Tom Tit Tot & Sequel


Book Description

“If you have not guessed my name by month’s end, then you shall be mine!” In this classic English folktale, our heroine eats too many pies - which leads to her marrying a king who only wants her for her skills as a spinster - which leads to her making a deal with a diminutive, magical creature in order to save her life! Can she guess the name of her helper in time? Or will he succeed in claiming her as his own? The sequel, ‘The Gipsy Woman’, is set a year later and finds the queen once more charged with the task of spinning five skeins, daily, for a month. Help arrives in the form of a gipsy woman but can she be trusted? This book contains two versions of the each tale: one in modern day English, and the other, as told originally, in the dialect of East Anglia. [Folklore Type: ATU-500 (The Name of the Helper)]




Tom Tit Tot


Book Description




The Little Mermaid


Book Description

“More and more, she came to love humans; more and more, she wished she could rise up among them.” The youngest daughter of the Sea King cannot wait to be old enough to go to the surface and see the world of humans. Her first visit there changes her life forever when she saves a prince from drowning, and comes to love him above all others. For the chance to win his love and gain an immortal soul, the little sea princess is willing to risk everything… First published in 1837, Hans Christian Andersen’s haunting tale of love is brought to an English readership in this illustrated and unabridged edition, which has been translated directly from the original Danish into English and includes illustrations by Ivan Bilibin.




The Two Captains


Book Description

“Each now has permission to seek the maiden in whatever way he thinks best.” Against the bloody backdrop of the Crusades, the friendship of German captain, Sir Heimbert of Waldhausen, and Spanish captain, Don Frederigo Mendez, is tested in love and war. From the shores of Malaga to the walls of Tunis, they fight for the honour of the Holy Roman Empire and for the love of the angelic Clara and the enchanting Zelinda – the beautiful maiden from the enemy’s ranks, who, at great risk to themselves, they are forced to seek out in the burning sands of the Sahara.




Cendrillon and the Glass Slipper (Illustrated)


Book Description

Her godmother, who was a Fairy, said, “You would like to go to the ball, is that not so?” When her father remarries, his daughter is mistreated and labelled a Cinder-maid by her two new stepsisters. However, when the King’s son announces a ball, Cendrillon finds her life forever changed by the appearance of her Fairy Godmother, who just might be able to make all her dreams come true... Enjoy this new translation of the most famous and beloved version of the Cinderella fairytale in all its original glory with silhouette illustrations by Arthur Rackham. [Folklore Type: ATU-510A (Persecuted Heroine)]




Undine, The Water Sprite


Book Description

"You must know, my own love, that in each element there exists a race of beings, whose form scarcely differs from yours, but who very seldom appear to mortal sight … you now see before you, my love, an undine.” Undine, a water sprite, has been adopted and raised by an old fisherman and his wife, who have lost their own child. One day, the Knight Huldbrand ventures into their isolated existence and the two fall in love. Huldbrand proposes marriage, only to learn the truth of Undine’s identity on their wedding night. However, their pasts, in the form of Huldbrand’s former love and Undine’s mercurial uncle, soon encroach on their charmed married life. Can their relationship overcome the differences in how humans and undines live? And can it survive when the truth behind the drowning of the Fisherman’s daughter is revealed? “Of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful.” George MacDonald




Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp


Book Description

Scarce had Aladdin’s mother begun to rub the Lamp when there appeared to her one of the Jinn, who said to her in a voice like thunder, “Say what you want of me. Here am I, your slave and the slave of whosoever holds the Lamp.” One of the most famous tales of the Arabian Nights, the story of Aladdin tells of a poor young man who, under false pretences, is recruited by a Magician from the Maghreb to retrieve a Wonderful Lamp from within an Enchanted Treasury. Double-crossed and trapped in an underground cave, Aladdin’s future looks bleak until he encounters his first Jinni, after which his life will never be the same again... A rich tale of deceit and magic, vengeance and love, if you want to read the complete story of Aladdin, then look no further than this unabridged edition. [Folklore Type: ATU-561 (Aladdin)]




Aschenputtel, the Little Ash Girl (First Edition)


Book Description

“Go to the little tree on your mother’s grave. Shake it and wish for beautiful clothes, but come back before midnight.” In the Brothers Grimm’s version of a persecuted heroine’s struggle to escape the hardships she experiences following her widowed father’s marriage to a cruel woman with two beautiful but mean daughters, there are impossible tasks and helpful birds, a new name and an ash-dress, a Prince and three balls, a wish-tree and dresses of silver and gold. Can Aschenputtel find happiness and a future full of promise, or will her family succeed in keeping her as their cinder maid? In one book, experience new translations of the first and seventh versions of Aschenputtel (Cinderella) alongside Allerleirauh (All Kinds of Fur), a close variant from the ‘Cinderella Cycle’ of fairytales. Also included is another ATU-510 type fairytale, The True Bride, taken from the final edition of the Brothers Grimm’s Children's and Household Tales. [Folklore Type: ATU-510: Cinderella and Catskin – A + B (Persecuted Heroine + Unnatural Love)]




Sinderela, The Little Cinder Girl


Book Description

“One slipper will fall from your foot, and the Prince will come after you and find it.” Scorned by her two elder sisters, Sinderela is forced to hide in the coal-hole so no one can see her. After she overhears her sisters talking about a Prince, Sinderela finds help in the guise of an old beggar woman who shows her a secret door, inside which are the means to transform her into a lady so grand no one would recognise her. When one of Sinderela’s golden slippers falls from her foot, her life is changed forever, but her elder sister is determined to make sure Sinderela never gets her happy-ever-after with her Prince. A Cinderella tale with a twist, this Welsh-Romani fairytale was one of many collected by the esteemed linguist John Sampson from the dramatic storyteller, Matthew Wood. Look no further than this English edition to discover more about the fate of Sinderela and her family, as well as that of a Welsh-Romani Cinder Lad in Goggle-Eyes. [Folklore Type: ATU-510 (Cinderella and Catskin) and ATU-707 (The Bird of Truth)]




The Watkins Book of English Folktales


Book Description

This is a golden treasury of over one hundred English folktales captured in the form they were first collected in past centuries. Read these classic tales as they would have been told when storytelling was a living art – when the audience believed in boggarts and hobgoblins, local witches and will-o’-the-wisps, ghosts and giants, cunning foxes and royal frogs. Find “Jack the Giantkiller”, “Tom Tit Tot” and other quintessentially English favourites, alongside interesting borrowings, such as an English version of the Grimms’ “Little Snow White” – as well as bedtime frighteners, including “Captain Murderer”, as told to Charles Dickens by his childhood nurse. Neil Philip has provided a full introduction and source notes on each story that illustrate each tale’s journey from mouth to page, and what has happened to them on the way. These tales rank among the finest English short stories of all time in their richness of metaphor and plot and their great verbal dash and daring.