Showing results by author "Andrew Lang" in All Categories

'The Two Frogs' is the story of two amphibians who live in different cities in Japan. Each desires to see the world, so each sets out on a journey towards the other's home city. When they meet at the top of a mountain, the two frogs make friends and devise a plan to work out whether their journey is worthwhile - with unintended consequences.

Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a Scottish poet and novelist, best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. 'The Three Dogs' tells the story of a shepherd who trades his three sheep with a stranger for three dogs with magical powers. The dogs are able to help him slay a dragon and win a princess.

The Frog is a variant on the Frog Princess. Three brothers are told by their mother to set specific tasks for their sweethearts to complete, to see whether they will make suitable brides. The youngest lad does not know any girls, but a mystery frog proves amazingly adept at all the trials set her by her future mother-in-law.

The Princess Who Was Hidden Underground is the tale of a king who goes to extreme lengths to safeguard his daughter from potential suitors unworthy of her hand. But one cunning young lad manages to outwit the king by disguising himself as a sheep.

The Stonecutter is a fairy tale Lang collected in Japan. A stonecutter sees how rich people live when he is delivering a gravestone one day. From that day on he is dissatisfied with his own lot and wishes to be rich. His wish is granted by the spirit that lives in the mountain...but the stonecutter is still not satisfied with his life and makes further wishes, each taking him a little further on his quest for happiness.

Six 10-minute stories that are a delight to listen to.

An entertaining retelling of this classic folk tale from Arabian Nights.

Melisande tells the story of a beautiful princess, "Goops" is a poem that descibes exactly how children should not behave, and Prince Prigio relates the tale of a misunderstood member of a royal family.

"Why the Sea Is Salt" is a fairy tale narrative that explains in fictional form how the sea came to be salty. It all started with a poor farmer with information he did not share. A moral tale for all ages.

Grasp All, Lose All tells the story of a poor oil-seller in India named Dena, who is in debt to a banker for three hundred rupees. This banker persists in harassing Dena and his wife so much that Dena decides to run away, not knowing where he will go. He climbs a tree to sleep and wakes up the next morning not in the forest in which he went to sleep but on a deserted beach.

The son of the Gardener to the King and the King's daughter fall in love. The King wants his daughter to marry the Prime Minister's son. So the two young men have to enter a contest: Whoever travels to a distant land and comes back first, wins the hand of the Princess.

From 1889 to 1910, Scottish author and journalist Andrew Lang collected more than four hundred fairy tales from sources throughoutthe world. Organized into twelve volumes, he distinguished each by the color of the book cover. Included in this audiobook is "How to Tell a True Princess" from The Yellow Fairy Book. Originally written by Hans Christian Anderson under the title "The Princess and the Pea," this is the story of a prince and his quest to find a true princess.

This is a story from the Tales from the Arabian Nights collection.

There was an old couple who were not able to have children and so they constantly prayed to be blessed with one - even one the size of a hazelnut. And that is exactly what they were given - a child the size of a hazelnut who never grew! When he reached the age of 15, his mother asked him what he planned on doing with his life, as he was so small but clever. He replied that he wanted to be a messenger, a thing which made his mother laugh because of his size. He proved her wrong though and showed that he could use his size as an advantage.

A village was being plagued by a witch in the form of a hawk and three brothers tried to stop her. The older two failed, but the youngest was able to shoot down the hawk and he found a strange abyss where the hawk was shot down. With the help of his brothers, he descends into the abyss and finds a palace full of beautiful princesses and boundless treasure. He discovers that the witch is their mother and she must be killed in order for the princesses to be freed from the underground prison they are being held in.

There was a family of three brothers. The older two were very intelligent and much beloved by their parents; the youngest however was considered to be a dunce and a pest and was always getting in his mother's way. One day, the king announced that he was offering his daughter's hand in marriage to whoever could build a flying ship. The older two brothers were immediately sent on their way to try to construct the flying ship, while the youngest was left behind.

Shortly after the queen and her new husband are married, he is forced to leave to fight in a war. He advises her that she must always remain inside and never to trust any visiting women. She listens at first, but when an old woman appears at her window and entices her to sit in her garden, she gives in and goes outside.

The King and Queen, getting older in years, found it important that their son, Prince Sigurd, find a lady to marry. His father had a certain princess in mind and Sigurd set off to find her. This king eagerly granted his daughter's hand to Sigurd, but he made the condition that Sigurd must stay to help him govern his kingdom, as he was failing in health. Sigurd agreed, but said that he must return home when he received news of his father's death.

A young princess, Fairer-Than-a-Fairy, is kidnapped by a jealous, mean, old fairy named Lagree, who locks her away because none of the fairies can stand to have a mortal girl said to be more beautiful than them. Lagree locks her away in a palace, with her dog and cat, and tells her to tend to a fire and to never let it burn out. In her solitude, she one day meets a prince whom Lagree has captured and changed into the form of a rainbow that she discovers in a fountain.

A widowed peasant man was left to raise his two twin children, a boy and a girl. He tried his best but nothing seemed to go right without a woman's touch. And so, he remarried and had more children but things were still not right - the stepmother was very mean to the twins, beating and starving them. This wasn't enough for the wicked stepmother and she decided to send them off into the woods where an evil witch lived. She tells the twins they are to go off and serve her sweet granny.