Tales from the World's Firesides - Europe

This is the first in a two-volume collection of tales from Scandinavia. There is a clear and rich tradition of storytelling in the north, perhaps dictated by long winter nights and roaring fires. Whenever you read the sagas or pick-up on the wandering collections of Hans Christien Andersen and Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, amongst many others, you tap into a centuries old heritage wrapped in wonder-and-magic and outlandish heroism. In this, volume I've pulled together some of my favorite stories as told by Andersen, Asbjørnsen, Zacharias Topelius and Andrew Lang. The stories have been, drawn from Lang's Colored Fairy Books, Andersen's Fairy Tales, from The Birch and the Star, and Other Stories, and from Asbjørnsen collaboration on Tales from the Fjeld. As with the collections from the British Isles published recently, It's always a pleasure and never a chore to re-read and re-present these lovely stories.

This is the second in a two volume collection of tales from Scandinavia. There is a clear and rich tradition of storytelling in the north, perhaps dictated by long winter nights and roaring fires. Whenever you read the sagas or pick up on the wandering collections of Hans Christien Andersen and Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, amongst many others, you tap into a centuries old heritage wrapped in wonder and magic and outlandish heroism. In this second volume I've pulled together some more of my favourite stories as told by Andersen, Asbjørnsen, Zacharias Topelius and Andrew Lang. The stories have been drawn from Lang's Coloured Fairy Books, Andersen's Fairy Tales, from The Birch and the Star, and Other Stories, and from Asbjørnsen collaboration on Tales from the Fjeld. As with the collections from the British Isles published recently, It's always a pleasure and never a chore to re-read and re-present these lovely stories.

Continuing the theme of stories from northern lands, this volume concentrates on the Sagas from Viking isles, such as Iceland and The Faroe Isles. These forms are also known as family sagas, and were often told by the "skald" bards. For the most part these sagas take the form of prose narratives and are mostly based on historical events that took place in the 9th, 10th, and early 11th centuries. Many of these sagas are focused on history, especially genealogical and family history, and reflect the struggle and conflict that arose within the societies of the early generations of Island settlers. The stories in this volume are taken from various collections including Andrew Lang's Coloured Fairy Books, Jennie Hall's Viking Tales and Nora Kershaw's Stories and Ballads of the Far Past. They include original stories sourced from previous collectors such as Jón Árnason and collections such as Islandische Märchen and Neuisländischen Volksmärchen.

This volume of tales from the north concentrates on Finland. Many of these stories have their roots in the folklore of Finnish paganism, and they have many features shared with fellow Finnic Estonian mythology and other Uralic fables. Finnish folklore also shares some similarities with neighbouring Baltic, Slavic and to a lesser extent, Norse mythologies. Much of Finnish mythology survived within an oral tradition of mythical poem singing and folklore well into the 19th-century. One of my favourite aspects of Finnish mythology is the wonderful sense of darkness at its heart. These stories come from collectors such as Andrew Lang and his Coloured Fairy Books, the elusive R. Eivind's Finnish Legends for English Children and Zacharias Topelius and The Birch and the Star, and Other Stories. Most derive from legendary cycles such as the Song of the Kalevala and earlier collections such as the Lapplandische Märchen. As ever, my voyage of discovery through these stories has been a delight.

And so, we reach the final volume in this small collection of tales from the north. Originally, I intended to complete the series with the Finnish volume, but as ever, there were just too many fabulous stories in my archive to call such an immediate halt. In this volume, we have work collected by Jørgen Engebretsen Moe and Peter Christen Asbjørnsen taken from East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon and Norske Folkeeventyr, much of which I have adapted from George Webbe Dasent's translations in Popular Tales from the Norse and from Andrew Lang's Red Romance Book. Norse mythology is generally considered to be the body of myths of the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Norse paganism and continuing after the Christianisation of Scandinavia and into the Scandinavian folklore of the modern period. The northernmost extension of Germanic mythology, Norse mythology consists of tales of various deities, beings, and heroes derived from numerous sources from both before and after the pagan period, including medieval manuscripts, archaeological representations, and folk tradition. The collecting of generic Scandinavian folklore began when Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden sent out instructions to all of his priests in the 1630's to collect the folklore of their area. They collected customs, beliefs that were not, sanctioned by the church, and other traditional material. As a result, of their common Germanic origin, Scandinavian folklore shows a large correspondence with folklores elsewhere, such as England and Germany, among others. So, for the final time, from the winter lands of the north, I hope you enjoy these stories as much as I do.

John A. Crow explains it perfectly in Spain, The Root and the Flower, University of California Press, 1985: Spain was first called Iberia, a name given to it by its Iberian inhabitants (from North Africa). The name was supposedly based on the Iberian word for river, Iber. They reached Spain around 6000 BCE. When the Greeks arrived on Spanish soil around 600 BCE. they referred to the peninsula as Hesperia, meaning "land of the setting sun." When the Carthaginians came around 300 BCE. they called the country Ispania (from Sphan, "rabbit"), which means "land of the rabbits." The Romans arrived a century later and adopted the Carthaginian name of the country, calling it Hispania. Later, this became the present day Spanish name for the country, España. Thus, because of the Romans and their language, the rabbits won over the sunset and over the river. This collection contains stories either written by or collected by Rachel Harriette Busk, Charles Sellers, Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, Andrew Lang and by José Muñoz Escámez. Translations from Becquer are by Cornelia Francis Bates and Katherine Lee Bates. As ever it's been a delight to work on these stories, many of which I had not read before working through some of these original collections. There is a real flavour of the peninsular in these stories, reflecting as they do Spain and Portugal's long history of thought, religion and conflict. I hope you enjoy these stories.

Italian literature arguably, began after the founding of Rome in 753 BC. Latin literature was, and still is, highly influential in the world, with numerous writers, poets, philosophers, and historians, such as Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, Virgil, Horace, Propertius, Ovid and Livy. Much later, following in the footsteps of Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron, Italian Renaissance authors produced a number of important works such as Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. Giovanni Francesco Straparola and Giambattista Basile, who wrote The Facetious Nights of Straparola (1550—1555) and the Pentamerone (1634) respectively, printed some of the first known versions of fairy tales in Europe, examples of which appear in this collection. Later still, the Italian Romantic movement coincided with the Risorgimento, the patriotic movement that brought Italy political unity and freedom from foreign domination. Italian writers embraced Romanticism in the early 19th century. The time of Italy's rebirth was, heralded by the poets Vittorio Alfieri, Ugo Foscolo, and Giacomo Leopardi. The works by Alessandro Manzoni, the leading Italian Romantic, are a symbol of the Italian political struggle. As ever it's been a delightful journey wandering through Italy's famous cities and grand histories as I put this small collection together. I hope that you enjoy these stories too.

Mythology was at the heart of everyday life in Ancient Greece. Greeks regarded mythology as a part of their history, using myth to explain natural phenomena, cultural variations, traditional enmities and friendships. It was a source of pride to be able to trace the descent of one's leaders from a mythological hero or a god. Few ever doubted that there was truth behind the account of the Trojan War in the Iliad and Odyssey. Greek myths concern the origin and the nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the ancient Greeks' own cult and ritual practices. The Greek myths were initially propagated in an oral-poetic tradition most likely by Minoan and Mycenaean singers. Eventually the myths of the heroes of the Trojan War and its aftermath became part of the oral tradition of Homer's epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Two poems by Homer's near contemporary Hesiod, the Theogony and the Works and Days, contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths are also preserved in the Homeric Hymns, in fragments of epic poems of the Epic Cycle, in lyric poems, in the works of the tragedians and comedians of the fifth century BC, in writings of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic Age, and in texts from the time of the Roman Empire by writers such as Plutarch and Pausanias. The adaptations in this book come from the nineteenth century tradition of translation and interpretation from collectors, notably such as Andrew Lang and Charles Kingsley, amongst many others. As ever, it's been a delight and an education to read and work with these stunning texts. I hope you enjoy them too, for as the final line of The Golden Crab says, "And then they lived happily, and we, who hear the story are happier still."

The worlds of folklore and traditional storytelling are fascinating places to visit wherever the land or the people may be Tales from different regions are often, shaped by geography and by cultural and historical factors that have accumulated over the course of centuries. At their heart, though, is an ever, present desire to explain and understand the world and the experience of living in it day by day. The Balkan Peninsula is a region in South-Eastern Europe, and has a full and rich history and tradition where cultures have been mixing for at least 2,000 years and Slavic civilization has had an especially strong influence. The result is diverse and fascinating folklore with its own set of mythical beings and legendary heroes. One of the more common characters of Slavic mythology is the Samodiva. The Samodiva is a forest spirit in the shape of a beautiful woman who never loses her youthful looks. The Samodivi bathe in forest springs underneath the moonlight and sometimes make young bachelors from the nearby villages play the kaval (a wooden flute) for them. If a man steals a Samodiva's veil, she becomes an ordinary woman and has to be his wife, but will spend every moment she can, looking for her veil to regain her freedom, even if it means leaving her children behind.

It is, said that a particular feature of Romanian culture is the relationship between folklore and classical education and the arts. This is, in part, attributed to the rural character of Romanian life that has, produced an exceptionally vital and creative traditional culture. Romanian folklore tales were the main literary genre until the 18th century, being both a source of inspiration for literary writers and a traditional way of framing storytelling. Strong folk traditions have survived to this day due to that same rural character of Romanian communities. Romania's rich folk traditions have beenm nourished by many sources, some of which predate the Roman occupation. The adaptations in this book come from the nineteenth century tradition of translation and interpretation from a variety collectors and collections. These include tales from Andrew Lang's Fairy Books, translations of older tales by Lucy Byng in Roumanian Stories, tales collected by Mite Kremnitz in Roumanian Fairy Tales, and Carmen Sylva's (the then Queen of Romania), Legends from River & Mountain. Truth be told these are some of the most engaging stories that I've read for a long time. That tradition, that vitality, really shines through in these traditional tales, and I'm sure, like me, you will fall just a little bit in love with some of these wonderful characters.

Folklore & Fairy Tales from the Magyars (Hungary) - Here we have a rich mine of folk and fairy tales from the Magyar tradition. I've taken the following extract from Wikipedia as a starting point for this introduction... "According to András Róna-Tas the locality in which the Hungarians, the Manicha-Er group, emerged was between the Volga river and the Ural Mountains. Between the 8th and 5th centuries BC, the Magyars embarked upon their independent existence and the early period of the proto-Hungarian language began. Around 830 AD, when Álmos was about 10 years old, the seven related tribes, namely Jenő, Kér, Keszi, Kürt-Gyarmat, Megyer Nyék and Tarján formed a confederation in Etelköz, called "Hétmagyar" ("Seven Magyars"). Their leaders, the Seven chieftains of the Magyars, besides Álmos, included Előd, Ond, Kond, Tas, Huba and Töhötöm, who took a blood oath, swearing eternal loyalty to Álmos... " In a simple context, therefore, we have a long Magyar history and a deep well of tales and lore from which to draw.

Tales From Germania, as with the collection of stories from France, Tales From Gallia, concentrates on those lesser, known stories from the Brothers Grimm alongside other collectors such as Andrew Lang, Margaret Arndt and Logan Marshall. I also found some interesting but unattributed tales to add to the mix. Although the stories told by the brothers and Andrew Lang have become old and familiar friends, I have to say that the stories told by Margaret Arndt have been an absolute delight to read. They are as fresh and light, and compelling, now as ever they were, when first written. Discovering Margaret's story-telling genius has been a highlight of the summer so far.