British Fairy Tales

While fairy tales were not originally intended for children, they have become a staple of children's literature since the early 19th century. Here is a collection of English fairy tales, including many stories you will remember from childhood.

A magical storyteller's timeless tales. Here are 127 of Andersen's classic stories, translated by "Mrs. Edgar Lucas" in the 19th century. Included are such well-known tales as "The Emperor's New Suit", "The Little Match-Seller", "Thumbelina", "The Little Mermaid", and "The Snow Queen".

Dive into the enchanting world of Irish folklore in this captivating compendium of fairy tales, songs, and poems compiled and co-written by Nobel Prize-winning Irish wordsmith W. B. Yeats.

George MacDonald, described by W.H. Auden as "one of the most remarkable writers of the 19th century", was valued in his own time as an original thinker and spiritual guide. Of all his writing, it is the fairy tales that have retained their fascination, and this collection includes all 11 stories. The fairy tales feature the stock characters of traditional tales—fairies both good and bad, and children undertaking precarious journeys. Often adopting paradox and nonsense as Lewis Carroll did, the stories invite adults to deploy the same open-mindedness as children.

George Brisbane Scott Douglas (1856-1935), the Scottish poet and writer, published the book Scottish Fairy and Folk Tales in 1901. The literary genres of the book include comic, literary, nursery, and animal stories plus fairy tales of mythic creatures like the brownies, bogles, kelpies, and mermaids. Classified, tabulated, and scientifically labelled, these imaginative narratives are related in vernacular language, and have a timeless appeal to adults and children alike. Amongst the most popular stories are "The Fox’s Stratagem", and "The Bee and the Mouse".

A delightful collection of lesser known traditional and modern fairy stories: 1. "The King of the Golden River"; 2. "The Empty Drum"; 3. "The Fire Spirit"; 4. "The Tree of Death"; 5. "The Smuggler’s Daughter"; 6. "A Dream of Wild Bees"; 7. "The Fisherman"; 8. "The Masked Ball"; 9. "The Petrified Man"; 10. "The Were-Wolf"...and many more.

In the 19th century, the Brothers Grimm published 200 fairy tales which, to this day, form the most famous collection of fairy tales worldwide. Part 1 of 8 contains 25 unabridged fairy tales like Rapunzel, Hansel and Grethel, The fisherman and his wife, Cinderella, Mother Holle, The seven ravens, and many more. Also included: A pdf document with complete tracklist.

Even among the Celtic nations with their noble tradition of bards and story-tellers, the Welsh stand out for the sheer weight and number of their stories. Drawn from many sources including the great book of 'The Mabinogion1, traditional Celtic mythology, and local folklore this collection of tales has been adapted by popular children's author Faye Saxeby and brought to life in an enchantingly warm reading by the lovely Welsh actress Angharad Rees.

Siobhan McKenna reads The White Trout, The Soul Cages and Jamie Freel and The Young Lady.

In this trilogy of witty and beguiling tales, you'll meet a shy and scholarly prince, a salon storyteller with a secret, and a modern-day woman who has lost her faith in magic...be transported to a different world, full of wonder and enchantment (that perhaps isn't so very different from our own world, after all).

A selection of some of the most famous fairy stories which every child needs to foster their imagination. The following stories can be found on this title: "The Story of the Three Little Pigs", "The History of Dick Whittington", "Beauty and the Beast", "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", "Puss in Boots", "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Ali Baba", "The Brave Little Tailor", and "The Princess on the Glass Hill".

These fairy tales are nasty. This is the land of goblins and sorceresses, with serious lines in revenge, not the land of unicorns and once upon a Barbie. The tales that the Brothers Grimm collected during their time as linguistics professors, first at the University of Göttingen and then in Berlin, at the request of the King of Prussia, were an attempt to map the folklore of the German-speaking people.