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 Two Daughters
At Akita, in the province of Inaba, lived an independent gentleman, who had two daughters, by whom he was ministered to with all filial piety. He was fond of shooting with a gun, and thus very often …
Myrtle
There lived in the village of Miano a man and his wife, who had no children whatever, and they longed with the greatest eagerness to have an heir. The woman, above all, was for ever saying, "O heaven…
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 house-door opened straight on to…
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 mools which squirted when you stepped on them.
Well, gra…
Death's Messengers
In ancient times a giant was wandering along the highway when suddenly a stranger jumped toward him and shouted, "Stop! Not one step further!"
"What?" said the giant. "You, a creature that I could cr…
A Blow in the Dark
The Tory Manheim sits brooding in his farmhouse near Valley Forge, and his daughter, with a hectic flush on her cheek, looks out into the twilight at the falling snow. She is worn and ill; she has br…
The Three Billy-goats Gruff
Once upon a time, there were three billy-goats who set off to pasture to make themselves fat, and all three were called Billy-goat Gruff. On the way, there was a bridge over a waterfall, which they h…
The Flying Trunk
There was once a merchant who was so rich that he could have paved a whole street with gold, and would even then have had enough left for a small alley. He did not do so; he knew the value of money b…
The Magic Palace
Ibrahim, the most learned and pious man of the city, whom everybody held in esteem, fell on troubled days. To none did he speak of his sufferings, for he was proud and would have been compelled to re…
The Missing Soldier of Valley Forge
During the dreadful winter of the American encampment at Valley Forge six or eight soldiers went out to forage for provisions. Knowing that little was to be hoped for near the camp of their starving …
The Princess and The Pea
Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess; but she would have to be a real princess. He travelled all over the world to find one, but nowhere could he get what he wanted. The…
Pippo
Ingratitude is a nail, which, driven into the tree of courtesy, causes it to wither. It is a broken channel by which the foundations of affection are undermined; and a lump of soot, which, falling in…
Lazy Jack
Once upon a time there was a boy whose name was Jack, and he lived with his mother on a dreary common. They were very poor, and the old woman got her living by spinning, but Jack was so lazy that he …
The Buccaneer
Among the natives of Block Island was a man named Lee. Born in the last century among fishermen and wreckers, he has naturally taken to the sea for a livelihood, and, never having known the influence…
Old Rinkrank
There was once upon a time a King who had a daughter, and he caused a glass-mountain to be made, and said that whosoever could cross to the other side of it without falling should have his daughter t…
The Filial Girl
A girl once lived in the province of Echigo, who from her earliest years tended her parents with all filial piety. Her mother, when, after a long illness she lay at the point of death, took out a mir…
Shooting of the Red Eagle
A man in buckskins sat upon the top of a little hillock. The setting sun shone bright upon a strong bow in his hand. His face was turned toward the round camp ground at the foot of the hill. He had w…
The Three Sisters
It is a great truth that from the same wood are formed the statues of idols and the rafters of gallows, kings’ thrones and cobblers’ stalls; and another strange thing is that from the same rags are m…
The Catskill Witch
When the Dutch gave the name of Katzbergs to the mountains west of the Hudson, by reason of the wild-cats and panthers that ranged there, they obliterated the beautiful Indian Ontiora, “mountains of …
The Cock and the Hen in the Nutwood
The cock and the hen went, upon a time, to the nutwood to pick nuts.
Then the hen got a nutshell stuck in her throat, and lay, flapping her wings. The cock would fetch some water for her, so he ran t…