English Fairy Tales

Once upon a time . . . a Mother Goat lived in a pretty little house with her seven kids. Mother often had to leave home to do the shopping, and on that fateful day, she had given her children the usual warnings, before setting off to market. "You mustn't open the door to anyone. Don't forget, there's a wicked wolf lurking about here. It's black, with horrible paws and a nasty deep voice. If it knocks, keep the door tightly shut!" Mother Goat's words were wise indeed, for as she was telling one of her neighbours about her fears, the wolf disguised as a peasant was hiding close by, listening to every word. "Good! Very good!" said the wolf t...

Once upon a time . . . in the forest lived a wolf, known to be savage and ruthless. One day, feeling thirsty, the wolf went down to a stream, and as he drank the sparkling water, he saw a lamb drinking, further downstream. The minute he set eyes on the hapless lamb, he decided to make a meal of it. "A nice plump lamb! Fine and tender! Yummy! That will be delicious! I haven't had such luck in ages! Now, I must find an excuse for picking a quarrel, so that nobody can accuse me of gobbling it unjustly!" Unaware of the wolf, the lamb was still happily sipping the water when it heard a deep growl from above its head. "You down there! You're mu...

Once upon a time . . . a wolf well known for his ferocity received his punishment for being greedy. As he was devouring a lamb, a tiny sharp bone stuck in his throat. And from that day on, he could swallow nothing except sips of water, which neither soothed the pain nor appeased his hunger. Though he tried every remedy he knew, he was unable to dislodge the bone. In despair, he started to ask everyone he knew for help. But, scared of his awful reputation, folk made excuses to avoid the wolf and would have nothing to do with him. One day, from behind his barred door, the fox said: "I'm not well, so I can't open the door, but I think you ou...

Once upon a time... people in the Japanese city of Kyoto were terribly afraid; they shook with fear. A fierce witch had taken possession of the tower over the city gate which she opened and closed whenever she felt like it. She was capable of locking the gate in the face of travellers bringing food and merchandise, or throwing it wide open to savage tribes from the north. Many brave Samurai, the strongest and best fighters, had faced up to the witch, but the minute she set eyes on them, she hurled herself out of the tower, hair flying in the wind, screeching furiously and brandishing a fiery sword. Attacking them one by one, she left them...

Once upon a time . . . in the immense Russian steppe, lay a little village where nearly all the inhabitants bred horses. It was the month of October, when a big livestock market was held yearly in the main town. Two brothers, one rich and the other one poor, set off for market. The rich man rode a stallion, and the poor brother a young mare. At dusk, they stopped beside an empty hut and tethered their horses outside, before going to sleep themselves on two heaps of straw. Great was their surprise, when, next morning they saw three horses outside, instead of two. Well, to be exact the newcomer was not really a horse. It was a foal, to whic...

Once upon a time . . . a farmer and his son went to market to sell a donkey. However, they loaded the beast into the wheelbarrow, so that it would not reach market tired and worn out, and pushed it along the road. When people saw such a peculiar sight, they loudly remarked: "That man is mad! Whoever saw a donkey being taken to market in a wheelbarrow!" The poor farmer became more and more confused, for the farther he went, the louder the comments became and the more people gossiped. It was the last straw when, as they passed the blacksmith's forge, the smith jeeringly asked the farmer if he wanted shoeing, since he was doing the donkey wo...

Once upon a time . . . a greedy emperor forced his subjects to pay heavy taxes. Not only the poor were squeezed, but the nobles in this immense empire were highly taxed too. At last, tired of being crushed by taxes, the nobles held a protest meeting. When the emperor heard about this, he took fright for he feared a rebellion. So he sent out this proclamation to put an end to their complaints: "The nobleman that can make my daughter Sarah smile again, for she's mourning the loss of her fiance. will never pay taxes again." This caused an uproar at the protest meeting. Most of the princes decided there was no need now to complain, for each w...

Once upon a time . . . a restless crow decided to go farther away than usual from home and friends. Suddenly, in a farmyard, he met a pair of peacocks. What wonderful birds they were! The crow had never seen such beautiful feathers, and he timidly asked the regal-looking birds what they were. "We're peacocks," one of them replied, spreading its tail. And as the peacock strutted about, showing the crow his magnificent feathers, he screamed, as peacocks do. Bursting with admiration, the crow said goodbye and flapped away, but as he flew home, he could not forget the two peacocks. "What fine feathers! They must be so happy, being so beautifu...

Once upon a time there was a Samurai called Hido. Valiant and strong, he was afraid of no-one, yet in all the wars he had ever fought, he had always found himself on the losing side. People in his home town began to say "Hido brings bad luck." And because nobody wanted him to fight for them any more the Samurai ended up a poor man. He said to himself: "I'll go to a town where no-one knows me. Maybe I'll find work there." He gathered up his remaining belongings, his sword, bow and three arrows, and set off along the first road he came to. On and on he walked, until after many days march, he reached the banks of a lake. As he started to cro...

Once upon a time . . . down on an old farm, lived a duck family, and Mother Duck had been sitting on a clutch of new eggs. One nice morning, the eggs hatched and out popped six chirpy ducklings. But one egg was bigger than the rest, and it didn't hatch. Mother Duck couldn't recall laying that seventh egg. How did it get there? TOCK! TOCK! The little prisoner was pecking inside his shell. "Did I count the eggs wrongly?" Mother Duck wondered. But before she had time to think about it, the last egg finally hatched. A strange looking duckling with grey feathers that should have been yellow gazed at a worried mother. The ducklings grew quickly...