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31 Folktales from Around the World about Strong and Clever Girls and Women B) 9 Tales from the Middle
East and Africa. C) 8 Tales from Asia, the
Pacific, and the Americas. ___ A) 14 Tales
from Europe. A_1, "The Stolen Baby and the
Fairies" (Scotland). A woman retrieves her baby from the fairies by
creating and selling to the fairies a cape and a harp. A_2, "The Corpse Watcher"
(Ireland). A kind and determined young woman follows a
corpse. The corpse is actually a young man under a spell. The young woman's
love breaks the spell and restores the young man to his human form. A_3, "The Crookened Back"
(Ireland). A woman tells the story of how her back became
bent. A_4, "Whuppity Stone"
(Scotland). A fairy woman heals a woman's sow, and wants
the woman's child as payment (similar to Rumpelstiltskin). A_5, "The Treasure Under the Pump"
(England). A woman seeking fresh water for her sick child
at night is willing to go where a ghost is said to roam. The ghost shows the
woman where a treasure is. A_6, "She Rescued him from Fairy
Land" (England). A woman rescues the man she loves from fairy
land, where he was soon to become a slave of the fairy queen. Another version of the story is here. A_7, "The Grateful Fairy Woman"
(Iceland). A woman provides milk for a fairy woman's
baby, and receives as a gift a silver belt that appears under the woman's
pillow. A_8, "The Ghost at the Inn"
(Sweden). A woman helps a ghost get justice, so the
ghost can be at peace and have a proper burial. A_9, "Little Red Cap"
(Germany). A girl and her grandmother drown a wolf. A_10, "The Joy of Dancing"
(Czechoslovakia) A goat-herd girl loves to sing and dance. A
young fairy woman dances with the girl, and gives the girl a reward of gold
for the girl's joy of dance and song. A_11, "The Dress"
(Greece). A lamb, bird, and spider help make a dress for
a kind young girl. A_12, "The Pigeon's Bride"
(Yugoslavia). A princess finds her love -- a prince who was
enchanted as a pigeon. A_13, "Asking the Sun"
(Georgia). A young woman seeks help for her brother, a
woman trying to give birth, a sheep, and a deer (similar to Jack and the Beanstalk). A_14, "The Lute Player"
(Russia). A woman disguises herself as a musician to
save her husband. ___ B) 9
Tales from the Middle East and Africa. B_1, "A Woman Trickster"
(Syria). A woman tricks a man into marrying a woman he
does not want to marry, then helps the man get out of the situation. B_2, "The Woman who married a Man
Five Times" (Turkey). A woman marries a man at home and in Aleppo,
Yemen, and India. B_3, "The City of
Nothing-in-the-World" (Persia). A young woman has adventures in a realm in
which many things are out-of-scale and out-of-proportion. B_4, "The 'Pink Pearl' Prince"
(Iran). A youngest daughter gets three boxes as a
gift. Inside the boxes are a prince, a
palace, and other delights. B_5, "Who Is Most Blessed?"
(Palestine). A sultan learns a lesson about his pride from
his humble daughter. B_6, "The Land where Women were
Banished" (Saudi Arabia). A woman disguises herself as a man to learn
how men live without women in a far-off land. B_7, "The Four-sectioned Wardrobe"
(Sudan). A young woman locks four businessmen who had
been trying to take advantage of her into the four sections of a wardrobe. B_8, "The Sign of the Tassel"
(Iraq). A man wears a sign of anger. In response, his
wife wears one also. He backs down. B_9, "The Midwife of Dakar"
(Senegal). An elderly midwife assists a fairy queen to
have a baby. When the midwife returns home, gold and silver coins are there. ___ C) 8
Tales from Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas. C_1, "A Tiger Runs Away"
(Punjab, India). A woman scares away a tiger by dressing as a
man and claiming to eat tigers. C_2, "The Mirror" (Japan).
A young woman's love for her mother melts her
stepmother's heart. C_3, "Four Precious Things"
(Hui People, China). A man accidentally breaks a king's vase. As
payment, the man's daughter solves four riddles: What is blacker than the
bottom of a pan? (a cruel heart). What is clearer than a mirror? (knowledge
used wisely). What is harder than steel? (unity between people who love each
other). What is as large as the sea? (a virtuous woman's heart). C_4, "Hiiaka Catches a Spirit"
(Hawaii). A goddess forces a spirit to go back into the
body of a man, bringing the man back to life. C_5, "Hiiaka and the Seacoast
Kupuas" (Hawaii). A goddess defeats numerous demons. C_6, "A Calabash of Congee"
(Hawaii). Hospitality is repaid many times over, and
stinginess is punished. C_7, "The Magic Eagle"
(Timotean People, Venezuela). A princess' friend buries a gold statue of an
eagle. A medicinal herb grows from the spot and is used to heal the princess. C_8, "We're Tipingee, Too"
(Haiti). A group of girls all claim to be the girl a
man is seeking to take as a slave.
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