a less whimsical illustration that encapsulates the fun of searching an archive of over 15

The Archive...

Have a wander through the Fireside folktale archive below, and see what you stumble into. Use the filters to narrow the world down, or fling the doors wide and browse by country, region, theme, collector, or whatever takes your fancy, then let the table do the rest. A few clicks can carry you from storm-tossed coasts to mountain villages, from clever tricksters to quiet miracles, and you will often find that the story you meant to read is not the one that chooses you.

Archive under construction...

Structured Filters

Use these drop down lists to choose one or more filters to select groups of tales to investigate in more detail

Other than my own versions of tales (as indicated), the stories in this archive are in the public domain

Stories in this view:

3988

Title	Book	Author / Collector	Country	Subject	Year
Kullervo's Birth	Finnish Legends For English Children	R. Eivind	Finland	Kullervo’s Birth: doom, orphanhood, family strife, prophecy, violence, survival, exile, fate, sorrow, lineage	1893
Kullervo And Ilmarinen's Wife	Finnish Legends For English Children	R. Eivind	Finland	Kullervo And Ilmarinen’s Wife: betrayal, seduction, vengeance, cruelty, anger, deception, abuse, revenge, tragedy, conflict	1893
Kullervo's Life And Death	Finnish Legends For English Children	R. Eivind	Finland	Kullervo’s Life And Death: vengeance, suffering, slavery, alienation, violence, doom, guilt, tragedy, suicide, fate	1893
Ilmarinen's Bride Of Gold	Finnish Legends For English Children	R. Eivind	Finland	Ilmarinen’s Bride Of Gold: loneliness, artifice, desire, vanity, wealth, failed creation, sterility, obsession, disillusionment, isolation	1893
Ilmarinen's Fruitless Wooing	Finnish Legends For English Children	R. Eivind	Finland	Ilmarinen’s Fruitless Wooing: courtship, rejection, perseverance, pride, disappointment, longing, rivalry, fate, love, failure	1893
Wainamoinen's Expedition And The Birth Of The Kantele (Harp)	Finnish Legends For English Children	R. Eivind	Finland	Wainamoinen’s Expedition And The Birth Of The Kantele (Harp): journey, music, invention, enchantment, artistry, wonder, heroism, creativity, magic, song	1893
The Capture Of The Sampo	Finnish Legends For English Children	R. Eivind	Finland	The Capture Of The Sampo: quest, conflict, magic object, heroism, cunning, struggle, treasure, cooperation, power, adventure	1893
The Sampo Is Lost In The Sea	Finnish Legends For English Children	R. Eivind	Finland	The Sampo Is Lost In The Sea: loss, struggle, broken prosperity, fate, conflict, treasure, sea, ruin, aftermath, destiny	1893
The Birth Of The Second Kantele	Finnish Legends For English Children	R. Eivind	Finland	The Birth Of The Second Kantele: music, creativity, renewal, craftsmanship, loss transformed, beauty, art, consolation, magic, song	1893
Louhi Attempts Revenge	Finnish Legends For English Children	R. Eivind	Finland	Louhi Attempts Revenge: revenge, sorcery, hostility, pursuit, power, conflict, retaliation, menace, struggle, enmity	1893
Louhi Steals The Sun, The Moon, And Fire	Finnish Legends For English Children	R. Eivind	Finland	Louhi Steals The Sun, The Moon, And Fire: theft, darkness, cosmic disorder, sorcery, power, deprivation, crisis, conflict, captivity, restoration	1893
The Restoration Of The Sun And Moon	Finnish Legends For English Children	R. Eivind	Finland	The Restoration Of The Sun And Moon: recovery, light, cosmic order, liberation, renewal, victory, hope, restoration, balance, magic	1893
Mariatta And Wainamoinen's Departure	Finnish Legends For English Children	R. Eivind	Finland	Mariatta And Wainamoinen’s Departure: miraculous birth, renewal, transition, old order, sacred change, displacement, prophecy, departure, redemption, legacy	1893
The Three Sisters (1)	Flemish Legends	Charles de Coster	Belgium	The Three Sisters: sisterhood, chastity, piety, and miraculous founding.	1920
The Voice At The Door	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The Voice At The Door: sudden death, grieving family, restless dead, night visitation, brotherly devotion, threshold haunting, bread on the sill, priestly caution, supernatural summons, mourning.	1912
Nallagh's Child	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	Nallagh’s Child: miraculous speech, concealed mischief, comic exposure, servants in peril, household deceit, child witness, domestic farce, sudden revelation, market-day absence, kitchen humour.	1912
The Earl's Son Of The Sea	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The Earl’s Son Of The Sea: sea fairies, otherworld lover, abduction, longing for home, enchanted dwelling, shipwreck lore, captivity, sibling rescue, time passing, coastal supernatural.	1912
The Bridge Of The Kist	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The Bridge Of The Kist: repeated dreams, treasure hunt, journey to England, poverty, reversal of fortune, hidden gold at home, stranger’s revelation, cunning silence, perseverance, destiny.	1912
The New Deck Of Cards	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The New Deck Of Cards: gambling, dangerous amusement, enchanted object, night travel, fairy interference, crossroads peril, luck turning, burnt earth, unseen forces, warning against rash pleasure.	1912
Story Of A Churn	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	Story Of A Churn: stolen butter, folk magic, backward writing, blessing omitted, dairy luck, suspicion, household remedy, rural superstition, recovery of yield, neighbour wisdom.	1912
The Dark Oath	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The Dark Oath: bad temper, blasphemous speech, curses, moral warning, self-destruction, uncontrolled anger, sin, fear of words, character flaw, retribution.	1912
The King's Daughter Of France	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The King’s Daughter Of France: hospitality, poor man rewarded, fairy visitor, royal marriage, kindness to strangers, upward fortune, quest motif, generosity, wonder, transformation of status.	1912
The Gankeynogue In The Oak Chest	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The Gankeynogue In The Oak Chest: captive fairy, treasure-seeking, greed, trickster contest, imprisonment, family loyalty, deception, hidden wealth, comic cunning, fort lore.	1912
M'Carthy Of Connacht	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	M’Carthy Of Connacht: wasting sickness, hidden enchantment, noble youth, unexplained affliction, strength undone, lamentation, fairy interference, heroic suffering, mystery, recovery-quest.	1912
The Little Settlement	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The Little Settlement: boastfulness, marriage bargain, proud father, daughter’s choice, class pretension, devil suitor, servant shrewdness, true love, female resolve, comic moral rebuke.	1912
The Girl And The Fairies	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The Girl And The Fairies: wasting illness, fairy seizure, beauty imperilled, silence, lingering death, female vulnerability, family grief, enchantment, otherworld claim, rescue lore.	1912
The Cutting Of The Tree	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The Cutting Of The Tree: reckless bravado, fairy fort, night encounter, threatened abduction, wife in danger, protective cunning, tree magic, pride, domestic loyalty, supernatural reprisal.	1912
The Lifting Of A Child	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The Lifting Of A Child: changeling fear, apparent death, cradle mystery, neighbour knowledge, fairy substitution, parental dread, rescue attempt, infant vulnerability, folk belief, hidden otherworld.	1912
The Lad And The Old Lassie's Song	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The Lad And The Old Lassie’s Song: uncanny song, old woman by the fire, clay figures, youthful curiosity, folk sorcery, hidden threat, spoken charm, domestic magic, danger overheard, quick wits.	1912
The Cow Of A Widow Of Breffny	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The Cow Of A Widow Of Breffny: widowhood, poverty, precious livestock, survival, rural hardship, fairness, need, communal sympathy, fragile prosperity, miraculous aid.	1912
The Child And The Fiddle	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The Child And The Fiddle: changeling child, household ill luck, uncanny wisdom, fairy music, cradle mystery, marital strife, hidden identity, enchantment, rural misfortune, revelation.	1912
Good-Night, My Brave Michael	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	Good-Night, My Brave Michael: fireside storytelling, bravado, fairy malice, night journey, dangerous landscape, supernatural challenge, rural sociability, courage, warning tale, unseen listeners.	1912
Fairy Gold	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	Fairy Gold: dream revelation, hidden treasure, lone bush, secrecy, labour and reward, fairy wealth, rural poverty, temptation, luck, the uncanny.	1912
The Maker Of Brogues	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The Maker Of Brogues: leprechaun cobbler, hidden treasure, fair-day journey, capture attempt, bargaining, cunning, fairy wealth, rural encounter, secrecy, luck.	1912
Digging For Gold	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	Digging For Gold: dream-quest, buried treasure, greed, rash speech, guarded wealth, fairy cat, disappointment, cunning, poverty, fortune-seeking.	1912
Kate Ellen's Wake	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	Kate Ellen’s Wake: second death, fairy company, uneasy burial customs, wake ritual, forbidden drink, illness, trance state, community gossip, return from death, the Good People.	1912
The Enchanted Hare	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The Enchanted Hare: bewitched animal, failing milk, butter loss, hidden theft, rural prosperity under threat, witchcraft, shapeshifting, pursuit, farm anxiety, revelation.	1912
The Tillage In The Fort	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The Tillage In The Fort: violating fairy ground, greed for land, potatoes, warning ignored, domestic fear, livestock loss, fairy vengeance, taboo landscape, rural economy, punishment.	1912
The Broken Branch	Folk Tales of Breffny	Bampton Hunt	Ireland	The Broken Branch: fairy thorn tree, taboo violation, lone bush, mocking grey woman, injury, disbelief, fatal consequence, neighbour warning, supernatural punishment, respect for fairy places.	1912
The White Lady	Folk-Lore and Legends: English	Charles John Tibbitts	England	The White Lady: ghostly warning, sorrow, doom, and lingering memory.	1890
Silky	Folk-Lore and Legends: English	Charles John Tibbitts	England	Silky: friendly haunting, domestic mischief, and affectionate supernatural presence.	1890
The Old Woman And The Crooked Sixpence	Folk-Lore and Legends: English	Charles John Tibbitts	England	The Old Woman And The Crooked Sixpence: fairy kindness, poverty, luck, and honest gratitude.	1890
Nelly The Knocker	Folk-Lore and Legends: English	Charles John Tibbitts	England	Nelly The Knocker: mining spirit, warning, folklore, and underground mystery.	1890
The Three Fools	Folk-Lore and Legends: English	Charles John Tibbitts	England	The Three Fools: absurd judgement, comic stupidity, and everyday folly.	1890
How The Cobbler Cheated The Devil	Folk-Lore and Legends: English	Charles John Tibbitts	England	How The Cobbler Cheated The Devil: cunning, survival, trickery, and outwitting evil.	1890
The Duergar	Folk-Lore and Legends: English	Charles John Tibbitts	England	The Duergar: subterranean spirits, craft, theft, danger, and uneasy coexistence.	1890
The History Of Jack And The Beanstalk	Folk-Lore and Legends: English	Charles John Tibbitts	England	The History Of Jack And The Beanstalk: boldness, magical ascent, theft, and fortune won.	1890
Legends Of King Arthur	Folk-Lore and Legends: English	Charles John Tibbitts	England	Legends Of King Arthur: kingship, chivalry, destiny, magic, and national myth.	1890
The Tulip Fairies	Folk-Lore and Legends: English	Charles John Tibbitts	England	The Tulip Fairies: floral magic, fairy beauty, fragility, and hidden life.	1890
Some Merry Tales Of The Wise Men Of Gotham	Folk-Lore and Legends: English	Charles John Tibbitts	England	Some Merry Tales Of The Wise Men Of Gotham: foolish wisdom, satire, absurdity, and village humour.	1890

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