The Folktale Project
Every week The Folktale Project brings you new folklore, fairytales, myths and legends from around the world. Some tales you've heard before and some brand new.
- Update frequency
- every 5 days
- Average duration
- 9 minutes
- Episodes
- 1352
- Years Active
- 2016 - 2025
The Mermaid of the Magdalenes
Far off the north-east coast of Canada is a group of rugged islands called the Magdalenes. They are a lonely, barren group, where grass and flowers and trees grow scantily. There, the northern storms…
The Sugar-Candy House
Jan and Jannette were brother and sister. They lived near a big wood, and every day they used to go to play there, fishing for sticklebacks in the streams, and making necklaces of red berries. One da…
Why Cats Always Wash After Eating
How the Goldfinch Got His Colors
When the Angel whose mission it was to color the birds had finished his work, he began to scrape his palette and to make ready for departure. He had done his task well, for the plumage of the feather…
Prince Spin Head and Miss Snow White
Long, long ago, before the Romans came into the land and when the fairies ruled in the forest, there was a maiden who lived under an oak tree. When she was a baby they called her Bundlekin. She had f…
The Goblins Turned to Stone
When the cow came to Holland, the Dutch folks had more and better things to eat. Fields of wheat and rye took the place of forests. Instead of acorns and the meat of wild game, they now enjoyed milk …
The Boy Who Wanted More Cheese
Klaas Van Bommel was a Dutch boy, twelve years old, who lived where cows were plentiful. He was over five feet high, weighed a hundred pounds, and had rosy cheeks. His appetite was always good and hi…
The Dead Ship of Harpswell
At times the fisher-folk of Maine are startled to see the form of a ship, with gaunt timbers showing through the planks, like lean limbs through rents in a pauper’s garb, float shoreward in the sunse…
The Loss of Jacob Hurd
Jacob Hurd, stern witch-harrier of Ipswich, can abide nothing out of the ordinary course of things, whether it be flight on a broomstick or the wrong adding of figures; so his son gives him trouble, …
The Forest Smithy
Early in this century a man named Ainsley appeared at Holyoke, Massachusetts, and set up a forge in a wood at the edge of the village, with a two-room cottage to live in. A Yankee peddler once put up…
The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse
Now you must know that a Town Mouse once upon a time went on a visit to his cousin in the country. He was rough and ready, this cousin, but he loved his town friend and made him heartily welcome. Bea…
The Jackdaw and The Peacocks
A certain Jackdaw was so proud and ambitious, that, not contented to live within his own sphere, he picked up the feathers which fell from the Peacocks, stuck them in among his own, and very confiden…
The Hares and Frogs in a Storm
Upon a great storm of wind that blew among the trees and bushes, and made a rustling with the leaves, the Hares (in a certain park where there happened to be plenty of them) were so terribly frighted…
The Flute
Long since, there lived in Yedo a gentleman of good lineage and very honest conversation. His wife was a gentle and loving lady. To his secret grief, she bore him no sons. But a daughter she did give…
The Good Thunder
Folks say that Rai-den, the Thunder, is an unloving spirit, fearful and revengeful, cruel to man. These are folks who are mortally afraid of the storm, and who hate lightning and tempest; they speak …
The Black Bowl
Long ago, in a part of the country not very remote from Kioto, the great gay city, there dwelt an honest couple. In a lonely place was their cottage, upon the outskirts of a deep wood of pine trees. …
Truthful Joseph
Once upon a time there was a mother who had a son named Joseph; and because he never told a lie she called him Truthful Joseph. One day when she was calling him, the king happened to pass by, and hea…
The Ass
It is related that when the Lord created the world, he also made all the animals, and gave each its name. He also created the ass, which said: “Lord, what is my name?” “Your name is ass!” The ass wen…
The Parrot
There was once a merchant who had a beautiful daughter, with whom the king and the viceroy were both in love. The former knew that the merchant would soon have to depart on business, and he would the…
The White Duck
Once upon a time a great and powerful King married a lovely Princess. No couple were ever so happy; but before their honeymoon was over they were forced to part, for the King had to go on a warlike e…