The first modern study of the ancient fairytale, it bridges a major gap between the study of the ancient world and the wider world of oral culture, and will be of immense value and interest to students of a wide variety of disciplines.

In this, the first modern study of the ancient fairytale, Graham Anderson asks whether the familiar children's fairytale of today existed in the ancient world. He examines texts from the classical period and finds many stories which resemble those we know today, including: * a Jewish Egyptian Cinderella * a Snow White whose enemy is the goddess Artemis * a Pied Piper at Troy. He puts forward many previously unsuspected candidates as classical variants of the modern fairytale and argues that the degree of violence and cruelty in the ancient tales means they must have been meant for adults.

This anthology explores the multitude of evidence for recognisable fairy tales drawn from sources in the much older cultures of the ancient world, appearing much earlier than the 17th century where awareness of most fairy tales tends to begin. It presents versions of Cinderella, The Emperor’s New Clothes, Snow White, The Frog Prince and a host of others where the similarities to familiar ‘modern’ versions far outweigh the differences. Here we find Cinderella as a courtesan, Snow White coming to a tragic end or an innocent heroine murdering her sisters. We find an emperor’s new clothes where the flatterers compare him to Alexander the Great, or a pair of adulterers caught in a magic trap. Tantalising fragments suggest that there is more to be discovered: we can point to a Sleeping Beauty where the girl takes on the green colouring of the surrounding wood, or we encounter a Rumpelstiltskin connected to a mystery cult. The overall picture suggests a much richer texture of popular tale as a fascinating new legacy of antiquity. This volume breaks down the traditional barriers between Classical Mythology and the fairy tale, and will be an invaluable resource for anyone working on the history of fairy tales and folklore.

From classics and history to Jewish rabbinic narratives and the canonical and noncanonical gospels of earliest Christianity, the relevance of studying the novel of the later classical periods of Greek and Rome is widely endorsed. Ancient novels contain insights beyond literary theories and philosophical musings to new sources for understanding the popular culture of antiquity. Some scholars, in fact, refer to ancient novels as “alternative histories,” for they tell history implicitly rather than with the intentional biases of the historian. The Novel in the Ancient World surveys the new approaches and insights to the ancient novel and wrestles with issues such as the development, transformation, and christianization of the novel (Spirit-inspired versus inspired by the Muses). This publication has also been published in hardback, please click here for details.

The first anthology to present the entire range of ancient Greek and Roman stories- from myths and fairy tales to jokes Captured centaurs and satyrs, talking animals, people who suddenly change sex, men who give birth, the temporarily insane and the permanently thick-witted, delicate sensualists, incompetent seers, a woman who remembers too much, a man who cannot laugh-these are just some of the colorful characters who feature in the unforgettable stories that ancient Greeks and Romans told in their daily lives. Together they created an incredibly rich body of popular oral stories that include, but range well beyond, mythology-from heroic legends, fairy tales, and fables to ghost stories, urban legends, and jokes.

Do you read bedtime stories for your child? Don't modern heroes seems too boring to you? Try to plunge into the fairy tale world filled with ancient, magical creatures: elves, fairies, mermaids, dragons... This fairy tale storybook is dedicated to ancient folktales from around the world. Many of them are lost, but some have still managed to reach our era. We travel, together, all around the world. We sink into the old tales that speak of magic we still don't fully understand. We look for answers, but - perhaps more importantly - we look for questions: for that spirit that makes us stare in reverent wonder at the world around us. Our ancestors told of these magical creatures from generation to generation. And it is surprising how similar their habits are. Perhaps by reading some of the tales from another continent, you will find that her characters are exactly the same as in your grandmother's tales. Who knows? And then, perhaps, you tell this story to your child. And you will pass it on to the next generation. And now... Pretend you're sitting by a fire, listening to a wise, wizened storyteller begin to talk... This retelling fairy tales book includes three volumes (about Elves, Mermaids, Dragons) from the series, "Fairy Tales From Around the World". Stоrу Liѕt: The Loneliest Place The Queen of the Huldufolk An Onion and a Lindworm Menana of the Waterfall Aminata and the Tokoloshe The Great Master and the Rainbow The Paddlers The Gifts of the Little People Short-Tailed Old Li For the Cause of a Bridge The Birch Lady Two Horses and one Zmej Mami Wata The Poor Boy and Kijimuna Y Ddraig Goch Kapsirko and the Vodianoi The Multitude of Bow-Legged Ones The Naga Dowry Marina of the Wave The Tale of Curupira For a Bag of Rice The Fiddle Player Fayiz and The Peri Wife The Cuelebre of Pena Uruel The Spirit Queen Aziza and the Hunter The Seven-Headed Manitou The Goodman O'Wastness The Tale of Rowli Pugh The Dragon Princess

"Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes into the deepest well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher--for that world or ours." --

This first paperback edition of the seminal work by the Swiss scholar Max Lüthi will be welcomed by folklorists for its informative survey of the various ways in which fairytales and related genres (local legends and saints' lives) may be read. "Lüthi's lucid and intelligent book is refreshingly welcome." —Sewanee Review

The Fairy Tale World is a definitive volume on this ever-evolving field. The book draws on recent critical attention, contesting romantic ideas about timeless tales of good and evil, and arguing that fairy tales are culturally astute narratives that reflect the historical and material circumstances of the societies in which they are produced. The Fairy Tale World takes a uniquely global perspective and broadens the international, cultural, and critical scope of fairy-tale studies. Throughout the five parts, the volume challenges the previously Eurocentric focus of fairy-tale studies, with contributors looking at: • the contrast between traditional, canonical fairy tales and more modern reinterpretations; • responses to the fairy tale around the world, including works from every continent; • applications of the fairy tale in diverse media, from oral tradition to the commercialized films of Hollywood and Bollywood; • debates concerning the global and local ownership of fairy tales, and the impact the digital age and an exponentially globalized world have on traditional narratives; • the fairy tale as told through art, dance, theatre, fan fiction, and film. This volume brings together a selection of the most respected voices in the field, offering ground-breaking analysis of the fairy tale in relation to ethnicity, colonialism, feminism, disability, sexuality, the environment, and class. An indispensable resource for students and scholars alike, The Fairy Tale World seeks to discover how such a traditional area of literature has remained so enduringly relevant in the modern world.

Scholars from many different academic areas will use this volume to explore and implement new aspects of the field of fairy-tale studies in their teaching and research.