, Ranjit Bolt, A. S. Byatt and Terence Cave have written elegant transalations of “The White Cat”, “The Subtle Princess”, “Bearskin”, “The Counterfeit Marquis”, “Starlight” and “The Great Green Worm."
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