African Folklore: Mother, Monster
An excerpt from Helen Nde’s book “The Runaway Princess and Other Stories”, a collection of short stories recounting the deeds and misdeeds of memorable women from African history, legend, and folklore.
Gabarghichor: A Folktale from Bihar
Galeej, a youth hailing from a low caste, got married to a woman of the same caste and equal status. She was from the neighbouring village. He brought his bride in a palanquin—a local band party in tow—and began living with her in a small hut in his village.
Stories from the Arabian Gulf: Bu Draeyah, Um Homar and the Survival of Qatari Folktales
Two popular folktales of the Arab world tell of Bu Draeyah, a cruel sea creature, and Homarat Al-Guyla, a half-woman, half-donkey, who eats children.
The Secret History of the Grimm Fairy Tales
Like many people, I thought the Grimm brothers had lived long ago & travelled around Germany collecting stories from old women hunched over spinning wheels.
Piskies, Knockers and Tommyknockers – Cornwall’s Misunderstood Folklore
The Folklore of Cornwall: The Oral Tradition of a Celtic Nation addresses everything from piskies – south west Britain’s fairies – to mermaids, harvest festivals, a corpse visiting his betrothed, and the giants long noted for making the Cornish peninsula their home. And amid all this are the spirits of the mines – knockers together with the tommyknockers, their New World descendants.