1. The Cat's Elopement: Two cats are in love and want to marry, but their owners won't let them, so they run away but are separated again when the cat is adopted by a princess after he kills her snake-suitor. Then the cats are reunited and live happily ever after. Being a cat is tough.2. How the Dragon was Tricked: Some dude hates his brother (for a good reason, as we find out), so he ties the guy to a tree (the parents are either dead or don't care). A hunchbacked shepherd sees the guy and asks what happened. The guy tells him it's how he cured his hunched back, so the shepherd wants to try it too. He unties the guy, gets tied to the tree, and watches as his sheep get stolen. In a few years the guy gets really famous for his tricks, and the king arrests him but offers a pardon if he steals the dragon's horse, then his bedspread (which gets the dragon's wife killed), then the dragon himself (which gets the king killed). Then the guy marries the king's daughter and takes over. The dragon vanishes due to plot conveniences. TL;DR: con your way to the top.3. The Goblin and the Grocer: Goblin lives with a grocer and gets paid in butter, but falls in love with poetry being read by the student. He wants to work for the student, but can't give up the security that comes with the grocer. The moral is that you have to feed both body and soul, and the security of the body often takes priority.4. The House in the Wood: Dude has three daughters. He goes woodcutting and wants them to bring him lunch by following his crumb trail. Naturally all daughters get lost. The first two find a house in the woods, enter, see an old dude and three animals. He asks them to make dinner, so they do, but they don't feed the animals. The girls then go to sleep and the dude throws a switch and they fall into the dungeon. But the third daughter feeds the animals first, so when she wakes up she's in a palace and the animals are human and the old dude is a hot prince. Apparently here was a spell, she broke it, marriage time. It's Beauty in the Beast + Hansel and Gretel, but with less cannibalism. And Beauty and Beast got to know each other better, kidnapping and all. P.S. don't make trails out of edibles!5. Uraschimataro and the Turtle: Uraschimataro saves a turtle, and a few years later it saves him back and takes him to a magical sea palace where he and the sea princess fall in love. One day he starts missing his parents, so he asks to go back, but the princess tells him that he shall never see her again. He still wants to go, so she gives him a box and tells him not to open it. When he gets back on land it's been 300 years and he doesn't recognize anything. In a moment of fear, or madness, or despair, he opens the box and the years catch up with him. He tells his story and dies. The story ends by saying that he gave up the princess because his love for his parents. We don't know much about his parents, only that they loved him, but he obviously lost all ties to humanity and didn't know what to do.6. The Slaying of the Tanuki: Tanuki likes fucking with this one peasant who's friends with a rabbit. One day the peasant catches the Tanuki and plans to kill it, but the Tanuki tricks the farmer's wife into letting him go. He then kills her, cooks her, and pretends to be her while the peasant eats her. He reveals his trick and the peasant is devastated. The rabbit plays a trick on the Tanuki as revenge, but it's not enough, so they kill Tanuki. And then they live happily ever after. Cannibalism, murder, and platonic cohabitation with your BFF rabbit who helped you avenge your wife's death FTW?7. The Flying Trunk: A merchant's son spends all his inheritance, but one of his friends conveniently gives him a magical trunk he just happened to have? The merchant's son flies to Turkey and seduces the princess whom he tells he's a god. She agrees to marry him, and then he wins over her parents by telling them a story where all the kitchen things are having a contest? The same night he puts on a fireworks show, but a spark burns his trunk and he doesn't go to marry the princess. Instead he travels and tells stories, while the princess waits for him and pines? Whatever dude, no sympathy.8. The Snow-Man: he's newly built and gets told about life by the yard dog, whose tragic back-story we learn. Then the snowman falls in love with the stove. We find it's because at his core he was a broom used to clean out the stove. In the long run none of this matters.9. The Shirt Collar: the moral of this story is about god's judgment of our souls and how he'll know all about our lives, so we better be good. But really it's about a douche dude-bro who was harassing women and got what he deserved.10. The Princess in the Chest: king and queen have no babies and king blames queen, though obviously he doesn't know how babies are made. He tells the queen that he'll be back in a year, and if there's no baby by then, he'll get another wife. Queen goes to a witch(?) who tells her to eat a magical plant that will give her a daughter. But the daughter cannot be seen by anyone but a special nurse for 14 years. The king breaks that condition, and the princess dies. Before she dies she makes the king promise to put her in a wooden chest in the church and have someone watch over her every night. Every morning after that the watchers are nowhere to be found. Then Christian the smith comes by, and gets drunk enough to accept the job. He tries running away the first night, but is stopped by a little man who tells him how to survive the night. This happens two more times until finally the princess is free of the curse and they get married.But who's the little man? And why is it later implied that Christian imagined the whole thing in a drunken stupor? And the princess is 14, and possibly half magical plant. Don't drink and drive.11. The Three Brothers: whichever was the best at his trade would inherit the house, except they were all masters and they all liked each other, so they all lived together happily ever after and were buried in the same grave the end.12. The Snow Queen: ladies helping each other, what's not to like? I think I'd love to read a long retelling, where we get the detailed version of Gerda's journey and Key's stay with the queen. Also, the Queen isn't the villain in this, she's just a powerful natural force. The villain is that little goblin with the mirror.13. The Fir-tree: the tree wants to grow up, so it doesn't notices the beauty around it. It gets cut down and used for Christmas, which is the happiest night of its life. Then it's promptly forgotten for a while, until its used for kindling. The end. Feel sad for a wasted life.14. Hans, the Mermaid's Son: he's supernaturally strong and gets hired by some guy who's super afraid of him and spends the whole story trying to get rid of him. He even goes so far as to send Hans to Purgatory to ask for tribute, which Hans gets. This has a similar flavor to a Russian tale by Pushkin, but the guy in it is not supernatural, just a "fool," and he ends up killing his master as payment for his work.15. Peter Bull: I guess it's lucky that Peter turned out to be an OK guy, and probably took care of the old people because they left him the money? The clerk is just a con artist, but then again, he was asked to teach a calf to talk.16. The Bird Grip: literally Ivan and the Wolf, but with a fox and a blindness subplot. We are at least given a reason for the fox to help. But I still don't see why the horse, princess, and bird were happy to see the prince. The fox was a spirit whose life he ransomed and who needed his curse removed, but all the others were stolen. Maybe we're to assume their lives sucked and that the kidnapping liberated them? And I guess the three kings just never looked for their stuff and people ever?17. Snowflake: they make a child out of snow and are surprised she's unhappy in the summer?18. I Know What I Have Learned: an old man visits his three daughters who are each married to a troll. Each troll does a magic trick to feed them, then gives the old man money which the man loses on the way home because he suddenly remembers about his cow and just leave the money in the woods. He tries telling his wife about the money, but she never sees it, so she berates him and he says he knows what he learned. He then tries to perform the tricks the trolls did but gets hurt and dies. So really he learned nothing.19. The Cunning Shoemaker: fool me once, shame on you, but any more than that and maybe it's not the shoemaker who's clever but the robbers who are total gullible idiots.20. The King's Beautiful Wife: the king wants to marry the most beautiful woman in the world. Instead he accidentally marries an 85 year old with gorgeous hands who outwits him by telling him she cannot be seen in the sun. When he finds out she's old he throws her out of the window, but some fairies arrive and turn her beautiful and kind and wise and the king begs her forgiveness. She lies to her sister about her beauty (she tells her to cut her head), which seems kinda cold.21. Catherine and her Destiny: destiny comes to Catherine and asks her if she wants a happy youth or a happy old age. Catherine chooses a happy old age and her father immediately dies and she´s forced to become a servant, but every time she finds a place her destiny chases her out. Finally, after 7 years she gets another lady's destiny to talk to hers. Her destiny gives her a ball of silk which is just the right color for the Kings bride's dress. He promised to pay its weight in gold, and no matter how much gold he puts on the scales the silk is still too heavy. So he decides to marry Catherine instead of his bride and they lived happily ever after. I wonder what the ex felt about this whole thing.22. The Hermit and the King's Daughter: so, it's the flying ship story, except the guy is brainless. He has people with very specific skills, but when he's given very specific tasks he doesn't think to use those skills? Also, YOUR WIFE ISN'T PROPERTY! YOU DON'T CUT HER IN HALF AND GIVE HALF OF HER TO ANYONE!23. The Water of Life: three brothers and a sister build a palace and a church, but are told that they're missing the Water of Life, the Tree of Beauty, and a Talking Bird. To get them, hey have to climb a mountain covered with stones who were once people, and who jeer them as they walk up. If at any time they turn around they also become stone. The three brothers fail, but the sister succeeds and then the Prince marries her the end.24. The Wounded Lion: he's actually a prince who's cursed into being a lion by a giant and the only way to reverse the curse is to make a jacket for the giant out of a princesses' hair. Good thing the prince has a sister who can volunteer her hair...oops, no, some random girl has to beg the sister for the hair, not knowing she's the sister. But in the end the girl frees the prince and they get married. I wonder if the girl's master ever got his animals back (the giant stole them).25. The Man Without a Heart: seven brothers are sick of having to do housework, so six of them go looking for wives. On the way an old man asks them to find him a wife, but they ignore him. They find seven sisters, and on the way back the old man demands the youngest as wife, and when they refuse he turns them into stone and takes the girl. She seems cool with it, but worries that he'll die and she'll be stuck alone in the woods, to which the old man replies that he's a wizard and his heart is hidden so he can't die. Soon, the youngest brother arrives and the girl tells him about the heart. He searches for it and gets some help from animals on the way, then kills the heart which was a bird. He free the brothers and sisters and everyone marries.26. The Two Brothers: they catch and release a magical fish who grants them horses and armor. Older brother saves a princess from a dragon, but ventures on for almost 8 years before marrying her. Soon after the marriage he leaves her to fight a witch and gets killed. Younger brother finds out, and comes to the palace to figure out what happened. Princess thinks he's her husband (because they look similar?), and he doesn't correct her, but he also doesn't let her sleep with him. He rescues older brother with the help of random hermit, but is killed by older brother who thinks he fucked his wife. When he finds out younger brother didn't, he feels bad and resurrects him with the witch's magical ointment. And then they live happily ever after.27. Master and Pupil: a youth pretends he can't read and learns to be a magician, then uses his shape-shifting abilities to con people. The magician hears about this and they fight, but the youth eventually wins. We're supposed to believe he never uses his powers again. Read a similar story, only the wizard had a princess and her court imprisoned as animals and objects.28. The Golden Lion: two brothers try to find a princess in a castle, but fail and the king kills them. The youngest brother listens to a beggar-woman who suggests he build a Trojan lion. He sneaks into the palace where he shares two lines of dialogue with the princess and she agrees to help him. He them goes to the king, finds the princess, and they get married. The king was a dick.29. The Sprig of Rosemary: a woman finds a magical underground palace and marries the prince, but is told not to touch a certain chest. She does and finds her husband's magical snake-skin. The palace crumbles around her. She seeks her husband via Sun, Moon, and Wind, and gets a magical gift from each. She finds him without a memory of her and about to marry an ugly princess, but she manages to infiltrate the castle and jog his memory. Then they get married and no one has a problem with it?30.The White Dove: two princes are forced to promise their youngest, unborn brother to a witch. She comes to collect the prince many years later and gives him impossible tasks. He is assisted by a princess-turned-dove, who was either herself a witch or learned all the tricks during her imprisonment. They escape, using more magic, and live happily ever after. It's probably very useful in negotiations to have a witch-wife. Oh, you don't want to sign the treaty? Oops, the Queen just turned your soldiers into turnips, would you care to reconsider?31.The Troll's Daughter: the troll is a great magician who captured all the wild animals and has all his neighbors indebted to him. He also hid his daughter all alone at the bottom of the ocean. A young man starts working for the troll, spending the first year as a rabbit, the second year as a raven, and the third as a fish--which is when he meets the daughter who tells him the complex steps necessary to kill her father and free her. The youth follows those steps and kills the troll, at which point all the neighboring kinds make him emperor. Fathers: don't imprison your daughters. They will find a way to kill you.32. Esben and the Witch: more like Esben who himself is some sort of witch and his 11 ungrateful brothers. I want to know more about the mom. Did she teach him magic?33. Princess Minon-Minette: three fairies each raise a royal child.a. King S is raised by Inconstance, who teaches him nothing useful and there's almost a civil war, but his mad playing calms everyone down. Then he goes looking for a wife and meets a princess who's so light that she gets carried away by the wind. He decides not to marry her.b. Another fairy raised Minon-Minette, and wants her to marry S, because he's a good dude? So she makes him help her, but afterwards he can't win the princess (he has no game), so the fairy gives him a silk string and he goes away.c. A third fairy gets upset that Minon-Minette doesn't want to marry her charge, and curses the princess to unhappiness until (insert improbable event here).d. S wonders into the Iron King's land and gets imprisoned, but escapes thanks to the magical string. Minon-Minette hears about this and goes to war against the Iron King, but the fairy who cursed her captures her. But the princess' fairy sneaks her a magical fan which flies into the air, where she meets S, who had been using the magical string?e. They go to war against the Iron King.f. Profit.34. Maiden Bright-Eye: she feeds a magical dude and he gives her beauty and coins-falling-out-of-mouth. Then the ugly stepsister beats the magical dude and gets ugliness and toads. Then the king wants to marry the pretty sister because her brother works for him. But the stepsister kills her on the way and marries the king, who finds out she's ugly and is terribly upset with the brother, who was aware of what's going on the whole time. Everything could have been resolved with the brother speaking up.35. The Merry Wives: the tailor's wife, the carpenter's wife, and the smith's wife are all friends, but always argue about whose husband is the stupidest. Finally, they have a contest, where the tailor's wife convinces her husband to be a dog, the carpenter's wife convinces her husband he's dead, and the smith's wife convinces him to go to the carpenter's funeral in his birthday suit. The carpenter's wife wins.36. King Lindorm: first, the child-is-a-serpent and gets rescued by a lady who makes him take his skins off. Second, the stepmother wants to destroy the stepdaughter. Third, the king is away at war and through switched letters is told his children are whelps, and then in another switched letter the queen is supposed put to death. Fourth, queen in disguise helps an unrelated stranger with getting his soul back. Fifth, king comes back and goes to look for his queen but doesn't recognize her when he sees her. Lastly, the evil stepmother is killed. But what happened to the king's younger brother, who thought he was the rightful king his whole life?37. The Jackal, the Dove and the Panther: the Jackal eats a baby dove, almost murders a heron, and then eats up 10 baby panthers and gets the mother killed. Harsh.38. The Little Hare: more like different stories thrown together. 1. a man gets his wife the liver of a nyamatsane by killing the nyamatsane grandmother and then wearing her skin. The liver is so salty that the wife drinks ALL the water. 2. the hare drinks water when it's not allowed and blames the rabbit. 3. the hare burns the rabbit to death. 4. the hare gets the lion lots of game, but then kills the lion by tying it to the roof. 5. the hare wears the lion's skin and kills lots of hyenas, but is found out and has to cut his ears off. He's a shit.39. The Sparrow with the Slit Tongue: a kind man has a mean wife. When he saves a sparrow and keeps it as a pet the wife grows jealous and hurts the sparrow before chasing it away. The husband fails to find it, until one day he finds a house where a maiden lives claiming she's the sparrow. She hosts him as they catch up and gives him a gift. When he comes home the wife scolds him, but she also wants a gift and he tells her where to go. Instead of jewels the sparrow gives the wife some poison serpents.40. The Story of Ciccu: the STORIES. First he acquires and loses three magical objects. Secondly he and his two older brothers sell some figs to the king, but each brother meets a magical man and as only Ciccu is nice to him, only he gets rewarded. So the king gives Ciccu a job, where he apparently befriends a talking, all-knowing horse. By this point the brothers hate him and give the king ideas for tasks to send Ciccu to accomplish. The last one involves kidnapping a bride and retrieving her items, and ends with jumping into an oven. The king dies and Ciccu gets to marry the bride and become king because who cares about succession? And the bride's parents never looked for her?
entertaining in that there were many stories here that we hadn't heard before, however many were poorly written or just weird. several had holes, or unresolved plot lines, or characters that were mentioned in the beginning or the middle of the story and then not heard of again. recommend if you are looking for unusual, nor so popular tales. you can also take some of the stories and rewrite or finish them, as a writing exercise for elementary or middle schoolers. probably middle schoolers, as there are some takes that are quite morbid.
What do You think about The Pink Fairy Book (1967)?
I don't remember a single particular story from this book, but I remember being scared to death while I was reading it. I don't read anything that could really be classified as horror, but this book made me feel the way I imagine people feel when they read horror stories. I think I may have been about eight or ten when I read it. Perhaps I should find a copy (I don't think I have it any more) and see what terrified me so much. Things that shouldn't ordinarily be scary have been known to frighten me (while I tend to be unmindful of truly dangerous people, places and situations; though that has always turned out more or less okay for me). It was probably something as silly as my fear of rabbits.
—Alana
This collection leans heavily toward the Danish and Italian tales. Including, alas, Hans Christian Anderson, whose work I have never been fond of. (Though I will note that "The Goblin And the Grocer" was translated pre-modern fantasy; the goblin as a household sprite, like a brownie, is an old tradition.) "The King Who Would Have a Beautiful Wife" struck me as nasty. But it has a number of good ones. I particularly like "Catherine and Her Fate," "The Man Without A Heart", "Esben and the Witch," and "Don Giovanni de la Fortune."
—Mary Catelli
