akorn - Mighty Old Tales Retold

The Frog King, or Iron Henry

In old times when wishing still helped one, there lived a king whose daughters were all beautiful, but the youngest was so beautiful that the sun itself, which has seen so much, was astonished whenever it shone in her face.

The Tale of the Bull and the Ass

...there was once a merchant who owned much money and many men, and who was rich in cattle and camels; he had also a wife and family and dwelt in the country, being experienced in husbandry and devoted to agriculture. Now Allah most high had endowed him with understanding the tongues of the beasts and the birds of every kind, but under pain of death if he divulged the gift to any.

The Tale of Scheherazade

In tide of yore and in time long gone before, there was a King of the Kings of the Banu Sasan in the islands of India and China, a Lord of armies and guards and servants and dependents. He left only two sons, one in the prime of manhood and the other yet a youth, while both were Knights and Braves, albeit the elder was a doughtier horseman than the younger.

Rushen Coatie

There was once a king and a queen, as many a one has been; few have we seen, and as few may we see. But the queen died, leaving only one bonny girl, and she told her on her deathbed: "My dear, after I am gone there will come to you a little red calf, and whenever you want something, speak to it, and it will give it you."

The Buried Moon

Long ago, in my grandmother's time, the Carland was all in bogs, great pools of black water, and creeping trickles of green water, and squishy tools which squirted when you stepped on them. 

The Three Wishes

Once upon a time, and be sure 'twas a long time ago, there lived a poor woodman in a great forest, and every day of his life he went out to fell timber. So one day...

The Old Witch

Once upon a time there were two girls who lived with their mother and father. The father had no work, and the girls wanted to go away and seek their fortunes.

Tattercoats

In a great palace by the sea there once dwelt a very rich old lord, who had neither wife nor children living, only one little granddaughter, whose face he had never seen in all her life.

My Own Self

In a tiny house in the North Countrie, far away from any town or village, there lived not long ago, a poor widow all alone with her little son, a six-year-old boy.

The Golden Ball

There were two lasses, daughters of one mother, and as they came from the fair, they saw a right bonny young man stand at the house-door before them. They never saw such a bonny man before them.