International Folktales: A to Z

Van der Grinten map

 

For the annual A to Z Challenge, I decided to summarize folktales from all over the world. This is a list of all the posts:

Australia

Brazil

Canada

Denmark

Ethiopia

France

Germany

Haiti

India

Japan

Kenya

Liberia

Mexico

Nigeria

Oman

Puerto Rico

Qatar

Russia

Sweden

Thailand

Uganda

Venezuela

Wales

Xinjiang

Yemen

Zambia

Z is for Zambia

 How the Mason-Wasp Fetched Fire from God

The birds needed fire but there wasn't any on earth so four birds decided to get it from God. After twenty days of travel, three of the birds died. Mason-Wasp stops at a cloud. God asks what he is doing there and, after explaining, the Lord makes him the leader of the birds and tells him how to make babies (it's not clear if they received fire).

Source: Ila-Speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia by Edwin William Smith

Y is for Yemen

"Knight Exemplar" (2011) by Jason Chan

The Manly Maiden

Two cousins wanted to get married but their fathers disapproved. The couple eloped. However, they became separated and the girl was targeted by men who wanted to marry her. She drugged them all and escaped. Along the way, she befriended forty girls and they dressed as men to avoid unwanted attention. She reached a foreign port and became king of the land. Using her newfound authority, she reunited with her lover, married off all her gal pals, and lived happily ever after.

Source: From the land of Sheba; tales of the Jews of Yemen by S. D.  Goitein.

X is for Xinjiang

 "How Scarlet Lion Khongor Defeated Khan Iron Head Mangna"

Over 6000 people gathered for a feast when  Mangna Khan's messenger arrived, telling the to surrender vatious items and people by a certain date, of be attacked by an army. Khongor refused to be enslaved and went to do battle with his enemy. He captured multiple soldiers until he was shot and his allies treated him. He then battled Khan to the end.

Source: Jangar: The Heroic Epic of the Kalmyk Nomads by Saglar Bougdaeva.

More information about the epic here and here.

W is for Wales

"The Castle of Melvales" (1894) by John D. Batten

An Old King and His Three Sons in England

A king fell sick and the only thing that could heal the man was a magic apple. His three sons went in search of it. The youngest, Jack, made it to the enchanted castle with the help of three old Romani brothers who tested his resolve. He finds a Sleeping Beauty in the palace and switches her garter, handkerchief, and watch with his (and kisses her). After escaping the castle, rejuvenating the old men, and arriving at the rendezvous point, he falls asleep. His big bros steal his apples. They trick their father and condemn the youngest prince to execution. The butcher spares him leaves him in the woods. The princess eventually shows up - with an army! - and she exonerates her man before they return to her castle.

Source: Gypsy Folk Tales by Francis Hindes Groome

Tale Type: 551, "The Water of Life"

Variants: "The Rose of Bakawali" and "The Water of Life"

V is for Venezuela

The Horse of Seven Colors

A man's wheat field was devoured and he appointed his sons as watchmen. Two failed. The third caught the culprit - a multicolored pony - which promised to aid him in exchange for its life. Thereafter, the patriarch sent his boys to sell at the marketplace. Yet again, the youngest succeeded. His brothers left home and, wanting to be with them, the boy followed until they blinded and abandoned him. After his sight was magically restored, he reunites with his brothers, who make him their servant. Then there's a competition to win a princess bride and the boy wins with the help of the enchanted horse.

Source: Latin American Folktales: Stories from the Hispanic and Indian Tradition by John Bierhorst.

Tale Type: 530, "Princess on the Glass Mountain"

Variants: "The Thief in the Millet" and "The Princess and the Glass Mountain"

U is for Uganda

Namulindwa

A girl is raised by her paternal aunt after her parents have died. She reaches the cusp of adulthood when, suddenly, her aunt develops the same terminal illness as her father. Before the woman passes away, she tells the girl to never marry without consulting her spirit first. The girl obeys the edict and feels more and more frustrated as her aunt dismisses all of her suitors. Then a prince arrives in the village and proposes to Namulindwa, whose aunt finally approves.

Source: The Oral Tradition of the Baganda of Uganda: A Study and Anthology of Legends, Myths, Epigrams and Folktales by Immaculate N. Kizza.

T is for Thailand

Drinking with Yommaban, the King of the Dead

A drunkard wants nothing except to see his son ordained as a monk. He perishes just before it can happen and, per his request, his wife leaves a bottle of whiskey in his coffin. When his soul descends into Hell, he shares a drink with its king. The king gets drunk and grants the man one more year of life so that he may see his son ordained. But the years pass and the drunkard never dies, The king of the dead checks his logbook and learns that, in his alcohol-induced confusion, he accidentally gave the man centuries of extra life.

Source: Thai Tales: Folktales of Thailand by Supaporn Vathanaprida and Margaret Read MacDonald.

S is for Sweden

 

Lars, My Lad!

An aristocrat found a box containing a wish-granting spirit. He used its power to charm (and intimidate) a nobleman and marry the princess. Unknown to him, the spirit had its own agenda and left the aristocrat for dead when time was right. The aristocrat escaped doom, tracked down the imp, put it back under his power, and renewed his upper-class life.

Source:  Fairy Tales from the Swedish of G. Djurklo by H. L. Brækstad.

R is for Russia

Dimian the Peasant

Dimian liked manipulating people into denying his authority so he'd have an excuse to thrash them. A local visited, and Dimian prepared a lavish meal, thinking his guest would feign modesty and decline his offerings. The guest happily indulged. Dimian then asked the man to switch kaftans. His guest acceded. Then the jerk proposed that the stranger take his horse - which he couldn't possibly do! Except he did and rode away, leaving Dimian stunned.

Source: Folk Tales From the Russian by Verra Xenophontovna Kalamatiano De Blumenthal.

Q is for Qatar

 

Fsaijrah

One day, the girl ran into a talking fish that granted her wishes. The fish dressed her for a ball, decked her out in a fancy gown and diamond slippers, and put her on the path to meeting a prince. But, she needed to leave the party before her abusive stepfamily returned home. She dropped a shoe during her race back. The prince stumbled upon it and vowed to marry whoever it fit. He eventually found the girl and wedded her.

Source: Tales Arab Women Tell by Hasan El-Shamy.

Tale Type: 510A "Cinderella"

Variants: see this link

P is for Puerto Rico

The Carnation Prince

Three sisters tried catching a carnation. The youngest succeeded. She put the flower away and later found that it'd turned into a prince, whom she accidently enchanted. To disenchant him, she had to travel until she wore out an iron dress. She happened upon the sun, moon, and the birthing person of all animals on her odyssey, and each gifted her an item. After feeding all of her limbs to a bird, she arrived at her paramour's home and they were happily reunited and married on the spot.

Source: Folk Stories from the Hills of Puerto Rico by Rafael Ocasio.

Tale Type: ATU 425 Search for the Lost Husband.

Variants: "The Black Bull of Norroway" and "The Padlock" 

O is for Oman

Tale of Fadil or Ramadu

A boy's stepmother abused him. Worse, his teacher was her brother, so his suffering was constant. His father was oblivious and the boy told him nothing. His one ally was an enchanted horse that warned him of his stepmother's desire to kill him. When the steed foiled her plans too many times, the stepmother plotted its death. The boy and his pet escaped and he sent a letter to his father, explaining everything. The boy then had adventures and ultimately married a princess.

Source: An Omani Folktale by Asyah Al-Bualy

N is for Nigeria

Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky

Sun and Water  always visited each other. Or, at least, Sun visited Water on Earth but not vice versa. When asked why, Water said it there wasn't enough space at Sun's home. Sun, with the approval of his wife, Moon, built a compound for Water to stay in. However, when Water came by it was so ginormous that it forced Sun and Moon to retreat into the heavens, where they have since remained.

Source: Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa by Elphinstone Dayrell and Andrew Lang.

M is for Mexico

Jace's Ingenuity (2011) by Steve Argyle

The Sorcerers

An aging wizard was convinced to take an apprentice so that the community might enjoy the benefits of healing magic. He trained the grandson of another wizard. When the boy's talents exceeded his master's, the man was so enraged that he made up his mind to kill the lad. However, the boy knew of his teacher's feelings and fled. The old man hunted the boy in various animal forms until the child killed him.

Source: Wonder Tales for Men by Diego Morales

Tale Type: ATU 325, "The Magician and His Pupil"

Variants: "Maestro Lattantio and His Apprentice Dionigi" and "The Deceiver Shall be Deceived" and "The Battle of the Enchanters"

L is for Liberia

 

The Good Child and the Bad

Two girls helped a witch doctor spin cotton. One of them spat on her staff and had to wash it in a river or disaster would strike. During her journey, she met a cat and a rooster, who aided her because she fed  them. The girl returned home with a treasure basket. The other girl wanted a basket too so she spat on the staff and set out, but didn't feed the animals. She chose a large basket, full of dangerous creatures, and barely survived their assault.

Source: Folk-Tales from Liberia (In Abstract) by Richard C. Bundy.

Tale Type: ATU 480, The Kind and Unkind Girls.

Variants: "The Fairy" and "Frau Holle" and "The Twelve Months"

K is for Kenya

The Great Famine

A drought caused problems for carnivores: the dwindling of their herbivore food supply. King Lion gathered his subjects and suggested they migrate. The one catch was that anyone who stopped along the way would be eaten unless they had a valid excuse. Everyone died except for Hare and King Lion. In their attempts to outfox each other, Hare prevailed and killed the king.

Source: Little Wise One: African Tales of the Hare by Phyllis Savory.

J is for Japan

The Mirror of Matsuyama

A girl's mother left her a hand mirror as a gift before dying. Not understanding its function, the girl thought her reflection was her mother's soul. Her father remarried and her stepmother believed the girl was trying to curse her. She demanded her husband confront his daughter and the girl explained her relationship to the mirror and her departed mother. The stepmother apologized to her stepdaughter and the family lived happily ever after.

Source: The Japanese Fairy Book by Yei Theodora Ozaki.

I is for India

 

A Tales' Revenge

Two men agreed their children should marry. During their journey homewards, the spirits of unshared stories agreed to murder the man who wouldn't retell them. His companion overheard their conversation and protected his companion until every assassination plot failed. Once the danger passed, he told his buddy what had happened. They then reached their destination and joined their children in marriage.

Source: Telling Tales by A. K. Ramanujan

H is for Haiti

 I'm Tipingee, She's Tipingee, We're Tipingee, Too

A girl lived with her stepmother. The woman collected firewood and sold her stepdaughter as a servant to the guy who carried her load. Tipingee heard their talk and formed a plan: she visited her classmates and asked them to wear dresses of the same color as the ones her stepmother would put on her. When the old man saw everybody dressed alike, he asked which girl was Tipingee. The children had an "I'm Spartacus" moment where they all claimed they were her. After three episodes of that, the old man enslaved the stepmother instead.

Source: The Magic Orange Tree and Other Haitian Folktales by Diane Wolkstein.

G is for Germany

Pearl Tears

The Blessed Virgin became a godmother to a girl, Maria, whose mother died shortly after and was replaced by an evil stepmom. The Holy Mother spirited the girl away to a mountainside palace and made her into a servant, on the condition that she not enter a room or she'd be sent back. Maria broke the taboo and returned to her stepfamily. They learned that her tears became pearls and her laughter produced flowers. Naturally, they tortured for more. Maria and her nursemaid relocated and Mary informed her that she was blessed with romantic disinterest and that she'd live her life helping people in a sanctuary. Maria fulfilled her duties until her death.

Source: The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales by Maria Tatar.

F is for France

Boudin-Boudine

A woman sent her son to give food to their neighbors and visit Grandma. He met a wolf who asked where he was going. It arrived at the old lady's house before the boy. Thankfully, the child got indoors unharmed.

Grandma attacked the wolf and made it run away, though it still had intentions to eat the child. The boy stayed with his grandmother for so long that his father went for him, but fell into a ditch. Meanwhile, the boy headed out and the wolf pursued.

Father and son reunited, raced home together, and the man of the house killed the predator.

Source: Folktales of France by Geneviève Massignon and Jacqueline Hyland.

Tale Type: ATU 333, "Little Red Riding Hood"

Variants: "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Little Red-Cap" and "The Grandmother"

Scholarship: The Phylogeny of Little Red Riding Hood

E is for Ethiopia

The Ungrateful Snake

A man encountered a talking snake. It whined about slithering over rocks and the man took pity on it. He carried the reptile on his head. However, the man grew tired and asked the snake to descend. It refused and threatened him. Terrified, the man persuaded the snake to allow someone else to settle their dispute. They asked an elephant, a lion, a leopard, a hyena, a baboon and a buffalo, and all sided with the snake because they feared its poisonous bite (can you say 'juror bias'?).

Then they asked a fox. It duped the snake into coming down so the man could beat it to death. The man promised his savior a sheep as payment for the help. On his way home, he decided that he was too poor to surrender a whole sheep, and brought his dog to kill the fox.

Source: Ethiopian English Readers

Tale Type: ATU 155, "The Ungrateful Snake Returned to Captivity"

Variants: "The Ungrateful Snake, the Fox, and the Man" and "The Man and the Snake" and this curated list.

D is for Denmark

 The Pig

Four women were minding their business when a pig started eating their cabbages. Mama sent her oldest after it. She got lost in the woods. The pig turned into a human and offered her refuge. Lacking better options, she agreed. Same thing happens to the middle child. 

The youngest chased the swine into the woods in which fogginess, lostness, and marriage ensued. But despite her newfound wealth, the girl regretted leaving her mother and decided to escape. Oh, and she found her sisters!

When the werepig returned home one evening, he complained of feeling cold, and his wife said her parents (her father was suddenly present) probably did too. Piggy delivered coal to his in-laws not realizing his wife stuffed her sister inside the bag. Or that she repeated the process with her other sister. And herself. When he discovered the truth, he exploded into pebbles.

Source: The Danish Fairy Book by Clara Stroebe and Frederick Herman Martens.

Tale Type: ATU 311, "Rescue by the Sister"

Variants: "The Old Dame and Her Hen" and "How the Devil Married Three Sisters"

C is for Canada

The Tiens-bon-la

A priest wants to have an affair with a baker's wife. Therefore, he sets the baker up by telling the king that he can do various impossible things. If he fails, he dies. A kind fairy assists the poor man. The first two challenges go well but then the king orders a "tiens-bon-la" despite not knowing what that is. Enter the fairy; she provides the baker with a magic wand and whenever he  shouts "tiens-bon la" the objects will be bound together. The baker magically sticks more people and animals together and leads the conga line to the castle and dupes the king into getting stuck and only lets everyone go once the king agrees to pay him 5,000 pounds yearly for his entire lifetime.

Source: Canadian Folk-life and Folk-lore by William Parker Greenough.

B is for Brazil

Why Misery Remains in the World

Aunt Misery was an old woman, constantly pestered by the neighborhood kids. Apart from giving her that insulting nickname, they climbed her beloved pear tree and snatched its fruits.

One day, a stranger came to her house. In exchange for her hospitality, he granted her wish: that nobody who climbed her tree could descend without permission. Later on, the kids tried stealing pears, and she trapped them. They begged for their freedom and Misery consented - after getting them to promise that they'd never come back.

Death arrived soon after and told Misery that it was her time. She tricked the goddess into fetching her one last pear and kept her stuck to the tree. This caused elderly and sick people to live forever and the situation worsened until Misery released Death. However, she forced the Reaper swear an oath to never return. Thus, Misery is everlasting.

Source: Elder Tales: Stories of Wisdom and Courage from Around the World by Dan Keding.

Tale Type: ATU 330, "The Smith and the Devil"

Variants: "Godfather Misery" in Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Frederick Crane.

A is for Australia

Baiame and the Crow

Long ago, there was a man named Wahn who could perfectly mimic any sound (e.g., crying babies, running water, bird calls, etc.). Rather than become an entertainer, Wahn chose laziness. His tribe exiled him and he established a settlement in the plains folks travelled through. One evening, a hunter stopped by and was killed. Several warriors followed suit. Their tribes didn't realize the greater conspiracy until they gathered at an Aboriginal Lollapalooza. They feared for their safety but didn't know what to do. Then the Great Spirit, Baiame, arrived and promised to resolve the issue.

Baiame visited to Wahn's settlement - with a wallaby piggybacking on him! Anyway, Wahn mimics the sounds of a busy campsite, greets the god, and tries to push him into a bonfire. Baiame turns the tables and sets the murderer ablaze. After Wahn's corpse burns completely, the ashes turn into the first crow, and Baiame returns to the heavens and stars reappear in the night sky.

Source: Aboriginal Tales of Australia by A. W. Reed.